Sports Good for health

What better time to think about looking after yourself as the Olympics nudge closer. How can you escape thinking about your own fitness, when everywhere you turn someone is talking about the upcoming Games? (Did you see that even the pubs in London are making special arrangements? They're stocking up on beer kegs to avoid potential shortages due to unexpected road closures). But what you might not have thought about is how taking care of yourself is actually good for business. Peak Performance - Make Sure to Take Breaks While it might be fantastic to be able to perform 24 x 7, our physical bodies weren't designed that way. I certainly have the ambition to be productive most of the time, but the irony is when I don't allow time for exercise (or other recreation), my productivity plummets. Many studies confirm this phenomenon. The Psychological Review published the results of a study in May 2011 which demonstrated that world-class violinists practised for four hours int...

Tea is good for you, researchers say. Still, they continue to study the tasty leaves and such components as tannin, polyphenols and various other antioxidants. Research is going forward on separate but related tracks, art institutes and colleges world-wide, to discover and catalogue the use of tea against cancer and high blood pressure, and as a help in weight loss. There are other benefits beyond these disease-fighting properties, including the fact that good teas taste good. It is not as if there is any risk involved with picking a "wrong" tea, but picking just the right one (or two, or more) might help you get the most possible health benefits from the drink and its various ingredients. Reading tea leaves When choosing the right tea for your life and your health, there are a few factors to consider. Most teas have some positive and helpful components, but they may also have certain substances that may not be appropriate for specific individuals. Watch out for caffein...

Proper Hydration and Cramping Maybe you're not an athlete and you think that needs to be hydrated doesn't apply to you. But, here's a startling fact: If you are only 2% dehydrated you are subject to a reduction in your cognitive function, your short-term memory decreases, and your visual-motor function is also impaired. So you may want to read on. In order to be properly hydrated you need AT LEAST ½ half your body weight in ounces of water. For example, if you weigh 200lbs you need to drink about 100 ounces of H2O. That's if you're NOT an athlete, if you are training, working out, or competing, you need to increase that amount. You should start your day with a big glass of water. When we wake up we are dehydrated. While we sleep our body uses water to function and water is lost in water vapour as we breathe. Personally, I have a hard time with cold water first thing in the morning so the night before I fill up a 16oz glass and leave it on the counter for the ...

Are you the sporty type, but you're also all about style. Athletes need fantastic sports watches to get them through their busy days and to keep up with their active lifestyles. If you're a part of the fitness set, you need a watch that provides all the features you need. Reliable, hearty timepieces are must-haves for those who live lives of vitality and good health. Whether you're a runner, swimmer, hiker, skier or otherwise, a useful watch is a must. Here are some durable sports watches for stylish athletes. Stuhrling Original Women's Manchester Ozzie Sport Edition Interchangeable Strap Watch This gorgeous watch by renowned timepiece maker Stuhrling Original features three interchangeable straps. This watch goes from day to night and is perfect for any occasion. Select either a gold-tone or silver-tone stainless steel case Form meets function with this stylish watch that features an elegantly curved case, which not only looks great but provides all-day comfort. ...

Nowadays it is well-known and accepted that taking various supplements can be very useful for getting maximum benefits from your fitness routine. They can help you gain more size and strength, aid in losing weight, give you faster recovery, more energy, or just about anything else you need. And many of them are perfectly safe to take without damaging your health or body. However, it is obviously very important that you research any sports supplements you plan to take and find the best ones available for your specific needs. This will help you find the best-suited products for your body and your health. They aren't all created equal and some should be avoided. The majority of the time you can get pretty much all the information you need by researching online and asking in related forums. But you do need to still be cautious of where the information is coming from on the internet. After you get an idea of it all from online research you should talk to a doctor, a trainer, or anot...

Sports nutrition can be defined as simply as the specific nutritional intake before during and after an athletic event or exercise session. My definition of an organic athlete is an athlete which seeks to achieve Xtreme Health(TM), maximum performance levels, and joyful living, by consuming primarily vegetarian, mostly raw, organic foods. A vegetarian can be a full vegan who consumes no meats, fish, poultry, or dairy products. Or you can be a semi-vegetarian and occasionally eat organic eggs, wild fish, and or poultry, but not meat. What I would like to do in this article is to share an enormous amount of knowledge for those who are seeking an organic lifestyle, in particular, a vegan lifestyle, while simultaneously competing in endurance events. I have gone to many resources on the internet to find information for endurance athletes which are vegetarians. They are very few if any which not only focus on endurance athletes and vegetarians but also then take it to the next level and...

