Physical activity is life! Exercise is life! Which exercises are considered the easiest to perform? Except walking, which is the easiest to do.

Think about another exercise that you can do by yourself without the help of a fitness trainer. What other exercise helps your entire body be in top shape?

Well, the answer is very simple: push-ups!

If you didn’t know it already, the push-ups are the closest thing there is to a perfect exercise.

Push-ups are the best upper body exercises that use the body’s own weight to strengthen and shape the core muscles: the chest muscles, the shoulder muscles, the triceps and the back muscles.

These are the 10 reasons why you should be doing push-ups:

1. It works more muscle groups than any other body-weight exercise.
2. The position in which the exercise is performed does not force your joints, so you will not feel any pain.
3. Fifty reps a day equals 2 hours of exercise.
4. Anyone knows how to do it.
5. Even persons weighing over 100 kg can perform it.
6. You can train in the park, at work or at home.
7. With only 30 minutes of push-ups a day, you will keep yourself in top shape.
8. After a month of daily training, you will see a visible increase in arm muscle size and mass, you will lose up to 5 pounds and your chest will be more firm and bigger.
9. Arm strength will increase considerably.
10. You will stay in shape with minimal effort.

Here are 5 tips for effective push-ups:

1. Do not touch the floor with your chest. The descent should be controlled. Keep a 5-8 cm distance. To avoid mistakes, put a book on the floor while doing push-ups. When you touch the book with your chest, you will know it is time to get up again.

2. If you are a beginner and traditional push-ups seem too hard, do knee push-ups instead. Start face-down on the ground. Lift the feet off floor and bring your heels towards your buttocks. Bend the knees to form a L-shape.

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A kettlebell looks like a cannonball with a handle and used for extreme all around fitness. Even though the popularity of kettlebells decreased over the past 100 years, they are again gaining popularity because adjustable designs are offering new possibilities with the device. In fact, it can be used to replace many other pieces of equipment including barbells; belts for dips and weighted pullups; cardio equipment; dumbbells; grip devices; lever bars; medicine balls; and thick bars.

Professional strength trainers are not the only ones to make use of the kettlebell, or girya as it is known in Russia. All types of fitness enthusiasts, professional athletes, law enforcement officers, martial artists and U.S. military personnel use kettlebells because of its potential to mimic real life situations that may not be possible with other strength endurance equipment.

Kettlebell workouts are for both men and women and can help with many exercising goals including fat loss. However, there are specially designed kettleballs for women with thin handles for easier gripping. You can get kettleballs in many weight sizes from 10 pounds to 106 pounds individually. If you work with them in pairs, you might get two 26-pound balls or two balls weighing 70 pounds each.

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More and more these days we see countless recommendations to practice the age old art and science of meditation. Most, if not all, extol its seemingly magical power on the human psyche through its purported benefits. These recommendations and claims have stood the test of time- they are universally accepted and well justified. For eons past those who came before us have spoken volumes regarding this great gift we all posses but today sometimes, we neglect to use. Why now are we again reminded of this?

All of us are participating either aware or unaware. in a quantum shift bringing at times, tumultuous changes in all areas of our society and world structures. No one is exempt from the effects these rapid changes bring. While universally experienced, these trans-formative energies are individually unique and processed differently depending on a person’s outlook. With a little discipline and practice we can apply this gift of meditation to help balance stress levels, reduce mind-movies which seem to play nonstop to bring increasing levels of joy, clarity and purpose into life.

While it’s true that meditative practices are known by many names in virtually all cultures each with various forms of practice, finding one that will work for you is quite easy. Best of all, this gently leads us ultimately to a special place we often desire and want- greater understanding and acceptance to life’s mysteries.

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To perform the split squat, you’ll want to stand facing away from a flat bench, a dumbbell in each hand (or just using your bodyweight if you’re not ready to add weight).

Lift and extend one leg back and place the top of your foot on the bench, standing upright on your supportive leg. Your knee should be straight and your body upright.

