Exercise Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Reclaim Your Longevity

True Wealth is Defined by Health

August 14, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

Wealth without health is useless. You need health in order to successfully make use of the any greatness you’ve achieved. That means being mobile physically and sharp mentally long into your senior years.

Let’s face it, it’s hard to travel, discover or explore the world when confined to a wheel chair or bed ridden – no matter how much money you have in the bank. Without mobility, simple pleasures like playing with your grand-kids become a major challenge. Without clarity of mind, you won’t be able to think clearly. You may consider yourself financially rich but you won’t have a wealthy life.

The reality is, without good health everything in life is diminished.

Research by Dr. Dean Ornish and team from the University of California, San Francisco revealed that “a program of healthy eating, exercise and stress reduction can not only reverse some diseases – it may actually slow down the aging process at the genetic level.”

It’s all comes down to lifestyle and daily habits…ones that contribute to health or subtract from it.

Positive Lifestyle Habits for the Body

Adequate sleep – most people have no idea how important a good night’s sleep is to their ongoing health levels. A solid 7-8 hours’ sleep for most people is adequate, but if needed grab a short nap during the day to revive yourself.

Challenging physical activity – lean, strong muscle tissue is the key to keeping hormones balanced and humming effectively, avoiding disease and keeping the skeletal system strong.

Dark leafy vegetables – diet should include generous amounts of these nutrient dense foods along with fresh fruits, healthy fats, quality proteins and whole grains.

Deep breathing and stretching – keeps joints flexible and the body oxygenated.

Water – at least 8 glasses of fresh water as pure as we can get it should be the minimum adding more when working out. Water is what makes all the systems within our bodies work. Dehydration is a silent but damaging killer.

Focus on healthy fats – and elimination of unhealthy ones along with processed sugars and processed and preservative laden foods.

Elimination of damaging habits – smoking is destructive to the body and muddles the mind.

Positive Lifestyle Habits for the Mind

Cognitive training – cognitive skills are key to optimal mental health. Cognitive training in the way of memory, reasoning or speed of processing exercises creates a winning combination. Remember, the brain is a muscle and like any other muscle in the body. It must be used if it is to stay sharp. Incorporate activities that challenge the thinking process. Exercise also comes into play. Those who exercise weekly maintain their cognitive functions better than those who don’t.

Additionally, you can also start a new hobby that will stimulate your thinking process or learn a new language. How about writing your memoir?

Social interaction – We are by nature, social creatures. Maintaining close-knit human bonds also helps to preserve cognitive functions later in life. Take on a part-time job or volunteer someplace. You’ll not only fill your “social requirement” but your heart will feel good too. Maintaining strong family ties is another important factor that contributes positively to our longevity.

The challenges that arise in your senior years can be anticipated and planned for by making smart decisions now – those that contribute to your ultimate goal of healthy longevity.

All my products support a whole body approach that supports both the body and the mind. If you are serious about achieving a truly healthy lifestyle, one of youth and vitality – “Reclaim Your Longevity” was created for you.

It will absolutely help you in every area of your life to stay as young, healthy and vibrant as possible.

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, diet, Exercise, Healthy Mind, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: longevity means a healthy body and mind, positive lifestyle habits for the body and the mind

Consistency is Key to Health and Fitness Success

July 23, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

As the year progresses, we have an opportunity to reflect and examine any health and fitness goals we set earlier in the year.

Let’s face it, making resolutions and setting goals for the months ahead is admirable and a component to success.

However, making plans and resolutions is the easy part.

Following through and keeping them is the difficult part. After initial good intentions fall by the wayside and the old habits begin kicking back in, the real challenge begins.

Most of us look to a fitness regimen as a major life-altering event that is going to take lots of time and require big changes. We can easily visualize the results we want. But before you know it, we have promised ourselves a trip to the gym at 5.30 am 4 mornings a week.

Nothing like putting a little pressure on ourselves!

Unfortunately, this type of thinking can be really daunting. When we place this sort of pressure on ourselves we simply freeze-up and become powerless to act. What sounded like an exciting idea gets abandoned and trashed before we even start.

Start Small and Be Consistent

There is a resolution that works for everyone that you can keep and get fantastic results from. Does that sound appealing? It’s called “start small and be consistent.” It simply means you’ll be focused on adopting a permanent small change in your lifestyle. Not too daunting right?

