Feed: Ziki - Carol Bartram's last published content - AggScore: 79.0

Swim For It!

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If you are looking for a way to burn calories without putting too much stress on your joints, going for a swim could be a good choice of workout for you.  Due to the resistance of the water, impact on joints is low but effort level is high and you can burn up to 400 cal an hour doing vigorous lengths of your local pool. Technique is important when swimming, so even if you can already swim it would be ... View full article

Body Types And Injury Potential

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The most important rule in avoiding exercise injury is to be sensible.  It does not matter if you used to be 100 m sprint champion at school 20 years ago; if you suddenly decide one day to go out and sprint without any preparation you are more than likely to cause yourself an injury, from a pulled muscle up to and including damage to your ligaments! Even a minor muscle strain can take up to three weeks to heal causing ... View full article

Is Walking Good Exercise?

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Anything that causes your muscle activity to increase and your heart and lungs to work harder will count as exercise.  Even walking – in fact especially walking.  Walking has some amazingly good advantages when it comes to getting fit in that it is free, absolutely anyone who is reasonably physically sound can do it, and being out in the fresh air will do you nothing but good. I have to admit that if I did not own dogs I would ... View full article

Importance Of Cooling Down

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As with warming up before an exercise session, it is just as important to cool the body down gradually when the exercise session has finished.  If you stop suddenly following an intense training session, the blood that has been diverted to make your muscles work harder will pool in these areas, especially in the lower body. Pooling of blood should not harm you but may make you feel lightheaded and nauseous, so it seems sensible to bring exercise levels down ... View full article

Why Bother To Warm Up?

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I am asked this question a lot by clients who believe that warming up before increasing their exercise level is a complete waste of time.  On the contrary, I tell them, I feel that it is the most important part of the exercise session, as a gradual warmup prepares the body and the mind for the exertion to come. The major objective of the warmup component of  any exercise session is to gradually raise your pulse rate and your body ... View full article

Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise

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Aerobic means “in the presence of oxygen”, and if you exercise aerobically  this is defined as doing some activity which means the body needs more oxygen for an extended period of time.  This is a very complicated way of saying that aerobic exercise is any form of sustained exercise like walking, cycling or swimming.  The fitter you are, the higher the intensity of your activity can be and the longer you can carry it out for. Exercising aerobically has many ... View full article

Why Should You Stretch?

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Whenever you do a workout you should stretch all major muscle groups after your cooldown while your muscles are still warm and flexible.  Some schools of thought also believe that you should do a quick stretch after your warmup as well, but the jury is out on that one; if you want to stretch following your warmup make it reasonably quick, don’t push it too far and don’t bounce, as your muscles won’t yet be fully warmed up, and stretching ... View full article

What Is Health And Fitness?

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Health and fitness are words that often go together,  but have you ever wondered about their definition?  The concept of health for example was defined by the World Health Organisation just after the Second World War as being ” a complete state of mental and physical and social well-being, not just the absence of disease” . Fitness on the other hand is not quite so easy to define, as the concept applies differently to different people; in a marathon runner ... View full article

Does Exercise Have To Hurt?

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That depends on your concept of pain!  Exercising can be mildly uncomfortable and should make you warm, sweaty and slightly breathless, but unless you are training for competition I do not believe you should exercise until it really hurts. For general toning when you are working out with weights or using the fixed resistance machines in the gym, the guidelines are that you should do two to three sets of 12 to 15 reps with a heavy enough weight that ... View full article

Help I Can’t Afford To Buy Exercise Equipment

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A common excuse I get from people for not exercising on a regular basis is I can’t afford to buy any at home exercise equipment and I certainly couldn’t afford an expensive gym membership. Well, that may be true even though a lot of good equipment isn’t very expensive.  To be honest you can get a fantastic full-body workout without buying a single piece of exercise equipment and therefore not having to spend a penny. Before exercise gadgets became so ... View full article

Step To It! – Risky Or Safe?

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I’m pleased to report that Step exercise seem to be making a comeback.  A few years back, Step classes were all the rage in gyms and village halls everywhere, but then their popularity seemed to fade in favour of classes like a Bodypump and Bodyattack. Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not against Bodypump and Bodyattack, but the drawback is that you need some level of fitness already before you join these classes as they’re very fast-paced and intensive,  and ... View full article

Exercise And Mood – One Of Those Days

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Do you ever get those days when nothing goes right?  You wake up in the morning full of dread and as cross as a bear and the day just goes downhill from there, with the smallest setback making you erupt into an incandescent rage.  On one occasion I was so grumpy, that when my teenage daughter loaded the dishwasher wrong, I threw a spectacular tantrum.  She looked at me with interest and said,  ” Mum, your face is purple and ... View full article

Ab Circle Mini Reviews

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Breaking news! Brand new on the market is the Ab Circle Mini, the little sister of the hugely popular Ab Circle Pro.  The new Ab Circle Mini is claimed to be half the weight, half the size and half the price of the original Ab Circle, but will deliver the same great toning results for the entire tummy area and the hips and thighs. I’ve just watched the infomercial part of the way through and then I had to switch ... View full article

The Ab Circle Machine

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The Ab Circle Machine AKA The Ab Circle Pro looks like it’s had it’s day. For over a year it’s been one of the hottest pieces of at home workout equipment to hit the market in many years. I’m not entirely sure why it’s been so popular because off the top of my head I can think of many other pieces of equipment that not only come in cheaper but would do a better job if fat loss was your ... View full article

Problems With The Size Of Your Thighs?

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If you’re anything like me, there are always various bits of your body that you want to change the shape of; with some people it’s the shape of their shoulders and arms but with most people (me included) it’s the lower body – namely the entire area from the bottom of the rib cage to just above the knee. This area, which gives most women most of their nightmares, encompasses the abdominals, hip and butt area and the thighs.  Oh ... View full article