One Leg Away From Better Balance

by Laura Inverarity, D.O.

for About.com

Updated April 06, 2005

Often as we age, our balance skills deteriorate. For this reason it is important to do exercises to improve and maintain balance throughout our lives. Balance exercises can be performed daily and in your own home. You can start out with simple balance activities and increase the difficulty as your balance improves.

Improving your balance takes practice. One simple exercise can be done and modified as your skill level improves. Read on to learn how to improve your balance starting today.

Beginner:

Stand up straight behind a tall chair or at a counter top.
Lightly grasp the chair or counter top with your finger tips.
Raise one leg a foot off the ground.
Maintain your balance while standing on one leg.
Hold for a count of ten seconds.
Repeat with other leg.
Perform five on each leg.

Intermediate:

Stand up straight behind a tall chair or at a counter top for safety only.
Without holding on to the chair or countertop raise one leg a foot off the ground.
Maintain your balance while standing on one leg.
Hold for a count of ten seconds.
Repeat with other leg.
Perform five on each leg.

Advanced:

Stand up straight behind a tall chair or at a counter top for safety only.
Close both eyes.
Without holding on to the chair or countertop raise one leg a foot off the ground.
Maintain your balance while standing on one leg.
Hold for a count of ten seconds.
Repeat with other leg.
Perform five on each leg.

An Article from Men's Health

Is Exercise a Waste of Time?

By David Zinczenko

Sometimes, when a news report seems to defy logic, it’s because someone hasn’t done their homework. And that’s what’s happened over at Time magazine with its latest cover story, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.” The article claims that working out is not only useless for weight loss, but can actually lead to weight gain.

This contention hinges mostly on a recent study done at Louisiana State University. Scientists there divided sedentary women into four groups: One group didn’t exercise, and three others performed different amounts of physical activity. All of the groups were told to stick to their typical diet.

The results: The women who exercised the most didn’t lose any more weight than those who didn’t exercise at all over six months. How can this be?

Well, first understand how much exercise these women were doing. The group that exercised the most burned around 1000 calories a week, or about 140 calories a day. The other two exercise groups burned around 700 and 350 calories a week, respectively.

This isn’t a tremendous amount of exercise—you might burn around 140 calories vacuuming your house—so no one would anticipate a tremendous amount of weight loss. Even so, the researchers calculated how many pounds they would expect each woman to lose, and their predictions were spot-on for the two groups that did lesser amounts of exercise. For these ladies, the exercise did indeed work.

(Make the most of your workout, by tapping into the 100 Greatest Fitness Tips of All Time.)

However, the other group of exercisers fell about two-and-a-half pounds short of their predicted weight loss. The Time story states: “Whether because exercise made them hungry or because they wanted to reward themselves (or both), most of the women who exercised ate more than they did before they started the experiment.”

Not so, according to the published data. The writer of the Time story either misread the results, or conveniently skipped over the parts that didn’t support his assertion. The study authors clearly state that the women in all four groups ate fewer calories on average.

(For an easy way to cut your calories—even when you’re in a hurry—discover the 14 Best Fast Food Meals Under 500 Calories.)

To be fair, the calorie-intake numbers probably aren’t accurate. The study’s lead author, Timothy Church, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., admits that since this data was attained from a survey—and not measured directly—it’s not very reliable. We really do suspect .

This further muddles the findings. And given that the non-exercisers lost weight, too, one could conclude this study proves that sitting on the couch causes weight loss. But Time magazine isn’t reporting that. At least not this week.

Instead, the Time author tries to support his notion that exercise doesn’t help you lose weight by pointing out that some women gained more than 10 pounds over the six-month study. “What the article fails to report is that other women lost even more weight than we expected,” says Dr. Church.

Bottom line: Our responses to diet and exercise are all highly individualized, explains Dr. Church. Sure, some people might compensate for their exercise by eating more, but according to Dr. Church, this isn’t the fault of exercise. More likely, he says, it’s because people don’t realize how easy it is to consume 1,000 calories at the drive-thru compared to burning just 250 calories on a treadmill. “If your weight is a concern for you, exercise is important. But it doesn’t give you license to eat what you want,” cautions Dr. Church. “You still need to pay close attention to what you’re putting in your mouth.”

Even so-called “healthy” food can have a surprising number of calories. Check out our list of the worst salads in America, including a 2,115-calorie salad from California Pizza Kitchen.

As for exercise making you hungrier, Dr. Church doesn’t think that’s the case. And overall, the research is mixed on the matter. But even if exercise does stoke your appetite, you still have the power of choice. Are you going to reach for an apple—or a big bowl of ice cream?

Dr. Church insists that we have much to learn on this topic, and wants you to know this: “When you look at people who lose weight and keep it off, what you find is that almost 100 percent of them not only watch what they eat, but are also regular exercisers.”

