GOQii

Blog

Search Results for: weight

By 1 Comment

One-Stop Shop Workout – Swimming

swimming
Swimming is a sport or activity of propelling oneself through water using the limbs. Swimming is an activity that burns lots of calories, is easy on the joints, supports your weight, builds muscular strength and endurance, improves cardiovascular fitness, cools you off and refreshes you in summer, and one that you can do safely into old age.

Some people who enjoy swimming want to take it to a competitive level. This can provide the health benefits of a vigorous workout as well as the fun and thrill of competition. The main strokes used in competitive swimming are breaststroke, freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. The distances swum in competition swimming can vary from 50 meters in a pool to much further distances in open water such as the sea.

Swimming can offer people of all ages a huge range of health benefits. You might just feel and look younger, have stronger muscles, and (according to a long time swimmer) better hair. Although you might not have awesome, shiny and chlorine enriched hair, you can find at least ten other reasons to swim.

Swimming gives your body the workout minus the harsh impacts. Another benefit is the living longer factor. You prolong your life and have higher brain activity with a regular swimming program. Control your weight and have a healthier heart plus lower your risk of diabetes, stop asthma symptoms and have a higher quality of life.

Swimming is a great workout because you need to move your whole body against the resistance of the water. There are plenty of reasons to swim! Swimming is a good all-round activity because it:

  • Keeps your heart rate up but takes some of the impact stress off your body
  • Builds endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness
  • Helps maintain a healthy weight, healthy heart and lungs
  • Tones muscles and builds strength
  • Provides an all-over body workout, as nearly all of your muscles are used during swimming.

Swimming has many other benefits including:

  • Being a relaxing and peaceful form of exercise
  • Alleviating stress
  • Improving coordination, balance and posture
  • Improving flexibility
  • Providing good low-impact therapy for some injuries and conditions
  • Providing a pleasant way to cool down on a hot day
  • Being available in many places – you can swim in swimming pools, beaches, lakes, dams and rivers. Make sure that the environment you choose to swim in is safe.

Before you dive in, Make sure you know how to swim, choose a safe environment, warm up and stretch your muscles and joints before entering the water and don’t overdo it if you’re just starting out.

There you have it. Swimming is an activity that builds strength, endurance, and tones muscles. It’s an activity that you can do all year long, inside or outside, it burns lots of calories, you can share it with your family, it’s low-impact (just in case your bones are creaky), and you can do it until you’re 100! It’s not too late to start if you never learned how (learning new stuff is cool even when you’re adult!). All in all, swimming is a winner, and if you have the inclination, I suggest that you go for it!

By 3 Comments

Stay Fit Stay Healthy

Stay Fit Stay Healthy
All of us are keen on being fit. Most often we keep complaining about being overweight and therefore I need to do something about it. The most common thing said is, “I am going to go for a jog every morning, so I will lose weight”.

Other common assumptions that people have is that if they walk to office or home they do not have to do any other workout, yoga is the best way of keeping fit,  I have brought dumbbells at home so I am doing workouts at home and so on…

Is this correct?  As I mentioned in my previous blog (http://goqii.com/blog/benefits-of-physical-activities-part-2/) every person must invest minimum 3 days a week in physical activities as per American College of Sports &Medicine (ACSM) guidelines.

To improve Health we must focus on basic health related components of the fitness.

Focus on basic components of Fitness

  • Cardiovascular Endurance or cardiovascular fitness

It is the major component of fitness. The word Cardio means heart. It is also known as cardio respiratory fitness and aerobic fitness. It refers to the capacity of heart, lungs and the vascular system to supply oxygenated blood to the working muscles tissue and the muscle capacity to use that oxygen which helps in producing the movements. If we involve ourselves in cardiovascular fitness regularly, the heart becomes stronger and efficient to supply oxygenated blood to the body. Cardiovascular exercise should be done for prolong period of time. These include jogging, running, cycling, swimming, skipping, aerobics and lots of exercise.

 

  • Muscular Strength

Muscular strength refers to the ability or a capacity of lifting a weight. This activity is fall under anaerobic zone because in this workout oxygen is not used .To improve muscular strength we need to do weight training.

 

  • Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance refers to the performance of the repetitive contraction for extended or prolonged period of time. The exercise may be for the single muscle or the group of muscles. Activity which is more than fifteen seconds but less than two minutes includes in the muscular endurance training. Weight training helps to improve muscular endurance.

 

 

  • Flexibility

Flexibility refers to a range of joint motions. Stretching can help improve flexibility. Dynamic stretches are done before we start our exercises. Static stretches are done after the workout during the cool down phase. During, static stretching we need to hold each stretch minimum fifteen seconds to get maximum benefits.

 

  • Body Composition

Body composition refers to the ratio between fat mass and fats free mass in the body More the muscle and less body fat is consider a great body composition. More fats and fewer muscles indicate poor body composition. Greater body composition can be achieved with following the above basic components of fitness such as muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility with the support of balance nutrition.