Rather than making lots of big, sweeping changes at once, this method makes small tweaks a little at a time. Rather than saying I am going to the gym 4 times a week starting this week – just make of goal of going once.

After a few weeks or months of achieving that goal, add another session. After those two sessions are firmly embedded in your routine, try for a third session. If that doesn’t fit, just take it back to two sessions. You will still get fantastic results with two weekly sessions especially if you put a little effort into them.

It’s hard to believe the results you’ll achieve with just one session per week for life. It would actually give you far better results than on-off, stop-start attempts like many people seem to do.

It defies logic that these same people do not see something small but consistent yielding fantastic results long term. They do not see this as progress so they keep on with the crash and burn mentality.

On off, start stop anything in life rarely works. Consistency, however small, DOES work.

It’s keeping up with your new healthier choices that will get you the results you are looking for. This means increasing your all over body strength, losing that excess body fat that has been hanging around for ages, lowering your cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar, increasing energy and stamina or reducing your risk of disease.

It Takes Patience and Perseverance

This lifestyle change thing is not a new concept. But what may be new to you is how you should approach it so it can work for you.

Lifestyle changes that really work to improve health are small gradual changes.

The results you are experiencing did not happen overnight. And guess what? It doesn’t end overnight either.

The commitment to take control and be in the driver’s seat is often sparked by a special occasion or event. But you don’t need to wait for these occasions to pop up in order to make small lifestyle changes. They should and can be an ongoing renewable resolution. They should be as gradual as the change in the seasons so any changes you do make are changes you can actually live with.

The goal of improving health and fitness will always be an ongoing journey. Make it one that is an enjoyable journey every step along the way.

If you start by making your “small but consistent” changes, keeping it simple and easy, odds are very good that it will be resolutions and changes you will actually keep.

Small things (done consistently) will have a way bigger impact than big things only done for a few days or weeks. Change your LIFE, not just your week!

If you are serious about achieving a truly healthy lifestyle, one of youth and vitality check out: “Reclaim Your Longevity.” All my products offer a whole body approach – one that supports both the body and the mind.

It will absolutely help you in every area of your life to stay as young, healthy and vibrant as possible.

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, diet, Exercise Tagged With: consistency is key to success with your fitness and diet goals

Weight Gain and Lack of Sleep…

July 15, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

Studies prove that lack of sleep shaves years (and joy) off your life. Not a good thing!

But lost years are not the only thing that lack of sleep affects.

If you are currently gaining weight and can’t figure out why or maybe you’re just have difficulty erasing those extra pounds and you have not considered your sleep patterns, it’s time you did.

Believe it or not, the solution to your weight loss issues could be as simple as regulating your sleep patterns.

Studies prove that sleep or lack thereof plays a primary role in weight gain. In fact, science is proving that “sleep is probably the most important thing a person can do if they’re ready to start a diet and lose weight.”

One such research study showed that women who only sleep 5 hours nightly gain weight more dramatically than those who get at least 7 hours sleep.

THEORIES:

Cortisol – Cortisol is the hormone that regulates the appetite and sleep deprivation is believed to affect the amount of Cortisol our bodies secrete. Lack of sleep can cause someone to feel hungry when they aren’t because of the way the metabolism reacts.

Sedentary lifestyle – Less active during the day usually equates to lack of sleep at night. Sleep is supposed to rejuvenate a tired body but if your body is sedentary during waking hours you’ll have difficulty falling asleep and remaining asleep.

Emotions – Emotions become chaotic and affected with lack of sleep and it’s not unusual to experience sudden bouts of depression, frustration and anger. Insomnia breeds crankiness and mind confusion those who don’t sleep do not have clarity of mind. They don’t think clearly – not the best mental conditions for losing weight and keeping it off.

With the proper amount of sleep, dieting and weight-loss is easier and focus and clarity are sharp. Your cognitive functions (reactions times, decision making and memory) will improve and you’ll be able to hone in on the important aspects of your life.

Truth is, weight loss and maintaining weight loss only works when both the body and the mind are working in unity with one another.

Motivation is another key element to losing weight and keeping it off. It takes a hefty dose of motivation in order to focus on and achieve your goals. If you are sleep deprived your motivation suffers causing your weight-loss to suffer too.

If you simply turn to medications to make your lack of sleep go away, you’ll be treading in dangerous territory and likely make your problem worse. It’s simply a temporary band-aid that solves nothing.