From there, slowly begin to bend your supportive knee as you lower yourself down. As you do this, the back knee will also start to bend as it moves closer to the floor.

Once you’re as low as you can go, pause in this position and then press up to complete the rep. Continue on until all reps are completed on one foot and then switch feet and repeat to the other side.

Do’s. While doing the split squat, the main things you’ll want to be thinking include…

• placing the supportive foot closer to the bench if you want to work the quads to a larger degree
• placing the supportive foot further away from the bench if you prefer to hit the hamstrings/glutes
• keeping your body upright and thinking of directing your gaze slightly above parallel
• thinking of pressing up through the heel of your foot rather than your toes to really hit the glute muscles hard.

Don’ts. Likewise, avoid doing the following:

• allowing your body to lean forward as you bend down
• using such a heavy weight you struggle to stay balanced
• only move part-way down through the movement – the biggest benefits come from the last section of this exercise pattern.

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A fitness ball is a ball specifically developed for exercise. This PVC ball is meant  specifically for use in exercises designed and set by medical practitioners and in therapy that involves light physical types of exercise. A typical fitness ball is approximately 35 to 85 cm and is also referred to as a birth ball, body ball, gym ball, or physioball. There are many more names for it in different cultures and communities.

This ball is larger and lighter than a regular medicine ball. The ball for exercising was developed by a plastics manufacturer called Aquilino Cosani, in 1963. This Italian plastics manufacturer had in time, perfected the manufacture of larger and puncture resistant balls made from plastic and he called the then manufactured balls ‘Pezzi balls’. The earliest ball for exercising were used in treatment programs designed by the medical fraternity for newborns in Switzerland and later in Basel at a number of Physical Therapy Schools. The popularity and effectiveness of the ball for exercising soon influenced its use in neuro-developmental treatment and within the application of functional kinetics. Today, the fitness ball for exercising is being used to treat adults with a number of orthopedic problems. The use of the ball is usually part of a physical therapy program that is executed within a clinical setting. The fitness ball for exercising is also being used in athletic training and yoga.

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Jogging is a form of exercise that benefits your whole body – not just on a particular part of your body like most gym exercises. Jogging helps increase flexibility and stamina; our muscles become strong from routine jogging. Keep reading to learn quick tips to help you jog to good health.

There are many health benefits of jogging. Jogging regularly is key to a great body and healthy lifestyle. Health benefits from a simple jog every day are tremendous.

* Regular jogging helps ensure heart strength and increases blood flow.
* Jogging on a regular basis also increases metabolism and speeds up the digestive problems, thus flushing out your G.I. tract and resist digestive problems.
* Jogging keeps a person active and helps increase energy to perform more work and become overall more active.
* Jogging helps burn excess fat and so curbs weight gain.
* Regular jogging reduces depression, or negative tendencies by releasing endorphins; they are natural happy chemicals in your brain released by exercise.
* Jogging increases oxygen supply and circulation in the blood stream.
* Jogging helps improve ones appetite, as jogging is strenuous.

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The first step in this motivation strategy is goal setting. Of course you need to know what you want to achieve in this journey. Ask yourself what you really want to attain and why you want to accomplish it. If you want to lose weight set an inspiration by getting a picture of the body that you want to achieve. Tell yourself that in six months or a year time your body will look exactly like that or even better. That would be a great start, so that there is always something that you look forward for.

The next step in this motivation strategy is start today. Yes, today would is the best day to start, not tomorrow, not next year and definitely not two years from now. We always hear people say that life is short so we have to live our lives fully. We often discard the idea not until something happens to someone we know and then we realize how important time really is. Time is of the essence so don’t give such lame excuses like you’re busy or you don’t have time because if you really want it, then you can make time for it.

No shortcut is the next step in this motivation strategy. Always remember that you have two choices, you can either do what’s right or what’s easy. Yes, it’s easier to slack off and think that you’re fine with your body and you love the way it looks but what if you end up having weight connected diseases? Patience is needed because there’s no easy way when it comes to weight loss. Even invasive surgery might be too painful for your body and your pocket. So don’t give up when you don’t get immediate results during first few weeks because if your doing it right, soon enough, more satisfying results will come.

