It is a fact that exercise of any kind will help strengthen your muscles, increase flexibility, improve mobility, and of course, it has great advantages for the vital organs. In other words, exercise and you increase your chances of a longer, healthier, and happier life even if you can only exercise from your wheelchair. It is not only uncomfortable to sit in approximately the same position every day in your wheelchair, living in these conditions can cause muscle atrophy.

Muscular atrophy is a weakening of the muscles that is the sole result of the lack of use. Therefore it stands to reason that moving these muscles when you can (even with just simple exercises) doing so

will make a difference. Believe me when I say that if you are facing stiffness, pain and / or possible muscle atrophy from being confined to a wheelchair, you will definitely want to take the healthy option. Just give it a try, you will, absolutely, without a doubt, feel better when you do simple wheelchair exercises.

(more…)

Every so often when I read a yoga magazine, I shake my head, sigh a little, and say, Oh my. I find it disheartening that despite the wealth of yoga-related anatomy available today, articles are being published that have misleading intentions and that provide misleading information.

In the August issue of Yoga Journal, there is a subheading on the front cover that declares The Ultimate Pose to Build Core Strength. Being the initial publisher of Yoga for the Core, by Suzette O Byrne, and being interested in anything core whether it refers to physical anatomy, breath, subtle energy flow, or bandhas I was quite excited as I opened the

pages to look for the article. And then . . . disappointment.

(more…)

You look at it every day and wish it would just go away; that little pouch below your belly button that keeps staring back at you. You do crunches, sit ups, the works, and yet there it is just hanging around. There are all sorts of cute names for it: snack pouch, spare tire, love handles, and the list goes on. All you know is that you want it gone.

The American Council on Exercise calls the bicycle one of the most effective ab exercises out there. This exercise is one of many that should be completed as part of a lifestyle change which includes both diet and exercise. Just doing ab exercises all day will not

get rid of the excess fat that you have around your waistline.

(more…)

There are 10 very important components of Fitness; I am going to talk about one of them today that is widely forgotten and can be detrimental to your well being. Flexibility, flexibility is the range of motion with-in a joint along the various planes of motion. One thing that people don t really understand is the importance of stretching and is taken very lightly. The majority of the population think that you only need to stretch when you workout, and of that majority, very few do so. You should stretch various times throughout the day; in the morning before you start your day, during the day at work to release muscle tension, after sitting for

a long period of time and when you feel tight.

(more…)

CB: CJ, let’s start with a little background info on yourself and what you were looking to achieve when you found strength training and interval training.

CJ:
Let’s see, I’m a female in my mid 30’s and a typical office professional who spends looong hours sitting in front of a computer.

Fitness and nutrition-wise, I grew up understanding the importance of being active and staying healthy. So while I’ve stayed active most of my life, I recently discovered I still had a lot to learn both about fitness and nutrition.

(more…)