Wouldn’t your day seem so much easier if you didn’t have to deal with fatigue?! Here are some tips from Mens Health to energy that will last all day long!
7 a.m.: The Morning Fog
Fill it up. Make your morning meal a bowl of instant oatmeal prepared with skim milk. Tufts University researchers recently found that people who ate one packet of instant oatmeal spiked with 1/2 cup of skim milk received a steady glucose infusion, which increased their alertness all morning and improved their ability to process information. And if you aren’t already jolting yourself with java, start; a University of Pennsylvania study shows that a dose of caffeine can combat sleep inertia.
1 p.m.: The Lunchtime Letdown
Order a combo meal. If you can’t (or won’t) limit your lunchtime carbohydrate consumption, work in extra fiber to slow your digestion and the release of insulin, says Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., owner of the consulting firm High Performance Nutrition. For example, if your noon nosh includes a baked potato, make sure you eat the skin, which is dense with a type of fiber called pectin. “Pectin slows everything down in the gastrointestinal tract,” says Kleiner.
3 p.m.: The Afternoon Slump
Expose yourself. As in, give yourself a shot of sunlight. The sun’s rays will provide a boost to your circadian clock that should solve your afternoon slump—if you time things right. “The key is adequate exposure to sunlight very quickly after you wake up in the morning,” says Michael Terman, Ph.D., a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University medical center. “As you move into the middle of the day, the same amount of light exposure doesn’t affect the circadian clock at all.”
6 p.m.: The Preworkout Conk-Out
Snack before you sweat. Schedule a small snack roughly an hour and a half before your postwork workout. The ideal mini meal totals 250 calories and consists of 25 to 35 grams (g) carbohydrates, 10 to 15 g protein, and up to 5 g fat, says Kleiner. Two handfuls of pretzels and two slices of cheese fits the nutritional bill, as does a Myoplex Lite bar.
8 p.m.: The Prime-Time Torpor
Rock yourself awake. First, do not stretch out on the couch or recline in your easy chair. “Underlying sleepiness becomes more apparent when we put ourselves in sleep-conducive positions, such as lying down,” says Wright. And instead of turning on the TV, power up your iPod. “To increase the perception of energy, listen to a piece of music that is upbeat and familiar, and use that song to get you going,” says Andrea Scheve, director of the University of Pittsburgh medical center music-therapy program.
Shut It Off
It would be funny if it weren’t so frustrating: You spend the entire day fighting fatigue, only to slip into bed, shut your eyes, and suddenly realize that you now have too much energy. This is due to doing too many other activities, other than sleeping, in your bed. Which means the fix is what sleep researchers have recommended all along: no books, no Leno, and definitely no laptop when you’re under the covers. Sex is fine—it is, after all, nature’s perfect sleep aid.
According to Mens Health
Do you treat your cool down in the same way that you treat your post-workout stretching? You know you’re suppose to, but you usually skip it.
Women’s Health Magazine decided to ask their experts if this golden rule was an established fact from science or just the automatic set-up of the treadmill. Here’s what they discovered:
“Cooling down is not a joke according to Adam Friedman, Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute expert.
Though not mandatory, it is helpful to cool down when you’re working at a high intensity—which is at or above 85 percent of your maximum heart rate*.
When you’re pushing hard, your blood is moving quickly around your body to provide nutrients and oxygen to the muscles. When you stop immediately, the blood can sometimes draw back into the stomach area, occasionally leaving you feeling dizzy or nauseous.
But even if you feel a bit woozy, it’s not necessarily dangerous or harmful to your body—just a little uncomfortable.
What about the idea it can relieve muscle soreness?
It might relieve cramping, says Jordan D. Metzl, M.D., sports medicine physician, Hospital for Special Surgery, but it’s a myth that cooling-down can ease muscle soreness.
“When you’re sore, it’s really because you’ve made tiny tears in your muscles,” says Metzl. “Cooling-down won’t help that, and it won’t really help from an injury perspective.”
To sum it up: The next time you hit the treadmill, don’t worry about completing the 5-minute cool-down unless you’ve really been pushing yourself and need that time to catch your breath and stretch out your rubber legs. “
Getting your sun tan on is no longer seen as the main culprit behind skin cancer. According to the latest studies, the number of moles that you have could be a better indication of your risk factor.
According to Times:
“The authors of the research paper maintain sunshine causes only a small proportion of melanoma cases. They believe health warnings would be more useful if they focused on people who have more than 100 moles, and taught them to check regularly the moles for changes in shape, size or colour.”
Sore after your workout? Maybe you should have downed a cup of joe to avoid that feeling. A small study suggests that caffeine may be used as a natural way to preemptively avoid muscle soreness. Read more…
New research suggest that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, prompts the death of brain cancer cells. The study is out of Spain, where researchers were working with patients suffering from an aggressive form of brain cancer. Read more…
The best way to get fit and toned is by swapping these overrated fitness strategies for smarter alternatives. Workout strategies are constantly evolving as fitness researchers find ways to get the most out of a workout.
Here are the most recent updates that will land you a body of envy in no time.
There is no longer any need to:
-Position your hands shoulder-width apart
Instead try spreading your hands a few inches farther out stresses more of the inner portion of your biceps; bringing your hands in a few inches builds more of the outer part
-Crunches for a flat belly
Turns out Pilates abdominal moves are superior to crunches for sculpting your midsection and uncovering those abs
-Squats = a perfect bum
Try doing hip extensions instead of squats
-Eat lots of extra protein for less jiggle and more tone
While it’s true that protein is a vital muscle food, your body can use only so much of it. “Any extra protein calories you take in will be stored as fat
-Up-down-up-down. Repeat.
Instead of one motion, pause for a second about halfway up, continue the movement, then pause again about halfway down.
-Burn the most calories with cardio
For optimal results, do a total-body weight-training workout three days a week, resting at least a day between sessions, and do intervals on at least two of the off days.
-Rest between sets
Less rest increases your calorie burn and adds a cardio component to strength training
-Weigh yourself daily for motivation
The scale measures water and muscle, too. It’s not a great indicator of fat loss. For a better — and more, um, hands-on — progress report, place your fingers on your belly and inhale deeply so that it expands.
Everyone blames stress as the cause for their grey hairs, but research may have proven that it’s linked more to your age than your high pressure job.
“Given that graying hair results from an absence of pigment, it occurred to the scientists that hydrogen peroxide and catalase might play a critical role in the process. Every hair cell makes a little hydrogen peroxide, but over time the amount builds up. The European team discovered that this buildup ended up blocking the normal synthesis of melanin, the natural pigment in hair.
Our hair, it turns out, bleaches itself from the inside out. And by identifying the chemicals involved, researchers may be closer to understanding if the graying is influenced by stress.”
A new study shows that relaxing may be the key to slimming down!
Apparently, participants who took part in activities designed to help them unwind, including meditation and yoga, could lose weight without going on a diet. Scientists believe that feelings of stress and anxiety can help to increase the desire for surgery and fatty foods, which can lead to a high calorie intake.
New research has provided evidence that a healthy diet helps women with breast cancer live longer.
The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and are based on 1,901 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Between 2000 and 2002, the women completed detailed questionnaires on their diet, exercise habits, weight and other health factors.
The holidays are coming and that means friends, family and lots of drinking!
This year you may want to beware because “many studies suggest that an irregular pattern of heavy drinking brings about a two-fold increase in risk for a fatal heart attack, even as moderate drinking has been shown to reduce risk (the red wine effect).”
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