Want even more reasons why Time is wrong about exercise? Keep reading.

• Exercise can protect your muscle. A Penn State University study found that people who lifted weights along with a program of diet and aerobic exercise had the same weight loss as those who only dieted (or who dieted and performed aerobic exercise). The difference? The lifters lost 5 pounds more fat because almost none of their weight loss came from muscle. Read: Resistance training didn’t improve weight loss, but it did improve fat loss. And isn’t that what really matters?

Want to lose more fat? Click here to instantly download more than a dozen fitness plans that you can take with you anywhere.

• Exercise may help you stick to your diet. University of Pittsburgh researchers studied 169 dieters for 2 years and found that the participants who didn’t follow a 3-hour-a-week training plan ate more than their allotted 1,500 calories per day. The reverse was also true—sneaking snacks sabotaged their workouts. “One healthy behavior without the other will not work—you need to diet and exercise to maintain long-term weight loss,” says lead study author John Jakicic, Ph.D. That’s because both actions can act as a reminder to stay on track.

• Exercise may target belly fat. While weight loss was similar among all four groups in the LSU study, only the groups that exercised saw their waist size decrease. The Time story downplays this finding, but isn’t it relevant? Think about it: This study actually shows that even a small amount of low-intensity exercise—performed in, say, just three 24-minute sessions a week—could help your jeans fit better. In other words, it makes you thinner. Doesn’t sound like a waste of time to me.

http://mhtoday.menshealth.com/2009/08/is-exercise-a-waste-of-time.html

Exercises That Slim Down your Belly

Exercises that Slim Down your Belly

You have to do a lot of different types of exercises to tone down belly fat. You have to do cardio, crunches/ab work and some weight lifting. You also need to vary what you do so that your muscles don't get accustomed to the routine you are doing.

Pelvic Work - the pelvic thrust

Lie on your back, knees bent and your arms lying naturally at your side. As you exhale, bring your pelvis up and tilt it toward the sternum. It's important to keep your lower back on the floor. Hold for 5 - 10 seconds, inhale and let your buttocks gently down. As far as repetitions, do between 10 and 25 depending upon the kind of shape you're in for 3 sets.

Another lower abdominal workout gem entails assuming the same starting position with the knees bent. This time lift those knees up and bring them in with control engaging that lower belly to do so. Bring your legs back down and tap those toes on the floor. For a more advanced version, lift your hips up as well when those knees are hovered above your sternum (knees remain at a 45 degree angle throughout), then drop it and bring the toes to the floor.

Exhale on the way up and use the ends of the fingertips to press the floor and keep the movement in the right direction for lower belly targeting like as already discussed in part 1. To add resistance and make it even harder, cross one leg over the other and perform the same sequence. You’re going to want to do 3 sets of these and as far as reps, see how many you can do the first time before muscle exhaustion and use that as a target for the consecutive sets. Fifteen is a good goal and the slower you work, the harder it will be, meaning getting to muscle fatigue quicker.

Slim Down That Belly!

Slim Down That Belly!

In order to slim down your belly, you need to combine good exercise and a healthy diet.

You will have to do a lot of cardio to slim down that gut. Running, dancing, the elliptical machine, bike riding, and swimming are all great forms of cardio. Find the one that you enjoy doing, and do that one. Don't force yourself on the treadmill, although you hate it.

Don't get frustrated after you many core exercises but don't the results. You’ll never see the result of all that work without fat-burning cardio madness. So you’ll have to trade in that time doing ab work or resistance training for more cardio to make this happen for you.

Nevertheless, you will have to commit some time to a lower abdominal workout that works fast. Upper ab workouts involve bringing your pelvis to the sternum while lower ab work is generally the opposite, bringing your pelvis to the sternum. Now both kinds are going to of course work all of your abdominal muscles to some extent but the specific exercises I will pinpoint will be an excellent lower abdominal workout.

It’s also a good idea to do a little bit of core work with every workout above and beyond the times once or twice a week that you concentrate on them with a series of exercises. But vary it up because this muscle group is smart and they’ll acclimate to repeating the same exercises over and over which will reduce the effectiveness of your efforts. By utilizing this strategy, you’ll maintain a conscious connection with the role diet and nutrition has in slimming down your belly. You might think a little bit harder about eating that extra helping when you remember all the hard work you put in to this quadrant of your body.

Finally, all these abdominal exercises aren’t exclusively for aesthetic purposes. That fat that accumulates down there is not good for you and it can cause all kinds of trouble later in life such as increased risk for heart disease. Being steadfast with an exercise to slim down your belly is an extremely daunting task for most humans so set your goals realistically and feel good about the work you do.