The Medical Expert Report

Copyright (c) 2008 Nancy Rishworth

Four Exercises to Relax a Painful Back

Do you suffer from lower back pain? There's nothing more frustrating or debilitating, than waiting for muscle spasms in your back to relax. The root of many back problems is simply a result of weak muscles.

Your core muscles are the muscles of the back, abdomen and buttocks. The purpose of these muscles is to support the spine. If these muscles aren't exercised, they become shorter - which causes the spine to be forced out of alignment.

An individual's level of flexibility is partly determined by heredity, gender, age and level of fitness. Furthermore, as we age we naturally begin to lose flexibility. This is due to both the aging process and the decrease in physical activity. However, flexibility, just like cardiovascular health and muscular strength Exercise, can be trained and improved.

If you are looking to build a home gym this year, there are some important criteria that should be taken into consideration. A good home gym offers versatility, the ability to have a few pieces of exercise equipment perform a wide variety of exercises. It must be durable and be able to handle the rigors of hard resistance training over a long period of time. Exercise equipment shouldn't take up a lot of space.

I woke up this morning excited about my day and went straight into the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast. As I looked into the cupboard (do people say "cupboard" anymore?), I was disappointed to see the same boring protein shakes staring back at me. I know that I have to get enough protein everyday to complement my weight lifting. If I don't get enough protein, then my muscles won't be able to grow, right? But does it have to be so bland?

Exercise is an essential in life. Most people will certainly nod their heads to this. Exercise is not only perfect for losing weight, it is also good for keeping a reasonable body weight, for giving a boost on the metabolic rate and also for burning those unwanted excess calories. Exercise also revs up the heart and the lungs' machinery making them more efficient in doing their natural functions.

Before fitness training, one must give importance to doing warm-up or stretching exercises to prevent accidents or to enhance the output during the training. There are also a number of precautionary measures and tips to serve as guidelines when doing fitness exercises. Here are some of them.

1. To increase your flexibility and to avoid injuries, stretch before and after workout. Almost everyone knows that stretching before workout prevents injuries during the exercises, but only few people know that stretching after workout, when muscles are still warm, can increase flexibility.

Everybody dreams of being healthy, beautiful and fit. The first fitness health tip is to believe that we are what we eat. Eat healthy and one will be healthy and beautiful. Healthy eating means eating three regular balanced meals-breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and making sure that each meal is a combination of carbohydrate and protein foods. Meals should include cereals, pulses, milk or curd, eggs, chicken, fish, fruits and vegetables.

Home gym workouts need not be any less effective than workouts done in a gym, provided certain basic principles are observed. A home gym is unlikely to have the same professional equipment as a commercial gym, so some adjustments will be necessary. Here is how to get the best results from a home gym workout.

Cardio

No, actually I haven't!

Walking backwards or jogging backwards on the treadmill works muscles in an entirely different way than walking forwards. Specifically, by walking backwards on the treadmill (especially on an incline) you engage the quad muscles (front of thigh) and calves to a great extent. Ideally, as with any type of treadmill exercise your goal is walk the hands off of the side rails for best results.

By Walking Backwards on the Treadmill with Hands Off the Rail You...