Get a motivation is the fourth step in this motivation strategy. It would always be effective if you will have a buddy when you go to the gym or maybe a partner through this journey. It always feels nice if you have someone to talk to about your progress and even help you out in times that you’re about to give up. If you are a more competitive type of person then compete with your friend ala “The Biggest Loser” and in the end both of you will end up being the winners.

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Yoga is an age-old science made up of different disciplines of mind and body. It has originated in India 2500 years ago and is still effective in bringing overall health and well being to any person who does it regularly. The word yoga is based upon a Sanskrit verb Yuja. It means to connect, to culminate or to concur. It’s the culmination of mind and body or the culmination of Jiva and Shiva (soul and the universal spirit). It’s also a culmination of Purush and Prakriti (Yin and Yang).

The term Yoga has a very broad scope. There are several schools or systems of Yoga. Dnyanayoga (Yoga through knowledge), Bhaktiyoga (Yoga through devotion), Karmayoga (Yoga through action), Rajayoga (Royal or supreme Yoga) and Hathayoga (Yoga by balancing opposite principles of body). All of these schools of Yoga are not necessarily very different from each other. They are rather like threads of the same cloth, entangled into each other. For thousands of years, Yoga has been looked upon as an effective way of self-improvement and spiritual enlightenment. All these systems essentially have this same purpose; only the ways of achieving it are little different for each of them. In its most popular form, the term Yoga has come to associate with the last of these systems which is Hathayoga. For the purpose of this article too, the term Yoga is used with the same meaning. Although, when it comes to Philosophy of Yoga, which is at the end of this article, the term Yoga will have a broader scope.

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Of all the possible exercises there are to help you lose weight, cycling is one of the best.

If you want to lose weight and are looking for the perfect exercise, or if you’re looking for a great calorie burning exercise to add to your exercise repertoire, this article is for you.

We’ll tell you why cycling is so great and what it can do for you, what you’ll need to get started and provide helpful hints that will help you to cycle effectively and safely for the rest of your life.

The benefits of cycling

Cycling has many health benefits, particularly for those that want to lose weight. Here are just some of the great aspects of cycling:

o Cycling is one of the easiest aerobics exercises to start with because it offers a very wide range of training intensities, including very low levels of intensity.

o Cycling is a non-weight bearing exercise so it is easy on the joints, muscles and tendons.

o Cycling burns a lot of calories (more than 500 per hour at a moderate pace for someone weighing 80kgs).

o Cycling can be a relatively inexpensive activity to participate in.

o Cycling can be a very social activity and is easily performed in a group or with family and friend.

o Cycling can be done indoors or outdoors.

o Cycling provides aerobic training (for the heart and lungs), resistance training (for leg muscles) and isometric (static) resistance (for the arms and other muscles in the upper body).

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Whether you are trying to piece together a routine at your local gym or are trying to decide how to arrange your home exercise room, you will need to give some consideration to which gym machines make the most sense for your needs. Each setting is different and comes with its own unique challenges, but you still must some make some specific machine choices to either maximize the physical benefit to you in a limited amount of time or work within in space limitations.

Take the professional gym or fitness center environment, for example. In many of the new mega gyms there are so many choices that it could easily become confusing as to which gym machines make sense for your exercise needs and health and fitness goals. In most gym settings each new member is only given a cursory introduction to techniques. For the vast majority of new members, instructors tend to guide them toward some of the easy-to-use gym machines as opposed to the classic dumbbells and barbells. So which of these machines are the most helpful?

For those that are hopeful of toning muscles or gaining a bit of muscle mass, a combination of a few basic weight machines will probably get the job done better than complicating your routine with an overwhelming amount of equipment. Each person will gravitate to what feels most comfortable, but some kind of equipment that allows them to exercise each body part without any difficulty is the simple solution. Add in an abdominal machine to maximize exercising comfort and you are good to go.

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