Category Archives: Fitness + Exercise
Buns ‘n Guns!
Get your Buns and Guns trim, toned and tightened with this complete workout video. Stephen Cabral raises your heart rate while sculpting amazing glutes and arm muscles to burn fat and help transform your body. This is a Free arms and butt exercise video from diet.com.
Healthy Body – Primal Blueprint
Build the Healthiest Possible Body with the Primal Blueprint
By: Mark’ s Daily Apple
I get emails every day from people who are changing their lives for the better by following the guidelines I outline on this site. But many are looking for more of what the Primal Blueprint has to offer. That is to say, they want a comprehensive break down of the elements that make up the Blueprint; a Primal primer if you will. In coming weeks I will be going into detail – anthropological evidence, modern research, etc. – regarding this health philosophy, but I first want to offer up this summary of the Blueprint. I think it is a good starting point for what is to come.
In this extended article you will find the basic building blocks needed to discover the Primal side of your life. What does this mean? It means learning and understanding what it means to be human. It means using this knowledge to help you make important lifestyle choices. It means modeling your life after your ancestors in order to promote optimal health and wellness. And, most importantly, it means taking control of your body and mind.
As some of you may know I have a Primal Blueprint book in the works. If this article intrigues you be on the look out for a much more thorough explanation of how we can learn from our past to shape and mold our future.
Note: This is lengthy article so settle in and enjoy the ride or come back periodically to pick your way through it.
My basic premise is this: The Primal Blueprint is a set of simple instructions (the blueprint) that allows you to control how your genes express themselves in order to build the strongest, leanest, healthiest body possible, taking clues from evolutionary biology (that’s the primal part).
Sometimes we get so lost in the science of human biology we just can’t see the forest for the trees. We overlook the simplicity and ease with which we could all be achieving exceptional health and fitness.
Living in modern society is extremely complex. With daily mind-boggling achievements made in science, technology and medicine, and with an ever-expanding knowledge base that increasingly grows more esoteric and niche, it is no wonder that we often look for complicated scientific solutions to problems that really only require simple answers.
Playing Golf = Live Longer
I have a confession to make, I really don’t like golf. I don’t understand it and I certainly don’t get those who live for it.
My father-in-law is a mad golfer. He recently visited from the USA and whenever he saw any green grass he would crane his neck and excitedly ask, is that a golf course! No Bill, it’s a patch of grass to which he would slump a bit and say, oh, it looked like a golf course. He is completely in-love with the game, bordering on obsessed. I don’t get his pre-occupation with golf but I know he is not alone. We often see crazy men and women braving all sorts of horrendous weather conditions at our local golf course. I shake my head at them as I pass by in my cozy and warm car. Why on earth would they want to be out in that weather when they could be sitting in front of the fire cozing up to their loved one or dog.
And the weird thing, they wouldn’t have it any other way. As Bill explained to me, it’s the challenge of improving your game. Having played a round with him, I can honestly say Bill, you certainly have a challenge ahead of you…… you really do ;)
Finally, a reason to play golf! Researchers have found that people who play golf, regardless of sex, age or socio-economic factors live on average 5 years longer than those who don’t. Those that are really good at golf live even longer.
The reserach has been published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports and based on data from 300,000 swedish golfers. It showed that there are beneficial health effects from playing with the death rate amongst golfers 40% lower than the rest of the population. This equates to an increased life expectancy of 5 years. Pretty amazing really.
Professor Anders Ahlbom, who led the study said that “A round of golf means being outside for four or five hours, walking at a fast pace for six to seven kilometres, something which is known to be good for the health,” he says. “People play golf into old age, and there are also positive social and psychological aspects to the game that can be of help.”
I’ve only played, if you can call it that, a few times. I would say I am in the bad to very bad category of golf players. If I am lucky, very lucky, I’ll actually connect the golf club with ball. Most of the time though I hit either side of the ball or just dig holes in the earth directly behind it. I have never found it enjoyable, rewarding or fun. It annoys me and I can’t imagine that if I played regularly that it would increase my life as the stress and frustration builds to a point where I just want to throw my club at those who can actually connect with the ball!
That being said, given this new found knowledge and if I could play, then I might actually consider signing up at my nearest golf club.
Oh, BTW – Bill lost the game of golf to his daughter that hadn’t played in over 10 years!