There are rituals that you can adopt that will help your system to unwind and slow down. A nice hot bath as well as writing or reading can all help prepare your body for sleep. You’ll also sleep better by reducing the stress in your life because less sleep equates to higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol being released – increasing your appetite. If your mind is weak from lack of sleep, your will power will be also, leaving you open to choosing non-healthy foods over healthy ones. Stress also has a tendency to get the mind in high gear…so, avoid anything that might keep your mind in “alert status.”

Computers and all back-lit devices can also be a culprit to a good night’s sleep by affecting the release of the hormone melatonin. So, try and keep your electronic devices out of or away from your bedroom.

It doesn’t take a lot of sleep loss to affect your weight in a negative way. Just 30 minutes of lost sleep can actually cause you to be more likely to gain weight.

So, if you want “sleep like a baby” and remove that excess stubborn body weight give your body the nutrition it needs, get the required physical exercise your body is craving during the day, crank up a nice warm bath at night and crawl into bed with a good book.

The rewards for being fit and healthy during the day is a good nights sleep at night.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reversing the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, Exercise, Healthy Mind, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: lack of sleep promotes weight gain

Muscles and Your Immune System

July 7, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

Living a long healthy, vital life means protecting your body from deadly disease. That means keeping your immune system functioning in peak performance.

Truth is, we’re more in control than we give ourselves. Most diseases are the result of lifestyle habits and a broken immune system.

The immune system is responsible for protecting us from illness and fighting off infection and foreign invaders. So, we would be wise to nurture and protect our immune system. The best way to do that is through exercise.

The strength of the muscular system is interconnected with immune system functioning. Any reduction in physical condition means a weakening of this system. The end result is that inactivity is the major factor that leads to many diseases. At the top of the list is cancer – not a pleasant thought for sure.

Muscle Magic

Our muscles are more than just a way to shape our figure and give us strength to perform our daily activities. They are storage sites for the proteins needed to produce anti-bodies, white blood cells and killer cells. These cells detect and destroy lethal cancer cells. Muscles are also storage sites for the amino acid glutamine and other proteins that are the immune systems fuel source. The more toned, strong muscle tissue you have, the more plentiful the supply is and the greater protection you have. This stored protein is a reserve to be called upon when needed to help fight and recover from illness.

The reality is our muscular system makes up 50 percent of our bodyweight so it’s not hard to grasp the fact that any unnecessary loss of muscle is critical to our overall disease protection.

Studies have shown that sedentary, inactive people are three times more likely to die of premature and preventable disease.

So, if avoiding disease somewhere down the road of life is important to you, if living a long, healthy vital life is part of your dream then you must tend to your muscles now. They must be kept in tip-top condition – strong and toned at all times. Since most people do not have jobs that require manual labor, we must put intentional exercise in place if we wish to experience a disease free, long healthy life.

Strength Training is Key

A strengthening exercise program is the only way to reboot entire body strength and bolster disease protection. It directly engages the muscles that help keep hormone levels healthy. This is an important factor as high levels of certain hormones can increase the risk of disease…including cancer. Recreational activities such as walking and swimming are good and contribute to your health. However, these low intensity exercises won’t get the job done. You must engage and work all the major muscles through their ranges of movement under an adequate load. This is the way to build and maintain strength.

Next time you look in the mirror at your figure, expand your perception about your muscles and see them as your armor and defense against disease. They are not there to provide shape and body strength only. If you fail to challenge the muscles to stay strong they will continue to weaken and your disease risk will increase.

* Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, Exercise, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: strength training to boost the immune system

Get Fit and Reshape Your Body With Strength Training

July 2, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

Although there are a variety of exercise variations to choose from, resistance training should be your number one choice.

Resistance training is the mode of training that will reshape your body, getting you firm, fit, and healthy. It can take many different forms including lifting dumbbells or barbells or using weight machines at the gym. Using resistance tubing bands, or performing basic body-weight activities is resistance training.

As long as you are forcing your body to work against some form of external resistance, you are resistance training.

This said, resistance training with dumbbells or barbells (free weight training) does tend to yield the best results. You’ll have the highest possible external load and you’ll be working your core muscles to a larger degree as well.

Benefits of resistance training

Increased muscle and bone strength: Challenging your muscles beyond their normal stress load with follow up rest and recovery creates strong muscles and bones. Your bones benefit and grow stronger and denser than before reducing chances of incurring a stress fracture down the road.

