Attitude may play an important role in how exercise affects menopausal women, a new study published in Maturitas identifies two groups of women—those who have more hot flashes after exercise and those who have fewer.
“The most consistent factor that seemed to differentiate the two groups was perceived control over hot flashes,” says Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor of kinesiology at Penn State.
“These women have ways of dealing with (hot flashes) and they believe they can control or cope with them in an effective way on a daily basis.”
Women who experienced fewer hot flashes the day after participating in vigorous to moderate physical activity were more likely to be part of the group that felt they had control over their hot flashes.
(Source: futurity.org)
Take time to squeeze. 4 exercises to reduce dementia by strengthening your hand grip.
Towel Squeeze is an exercise improves your crushing-grip strength, similar to the type of grip you would have if you were trying to crush a soda can.
To perform this exercise, take a thick bath towel, fold it in half, soak it in water and roll it into a tube-like shape. Grab a hold of each end with your hands to twist and wring out the water.
Start with both palms facing down. While your right hand is twisting the towel toward you, your left hand is twisting it away from you. Continue to wring out the towel until no water is left. Soak the towel and repeat with your hands working in opposite directions.
Or simply keep a tennis ball hand and squeeze it when your sitting at your desk, or watching TV, or surfing the Internet.
Take a break and squeeze. Newspaper Balls! Yeap, a simple exercise that also works on your crushing grip. Take a newspaper and tear each double sheet in half. Arrange all the half sheets in a pile; plan to have enough sheets to make 20 balls with each hand.
Using only your right hand, pick up a sheet, crush and roll it into the smallest and tightest ball you can.
Repeat until you have made 20 balls and then repeat with the left hand. As your grip gets stronger, work your way up to 50 balls with each hand.
Or simply use a standard resistance Hand Grip exercise device. Specific gripping exercises, of which there are many develop the forearm musculature to a significant degree.
Exercise can cut the duration of a cold in half and reduce the intensity of the awful symptoms. Exercise causes a temporary rise in immune system cells circulating around the body and this little surge may be enough to reduce overall upper respiratory tract infection by the common cold bug and decrease the stuffy nose, sore throat and overall misery of having a cold.
Poor posture, aching feet, flabby muscles, insomnia, high blood pressure, headaches … the whole depressing cataloger of middle-age complaints can be avoided by a single prescription: exercise
It doesn’t mean just a little isometrics or a weekend round of golf. He preaches a strenuous program of daily workouts, which includes two miles of walking and running, 20-mile hikes, cold baths and towel rubs, plus an increasingly difficult calisthenics drill.
The program is spelled out in detail in his new book Physical Fitness and Dynamic Health (Dial Press; $5.95).
BRAIN FOOD: exercise
When using both sides of the body it sends 25% of the blood flow directly to the brain. During exercise total brain blood flow in humans has been shown to increase (Hedlund et al. 1962; Thomas et al. 1989).
8 basic health truths
- nutrition
- exercise
- water
- sunshine
- moderation
- air
- rest
- trust
