All it takes is to breathe properly to burn fat, reduce stress and so much more. Learn how to correct and improve your health with exercises below.
Take a deep breathe. You do it up to 22,000 times a day. Chances are, most of us don’t even breathe properly, in turn can yield surprising negative effects on our health. Modern science has finally caught up to what yoga has been advocating for years. We know that proper breathing can help ease an overstressed mind, as well as play a big role in averting or alleviating heart disease, allergies, and weight gain.
Breathing is so simple and inexpensive. People can’t believe it works as a healing and preventative tool. Do the following exercises regularly, twice a day, for 10 minutes each time. The exercises will help your body and mind navigate these issues.
Anxiety
“When you’re anxious, you limit your breaths,” says James S. Gordon, M.D., founder and director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., and author of Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey out of Depression. When you confine your breaths to your chest instead of using your diaphragm, your anxiety level increases. The key to relaxing lies in calming your sympathetic nervous system (composed of your body’s fight-or-flight engine, which releases adrenaline and stress hormones such as cortisol) and triggering your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls your rest and digest functions and helps your muscles (and your mind) unwind.
Try This: The Soft-Belly Technique
Most people take about 15 breaths per minute, but when you’re anxious, you should aim for six or seven slow, deep ones. Gordon suggests a technique that involves inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, while keeping your stomach relaxed. To help yourself focus, slowly say the word soft in your head while inhaling, and speak the word belly as you breathe out. This technique can stimulate your vagus nerve, a central part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which runs through your abdomen and chest, and back to your brain stem.
Heart Disease
The environment we live in is bombarded with sights, sounds, and emotions that overdrive our nervous systems. The result? Long periods of heightened blood pressure, adrenaline production, and heart rate, all of which are linked to heart disease. Breathing better can normalize high blood pressure and elevated heart rate by activating that same relaxation response via your parasympathetic nervous system.
Try This: Alternate Nostril Breathing
This technique lowers your pulse rate and diastolic blood pressure, according to a study at Nepal Medical College. (The higher a young woman’s diastolic blood pressure, the greater her risk for heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.) David Magone, founder of the breath-oriented PranaVayu yoga practice, explains how to do it: Sit cross-legged and close your eyes. Use the thumb of your right hand to block your right nostril, and inhale deeply through the left for about six seconds. Now, cover your left nostril with the fourth finger of your right hand, release your right nostril, and exhale slowly for six seconds. With your left nostril blocked, breathe in through your right side for six seconds; then cover your right nostril again, release your left, and exhale for six seconds. Repeat the entire sequence for at least two minutes.
Allergies
When it comes to seasonal allergies, research has found that a little music-specifically, humming-can help you breathe better. Humming opens the ostia, which connect the sinuses to the nasal cavities, letting you take in air more easily, explains Timothy McCall, M.D., author of Yoga as Medicine.
Try This: The Bee Breath
Sitting in a comfortable position, take a deep breath through your nose, then let out a high-pitched humming sound as you exhale through your nose. You should feel a vibration in your nose, as well as in your chest and head. (McCall notes that humming tends to lengthen your exhales, making this another good breathing technique for those suffering from anxiety.) Continue for up to 10 minutes.
Weight Gain
The issue of weight gain has something as much to do with what’s in your head as what’s on your plate. “Emotional stress can cause weight gain,” says Dean Ornish, M.D., president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. “It speeds the conversion of calories to fat because you’re more likely to overeat or make unhealthy choices when stressed.” Manage the stress, and you’ll manage the weight. A great way to manage it is to focus on slowing down your breathing, which will help reduce stress hormones.
Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., author of Yoga for Pain Relief, points to another weight-gain factor that can be regulated by breathing: heart rate variability (HRV), the moment-by-moment fluctuation that can help determine how you respond to stress. “Studies show that people with a high HRV tend to have more self-control, and those with low HRV are more likely to give in to temptation,” she says.
Try This: The Pursed-Lip Breath
Slow, practiced breathing increases HRV and makes you more aware of your actions, so you’re better able to lower your stress level and get a handle on overeating, McGonigal says. She suggests a four-second nasal inhale followed by an eight-second exhale through puckered lips (as if exhaling through a straw). Another option: the Hindu breathing method called ujjayi. Inhale through your nose for six seconds, and then exhale through your mouth for six seconds as if you’re trying to fog up a mirror, making a “hahhhh” sound while pulling in your abdomen. On your next breath, try making the same noise with your mouth closed. It should sound like a seashell against your ear, McGonigal notes. If you sound more like Darth Vader, you’re probably doing it too forcefully.
Introducing six multitasking moves that tones, reshape and firm up your muscles and spark your mind!
Each move in this workout incorporates the trifecta of brain-bettering elements-complex motor skills, balance and a new set of data. It helps you tone from head to toe.
As you move through the routine, it makes your heart pump more thus a great cardio workout, increasing calorie burn and blood flow to your brain and the rest of your body.
Your trainer
Jack Mantione is an integrative certified strength and conditioning specialist and a physical therapist in New York City. He works with athletes and runners to heal and prevent injuries while improving their balance and agility.
What to do
Complete the indicated reps; try not to rest between moves to maximize its cardio benefit. Repeat the circuit training.
