Pump it Up!

Worried about your health?? Do you despise the growing flab in your body?? Do you want to age slower?? Do you want to keep diseases out of your life and build body immunity and stamina?? Exercise, Exercise and Exercise thats the only answer to all these questions.

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And with growing awareness about health, we have gyms and fitness centers in every nook and corner of the city. In fact each company, especially IT companies boast of gyms these days. With hectic work schedules why go anywhere but office for even a workout. I work in an IT company myself and I try to hit the gym at least 3-4 days a week out of the 5 working days. Its also a welcome break from the work stress and also a great form of relaxation. A state of blankness is what I experience during workout, well I would say thats closer to meditation. You are focusing on your exercise and your mind is not wandering anywhere. After all meditation is focusing on a single task, may it be your breath or the flame of a candle or the second hand of a watch.

And if you are a person who enjoys any kind of music, take that MP3 player you love so much, load it up with high energy, nice feet tapping music and see how you enjoy your workout. Music is such a God-send entity I must say, it can engross you, relax you, make you workout harder.Yes!!! Good beat music and really make you pump it up!! And you end up burning more calories on that cycle, treadmill or elliptical trainer :) Ain't that a blessing? :D Listening to your favorite play list can help you to go up to 20% longer and burn more calories, according to research from West London's Brunel University as indicated here

A more fascinating fact is that solving a Sudoku game for an hour can help you not only boost your brainpower but also burn 90 calories :P Yes its true, true, true!! Look here for the news article. Yeah yeah you still need to do physical exercise :D I just wanted to mention it since it does involve brain exercize which is equally important.

Now you would say "We don't have the time" or "I don't find the motivation to exercise" Its not necessary to hit the gym for physical exercise, there is Yoga, there is the alternative of walking and simple habits like taking the stairs instead of a lift can help you lead an active life. And then in spite of having so many options to be a healthier you, if you still find it difficult, just think, its your health, its your life, either you make it or you break it! Its only and only in your own hands

"The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it." — John C. Maxwell

 Some good links for getting into shape :)

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yogapractice/halfspinaltwist.asp This is a very good site for understanding any yoga posture as it has animations illustrating each step of the posture

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/

This for the ladies especially I believe there is a menshealth site as well. You won't believe the plethora of free resources you get here beginning from a workout to flatten your belly ending at toning your body or a gear free workout

www.livestrong.com

Again a very good one when you want to monitor your portions on your plate. Register here. Goto the My Plate option in the Daily plate and record your calorie intake for each meal each day. Will help you to cut down those calories :)

Please do add any other good links you would like to share!