I am sure that most people realise that there are many benefits of exercising on a regular basis, most of these people however still choose not do so. This article gives information on how our health can benefit from this exercise which hopefully will encourage more people to start.

I am one of the many people who basically finds it hard to gain any inspiration to exercise. I have over the past couple of years started a fitness routine and have not only enjoyed itto my surprise but have never felt so healthy.

It is a strange situation, the thought of starting the exercise is like a choir, but afterwards I feel brilliant. Despite this, I then find it hard to begin to exercise again on the next day. It is weird!

The benefits of exercise

Helps to lower levels of stress

Helps to improve posture

Helps people to sleep

Helps you to gain stronger muscles

Increases heart and lung efficiency

Lowers the risk of heart disease and lung disease

Helps overall circulation

Helps to reduce blood pressure

Helps people to lose weight

Helps to reduce depression

Helps to reduce cholesterol levels

Helps to reduce symptoms of arthritis

As you can see in the above the list, there are many reasons as to why people should start to exercise. These are only a few out of many health benefits I could mention.

On a personal front, I have found that by exercising on most days, helps me to manage my stress levels. I am by nature a person who is quite anxious and even paranoid, exercising helps me to manage this negative part of my brain and helps me to see things in a much clearer way.

I am also somebody who basically loves food. This exercise is a great way of keeping my weight down, a form of diet which lets me eat exactly what I want.

Depression has been a regular feature of my life, however since starting my fitness regime, I do not think I have been depressed once.

Even though the thought of this exercise does not exactly fill me with joy, I will continue to force myself to do it as the benefits are huge.

I would strongly advise other people to also start exercising. I hope that they find it as rewarding and beneficial as I have.

Summer is here! Are you prepared to be a sun-loving beauty? This checklist for Summer Preparation will give you a good start for swimsuit season.

Exercise Ladies, theres nowhere to hide it anymore. The big, bad cellulite fairy visited during the winter again. Or does cellulite reproduce when its cold? Either way, get out your walking shoes and hit the streets. Or grab an exercise video and shake it until it melts off.

Pluck or wax those eyebrows. The bright sunlight will show every little straggler. Theres nothing worse than looking like Bert in a bikini!

Swimsuit Shopping Although most women would rather have a root canal than to go swimsuit shopping, it is a necessary evil. If your options are to go swimsuit shopping or to run around the pool in a worn, baggy, see-through swimsuit please drag yourself to the store! Ill be the one hiding in the stall next to you, laughing as I try on yet another swimsuit over my undergarments and try to figure out exactly what Im looking at.

Body Hair Lets face it. Winter is not the time we are most diligent about keeping up with shaving. If youre dreading another year of shaving, there are many more options these days to choose from — from home waxing kits to laser hair removal.

Feet Eew! Those scratchy, rough, lizardy-feet need to go away now. Buff them or grab a power sander, but get them looking like skin again before sandal season. Once youve got people-feet instead of hobbit-feet, then dust off a bottle of toenail polish, grab a toe-ring, and make them pretty.

Now youre ready for swimsuit season. Grab a little drink umbrella, drop it into your diet Coke and enjoy your summer, as the sun goddess that you are!

Common Knowledge Trust approached Jeanne Ohm, Executive Coordinator of ICPA to write some articles about The Pink Kit Method for birthing better for ICPA. When asked what aspects of childbirth, ICPA has concerns about, Jeanne wrote back We are concerned about all aspects of birth1 a woman’s right to choose 2 the importance of her being aware of her options 3 the physiological relationship of pelvis and birth.

For Common Knowledge Trust the goals are slightly different, yet heading toward the same alignment more positive births and a decrease in birth trauma for us, the mother and our children. CKTs goals would sound like this 1 Absolutely all of us, as expectant parents, must have both labour management and coaching skills 2 These skills must work for us in absolutely all birth situations. 3 We all share the same human body which we can prepare and develop skills for this unique exercise childbirth with The Pink Kit Method for birthing better.

CKT is the collective voice of thousands upon thousands of us women and men. This does not mean that thousands of us gathered at a conference to nut out how to prepare for childbirth or what skills we could use that suited all births. CKT reflects the stories, the questions, solutions, ideas and musings that we tell each other about our own experiences of childbirth. We remember giving birth and anyone who is with us remembers the experience as well. Childbirth is BIG and remembered.