What you’ll need
A pair of 2- to 5-pound dumbbells
Armed and dangerously bright
Balance on left leg, knee soft, and bend right knee until shin is parallel to floor. Contract abs and squeeze glutes. Hold weights, palms facing in, elbows bent 90 degrees (as shown). Pull shoulder blades toward each other and hold for 15 to 30 seconds. Return to start. Switch legs; repeat. • works shoulders, arms, back, abs, butt, legs
X marks the smart
Stand with feet hip-width apart, a weight in each hand, palms facing forward. Rest weight in right hand on side of butt for added resistance, then raise left arm to side until parallel to floor as you lift right leg out to side (as shown). Return to standing; repeat on opposite side for one rep. Do 12 reps. • works shoulders, arms, abs, butt
Quick-wit kick
Stand facing a step or bench, holding weights at sides. Step up with left foot and extend right leg in front of you, as you curl weight in left hand toward shoulder and extend right arm back (as shown). Step right foot back to floor, switching arm positions so you curl right hand toward shoulder and extend left arm back. Do 12 reps. Switch legs; repeat. • works arms, abs, butt, legs
Butt and brain teaser
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, a weight in each hand, to start. Rest weight in right hand on butt to add resistance; raise left arm in front of you to shoulder height and extend right leg out behind you (as shown). Return to start; repeat on opposite side. Do 12 reps.
• works butt, shoulders, arms, abs
Genius shaper
Lie face up with knees bent, feet flat, arms at sides with a weight in each hand and elbows bent 90 degrees, to start. Lift pelvis as you extend and lift left leg and press weight in right hand upward, palm facing in (as shown). Stay in a bridge and lower right arm and left leg. Repeat on opposite side. Do 12 reps. • works abs, shoulders, chest, butt, legs
Mind crunch
Lie face up with knees bent, feet flat, arms extended along floor above head with a weight in each hand, palms facing each other, to start. Reach arms up overhead, then crunch, twisting and reaching arms across torso to left side as you straighten and lift left leg (as shown). Return to start; repeat on opposite side. Do 12 reps. • works abs, obliques, chest, back
Find out how quitting smoking can dramatically improve your health.
It is hard to quit smoking because all the benefits of quitting and all the dangers of continuing seem very unlikely and far away.
Here’s a little timeline about some of the more immediate effects of quitting smoking and how that will affect your body RIGHT NOW.
• In 20 minutes your blood pressure will drop back down to normal.
• In 8 hours the carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.
• In 48 hours your chance of having a heart attack will have decreased. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level.
• In 72 hours your bronchial tubes will relax, and your energy levels will increase.
• In 2 weeks your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next 10 weeks.
• In three to nine months coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lung capacity improves by 10%.
• In 1 year your risk of having a heart attack will have dropped by half.
• In 5 years your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.
• In 10 years your risk of lung cancer will have returned to that of a non-smoker.
• In 15 years your risk of heart attack will have returned to that of a non-smoker.
It helps to weigh the pros and cons of smoking to encourage total elimination of this dangerous habit. Quit now!
Before you think of smoking your daily sticks of cigarettes, read this article to find out how cigarettes can pose serious threats to your health.
Smoking has been an increasingly subject of debated topic in terms of smokers and their need to stop smoking. Smoking poses dangerous threats to health of smokers and non-smokers alike. Would you believe that more than 50 chemicals are identified in secondhand smoke found to cause cancer?
The chemicals in the cigarettes you smoke affect almost all the parts of the human body. Let’s take a tour of your body to look at how smoking affects it.
Starting at the Top
All smokers are at risk for cancer of the mouth. Tobacco smoke also causes gum disease, tooth decay and bad breath. The teeth become unsightly and yellow. Smokers may also experience frequent headaches. Smokers are also at risk of strokes due to a lack of oxygen and narrowed blood vessels to the brain.
Lungs and Bronchi
Moving down to your chest, smoke passes through the bronchi, or the breathing tubes. Hydrogen cyanide and other chemicals in the smoke attack the lining of the bronchi, inflaming them cause “chronic smoker’s cough”. Because the bronchi are weakened, you’re more likely to get bronchial infections. Your lungs are gradually impaired due to mucus secretion leading to chronic coughing. Smokers are 10 times more at risk to develop lung cancer and emphysema compared nonsmokers.
Smoking and the Heart
The devastating effects of smoking can also affect your heart. The blood pressure is elevated form the presence of nicotine that makes your blood clot easily. Oxygen levels are greatly lowered because of carbon monoxide and leads to the build up cholesterol deposits on the artery walls. The effects increase the risk of heart attack. Moreover, poor circulation resulting from cholesterol deposits can cause impotence (for men) strokes, and loss of circulation in fingers and toes.
Smoking and the organs of the body
The digestive system is not spared from the extensive effects of smoking. The tars found in cigarettes can trigger cancer of the esophagus and throat. Heartburn and ulcers can more likely to be developed due to the increased stomach acid secretion as a result of smoking. Smokers also have higher rates of deadly pancreatic cancer. The presence of carcinogens from cigarettes are excreted in the urine, consequently, causes bladder cancer.
Conclusion
Forty percent of men who are heavy smokers will die before they reach retirement age, compared to only 18 percent of nonsmokers. Women who smoke hold an increased risk of cervical cancer, while pregnant women who smoke take a chance with the health of their unborn babies.
The good news is that when you quit smoking your body begins to repair itself. In about ten years time after you quit, your body gradually repair most of the damage smoking caused. It’s better to quit smoking rather than wait until cancer or emphysema has set in. Chances are that these conditions are fatal. It’s another reason to take the big change and quit now.
Take a deep breathe. You do it up to 22,000 times a day. Chances are, most of us don’t even breathe properly, in turn can yield surprising negative effects on our health. Modern science has finally caught up to what yoga has been advocating for years. We know that proper breathing can help ease an overstressed mind, as well as play a big role in averting or alleviating heart disease, allergies, and weight gain.