To enhance performance, sports nutritionists and exercise physiologists recommend that tri-athletes maintain their ideal weight through a strict and well-planned nutrient-dense isoenergetic diet that is high in carbohydrates. This must be coupled with a daily intake of low-dose multivitamins. Women tri-athletes need to increase their iron intake. Before competitions, tri-athletes need to taper intensity training and their carb load. Half an hour to an hour prior to exercising, a pre-practice or pre-workout protein and carbohydrate snack should be consumed. Take lots of fluids while exercising to prevent heat-related illnesses and dehydration. Half an hour after the exercise or training, eat a protein and carbohydrate snack. When training during the morning, eat a snack before going to bed. In addition, one can further enhance the performance of tri-athletes with the aid of sports supplements. These man-made ergogenic (energy-producing) supplements can be potentially effective i...

Getting your children in extracurricular activities helps them become a well-rounded individual. Aside from basketball or boxing, another sport you can try is mixed martial arts. What is mixed martial arts? It is a combination of various martial arts techniques which include karate, jujitsu, judo, tae kwon do and a few others. Since each one takes time to learn, your child will have to learn the basics of one before moving on to the rest. But why mixed martial arts? This is because the activity boosts not only your child's physical health but also mental as well. Although intense, they get to sweat which reduces the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and even obesity. Bigger kids will think twice about bullying them since they know how to defend themselves when they are threatened. They will also become more self-confident and be more assertive after completing a few sessions. Will training in mixed martial arts make your child violent? The answer is no because most ...

I'm sure that most of you have heard the phrase "use it or lose it" before. Well, just yesterday I found out how true this statement really is. I live in Michigan and just recently turned 63 last month. Yesterday, I single-handedly (without a snowblower) shovelled out our entire driveway and sidewalk of 14 inches of fresh snow. I was doing this while the thermometer registered -11 degrees. Afterwards, aside from being a little tired, I felt great! I didn't have any achy joints, a sore back or anything! Now before any of you so-called "couch potatoes" start thumping your chest and say, well I can do that too, be careful. You need to build up to this level of activity over time with a regular exercise plan. To do otherwise might just land you in the hospital or worse. Here is why. If you live a very sedate lifestyle, sudden exercise, like shovelling snow in the extreme cold can be a shock to your system, resulting in a heart attack, stroke or injury to your jo...

As opposed to running which is usually at a faster speed, jogging for health is done at a slower and more relaxed pace. The speed and distance of jogging usually depend on the physical condition of the individual participating in the sport. The medical community advises that the pace should be slow enough that the jogger is still able to talk without becoming winded. The main difference between running and jogging is that the runner is more interested in the competitiveness of the sport and will even look for competitions to participate in such as marathons. The jogger, on the other hand, is more interested in the health qualities of the exercise. Usually, joggers take up the sport to either stay physically fit or to get physically fit. Many use it as a weight-loss method. Another difference between runners and joggers is the runner will run a mile in six to seven minutes whereas a jogger will take 12-15 minutes for the same distance. Over the last few decades, a large number o...

Observing proper sports nutrition for children is not just beneficial for enhancing their sports performance, but also for ensuring they stay healthy. Parents must, therefore, take an active role in overseeing what food components are included in your child's diet to ensure that it will foster their development, growth, and performance at their chosen sport. Importance of Balanced Nutrition for Active Children You need to have a good understanding of what makes up a good nutritional diet to be able to provide for your child's nutritional needs. You cannot expect your child to be healthy physically and mentally unless they get the right nutrition that their body needs. The key factor to remember here is to make sure they get balanced nutrition. Meaning, they must consume food from all the basic food groups as part of their daily diet. There are three groups that must be equally consumed as part of their daily meal plan: grain group (such as rice, pasta, or bread), dairy ...

Being active, contrary to previous research, has been found to be good for knees according to a new report. This is the first work to look at the impact being active has on the individual elements of the knee itself. Even though exercise has been associated with bony spurs known as osteophytes, the team believes that being active is very worthwhile for the healthy functioning of your knees. It turns out that exercise affects every aspect of the knee in a different way, and this may explain why the conflicting research findings. This latest review examined information from 28 studies that had data on 9,737 participants the world over. Each study examined by the team looked at the relationship between being active and knee osteoarthritis, and also included MRI images for both osteoarthritic knees and healthy knees. Where once X-rays were the norm for assessing the state of your joints, today MRI technology lets experts see, and measure, that all-important joint cartilage. This is...

What happens when a video game manufacturer becomes a health junkie? You get games like Wii Fit or Wii Fit plus which change the world of gaming for you as a gamer and for Nintendo Wii as a gaming manufacturer. Nintendo - one of the leading producers of software and hardware for games now has a serious outlook on health and fitness as a result of which Wii Fit is now increasingly popular among many gaming aficionados. Nintendo first released Wii Sports - a virtual game that pulls gamers off their couches and invokes them to stimulate sports actions off their bodies to replicate these motions through controllers to play games on their Wii consoles. The actions required on the part of gamers playing these games well - like tennis or bowling - might not be the same as playing the actual games but could be construed as the best alternative for indoor physical activity closely replicating the movements of the real games. Nintendo's latest release Wii Fit has been received with open ...