At the same time, childbirth has been removed from us in several ways over several generations.

Modern families have left behind their diverse cultural knowledge, know-how, and family support during pregnancy, childbirth and after birth. Although statistics clearly show that we are more likely to die or be injured at any other time in our lives, pregnancy and birth has been embraced by a modern health system including midwives and doctors for several generations. Modern childbirth preparation is entirely different from childbirth preparation in our diverse cultural backgrounds. Labour and coaching skills have not been highly developed in modern societies.

Childbirth in traditional communities varies significantly as to where or with whom a woman gives birth, just as in modern communities. For example, there are cultures where women go alone to birth or are excluded away from their village for months. Cultures vary as to who is present. In some cultures birth is exclusively womens business while in others the whole family is involved and fathers take an active part. Although many cultures have individual people who attend births, this is not a profession. The number of children born into most communities is relatively small, so attending births occurred periodically.

In most cultures, women birthed with relatives rather than a specific birth attendant. If a problem occurred a healer or spiritual guide would come. Some cultures had no concept of birth attendant, whoever was there at the time helped. In some cultures, the birth specialist were men, while in other they were women. Although special birth attendants were highly regarded, in some communities they were the unclean because they could touch human waste. Because of all this diversity, no wonder modern birth is confusing about where, with whom and how women should birth.

Layered over all of our histories is the development of modern maternity care and its use for the past 3-4 generations. Complete the complexity around childbirth by adding choice, informed consent, defining what are medical childbirth interventions and natural childbirth, whether an obstetrician, midwife CNM or direct entry is the best care provider or whether home, hospital or birth centre is the best place to birth. So many issues, yet as you read this millions of women are giving birth around the world one contraction at a time.

Common Knowledge Trust grew by shear accident. A woman who had broken her tail bone at the birth of her child 10 years earlier compared her tail bone to the founder of Common Knowledge Trust. One had a long tail bone, the other didnt. Several insights occurred from this simple exchange of body knowledge.

Some women had long tails and others didnt.
The woman with the long tail bone had hers damaged in childbirth whereas the other woman hadnt.
Two women from very, very different backgrounds had something in common tail bones and their birthing body.

Bingo! We could develop body knowledge that any woman could benefit from by knowing about her own birthing body. That one insight led to ways to get the tail bone out of the way in childbirth. Other childbirth stories and physical complaints among pregnant women led to more discoveries about our amazing birthing body. The Pink Kit Method for birthing better started to evolve. This occurred in the early 1970s. In 2005, The Pink Kit Method resources are now available to you.

The insights along the way have been many, yet occurred over time.

Telling our birth stories were the source of knowledge and important. They were told on several levels.
We spoke about what time we went into labour, when our waters broke, when we got fully dilated and what time we delivered.
We spoke about what they did to us both what we liked and mostly what we didnt like.
Our own perception of the experience. My back hurt all the time. It didnt hurt as much as I imagined, It was worse than I could have imagined. etc
Men had the same body, so they could feel the same things in their body which helped them coach us better.
All women had the same body with minor differences. Those differences were very important and helped us focus our own preparation and labour management.
All women laboured the same way one contraction after another until our baby came out of the same hole.
We exhibited behaviours in labour that indicated whether we were coping or not.
All birth professionals admired women who managed their labours well and loved to see couples work together.
When women, birthing in hospitals, birth centres and at home, managed labour well, the birth professionals were more relaxed.
Women with health issues still wanted to manage their labours and have positive birth experiences, as did women who chose hospital and doctor care.
Women planning or requiring a non-labouring delivery still wanted to feel part of the process.

If we stuck to the body, passed on practical, real, effective and easy to use labour management and coaching skills, people were willing to learn them regardless of the diversity in ethnic background, religion, beliefs, health issues, choices, education or other. The skills worked in absolutely all birth situations.

The evolution of The Pink Kit grew from the stories that we told about our physical experience of birth the other issues such as what they did or didnt do are not the scope of CKT and what each of us could do to

Manage our labours better.
Have our partner, husband, friend or relative be a very good labour coach.
Resolve the too intense sensations of labour.
Know what we were doing rather than being carried by the experience.
Prevent or lessen physical and emotional birth trauma.
Increase a positive birth experience in and around all the medical assessments, monitoring and procedures.

