Exercise

14th August 2017. Getting into shape is hard. Anyone who has tried to start a diet and exercise regimen, or experienced the failure of a New Year resolution, knows that's true. One of the biggest challenges you'll face is the struggle to develop discipline. It takes a lot of willpower to work through the initial resistance to exercise and creating better life habits. While some find that they don't have such a difficult time, for others the demands of life make it almost impossible to put in the time necessary. What if there was someone out there who could help you get over the initial "hump" to building healthy fitness routines? Today, there is an option for just that which continues to grow in popularity: fitness boot camps. Inspired in part by reality weight-loss TV shows like The Biggest Loser, the idea is simple. You (and others) travel to a location run by a third party. Often, this is a short-term residency program. The leaders

10th July 2017.Taking care of yourself comes in many different forms. Going outside and heading out for a run or playing some sports will help you improve your athletic ability, it's true. Physical activities for the sake of exercising are really just one way to approach your fitness and, by extension, your general wellness. Remember that wellness embodies more than just your actual physical state of being. You can have a healthy body but poor wellness overall if you aren't also taking care of your social, emotional, and other needs as well. It's important we look at ways to care for our whole body and mind ? not just our muscles. Did you know that owning a pet can contribute a substantial amount to improving your wellness? It's true, and many studies have borne that out in comprehensive research. Empirical evidence suggests that pet ownership can have a startling number of positive effects on our lives. Whether you own a cat or a dog,

26th June 2017.When school lets out for the holidays, no one is more excited than your children. It's an opportunity to spend time away from educational responsibilities, to relax, and to have fun. Every parent wants to ensure their kids don't spend the holidays cooped up indoors the whole time, however. With the allure of video games and electronic devices stronger than ever, it's important to encourage physical activity. The summer should be a time for fun, but that doesn't have to mean sitting indoors and avoiding the hot weather. That's where you come back into the picture: your goal should be to create plenty of opportunities for active fun and exercise. The key is in the way you present the activity. Taking your kids for a run is a hard sell; organising a game with some of their friends is something to excite any child. With that in mind, what are some of the best activities you can engage in with your kids over their holiday? There's

5th June 2017.Do you spend every day of the work week in a rush, waiting for the chance to relax in the evenings? That is the reality for a growing number of people around the world today. Unfortunately, this lifestyle is not very conducive to exercising every day. It's often a matter of cutting an important item out of your schedule or compressing the whole day into an even bigger rush. As a result, a trend has emerged where individuals look to cram in all their weekly exercise on the weekends. Known as "weekend warriors," there's no shortage of them in gyms, on bikes, and in the pools every weekend. Is this a good lifestyle to lead, though? In other words, can you spend five days of the week being relatively inactive and still see benefits or better health from exercising on the weekend? The answer is more complicated than you might think. In this article, we'll take a general look at being a "weekend warrior" and discuss the evidence

18th May 2017.When Nintendo released its revolutionary motion-controlled video gaming console, the Wii, it bundled the device with a game called Wii Sports. Intended to introduce individuals to the way the motion controls work, it also opened the door to something new altogether: video games as a way to exercise. Several years later, following the success of Wii Sports and the prevalence of discussions about physical activity, Nintendo released a dedicated fitness game for the platform. Called Wii Fit, it took the world by storm. However, it's worth asking: are Wii Fit and other, similar exercise "games" actually helpful for improving your fitness? A major advertised benefit of these games, especially Wii Fit, is their ability to track your progress and present you with goals. You work towards these goals by regularly playing the games (or using an app on your smartphone), which involve many kinds of exercises. This tracking feature is

13th April 2017.When going to the gym to work out, have you ever experienced a struggle surrounding the motivation to even show up in the first place? When you arrive, do you feel you don't understand what you should do to improve your fitness? These are things everyone experiences, but it could potentially drive you to fall out of a fitness routine altogether. That's not good ? so it's understandable if you're considering hiring a personal trainer at your local gym. They may advertise quite heavily, making claims about how improving your focus and just how much a trainer can help you hone your body. If you took the adverts at their word, it would be just like working with an expensive, experienced independent personal trainer. Is that really true? If you intend to pay for someone's services, you should know whether it will help. While it might seem like a good idea on the surface, it might not be ? but it could also be just what you need.

23rd March 2017. Have you ever seen someone running at full speed towards a wall, only to climb straight up and over to continue as though it wasn't an obstacle at all? Even if you've never seen such a feat in person, you've probably seen parkour, also known as free running, in media. It?s a popular modern method of crafting a compelling chase scene, as seen in the opening sequence of the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. For a free runner, it seems, there are no obstacles, only tools to use in moving forward, upward, or side to side even faster than before. Could you pick up this sport? As a matter of fact, yes ? that's entirely possible. There are plenty of amateur free runners practising in cities and towns all over the world. Should you, though? What kind of an impact would it have on your physical fitness? Today we'll delve into the answers to these questions and more. With its highly athletic requirements, it's clear on