Physical education is key to improving a child’s confidence, brainpower and long-term health

One of the most important things parents can give to their children is a physical education or involvement in organized sports activity. Physical education has slipped in priority over the last few years, especially in our public schools. Some schools don’t even have recess anymore. They’re producing children that can (sometimes) pass standardized tests at the academic level, but who are obese, diabetic, predisposed to heart disease and likely to live a relatively short life with high medical costs and lots of pain and suffering to boot. But what good is an education program that educates children on academics if those students won’t live a productive, healthy life using their academic skills?

That’s why I think physical education needs to be put back into our public schools as a top priority. Ten minutes of recess a day is not enough. Beyond recess, parents would do well to get their kids involved in additional physical education programs, like after-school programs or organized sports — anything that involves moving the body, whether it’s running track, playing soccer, playing basketball, practicing gymnastics… you name it. These are all excellent for children.

Written by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

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Nation’s exercise levels ‘shockingly low’

Almost one in 10 adults have not walked continuously for five minutes in the past four weeks, according to one of the most comprehensive studies conducted into physical fitness levels in England.

New research examining the lifestyles of a million adults, carried out by the Centre for Market and Public Organisation at Bristol University, paints an alarming picture of a country where “there are very high levels of physical inactivity”. The authors of the study argue that levels of physical activity are heavily influenced by socioeconomic factors.

The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, used the government’s annual Active People Surveys, dating back to 2006, to examine physical activity across all of England’s local authorities and measure it against factors such as income and ethnicity.

Written by Jamie Doward

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Why You Sweat More Than Your Exercise Buddy

You’re trucking along on the treadmill and as you reach for a towel to wipe off the perspiration on your forehead, you can’t help but notice the guy to the right who’s sweating so much. It looks like he jumped in a river. Why is it that some people sweat like crazy and some are barely glistening?

First off, sweating is the body’s way of cooling itself off and maintaining a healthy temperature. You’re born with between two and four million sweat glands. Women have more sweat glands than men, but men’s glands are more active. How much you sweat depends on your gender, the number of sweat glands you have (more glands equal more sweat), how hot it is, how intensely you’re exercising, or how anxious you feel.

The amount a person sweats also depends on how many sweat glands are activated and how much sweat is excreted from each gland. It turns out that fit men sweat significantly more than fit women. The same amount of sweat glands might be activated, but women produce less sweat from each gland. Fit people sweat more efficiently by sweating sooner during workouts, when their body temperature is lower. However, a sedentary person working at the same intensity will heat up a lot faster and possibly sweat more. Also, overweight people sweat more profusely than normal-weight individuals because fat acts as an insulator that raises core temperature.

Written by Jenny Sugar

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Sugar Cravings, When Too Much of a Good Thing Becomes a Health Concern

I think it’s fair to say we’ve all had our share of cravings; whether you’re a guy longing for an ice cold beer after a hot humid day of mowing the lawn, or a pregnant woman who can’t stop thinking about hot fudge sundaes. But what if your cravings ALL revolve around sugary sweets, the dreaded sugar cravings? Do you consider yourself to have an insatiable sweet tooth? While it’s an easy thing to overlook, and just accept thefact that you live for desserts, your sugar cravings can be a red flag indicating some underlying health issues. Before we get into what these concerns may be, let’s be sure you understand what I mean when I say a “sweet tooth” or “constant sugar cravings”… everyone loves the smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, and while most people can stop at one or two, I’m talking about those of us that can’t. For me, my weakness is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It wasn’t until I realized they were becoming a daily habit (justifying it by thinking everyone has their “thing”) that I knew I had to figure out what was causing my obsession. After a few weeks of succumbing to my sugar craving, they tasted great going down, but left me feeling nothing but guilt and a bit of a sugar crash.

Written by Sutton Mason

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Eating Healthy on a budget…You Can’t Afford Not To

Ways to get healthy on a budget…You Can’t Afford Not To

I know in the past I’ve written about how to eat healthy on a budget, which is a struggle for many people, but in today’s economy, it is also tough for many of us to afford belonging to a gym, investing in fitness equipment or purchasing diet programs.  For those that don’t know, I myself am a single mom with very limited income since losing my job last December, so I speak from experience when I say that there ARE ways around financial limitations when it comes to working out.  Just DON’T allow the budget to be an excuse as to why one can’t get (or stay) fit.  A family can also be eating healthy on a budget. There are so many options out there and while I’ll touch on a few, the possibilities are endless, so try to keep an open mind and think creatively, you may surprise yourself with what some ingenuity can come up with!