Accelerated Resting Metabolic Rate: It will significantly boost your metabolic rate for hours after the workout is completed. This is perhaps the primary reason why you should be doing this mode of training more often. After a good strength training workout session, you’ll be burning calories for up to 48 hours, meaning you’ll be torching body fat all day long. This means less work on your end with your diet and cardio training. If you are able to build more lean muscle mass with your strength training workouts, it means you will actually experience a permanent increase in your resting metabolic rate since you have more total lean mass to support.

Muscle tissue is very metabolically active, the more of it you have the more calories you burn doing nothing at all. This is one reason why men don’t seem to gain fat as easily as women. They have more muscle on their body – they have a protective element working for them. You too can get this protective element if you focus on building lean muscle mass. Women will never build as much muscle as their male counterpart will. However, they can definitely build muscle moving them in the right direction.

Improved Functional Fitness Level: Resistance training that also helps to improve your functional fitness level. Assuming you are using the right workout program, you’ll be stronger than you were before and see immediate benefits in your everyday life so. Daily tasks—walking upstairs, carrying groceries into the house, doing anything that involves muscular strength, will now be easier because you have strengthened the muscles involved in performing all of those movement patterns. Of course, if you don’t form your workout properly, it won’t be very functional at all and may not experience any benefits.

Improved Muscle Tone and Development: No better way to contour your body than strength training/resistance training The primary reason many people get involved with a strength training program in the first place—is to see improved body composition and appearance. If you perform the right combination of exercises, you can add more curves to selected regions of your body, capturing whatever look it is that you desire. For instance, want a curvier backside? No problem.

With the right exercises this is more than possible. Wish that you could tone that underarm flab that’s been with you since as long as you can remember? Strength training can help remedy that as well. Of course keep in mind that in order to see the muscle tone and definition that you’re building with your exercise training you will also need to be eating right so that you can achieve optimal fat loss in the process as well. If you aren’t eating right, you won’t be able to burn off that fat covering the muscle; hence definition will not be seen.

With cardio training, you become a smaller version of your current self. With resistance training, you become a brand new you. Which do you want?

Brain Power

Improved Self-Confidence: As you start making positive changes to your appearance, your self-confidence automatically goes up. This is normal and natural and for most people makes sense. The better you feel your body looks and the happier you are with your appearance; the more self-confidence you’ll have. This said, the positive appearance you’re building isn’t the only place where your self-confidence is will get a boost. When you realize just how strong you’re becoming and realize you are reaching the workout goals you set for yourself you’ll notice you’re becoming more self-confident too.

Now, your body takes on a new meaning, a new perspective. You no longer view your thighs as “thick and flabby.” You have a new perspective. You see them for how they can help you achieve. Maybe you can squat 100 pounds and feel very proud of that fact. Or, maybe they helped you climb partway up a mountain on your last hiking trip. Whatever the case, your body now is more than something that you view for appearance’s sake only. It’s now something that serves a purpose. Something you know can perform various feats that you put your mind to. This is incredibly empowering and helps build a healthy relationship overall with your body.

Lower Stress Levels: Finally, the last big benefit that resistance training has to offer is a much lower level of stress as well. Stress is something that you must take control over in your life. It can really come back to impact you in many negative ways if you aren’t careful. Stress cannot be avoided. It is a fact of life. However, the right strategies such as resistance training can help reduce and deal with it.

When you perform intense exercise, you’ll be releasing a number of endorphins into your body. Endorphins are your “feel good” hormone. When released they give you a rush of energy causing you to feel good. You’ll feel more calm, collected, and relaxed. This “feel good sensation” is your own personal euphoric moment.

Truth is, resistance training is one of the healthier ways that you can take out some of your built up anger and frustration. Especially useful for those who like to use force to release pent up stress! Sort of like punching a whole in the wall, but not destructive!

If you can only do one type of exercise variation, resistance training should be your number one choice.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, Exercise, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: resistance strength training is the perfect exercise routine

Chronic Disease Cuts Life Short…

May 25, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

According to a 50 year study, disease cuts many lives short. For the most part, three big ones – heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke are preventable diseases yet these three diseases alone cut many lives short by decades.

The really sad thing is, these diseases as well as other diseases can easily be prevented by adopting simple healthy lifestyle habits. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, diet, Exercise, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: chronic disease shortens lifespan

Own Your Health and Fitness with Priority Status

May 4, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

The priorities we place on everyday tasks and activities and the values we associate with each one of them is determined by the programs running in our minds…our “mind software.”

