Great Yoga Postures to Strengthen Your Core

Many poses in yoga will Strengthen your core muscles, which include your transverse and rectus abdominus, your internal and external obliques, your lower back and your latissimi dorsi, or lats. Strengthening your core not only gives you a toned midsection, it also improves stability and alleviates pressure on your lower back. Your yoga practice has the added benefit of stretching and lengthening your core muscles.

Shiva Twist

Beginning a core strengthening routine with the Shiva Twist pose is a great place to start, as it is a level one pose for beginners. It serves as an easy, effective warmup exercise at any level of ability, and it can easily be reached through the familiar and comfortable, standing Mountain Pose. It is also a fun exercise to start with, as you are dancing like Shiva herself! Along with working on your core, the Shiva twist benefits balance and focus and overall mood. It also helps to strengthen your ankles and knees.

Balancing Star

Now we really get to work the core hard! The Balancing Star is excellent for all the oblique muscles, working your abdomen and back. Think of it as a side plank, which means that it is a challenging pose. Whenever you hear the word “plank” in yoga, you will be doing an exercise that requires quite a bit of strength, so if you are a beginner then you want to work up to it. Lastly, make sure you do this pose for both sides. That may seem obvious, but you would be surprised by how many people forget to work out symmetrically.

Side Plank

Side slab also aids work the entire core, yet puts a higher focus on the obliques. You ought to lift your hips as high as you can, which will actually aid target the obliques. Up until you develop to full side plank, you can keep your base knee on the flooring. If you have bad wrists, either maintain your knee on the flooring, or if you have actually both legs raised, you can pertain to the lower arm of your assisting arm.

Boat Pose

At this point, you are probably ready to take a seat. The Boat Pose accommodates this desire nicely while still working the core. This posture pose benefits all the ab muscles, and you will feel it reaching all four layers. You will also feel the pose working your spine, hips and hamstrings. In addition, the Boat Pose promotes healthy digestion and benefits intestine and kidneys function while overall balance is improved. It is really an all-around fantastic pose, boosting both physical and mental well-being, and it is popularly transferred over to dance, Pilates and many other exercise regiments. We love the Boat Pose.

Locust Pose

Locust Posture is superb for enhancing your reduced back. If you do a bunch of stomach workouts, it’s likewise crucial to function the reduced back so that the muscles on the front and also rear ends of your physical body do not end up being unbalanced. Raise the upper and also reduced physical body higher to intensify, or remain lower if you require to modify.

Top 5 Natural Supplements For Heart Health

Supplements can help your bones, your muscles, and many other parts of your body. What about your heart? Research shows that some of them may help lower cholesterol, improve blood pressure, and other things that put you at risk for heart disease. It's unclear, though, if they help prevent heart attacks, strokes, and other problems.

This is a case where I wear my integrative medicine hat. After a heart attack you may not be able to avoid taking medication completely—in some cases they can be lifesaving. But the right heart health supplements can help to maximize your heart’s ability to heal naturally. Omega-3 benefits, especially after a heart attack, work to prevent deterioration and support a healthy, functional heart. I would also recommend taking advantage of the benefits of four other nutrients—CoQ10, L-carnitine, magnesium, and D-ribose.                                  

Niacin

A recent study shows vitamin B3, also known as niacin, lowers bad cholesterol more effectively than a common statin drug, ezetimibe, sold as Zetia. Statins inhibit the absorption of cholesterol from the intestine, which then reduces the amount of LDL (bad cholesterol) in the blood stream. Since high cholesterol has been linked to cardiovascular disease, lowering LDL levels has been widely adopted as good preventive medicine.

L-carnitine 

L-carnitine is another key nutrient for cardiovascular health. It helps chaperone EFAs into the mitochondria, where they are turned into energy. L-carnitine works with CoQ10 to help ensure your heart has the energy it needs to keep pumping.

Omega-3

Fish oil supplements, such as PurePharma O3, contain a type of polyunsaturated fat known as omega-3. Modern Western-style diets are generally deficient in omega-3, while containing excessive levels of omega-6 fatty acids.

Fiber

ound naturally in fruits, grains, vegetables, and legumes, fiber cuts down the amount of cholesterol your body soaks up from food. Try to get at least 25 to 30 grams of it every day. It’s best to get your daily dose from your diet, but supplements are another option. There's good evidence that blond psyllium husk common in fiber supplements can lower “bad” LDL cholesterol. It can also raise the “good” kind, HDL.

Vitamin D

vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of heart disease and is linked to other, well-known heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. Several large studies have shown that people with low vitamin D levels were twice as likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or other heart-related event during follow-up, compared with those with higher vitamin D levels.

What Are The Benefits of Adventure Sports

Adventure sports refers to activities like mountain biking, rock climbing, mountaineering, or kayaking, scuba diving, base jumping, the list goes on and on. What these endeavors have in common is a degree of risk, uncertainty and self-discovery. Today, adventure sports are known to teach people self reliance, teamwork and to leave their comfort zone. These elements can result in better health, improved self esteem and increased confidence that translates into all aspects of one's life.