Written by Sutton Mason

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Leg Exercises: The Top 10

When it comes to leg exercises or leg day, you will often hear a grown man cry. A great upper body is worthless without a massive pair of legs holding it up. You could have enormous arms, a barrel sized chest, and a diesel back but if your legs look like they belong to a new born chicklet you’ve got some serious work to do. Not only do large, powerful legs increase manliness by upwards of 10,000% but, trained properly, they can drastically enhance sport performance.

To aid you in the process of building a pair of monstrous legs through grinding out some leg exercises, below I’ve outlined two of the most commonly made training mistakes when it comes to leg exercises:

1. Not Using a Full Range of Motion: Skimping on range of motion (ROM) is a surefire way to sabotage your hard work. While partial ROM movements certainly have their own unique set of benefits, research and experience has continuously shown that full ranges of motion are best for increasing muscle size. Want bigger legs? Quit cheating yourself and start training through a complete ROM.

Written by Jordan Syatt

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How to lose weight and keep it off

Being active is an important part of losing weight and keeping it off. The more active you are the more calories you burn up, which can make it easier to lose weight.

Why does weight matter?

Many people worry about their weight at some point during their life. Maybe you have struggled with your weight going up and down for years, or perhaps it increased following a difficult time in your life.

If you are overweight or obese, you are not alone – according to the World Health Organization, around 1.4 billion adults worldwide are overweight or obese. But being overweight or obese can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.

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Train For Endurance

If you want to increase your muscle quickly, you need to ramp up the weight you use in your resistance exercises. This is because you will only build muscle when you experience a level of resistance that is new to your muscles. Repeating the same amount of weight over and over, will give your muscles more endurance, but it won’t build new mass.

Even if you are using your fitness program to build muscle, you can benefit from cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular exercise will help build the endurance of your muscles, as well as, increase your lung capacity so you can work out longer without becoming fatigued. In addition, it increases blood flow to your muscles so you can gain more muscle mass from other exercises.

Written by Total Health Links

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Exercising Regularly

To help meet your goals of exercising regularly, invest in some home exercise equipment. If the equipment is right there, you won’t be tempted to skip your exercise routine due to lack of time. Your motivation will be right there staring you in the face all evening and so you’ll go do it.

Reduce stress on your muscles and avoid injury by warming-up before working out. Adequately warming-up will loosen up stiff muscles and get the blood flowing to them. Sudden movements on muscles that have not been properly warmed-up prior to exercise can result in pulled muscles, strains, and even tears.

If you want to burn off that excess fat, you should work on doing strength training exercises. Not only will these exercises burn calories while you’re going them, but they’ll build up muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn at a resting rate. It’s why when you don’t take in enough calories each day, your body starts to burn off your muscle rather than the excess fat. If you’re taking in less calories, your body tries to eliminate what it is using the most.

Written by Total Health Links

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300 – A Haunting Reality and Harbinger of Change

I have a very odd relationship with my bathroom scale. It’s like one of those on again/off again love/hate relationships you see in most bad daytime TV dramas. If the numbers on it are moving down it’s my best friend. I visit it constantly, happily stepping on it multiple times a day and jotting down the falling numbers. If the number is moving up however it’s a totally different scenario. I don’t return any of it’s calls and only step on it when I’ve had too many drinks and it’s 3 in the morning and I shouldn’t be stepping on it ether way. No matter what the number is though I can normally step off the scale, rationalize the result somehow, and continue my dysfunctional relationship. Every once in a while though, I hop on there and get a number that results in a knock-down, drag-out, change my relationship status on Facebook to single, and lock myself in a room kind of funk. I think there is a number for all of us, that number that makes us look at ourselves grimly in the mirror and utter terrible words like, “fat-ass”, “gross”, or “disgusting” in our subconscious mind. For me that magical and evil number that makes me want to scream and yell at the universe for hours on end is 300 pounds.

Written by  Kenin Bassart

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