There were many other people and organisations working on broader issues that have changed maternity care womens options, birth plans and choices. There were many people working on the changes that focused on diversifying birth professionals, while others focused on creating birth place options.

From the Stories, The Pink Kit Method for birthing better evolved. Common Knowledge Trust became the charitable organisation under which The Pink Kit Method developed the resources now available. We remained focused entirely on preparing our own birthing body, the birthing skills that reflect a womans positive childbirth management and coaching skills for our partnershusbands so that they can help us when we are finding the sensations of childbirth challenging.

The benefits of lifting weights also called weight training, strength training or resistance training include stronger muscles, a stronger heart, a much leaner physique, a longer life, and a body better able to support your everyday needs and activities. Women, however, still tend to shy away from this beneficial form of exercise.

Ladies, does the mere idea of weightlifting scare you?

I dont want to lift weights because theyll make me too big and bulky. For how many of you is this the reason youve never attempted weight training?

It seems to be many a mans dream to have big, bulky muscles. Why is it then, that men, whose bodies naturally contain much greater amounts of testosterone and growth hormone, lift weights yet DON’T get big and bulky?

Its true! Unless they are supplementing with dangerous and unhealthful steroids or similar substances, most men do not naturally bulk up hugely by lifting weights regularly. And neither will most women.

The idea that women get big, ugly muscles from weight training is a complete misconception.

The fact of the matter is that women must lift weights in order to achieve the lean, sculpted bodies they dream of having. If a woman does happen to have the genetic disposition to bulk up quickly, there are easy ways to alter a workout to prevent this extra muscle size, while still increasing strength and rapidly burning fat.

The idea that weightlifting causes insanely huge muscle buildup is largely a creation of the media. Its true that some women weightlifters takes steroids, and these hormones do make them look very masculine. The average woman who weight trains, however, will simply achieve a slim, healthy body without adding unwanted muscle mass.

Lets start by discussing the basics of weight training…

Weight training involves controlled lifting and working out with weights. Two basic terms related to weightlifting are rep and set. A rep describes the complete act of raising and lowering a weight during a single act of exercise. A set describes the number of times a particular rep is performed.

For example, when a person does five reps of a squat, they squat down and stand up five times, continuously, before stopping and either moving on to another exercise or finishing their workout. Those five squats would equal one set. A balanced weight-training session will include several sets of different exercises.

Your goal as either a beginner, intermediate, or advanced weight lifter should be to exhaust your muscles in the shortest time frame – that simply means that when you lift a weight, you should lift a heavy enough weight to exhaust your muscles doing only 10 – 15 reps.

And you should do this exercising pattern about 3 days each week – with at least 24 hour of rest after each workout.

Now I’m going to share a principle exercise with you that many commercial fitness “buff’s” will hate me telling you because this single exercise will do more for your body than almost any other exercise around – making it completely unnecessary for you to ever buy another exercise gadget from late night television ever again.

Before I share it with you I’ve got to give you a quick disclaimer…this exercise should be done at least initially under the supervision of a qualified personal trainer, so that you learn the proper form to use during the movement.

This exercise will work EVERY muscle in your body, and you can do it in the privacy of your own home, without any fancy machines or expensive video’s.

In fact, this exercise a foundational core exercise and it’ll set your internal furnace up to burn more calories throughout the rest of the day than any other exercise we’ve tested when done properly.

It’s called the dead-lift and here’s how it’s done for maximum fat loss and body shaping…

STARTING POSITION

Stand with feet flat and placed slightly farther apart than shoulder width with toes pointed slightly outward.

Squat down with hips lower than shoulders and grasp the weight lifting bar or any small object…in the beginning I highly suggest that you use very little added weight, so when you bend to grasp something, use a book or something else that’s small and light weight – just to help you balance.

Place hands on bar or whatever you choose to lift slightly less than shoulder width apart, inside the knees and with elbows fully extended. Place bar roughly 1 inch in front of shins and over balls of feet.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Lift bar off floor by extending hips and knees.
Maintain an erect and flat back at all times.
Keep elbows fully extended.
Keep bar as close to shins as possible without hitting or scraping.
When bar passes knees move the hips forward.
Keep body erect at point of full knee and hip extension.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Allow the hips and knees to flex to slowly lower the bar to the floor.
Repeat movement until finished with set.

