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February 16, 2016 By Parwage Alam 4 Comments

16 major exercises to shed your excess weight -Part 2

In the first part of my blog, I mentioned 5 basic exercises that one can do to get fit and shed those extra kilos. In the second of part of the blog, I shall take you through with some major and slightly tough exercises, which will help corpulent people to get fitter. Start with some lighter exercise.

Warm Up Exercise:

Wrist rotation

Shoulder rotation

Shoulder adductions

Waist rotation

Ankle rotation

After your warm up, you can do the following exercise:

Wall Push-Ups: Stand at a distance of 4 feet from the wall. Face the wall and keep your hand outstretched and lean your body towards the wall with your palms well placed on the wall. Now start pushing your body forward and back until you are once again in a standing position.

Standing Cross Leg Stretch: Stand straight with legs crossed and outsides of feet together and bend to stretch.

Lying down one side’s upper and inner leg raises: Lie on one side with your head resting in a resting position on your hand just above your elbow. Keep your other arm in front of your central abdominal part with your palm facing down. Start lifting your top leg as high as it will go slowly. You can keep your free hand either on your hip or on the floor in front of you for some additional support. Keep looking straight in front of you instead of looking up at the leg. Gently lower your leg until it meets the other leg. Try to keep your spine straight and to avoid caving forward as you lift your leg.

Cat and Camel pose: Keep your hands and knees on your mat/floor. Your hands should be beneath your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Relax your head, and allow it to droop. Take a deep breath to start and while exhaling – gently pull your abdominal muscles backwards and towards your spine. Tuck your tailbone down and under. Gently contract your glutes, now your spine should look rounded upwards similar to a camel. After that gently inhale your breath and lower down your spine like a cat.

Child Pose: Kneel on your mat with your legs together and sit back on your heels and keep your palm on your thighs. Exhale and slowly rest your torso over your thighs so that your forehead touches the mat.

Yoga Pose -Bhujangasan: If you have carpal tunnel syndrome or other wrist injuries, or if you have recently had a surgery, or if you have back problems that are irritated while bending. Lie down on your mat facing towards the floor. Place your palms flat on your mat directly beneath your shoulders with your fingers facing forward. The tops of your feet should be flat on the floor.

Spread your fingers and press your palms against the floor. Rotate your shoulders back and down, away from your ears, keep your elbows close to your body and pointing behind you instead of out to the sides.

Lift into a low cobra pose. Keeping your hands, your hips, and the tops of your feet firmly planted on the floor, begin to lift your upper torso off the floor. Try to use mostly the muscles in your back to lift you. Tilt your chin upward and lift your chest toward the ceiling)

Pelvic Raises: Lie on the floor on your back with your arms behind your head. Bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the floor about hip-width apart. Contract your abdominals as you press your back down. Hold your back on the floor as you tilt your hips to raise your butt about an inch off the floor — 2 inches maximum. Stay in this position for a moment. Slowly bring your butt back to start. You may want to lift the lower back up. For the Pelvic Tilt to be effective, keep the lower back in neutral alignment for the duration of the exercise. Do not raise your head, neck, or shoulders. Remember not to arch your back.

Superman Raises: To begin, lie straight and face down on the floor or exercise mat. Your arms should be fully extended in front of you. This is the starting position. Simultaneously raise your arms, legs, and chest off of the floor and hold this contraction for 2 seconds. Tip: Squeeze your lower back to get the best results from this exercise. Remember to exhale during this movement. Note: When holding the contracted position, you should look like superman when he is flying. Slowly begin to lower your arms, legs and chest back down to the starting position while inhaling.

Crunches Half: Sitting upright on your butt on the floor, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Sit up and hold your arms out in front of you while leaning back halfway (between sitting upright and lying on the floor) and then sit up completely, trying to touch your chest to your knees. Go down half way and then up again. This will work your lower back and upper abdominals.

Spot Marching: Walk in the same place at an easy pace, swinging your arms naturally.

Half Squats: Stand straight with feet hip-width apart. Keep your shoulder blades down & back. Brace the abdomen & squeeze the glutes. Squat by pushing the hips back and out before bending the knees. Stop when the thighs are halfway from being parallel to the floor. Return to starting position.