In as short if you are only jogging or brisk walking does not help. You have to look at the entire exercise components to achieve the necessary fitness and health goals. You can do alternates days of weight training and cardiovascular exercise. Following the above routine is one of the best examples of targeting all the components of the fitness.

By 17 Comments

BANANA-The Misunderstood Fruit

Bananas
It was a normal day for me. As usual I was sitting in my cabin wrapping up my pending work for the day, and suddenly I find a teenage youth barging into my cabin. His first question was how could his friend who was following a diet prescribed by me, lose so much of weight in spite of having banana’s daily twice a day. I looked at him and replied Why not? And to that he again replied back how you could lose weight with a fattening fruit like banana?.

Majority of my clients, keep banana at bay, in spite of loving the fruit just because they think that it is fattening.

Well! I would like to take this opportunity to inform each one of you out there that other the Avocado, none of the fruits have FATS in them. More often than not fruits are cut off from the diet list of an individual without proper reasoning given and individuals assume that fruits are fattening and therefore avoid it out of fear

Banana, also known as a prepackaged fruit, that comes in a yellow jacket, is an all seasons fruit and widely available across the world. The fruit is high on simple carbohydrates, but if taken in right quantity and at the right time, it will never make you put on fat in your body.

Oops, did I say fat …… Well the explanation for this is that any natural food which contains simple carbohydrates or is high on calories, if eaten at wrong time or in wrong quantities then your body counts that as excess and stores it. The stored form is ‘Fat’.

Bananas are super food. It can combat depression, cure hangover, relieve morning sickness, protect against kidney cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and blindness, mosquito itch, helps cure acidity, bloating, cramping…and the list can go on. I have chalked out few benefits of Banana

BENEFITS OF BANANA

  • It helps overcome depression due to high levels of tryptophan which is converted to Serotonin-the feel good factor.
  • Protect against all types of Cramping: muscle cramp, stomach cramp, night time leg cramp because of the Potassium content of Banana
  • Bananas reduce swelling, protect against type 2 diabetes, aid weight loss, strengthen the nervous system, and help with production of white blood cell, all due to high levels of Vitamin B6
  • It is high on potassium and low in salt, which helps lower blood pressure and protect against heart attack and stroke.
  • High on fiber, it helps mobilize bowel movement, thus relieving constipation.
  • Bananas are natural antacid and helps relieve acidity and heartburn.
  • Want to Quit Smoking? Have a Banana as they have high levels of B-vitamins, phosphorus & magnesium to speed recovery from effects of withdrawal.
  • Rub the inside of the banana peel to help relieve the itching of an insect bite.

One more question often asked is what is the best time to have them?

First thing in the morning before starting an activity, post an exercise, trek, dance, as a meal. Have them without fear.

By 5 Comments

Do you know your Body Type?

body-type
I have always come across people who think that any diet can be used to lose weight/maintain weight/gain weight, which is not the case. There are different body types according to which a diet is made; of course individual health history is also important. In fact even gym workouts are based on this different body types..

The Three Body Types are:

  • Ectomorph

People with this body type are very thin in structure. They have small shoulders and light build.  Their metabolism is way too high thus; they find it hard to gain weight. In fact the metabolism is so high that the body burns fat for sure but even uses muscle as a source of energy, thus making them look so thin. These are people who despite eating a lot do not gain weight. Their tendency to lose weight is more than gaining.

Triats of Ectomorph

  • Small Shoulder
  • Thin Body Frame
  • Under weight/skinny appearance
  • Long limbs
  • Fast metabolism thus very low fat
  • Hard to gain muscles.

MESOMORPH

The most athletic body is this one, where in they have large body structure. They gain muscle and lose fat very easily. This body type has positives such as low body fat like ectomorph and large frame like endomorph. This is the kind of body everyone usually dreams of. But, again if not maintained well it’s no use having such a body type

Traits of a Mesomorph

  • Shoulders are wide
  • Easily gain muscle
  • Lean body
  • Has less body fat
  • Small waist.
  • Large frame.

 ENDOMORPH

This body type is the one which has more fat. People with this body type have short limbs and gain weight very easily. Appear large in size. They find it hard to lose weight in spite of working on their diet and workout.

Traits of Endomorph

  • Broad Shoulders
  • Appear large
  • Gain fat easily
  • Metabolism is slow
  • Short limbs.

Every body type has its own advantage and disadvantages. According to an individual’s health goal, we work towards it.

It is not necessary for a person to be of any one specific body type only. There is even a combination of the above body types like Endo-Mesomorph or Ecto-Mesomorph.

With the above information, you can figure out your own body type easily. But, it is not necessary that Endomorph cannot become a Mesomorph, With dedication, efforts and hard work anything is possible.

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

As we observe World Cancer Day under the powerful theme ‘United by Unique’ (2025-2027)**, we are reminded that every individual’s journey with cancer is distinct, yet united by shared resilience, hope, and the collective fight against this disease. This theme places people at the centre of care and their stories at the heart of the […]