Just to finish off, seemed appropriate to add a video full of golf bloopers I hope you enjoy it :)
In Denial?
It seems appropriate that our very first post ( 2nd actually but I’m not counting the welcome post! ) under our new name should be about denial.
Infact, it’s one of the core reasons behind our decision to change our domain name to indenialhealth.com
Reality is that for many people, our health or state of it is something we choose to deny. We know that our habits can cause long term risks to our health and lives but rather than face it, we often force it to the back of our minds. This might be a form of self preservation in a way. What we don’t know won’t kill us sort of mentality.
Of course, it’s a false mind set and one that if not really confronted can have serious consequences.
I like to think of it as living your life with your head in the sand. I do it all the time, I’m not ashamed to admit it! I love wine. Recently, it was reported that wine increases your risk of breast cancer. Now, I’ve written a few posts in the past about my feelings regarding alcohol, I’m a moderate social drinker. I don’t drink during the week but I do enjoy a couple of glasses on the weekend. I now know that I’m increasing my risk of breast cancer but I have consciously made a decision to put that thought in the back of mind and continue to drink wine. Pretty stupid isn’t it. Reality is, I really enjoy wine and just hope that nothing bad happens when I get older.
So I wonder what vices you have? Is it eating too much? Not exercising? Drinking, smoking or drugs?
We all have things in our lives we choose to deny, it’s not about loathing or harboring anger towards yourself , but how you face up to it and how you choose to go forward that really counts.
Opinion: Obesity and Personal Responsibility
I’m going to be ranting in this post so I apologize in advance!
Tomorrow the World Health Organisation will release it’s action plan on the prevention of chronic diseases to the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
This has again sparked discussion over what Governments can do to reduce the obesity rates in developed countries. The medical impact of obesity and overweight people contribute to many health conditions including heat diesease, diabetes, cancers and a range of other chronic illnesses. The cost of these conditions on the health system is massive.
A range of programmes throughout the world have been trialled with various levels of success. Food labelling, restricting junk food advertisements, taxing junk foods, school health programmes and a plethora of other initiatives have all been tried. However, the rates of chronic diseases are increasing along with the waist lines of many people.
One thing that really strikes me with the discussion over how to fix the problem and who to blame lies in those very questions. Why is it that we as a society need to assign blame and look to everyone else for a solution?
Government agencies have tried to educate people on diet and exercise. We all know that if you eat junk food or fatty foods, drink alcohol and don’t exercise that you will more than likely put weight on and won’t be a very healthy person.
Yesterday my partner and I went to the grocery store to do our weekly shop. We had already been to our local vegetable market to get our fruit and vegetable so headed to the store to pick up the other items for our week.
Our trolley contained items including low fat milk, tomatoes, some lean steak, chicken and a few other items for lunches. While waiting for the checkout lady to finish our shop, my partner remarked to me that the people behind us placing their food on the conveyer belt had not one healthy item in their cart. Everything was pre- packaged, frozen junk food with fatty processed snacks thrown in. Not one vegetable or natural food was in their trolley Both were overweight and looked unhealthy.
Now who do you *blame* for their food choices? Is it Government? food manufacturers? No-one forces them to fill their trolleys with unhealthy foods. People know when they buy foods that it’s not good for them but they choose to consume it on a regular basis.
People need to take responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately, we live in a society where people don’t take responsibility. We blame everyone else for the problems in the world and look to Government to fix them. It’s reactionary, it’s dangerous and it’s why we now find ourselves with rates of obesity that are just staggering.
We are eating ourselves to death. Stand up, stop making excuses, make a change and take control of your own life.
3 exercises to help with back pain and improve abdominal endurance
This video shows 3 basic exercises, the PLANK, side plank and BIRD DOG to help abdominal endurance and low back health.
These exercises are safe and really important when you first start out to help protect you against lower back injury.
I also found out from watching this video that research has shown these exercises reduce the incidence of having a sore back, something I can relate to!
Coping with weight gain – update
Just thought I’d update you on my weight gain post from a few days ago.
I had put on about 4 pounds resulting from a recent vacation. I’ve been back now for about 2 weeks and have lost around 2 pounds!
It wasn’t all that difficult. Basically, no alcohol, lots of water and back to eating my usual foods including fresh vegetables and chicken. It’s also been really nice to get back out walking my dog and doing my regular exercise routine.
I hope everyone is doing well!