Stroke is one of the world’s biggest killers and a leading cause of disability. While our modern technology has provided us with some incredible ways of improving our living, it has also come at a huge cost to our health as obesity, poor lifestyle and nutrition choices continue to ruin the way our body functions. The high incidence of stroke seems to go unnoticed within the media, yet stroke kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer. In 2023, there were an estimated 45,785 stroke events in Australia including 34,793 first-ever strokes, which equates to one stroke every 11 minutes. When you consider that more than 80% of strokes can be prevented, knowing what things you can put in place to prevent this is vital. In this article, we will talk not only about the lifestyle changes you need to make to prevent a stroke but also what you can do if you have already suffered one so you can get your life back.
3 Simple Fitness Tests to Measure Your Heart Health & VO2 Max
The best way to improve your heart and lung health is via exercise in combination with healthy eating and keeping your stress levels in check. However, before you start pounding the pavement it is wise to have a baseline measurement of your current fitness levels. This is critical to do before you get started with any exercise program as it achieves two things. Firstly it will also give you a way to measure your improvement as you progress with your program, but more importantly it helps you to understand the different exercise intensities to find what level is best for you. Exercising too intensely too soon can cause more harm than good and having a clear understanding of what intensity is right for you will help to keep your exercise efforts safe, but effective. In this article I show you three different tests I use that vary in difficulty so I can pick the best test for people of different ages and needs.
Is Interval Training Your Missing Ingredient To Achieving Great Health & Fitness?
Most people believe that the key to losing fat and getting in shape is to spend lots of time doing long slow cardio sessions. If you don’t get a sweat then it is not a good workout! There are several problems with this type of thinking. Firstly if you are just starting out the chance of suffering an injury with this approach is very high for the body is not ready for this type of demand and you also need to be certain you move well enough to handle this type of stress. Plus you are going to need a lot of time to devote to this type of training and most people are time poor already. Secondly, this type of exercise may burn calories at the time but it is not only the calories that is important. This does not mean all cardio exercise is bad for there is a better way and one that does not take that long to do and more importantly provides the body with positive adaptations that are very similar to the effects of strength training. That method is called INTERVAL TRAINING! In this article, I discuss how this works and how you can implement it into your weekly schedule no matter what age or ability you are.
What Is More Effective At Improving Your Health – Exercise or Diet?
This is an interesting question I am asked almost every week and I am sure most of you would know that the answer is that you need to complete both in order to be truly healthy. Many would argue it is more to do with your diet and your nutrition habits, in particular with losing weight and I have often said that if you want to look good look at your diet. However, there are several problems with looking at health with this narrow mind set and ignoring the incredible health benefits of exercise that you simply cannot get from eating quality food. To achieve your optimal health level you must find the perfect balance between eating healthy and exercise and avoid the trap of thinking one can outweigh the other. Some of the long held beliefs relating to this question may be holding you back and in this article I will challenge your current thinking to help you to find what could be the missing ingredient to your quest for great health and fitness.
Secrets To Staying In Great Shape When You Are Over 40 Years Of Age
We all know that getting older is something we cannot change or avoid. We know that time will come when we just cannot move as fast as we did in our youth, and for some it may be in their 30’s that they begin to feel some changes. But for most of us, it will be in our 40’s that we notice many things that we just cannot do as easily as before. This is also why you rarely see professional sports people continue to play in their 40’s and when they do, they are not the same formidable force they were in their previous years. Many of us who competed in sports all our life will have experienced a lot of wear and tear on muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons and the little aches and pains we bounced back from quickly, now seem to take a lot longer to recover from. Even how our body metabolizes and digests food changes in our 40’s. Now this doesn’t mean you need to give up, or avoid exercise, you just need to be aware of the necessary changes to your training and diet to accommodate the changes to your body. You can still achieve incredible results in your training, you just need to be a lot smarter in how you go about it. This article we show you how.
How to Improve your LUNG CAPACITY with Exercises and High Fibre Food
The past few weeks I have had several emails asking me questions relating to breathing and what are the best ways to improve lung capacity? Just like our heart we often don’t consider the important role our vital organs play in keeping us strong and well. It’s not until we experience problems breathing that we take notice of our lung function. But the truth is, like the rest of our body, our lungs need daily care and attention. In this article I am going to share with you many interesting facts you may not know about breathing and lung capacity, but more importantly how you can improve it.
Can You Improve Cardiovascular Fitness By Lifting Weights Only?
We all know that exercise is great for our body and staying in great shape can effectively help prevent the onset of deadly diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Most people associate activities like running and cycling as the best way to improve fitness and heart health, while strength training is looked upon as the best method to improve muscle mass. What people fail to understand is that there are a multitude of health benefits with strength training that are far superior to endurance training, and that you can improve your cardiovascular fitness lifting weights. Anyone who says to me you cannot get fit lifting weights is not doing it right. While cardio is still good to use it works best in combination with strength training to maximize the health of the body. In this article I will show you why strength training is the preferred option and also how to do it correctly to improve your fitness at the same time.
The Value Of Strength Training For Cancer Prevention & Treatment
Over the past 30-40 years we have come to accept that cancer is something that many of us will have to face at some point in our life. Either we will be affected by this disease personally or know someone close to us that will. Even with all the modern technology and the millions of dollars in research being thrown at finding ways to cure for this disease, we are really no closer now than we were 40 years ago. We have been convinced that cancer is simply part of the process of aging and genetics and there is nothing we can do about it. However, deep down we all know that our modern lifestyle is really the culprit, and our it is our poor choices with smoking, alcohol, eating a poor diet, and lack of movement that is the reason so many of us develop this deadly disease. In this article, I want to share with you some of the simple things you can do right now to give your body every chance of never acquiring this disease.
Do You Know How To Breathe Correctly When Resting or Exercising?
No exercise ranks higher in importance to every person than breathing! Without air, we will die! Pretty simple, yet there are so many more things that breathing does to our body and many people are completely unaware of this. Most people do not even understand what a normal breath is. Without doubt, learning how to breathe is the most neglected part of any training program, whether it is for sports, rehabilitation or just getting in shape. The first thing people think of when I talk about breathing is how it relates to aerobic endurance, and while it plays a part in this, it really is so much more than that, and as you will see in this article how it can contribute greatly to weight loss, stress, strength, flexibility, and chronic disease! We will discuss all of the important things breathing does to your body, then teach exactly how to breathe correctly whether it is for relaxing, stretching, lifting weights or playing sports.
How To Use Exercise To Improve Heart Health & Prevent Cardiovascular Disease
Exercise is one of the safest, most effective ways to prevent and treat chronic diseases such as heart disease? We all sort of know that exercise is good for us but for many people they still think “that won’t happen to me”. Yet for many of the people who I meet for the first time in my studio it is now because of health problems, not weight loss! In this article we explore what exercise is the best and even what is best to do as you get older. For over 19 years we have been working with people of all ages overcome injury and disease by using simple nutrition and exercise strategies. These same methods used to help get them out of trouble are also the methods used to prevent getting heart disease. The best part is these have no horrible side effects that are common to medication prescriptions. The side effects of this program are weight loss, more energy, stronger muscles and improved fitness. Who wouldn’t want that?