The adrenaline rush with these Adventur sports is more when compared to other sports and physical activities. The brush with death creates a surge of excitement. The health benefits of adventure sports are due to the extra dopamine induced in the brain. This will help in the healthy functioning of the central nervous system, which affects the emotion, perception and motion.        

           
Exhilirating Exercise

Adventure sport is a great way to experience exhilarating exercise that builds endurance. It involves fitness skills that encompass both physical and metal conditioning. Kayaking through the water or climbing mountains requires the use of all the major muscle groups as well as mental sharpness and observation skills that necessitate concentrating on the activity. It is also exhilarating because engaging in an exercise activity in an uncontrolled environment can be quite unpredictable.

Healthy Muscles

Most of the adventure sports require you to use almost all your muscles, which mean that you have to tone and build them. This is a good exercise for the muscles in the lower half of the body. Keeping these muscles healthy will help your old age joint pain free. There are also joint conditions which are relieved with these exercises

Confidence

Just try an adventure sport and experience yourself the great change in your confidence level. Once you try any adventure sport activities, you will naturally develop a sense of self-esteem and confidence. Developing confidence will a have positive impact on your personal and professional life.

Bonding and Balance

Most adventure sports involve outdoor activities and give participants a chance to experience nature. This bonding with nature is another benefit of adventure sports because it gives persons exposure to their natural environment and creates paths of discovery that include both discovery of nature as well as self discovery.

Comfort Zone

Many people may be reluctant to try things like mountain biking or scuba diving, thinking they don't possess the skills or ability to enjoy it. According to Openskywilderness.com, encouraging people to try new activities may result in them realizing things about themselves they did not know. A great way to build confidence and promote a positive attitude.

Useful Tips to Choosing The Best Swim Fins

Good swim fins are inevitable for great swimming practice-which will one day make you a fine swimmer. Swimmers along with scuba divers and body surfers have been using swim fins for decades, but only recently have coaches and swimmers alike begun to appreciate what these excellent training tools can do to help people of all ability levels improve their swimming.

Swim Fins are used for swim fins training (to help you become a better competitive swimmer), and to add resistance to your kick which helps build muscle while swimming. They are most commonly used in a swimming pool. And while you could use them when swimming or training in the ocean, these are not the same thing as “dive fins” or “SCUBA fins” which are used, you guessed it, for scuba diving or snorkeling.

Long fins 

Long fins are best for young swimmers who are still learning how to move in the water, snorkelers, and recreational swimmers. Long fins improve ankle flexibility and leg endurance.

Mono fins 

Mono fins and breaststroke fins are rarely used, but certainly have their benefits. Mono fins force swimmers to keep their feet together as they kick, enforcing correct butterfly/dolphin kick movements. Breaststroke fins are curved and allow swimmers to execute a correct breaststroke kick (impossible with traditional straight fins) while increasing fins resistance.

Notched fins 

Notched fins (fin blades with a V-cut) are also intended for serious swimmers, as they mimic the natural path of the foot through the water. Most notched fins have the same short blade that promotes proper kicking technique.

Short fins 

Short fins create resistance in the water while forcing the swimmer to use a faster kick, making them ideal for freestylers and backstrokers. Short fins also help swimmers develop proper kicking tempo and technique.

How to Choose Different Types of Swim Fins

Swimming fins are designed to help swimmers develop a more powerful kick, increase their kick tempo, and improve ankle flexibility. They also help swimmers move through the water faster, which makes them a very attractive piece of swim fins equipment. Since fins for lap swimmers come in a wide array of styles that vary in length, stiffness, and heel design, this guide helps swimmers choose the swim fins that best meet their swim fins practice needs.

Swimmers should learn as many different swimming techniques as possible, since each of them will put your body in a different position and will use different muscles. This can hold importance if you ever find yourself swimming for a lengthy distance, as it can help prevent fatigue by allowing you to rest in certain positions. Competitive swimmers should also learn multiple swimming techniques, since it gives you the chance to compete in more than one event.                                              

                                                           
Floating fins

The Finis floating Fin is Swim Fins Smooth's preferred fin to help any swimmer develop their stroke technique. They are perfect for use with any Swim Smooth DVD or program you are following. Whether you are a beginner learning to swim freestyle, an intermediate triathlete improving your performances in the open water, or an advanced swimmer looking to gap the field, these swim fins are perfect for performing drills to improve and refine your stroke technique.

Churchill Fins

Churchill fins are the top of the line product to use when it comes to swimming fins. No matter what the form, whether it is for bodyboarding or bodysurf fins.This Churchill Fins website is solely dedicated to giving you all the info you need to review and make a purchase decision for swim fins. Churchill makapuu fins review is the spot for bodysurfers, swimmers, and bodyboarders to pick up their next pair of swim fins.

