Health Tips


Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy

The benefits of exercising during pregnancy are numerous. These include: reduced weight gain; reduced chances of becoming hypertensive; less likely to develop gestational diabetes; improved mood with less depression; better sleep patterns; reduced labor time; may reduce chance of surgery; more rapid weight loss after pregnancy. Work with your doctor to develop the best plan for you.

Weight Training Twenty Minutes a Day

Take your time when toning your body. You can maximize the benefit of a biceps strength training exercise, a back strength training exercise, a chest strength training exercise, and so on, by doing them in small blocks of time every day. Although the USDA recommends at least thirty to sixty minutes each day, you don't have to spend all of it weight training—you probably do physical activity that counts as exercise every day (such as walking up stairs).

In your weight training routine, you don't have to work all your target areas at once. Instead, work one area a day for about 20 minutes. For example, your program might look like this:

Choose a set of exercises for each day and follow your weight training program. You can vary it, especially as you add more reps to your arm curls, incline chest presses, shoulder presses, and kickbacks. Remember, you don't have to devote countless hours to working out to look and feel good.

Drinking Sodas

Coke or Pepsi? When you're training, neither. Go easy on the soft drinks in your sports nutrition diet.

There has been some indication that drinking a lot of carbonated sodas, especially cola, can have an adverse effect on bone strength in teenage girls. (This would probably also be true of diet sodas.)

This is very controversial and far from proven, but there is no doubt that it alters your body’s pH levels. But the possibility plus the proven fact that many people, especially teenagers, consume a large percentage of their calories as soft drinks, which have no nutritional value and displace a proper sports nutrition diet, should make you think twice about drinking a lot of soda. Like a sports nutrition supplement, you don’t have to give up soda; just don’t make it a major part of your sports nutrition diet.

Sleep Benefits

Sleep duration and patterns can affect sports training and performance. Most people need 7 or 8 hours of sleep, and your body functions at its best when you have regular sleep patterns, generally sleeping at about the same time every night. So if your workouts, practices, or competitions are not going well, consider whether you are getting enough sleep.

Importance of Cooling Down

After vigorous aerobic exercise it is important to take 10 minutes or so to cool down gradually. Do not stop abruptly. For example, after a long run or jog, walk around and keep moving, rather than just stopping.

Cooling down properly (moving around) redistributes the blood that may have pooled in the extremities when you end your workout, and it prevents muscle stiffness because it allows the metabolic wastes to be worked out of your muscles.

Elliptical Trainers

Elliptical machines are here to stay. People with bad knees love them, as they allow a good aerobic workout without any pounding on the knees. The technique seems awkward at first, but can be learned fairly easily. Beginners can take it easy, and advanced aerobic exercisers can use a combination of incline and resistance to work as hard as they want. If you buy an elliptical for home use, be careful to find one that is well made, since the cheaper models may not hold up.