Wide Squats: Same process of Half Squats but with the wider leg position

One Floor Stairs: You just need to climb stairs one floor three times in a day.

Hamstring Curls: You need to stand straight, if you are not able to stand properly in the same place, you can use chair or anything to support. Bend your knee by folding your leg and try to touch your butt with your ankle. Try to raise as much as you can. Try to do the same posture with both legs alternatively.

Standing Alternate Side Leg Raises: Stand next to a chair, which you may hold onto as a support. Stand on one leg. This will be your starting position. Keeping your leg straight, raise it as far out to the side as possible, and swing it back down, allowing it to cross the opposite leg.

Back Leg Raises: Stand up tall holding onto the back of a sturdy object like a chair or resting your hands on a wall. Raise one leg, pressing it straight back behind you, and squeeze your glutes at the top of the motion. Pause and then return to the starting position.

Now you have all the information with the right instruction, so what are you waiting for? Let’s pledge for the healthy lifestyle and move one step ahead into your fitness.

January 11, 2016 By Hetal Chheda Leave a Comment

Mother Earth’s miraculous produce-Wood Apple

Bael fruit also known as wood apple, elephant fruit, Monkey fruit, curd fruit or limonia acidissima is yet another miraculous produce by our mother earth.

This fruit is native to India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Pakistan, Java and South East Asia. It is called as Elephant fruit because it is elephant’s favourite fruit. It tastes sour, sweet and bitter. The fruits grow between the months of October and March.

The reason I call it miraculous fruit is because it is the most sacred fruit. Ayurveda refers to the fruit of the bael as the fruit of nectar (amrutphal). It is believed that all the diseases can be cured using bael. It has its significance in spiritual (leaves offered to Lord Shiva) and Ritual purposes too.

Almost all the parts of the tree like roots, leaves, seeds, the branches are utilized for medicinal purposes. I have some memories of this fruits as a child,’ Every time I saw this fruit I would ask my mom to buy it for me, because it tastes very sbenefits our at times she would deny.’ Little did we both know about the benefits this fruit has in curing day to day ailments and it is the best home remedy for almost all ailments? It is meant for all can cure all age groups ranging from children to geriatrics.

What are the benefits of eating this fruit (Roots, leaves, stem)

Diabetes

Juice from the leaves of this tree helps in managing the blood sugar level as well as urination among diabetic person.

Hypertension

Bael leaf juice (boil dried bael leaves in water) helps in managing the hypertension.

Appetite enhancer

It enhances the appetite if bael leaves powder is taken continuous for some days.

Indigestion and Constipation

Wood apple cures the problem of indigestion and constipation if it is consumed daily (not more than a cup) with jaggery for 2-3 months.

Removes toxins

Bael when consumed with black pepper and salt regularly will help in removing toxins from the body. This cleanses the colon.

Prevents breast cancer in women

Bael is anti-proliferative and inhibits the growth of cancer cells.

Regularizes Progesterone hormone

Eating Bael fruit helps the secretion of progesterone hormone.

Increases breast milk production

It is very beneficial for lactating mother as this helps increase the milk production when combined with dry Giner and Jaggery.

Apart from these many other benefits have been noted. It helps in keeping the skin and hair healthy. It is anti-inflammatory, cures acidity and respiratory disease. The benefits are endless.

What are you waiting for, just grab this green coloured magic and see it work on you.

November 19, 2015 By Vrushali Athavle 1 Comment

Do you know about NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)?

Are you one of those who know the importance of exercising but still give excuses for not working out regularly? Several research reports have indicated that like “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health”, there is a new saying in the health industry “Sitting is injurious to health” Sitting in one place for a long time can cause serious health issues.

Here is a quick fix for all the people who have sedentary lifestyle and job and do not get time to work out.
NEAT – also known as ‘Non-exercise activity thermogenesis’ include those activities which require to move the smallest muscle of the body due to which some energy expenditure occur. These exercises will not include very minimal movements like those while sleeping or eating and also will not include activities like sports where there is lot of calorie burning. Basically, it includes activities like walking to office, gardening, standing rather than sitting, gardening, doing household chores, carrying grocery bags in hand instead of using a trolley etc.
For more clarity on NEAT let’s take a peek into the various daily examples:

Brush to burn calories:

Instead of lazing around with a brush in your mouth stand near the wash basin with one leg lifted. This will help you strengthen your core and at the same time improve your concentration and balance.