Front Crawl

You will commonly hear the front crawl referred to as the freestyle stroke, since the majority of the swimmers in a freestyle event use it because it provides the most speed. The front crawl calls for you to kick hard with your feet, while bringing your arms over your head and into the water one at a time. You must keep your body as straight as possible, as any lateral movements will slow you down. Your breathing also holds importance, as you must time the breaths that you take with your swimming strokes.

Training Fins

The length of the fin blade has a big impact on how it will affect a workout. The longer the blade, the more resistance there will be in the water. That means that the legs have to work harder, but that the swimmers also kicks at a slower rate. Each fin blade length serves a slightly different purpose, explained below.

Blade Fins

We offer two long blade fins: Kiefer Thrust and Kiefer Cruiser. Both styles offer a closed heel for a secure and comfortable fit, ensuring they stay in place during your swim. Kiefer Thrust has a moderate level of stiffness/thickness, while Kiefer Cruiser offers added stiffness/thickness. So if you are looking for a more intense workload for your legs, Cruiser is your fin.

What Are The Benefits Of Plank Exercise?

Plank has become the most popular form of isometric exercise among those who are in need to burn their extra calories. At the same time plank exercise is extremely beneficial for those who want to stabilize body movement and maintain good body contour. This form of exercise involves contraction of upper, mid and lower body muscles. All you require is a hard surface and a mat.

Plank exercise is useful to recondition weak and lethargic muscles. It is also important rehabilitation exercise after a traumatic injury. The isometric exercise is much superior to other exercises in strengthening core body muscles sparing stress over spine.

Strength

The plank exercise helps strengthen midsection, upper-body and lower-body muscles along the front of your body. Planks also strengthen inner core muscles that support your joints. The rectus abdominis and transverse abdominis that form your outer and inner abdominal muscles, respectively, are primary supporters during plank exercises. The abdominal obliques also stabilize the plank position isometrically. Upper-body stabilizers include the pectoral and serratus muscles. Lower-body stabilizers include the quadriceps, sartorius and tensor fasciae latae.

Prevents Back Pain

As your core gets strengthened, your chances of experiencing back pain will get greatly reduced. This is one of the benefits of plank exercise. In fact, a strong back will allow you to perform harder tasks of your daily life with ease.

Toned Abdomen

This is one of the first health benefits of the plank exercise. Your core muscles get strengthened and this helps you in your six pack aspirations. A tight mid section is the first requirement if you are planning for abs.

Reduces belly fat

If you want to burn your belly fat and build groundwork for those six pack abs, plank is the right platform. It is the best element of isometric training to strengthen the muscles of your mid section or the abs. The two muscles of abdomen, namely rectus abdominis and transverse abdominis are involved while performing plank. Another muscle of abdomen called abdominal oblique is involved while maintaining position during plank exercise.

Which Massage Oil is Best?

Natural massage oils contain vitamins, minerals and other skin-enriching substances that the body cannot produce on its own. Natural massage oils can be used alone or combined with other massage oils or essential oils for added benefit. Choose massage oils that complement your skin type and allergy test them on small areas of your skin for a few days before you apply them to your entire body.

Here are some body massage oils that are preferred across various massage centers, either on their own, or mixed with another.

Jojoba Oil

Jojoba is actually a wax extracted from the seed of the jojoba plant. Jojoba is a good option for most people prone to back acne because it is thought to have antibacterial properties. Jojoba has a very long shelf life, so it's a good choice if you don't use it regularly. It is very well-absorbed, which makes it a favorite carrier oil for aromatherapy. Jojoba is usually not irritating to skin.

Sunflower Oil

Its a rather inexpensive oil which can be used for body massage. It flows well on the skin, is moderately thick. It is good for generating traction with hands, which is ideal for chiropractic massage.

Grapeseed Oil 

In many respects, grapeseed oil makes a great massage oil. It has little-to-no odor, and it has a smooth, silky texture without being greasy. However, most grapeseed oil is extracted from grape seeds using a solvent (rather than being pressed from the seeds), which some aromatherapists say make it an inferior oil for aromatherapy massage.

Almond Oil

This sweet and mildly fragrant oil comes from sweet almonds. It is the most popular massage oil. Sweet almond oil has just the perfect attributes that a massage oil should have. It flows well on the skin, doesn’t get absorbed too quickly and maintains its oiliness for a long time.  It is thin and light. The best thing about this oil is that your hands will love it. The person who performs the massage knows how important it is for the oil to glide smoothly between the hands and skin.

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is an absolute favorite oil for many people. And it is brilliant for massage.  Regular coconut oil solidifies in cold weather. But, one can heat it up and apply on the skin. It is colorless, very light and absorbs brilliantly into the skin. It is very popular in coastal tropical regions.