Author: Dr. Lanny Schaffer

Core conditioning is a fitness buzz word these days but few are actually doing it correctly. Many confuse it with abdominal training when in fact the core covers your body from your groin to your shoulders (front, side, back and inside-out). Your core offers stability, balance and flexibility to all your movements. An improperly conditioned core will limit movement capabilities and predispose you to injury whether you are performing every day activities or complex sports movements.

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Author: Raymond Lee

Not everyone is made for high-level exercising. But you can become fit without bouncing around in a leotard, battering your joints. Forget all the huffing, puffing, lugging, lifting, and straining. Movement therapy is a gentle – yet effective – group of sports that include yoga, tai chi, and Pilates. Just don’t be fooled by their mild manner. These activities can whip you into shape without breaking a sweat.

All three have ancient Eastern roots and are merely different interpretations of the same principle: keeping your body and mind in harmony naturally leads to better health.

It wasn’t until recently that modern science confirmed the many physical benefits of yoga, tai chi, and Pilates. With them, you can improve your balance, flexibility, and strength – no matter what your age, weight, or fitness level.

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Author: Eidorian

The most effective treatment for fibromyalgia is exercise. Which seems totally weird, because most people with fibromyalgia hurt worse and are more fatigued after exercise, and they may feel that way for days. The key is the right amount of the right kinds of exercise.

If you are new to exercising within the constraints of fibromyalgia, it may be helpful to enlist the help of a trainer, physical therapist or exercise physiologist to design a program specifically for you. Every person with fibromyalgia has a different exercise capacity, so you need an individualized program.

Another important concept related to exercise is your “baseline.” Each person has a different baseline. It is the level of exercise that you can maintain over time. It does not mean that you are pain-free, but that the pain doesn’t interfere with your lifestyle. You also need to remember that you’ll always have good days and bad days. You don’t stop or reduce your exercise because of a bad day. (Although you may reduce it for a while if you have a bad flare-up that lasts days or weeks.)

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Author: Grace Soong

Got results? You’ve been exercising on a regular basis for awhile. So, how’s it working for you? Are you noticing a change in your body? Or have you reached a  plateau ?

Monotonous weight routines. If you’ve been doing the exact same  weight-training  routine or watching 1980s aerobics videos on your old VHS player, then it’s time to mix it up! Your muscles adapt to any given exercise, which is why it’s important to consistently change your weight-training routine. Increase your weight size, add more reps, or try new exercises altogether to break through your muscle-building plateau.

Over-crunching. You do 500 sit-ups every night, and you wonder why your abs still aren’t flat. It’s probably because crunches strictly tend to work your rectus abdominus, just one of your abdominal muscles. In order to truly trim your waistline, you also need to work your external and internal obliques, and your transverse abdominus. Try a variety of abdominal exercises, including Pilates-based moves, to help whittle away your middle.

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Author: Bill Nad

So what’s The Purpose of Leading Exercise Ball? Before looking at the motives of using a leading exercise ball, we need to understand as to what exactly are exercise balls and why are they even used in the first place? Exercise balls are also known by several alternative names such as Swiss balls or fitness balls, the latter term being more prevalent. There are several exercises in yoga, Pilates or other general workout in which the body needs to stay balanced while performing the exercise.

It is under these conditions that an exercise or fitness ball is used. Virtually all exercise balls have an outer coating of soft elastic PVC which is completely harmless to the human touch and hence is ideal for contact exercises. The basic principle behind using exercise balls is to increase the effort required for exercising which will eventually help in building more muscles. There are several ways in which exercise balls are used such as by adding balance challenges during exercising or by engaging the scarcely used muscles to provide balance to the entire body which will correspondingly help in strengthening of such muscles.

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