Now this might sound a bit confusing the first several times you read it – however, once you practice it for a day or 2, the movement will become second nature to you and you’ll begin feeling and seeing the results quickly.

Remember that with any new exercise comes a bit of soreness, so start very slowly, and gradually increase your intensity.

Ladies, I encourage you Let go of your preconceived ideas about weight training. Do not fear it. Embrace your weightlifting potential! You will benefit so much more from it than from spending hours on that piece of cardio equipment alone.

We all know that taking care of our bodies will help us to live longer and enjoy life more, but sometimes it seems like such hard work! At every restaurant and grocery store, we find food that tempts us to eat, eat, eat, and forget about things like fat and calories and sugar. What we need to do is take things like fat, calories and sugar in moderation along with a healthy balance of vitamins and minerals, in order to keep our bodies healthy and combat the aging process.

It’s good to remember, too, that every grocery store and almost every restaurant offer us delicious, healthy, nutrient-packed alternatives to the jelly doughnuts and double cheeseburgers we crave! The next time you go shopping, add some healthy choices to your grocery cart; things like berries, leafy greens, veggies, lean meat, whole-wheat bread, and low-fat dairy products.

Sometimes, even if we are trying to eat healthy foods, our diet doesn’t provide us with the amount of vitamins and minerals that we need. This is when we need to look to vitamin supplements. There are a number of anti-aging vitamins on the market, and one of them is right for you. If you need some help deciding which anti-aging vitamin you should buy, ask a pharmacist or your doctor. Your doctor can also tell you if you should be taking a multi-vitamin along with your anti-aging supplement in order to make it more effective. If you have always thought that vitamins were only for older people, give them a second chance! You’ll feel energized and healthier if you make them part of your daily routine.

The types of foods we eat and the vitamins we take are very important in providing our bodies with anti-aging nutrients. But there is another important part to the anti-aging strategy exercise. This may actually be the most important part, because when you exercise, your body is able to process and use all of those healthy foods and supplements you have been providing it with. Exercise not only makes anti-aging vitamins more effective, it helps to burn extra calories and fat that your body has stored up. If you currently don’t exercise, just start with simple activities like walking for five or ten minutes a day. Once your body gets used to this, you can walk for longer, or add another activity such as bicycling, aerobics, yoga, or swimming. Exercise will help you feel healthier, and will slow your body’s aging process.

Obesity is one of the biggest problems in the United States today and many families don’t follow regular exercise programs. It is often said that the family that plays together, stays together. This couldn’t be more true in the case of family fitness. Getting your family off the sofa and encouraging them to get moving can be a simple task.

Pay attention to what everyone in the family likes to do. If your sons and your husband like football, suggest a weekend excursion to the park for a game of flag football. If your daughter is an avid jogger, head to the trails. Even if your kids are more into video games than outside play, consider looking “dance pad” games that can be used on popular game consoles, which have been suggested to help in the weight loss process. This brings a whole new meaning to playing video games, and can actually be fun for you too. It’s not exercise, it’s play!

Your family’s fitness not only means exercise, but a change in the kitchen as well. It is time to throw out the chips and cookies and make healthy alternative choices. Snacks such as carrot and celery sticks, apples, seedless grapes, pretzels, air popped popcorn, and graham crackers make excellent choices. If available, your children will grab these snacks without a second thought. Fill your cabinets with these healthier snacks and you might find yourself surprised that your family doesn’t even notice the difference! Replacing sodas with bottled water and organic fruit juices while you’re at it can help your cause. Don’t buy diet sodas – they’re loaded with sodium!

Subtle changes in your family’s eating habits can have long lasting effects. It is never too late to make a healthy change for you and your family. But be discreet! If you tell your children that you’re making a change to the family eating habits, they are less likely to accept it, rather than not even questioning the change when grabbing a snack.

Taking care of your family is important, and family fitness is the way to do that. You are your children’s greatest example. If you follow a steady, healthy pattern, your children are just as likely to continue this pattern once they are on their own. Just don’t forget to make the habit fun! Everyone is far more likely to be eager and accepting of the change if it is fun.