Saturday, September 15, 2012

How To Stay Active Forever

Try these 12 easy ways to avoid getting injured during exercise:
  • Ease Into Exercise - warm up your muscles to raise their temperature before you stress them.
  • Target Your Middle - Build your core strength.  Try the plank - a simple exercise that resembles a push up in which your forearms rest on the floor.  Hold your core steady for 30 seconds, rest, and repeat.
  • Embrace The Squat - Stand with your feet shoulder-distance apart and squat, back straight, until your thighs are almost parallel to the ground, rise slowly.  Repeat up to 20 times.
  • Play Flamingo - Increase your balance by standing on one leg a few times a day.  Hold for 20 seconds and then switch legs.  Also, try doing the exercise with your eyes closed.
  • Coddle The Achilles - Stretch the Achilles by leaning against a wall with one leg extended behind you with your heel on the ground.  Hold for 30 seconds, then slightly bend the knee on the extended leg and hold for another 30 seconds and then switch legs.
  • Strengthen Your Shoulder - Do this by grasping both ends of an elastic tube and pulling the tube apart.  Repeat 5 times.
  • Grab Some Golf Balls - Help prevent heel and arch pain that you can get with plantar fasciitis by loosening the arch and tissues in your feet.  Roll a golf ball over your arches including doing this while brushing your teeth.
  • Stretch Strategically - The latest news about stretching is that it may decrease muscle power and contribute to injuries if done while muscles are cold.  Now the conventional wisdom is to stretch at some time during the day, perhaps  while watching TV or right before bed.
  • Listen To Twinges - If something hurts you, back off from training.  If you do not do this, minor muscle tears can turn into major injuries.
  • Drink Chocolate Or Regular Milk - Consuming some protein after exercise appears to help muscles rebuild themselves more effectively.  When protein is combined with carbohydrates such as sugar in chocolate milk, muscles recover even better. If you are trying to lose weight, plain milk works well too.
  • Do The Laundry Lift - Strength training increases muscle mass and also helps to stabilize and protect your joints.  You do not have to lift heavy weights.  If you cannot get to the gym, lift your laundry basket (including over your head) instead.
  • Take A Load Off - Days off are more important as you get older.  So skip at least one day every week, or at most go on a gentle walk.  If you are still fatigued or achy the next day, take another day off..

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