Serve yourself:

Next thing which we usually do is to call out loud for tea/coffee or breakfast from the living room to the person in the kitchen. Instead, go ahead and serve yourself. This will ensure your sluggish metabolism is waking up slowing to burn more calories.

Catch up with some exercise on the way to office:

** Take the stair wherever possible and skip the elevators. This could be your building stairs or railway station stairs if you travel by train or walk up to the office in your building which is on the 7th or 8th floor. If climbing 7 floors seems tiring, climb 2 to 3 floors and take a lift for remaining. Climbing stairs is a great way to burn calories and strengthen your legs.”

** Sitting at the desk for long hours is the most dangerous thing as we just discussed in the beginning of this blog. Here is the solution- get up from your chair every 1 hour, do certain stretches, instead of asking the office boy to fill up your water bottle take a stroll and refill it yourself, talk to your friends and come back to your seat and continue with your work.

Stand up and stretch every time you hit ‘send’ on an e-mail.”

Use “Walk n talk method” i.e start walking while you are on long conversations on call.
(i) While sitting on a chair, raise one heel or both the heels then one leg and then both the legs while seated. This turn outs to be the best exercise for lower body, Similarly stretch out arms and do some free hand arm exercises or pick up water bottles and do some bicep curls which can be some good upper body workouts.
(ii) To strengthen the core, sit on a ball which forces you to balance yourself keeping your core engaged full time. If this is not possible in office, try out this ball method at home while watching television or eating dinner, playing video/mobile games or reading.

4) Get a Pedometer

Pedometer like GOQii band can be best used to motivate you by tracking the steps and kms everyday. To make this more interesting decide on certain weekly targets to completing steps target.
In a nutshell the above proves that there is no way you can say ‘I have a sedentary job’. NEAT exercises help you to shift your sedentary job to a bit active one with very simple efforts. Once you incorporate these activities, lot more will come to your mind.

Let me know “How do you squeeze extra activity into your day?”

October 19, 2015 By Ami Shah 80 Comments

Moringa: Its benefits and side effects

If I have to ask how many of you all know what moringa is? I am sure few hands would go up. However, if I ask you what drumstick is? Majority of the hands would rise. However, majority of them who I know doesn’t like drumstick much! To your surprise, Moringa is also called as drumstick leaves. Moringa is a plant that is native to the sub-Himalayan areas of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Traditionally, it has been used in Ayurveda for medicinal purpose.

While Moringa can be cooked and eaten as a tasty and juicy vegetable, it is also available in various forms like moringa leaves/ moringa powder and capsules. Moringa has lots of benefits that one should take note of.

The benefits of Moringa are:

It helps in stabilizing sugar.
Helps in regularizing cholesterol level.
It is a powerful antioxidant as it is packed with vitamin A and C
It controls blood pressure
Helps in detoxification
Boosts immunity
Acts as an anti-ageing factor
Improves digestive system

Moringa is a power house of minerals such as Iron, Calcium and Zinc. Let us look at each of these minerals and what they do

Iron alleviates anaemia.
Calcium is required for bone mineralisation.
Zinc: It plays a vital role in hair-growth, spermatogenesis, and skin health.

Dosage:It is important to know the dosage of Moringa. It is ideal to have 5-6 gms (1 tsp) daily up to three weeks. It can be taken along with water/juices or in salads too.

Side effects:

The taste is not too pleasant and tends to produce a gag reflex on many first time users.Moringa thickens the blood. This is of note to those on blood-thinning medication.The consumption of Moringaincludes nausea, diarrhoea and heartburn. Reduce the dose in this case

Moringa is not recommended for pregnant and lactating mothers. The chemicals found in the roots, flowers and the bark could cause a contraction to occur on the uterus.

To conclude, by now I am sure you must have got an idea about how strong and beneficial moringa is! Next time, don’t say ‘NO’ to drumstick veggies and make it a part of your daily routine.

16 major exercises to shed your excess weight -Part 2

Mother Earth’s miraculous produce-Wood Apple

Do you know about NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)?

Moringa: Its benefits and side effects

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