New year’s resolutions….. Here we go!!
Theres nothing like that feeling you get when you actually start to enjoy working out.
The Lord Of The Dance
Jumping exercises are regular routines incorporated in the workout regimes of fitness experts the world over for their solid calorie crunching, fat busting and body strengthening work! Ever noticed the amount of jumping you do in Insanity workouts? You just can’t underestimate the restive force of gravity.
Commonly referred to as plyometrics, this exercise routine is used by athletes to improve their speed, quickness and power. Developing explosive power through fast-acting jumping movements help to build muscular power and improve overall speed.
Whether you’re working every muscle in your body using a skipping rope or concentrating on specific plyo techniques, jumping exercises are one of the best exercises you can include in your workout routine for a whole host of reasons:
- Cardiovascular benefits (keeps your heart pumping overtime).
- Tones the body (bum and legs look stellar!).
- Burns a ridiculous amount of calories.
- Improves balance.
Elevating Exercise & Sport To Promote Wellness As An Essential Priority In Life
I’ve come across this topic in articles and news clippings, time and time again.
I’ve read and heard the words of scientific experts across the globe, time and time again.
I’ve racked up the evidence and weighed the outcomes, time and time again.
Disease, illness, low self-esteem, diabetes, cancer, obesity…
Time and time again.
Little fairies, veteran survivors, regiments of pink armies far and wide.
Little fairies, veteran survivors, regiments of pink armies tread that familiar 5-kilometre pledge,
Time and time again.
Tomorrow I will be bombarded with the wrong choices, time and time again.
Today, I will fight for my tomorrow, time and time again.
Yesterday will hand the baton of my effort and perish by my bed for me to start all over,
Time and time again.
Will I find the peace I crave in the discipline I must offer, time and time again?
Maybe one day it will all fall in place - the words I hold on to, time and time again.
I feel stronger, fitter, healthier - the effects the good days have, time and time again.
The sustenance of my effort will last, time and time again - the words I believe,
Time and time again.
Should Breakfast Be The Start To Everyday?
Spent some time with a good friend recently and by the by, the topic of breakfast routines and the lack thereof came into context. I am a creature of some extremely peculiar habits, one being entirely incapable of starting the day without my breakfast. Such is the power of ‘the breakfast’ that woe will surely and most devastatingly betide those that have to deal with me having started the day without my breakfast. It’s my achilles heal and also stems from the fact that I absolutely love mornings. Early mornings to be precise. The prospects within the world seem much more maleable to the workings of my mind when I can channel the sweet energy of the breaking day, wielding the magical cracking beams of sunlight to stroke my canvass of thought for my journeys ahead.
Doing this on an empty stomach would be torture.
Alas, bringing me to the context of this post -
“ Brain scans show that skipping breakfast makes fatty, high calorie foods appear far more attractive later in the day, according to researchers.”
Scientific research carried out at Imperial College London tested what goes on in our brains to alter the decisions of what we choose to eat, having skipped breakfast. The test group comprised of twenty one people, all of normal weight. The subjects were shown pictures of high calorie foods while positioned in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to scan their brain activities. The test was carried out on days when the subjects had gone without breakfast and on another when they were all fed a large 730 calorie breakfast an hour and a half before the scans.
The scans showed a significant bias created in the brain favouring the high calorie foods when the subjects had missed their breakfasts! The scans showed that the brain changed the way it responded to the pictures of high calorie foods but not low calorie foods when the subjects skipped breakfast. It was shown that the part of the brain thought to be involved in “food appeal” - the orbitofrontal cortex - was more active on an empty stomach.
The reasons for skipping breakfast that was brought up by my friend highlighted the problems that a lot of people face in this fast paced world that we live in… where’s the time?
Having a cup of coffee or just a measly bowl of cereal (worse still, a measly bowl of cereal packed with copious amounts of sugar) isn’t enough to recharge our tanks after a good nights sleep. This is why sometimes we may feel equally as hungry within the first hour after breakfast which tends to disturb us at work or at school. Because our metabolism (especially in younger individuals) is at it’s peak in the morning, not eating a full and hearty meal leaves our bodies struggling from a lack of calorific energy; the popular adage of eating breakfast like a king/queen, lunch like a prince/princess and supper like a pauper plays on our declining metabolic rates through the day.
Added to this predicament is keeping our bodies primed in the ‘straight and narrow’ of having stable blood sugar levels. If we happen to choose the breakfast overladen with sugar, our blood sugar levels surge then quickly recede, leaving us hungrier sooner and feeling like we can’t hold out past 11am.
Here is an article from fitness republic that gives useful tips of how to make easy healthy breakfasts and also outlines the massive advantages gained from starting the day off right!
My Inner Thoughts - Why Exercise?
Life is hard, no two ways about it. Trying to to prioritise and be successful with family, friends, work and every other obligation that one obtains as we escalate through childhood to adulthood can be exhausting on the best of days. Not only do these aspects of life require considerable chunks of energy and effort, they also feature constantly round the clock.
How and why the hell does exercise have to feature in this list as well?!?!
According to a report published in the Lancet, one in three adults worldwide currently does too little exercise. The Women’s Sports and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) has it as being 80% of women in the UK currently doing too little exercise to benefit their health with the bare minimum calculated as being 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. Even more depressing is this report by the WSFF, showcasing the decline in participation levels and the negative attitudes towards exercise adopted by women at such an early age.
Back to the question at hand - why exercise?
It is no surprise to know that the 21st century individual lives a more sedentary life than his/her counterpart 100 years ago. The takeover of internet media and the spellbinding effect through the countless shows out there these days takes a toll on our health in a greater way than we ever imagined. This BBC article details the studies carried out at Harvard Medical School which paint a bleak picture for our future, with all the conclusions pointing at increased risks of Type 2 diabetes, breast and bowel cancer and heart disease.
Exercise helps to prevent many of these life alerting conditions and plays a vital tag team role with good nutrition. Regular exercise and proper nutrition are two methods of controlling and maintaining weight which is intrinsically linked to our health. It can also help reduce and completely eradicate depression, anxiety and insomnia.
It is highly important to exercise not only to ensure we live a healthy life but if we look back at the hectic aspects of this life that we stated earlier, one wonders whether boosting out health, immunity, stamina and physical condition through exercise and good nutrition wouldn’t help ease the burdens of life? We can’t forget that we are of no use to anyone around us and especially not ourselves when our bodies perform at a limited capacity.
Questioning exercise shouldn’t be the focus anymore. Frankly speaking, 1 in 3 of us will get cancer according to Cancer Research UK. Why create an unhealthy condition for our bodies to be more susceptible to this disease and many others should be the main priority in our lives because the only way we can help others, be it family, friends, work colleagues and many others is by helping ourselves!