For better or worse, truth is, our deep-seated food and exercise related values and priorities effectively run our lives.

Engaging in regular, proper exercise (strength training), and enjoying quality live foods (non-processed) are two behaviors that are vital to losing weight, keeping it off and maintaining and enjoying better health for years to come.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VALUE

With this in mind, the first thing we must address if we want to shift our lives towards stellar health and fitness is to examine how much value and priority we have placed on these two important behaviors.

If our bodies become overweight or unhealthy the likely cause is that we have not placed enough value on lifestyle behaviors (our eating and exercise habits) that would otherwise keep us fit and healthy and these low priorities reflect in our actions or lack thereof.

Truth is, if you hope to live a long productive life and dance into your nineties you are going to have to place high priorities and high values on what you eat now and how much exercise you get now in order to stay strong well into the future.

Nearly 90 percent of the work required to shift your life towards stellar health and fitness is done on the inside first, however, it doesn’t stop there…you must follow through with physical action…they work hand-in-hand to get the job done.

When we make a conscious effort to increase our health values, the ideas of healthier eating and regular proper exercise automatically move up a few notches in our value system and our beliefs and perceptions begin to shift.

Additionally, the better care we take of ourselves the higher our motivation levels climb as well until one day they become unstoppable.

Once your mind is aligned with your goals and your beliefs and perceptions are working with you…not against you then “follow through” with action becomes much easier to perform.

It doesn’t matter what sort of beliefs you may or may not have about your after-life. The only thing that matters is what you are actively doing to enjoy the life you are in.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

You are either actively participating in helping yourself to achieve health and fitness or you are contributing to its neglect.

Let’s get real. Deep down you already know that eating a balanced diet of high quality whole foods, drinking the freshest, cleanest water you can find and engaging in regular challenging exercise is the key to stellar health, preventing disease and dancing into your nineties.

So, what are you waiting for? It doesn’t matter if you’ve never made health a priority in your life before. Don’t look back…focus in the now and do it today. Refuse to settle for less…know that your perceptions and beliefs are dictating your value system and your priorities and they in turn are dictating how you direct your life.

It all begins with you. No one can place health and fitness at the top of your priority list but you. You must own your health and fitness in your mind first and when you do, your actions and your life will automatically reflect this.

Soon you’ll be doing it effortlessly and getting healthier by the day.

If you are serious about achieving a truly healthy lifestyle that will take care of you long into your senior years visit “Reclaim Your Longevity” .

Everything you need to live a long healthy life…dancing well into your senior years is included in this program that is geared towards helping you to find the “fountain of youth.”

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, diet, Exercise, Healthy Mind Tagged With: get fit on the inside first, health and fitness priorities

Strong Toned Muscles Build a Strong Healthy Metabolism

April 29, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

The measurement of muscle mass/size means “how many pounds of lean muscle mass you have.” The less muscle mass your body has, the slower your resting metabolic rate. The slower your metabolic rate is, the harder it is to take or keep weight off.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons why people tend to gain body fat as they get older is not necessarily because they are growing older but rather because their metabolic rate is slowing down. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, Exercise, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: strength training is key to healthy metabolism

Cash in On Your “Youth Hormones”

March 25, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

USE IT OR LOSE IT

Are you still searching for that “magic potion” or “pill” that will help to restore your youth and vitality?

Truth be known, many people want to slow down the aging process and preserve youthfulness but they look everywhere but inside themselves for the answers. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, Exercise, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: stimulate your youth hormones, strength training stimulates youth hormones

Yoga for Body and Mind Health

February 28, 2016 By ryladmin Leave a Comment

Eating the right foods and working your muscles like they were created to be used is paramount to anyone whose objective is to live a long healthy, vibrant life.

However, the job doesn’t stop there nor does it start there.

Just as a coin is “two sided”…you are also “two sided”…you have inner mind that must be kept healthy just as you have your outer physical body that must be kept healthy. They work as a team. If one is in chaos, the other one won’t be working at peak performance.

Without a doubt, addressing your muscles needs and your diet goes a long way to fulfilling the needs of your outer physical body, but, if you don’t address your “inner” mind’s needs at the same time, you are facing an uphill battle because you’ll be fighting off your inner demons that are directly responsible for the “stressors” in your life. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anti-aging strategies, Exercise, Healthy Mind, Reduce Disease Risk Tagged With: yoga for body and mind health