Thailand Detox

Bodyweight Exercises for Weight Loss

How Bodyweight Exercises Work

Basically bodyweight exercises are exercises which are done using your own bodyweight as muscle resistance.  No equipment is used as one’s own weight takes the place of traditional gym weights.  A commonly known bodyweight exercise is the pushup.  You place your body in a position where it has to fight against the weight of itself.  In a pushup, the arms and shoulders are strengthened and toned by raising the rest of the body higher then lower to the ground.  Bodyweight exercises work well for weight loss and for muscle toning.

Types of Bodyweight Exercises

• Pushups.  Pushups are a great traditional exercise that helps to strengthen the arms and shoulders.  They are one of the best upper body workouts that you can do.
• Squats.  Squats are good for strengthening and toning the thighs and buttocks.  Stand with feet shoulder width apart, arms folded across your chest, and back straight.  Slowly lower yourself until your thighs are almost parallel to the ground then repeat.  They are an easy enough exercise to do but have great results.
• Lunges.  Lunges also work wonders for the thighs and bottom.  From a standing position, you step forward and slowly lower your back knee to the ground, then raise yourself back up.
• Chin-ups.  Chin-ups use the arms, back, and shoulders to pull yourself up from the ground onto a bar.  You touch your chin to the bar, then lower yourself back down and repeat.
• Dips.  Dips target the triceps and are great for toning and shaping this part of the arm.  Dips require the use of a chair or bench that is stable.  Position yourself in front of the bench with your back to it.  Place your hands on the edge of the bench with palms down and fingers forward.  Your heels should be on the ground legs’ length in front of you, and your arms should be supporting your bodyweight.  Slowly lower your bottom to just above the floor using your arms, then slowly return to the beginning position and repeat.

Advantages
There are numerous advantages to using bodyweight exercises.  They are flexible and easy for everyone to incorporate into a workout.  One of the major benefits to using bodyweight exercises is that they are free with no equipment required to buy.  Another advantage to no equipment being needed is that you can do these exercises anywhere.  If you go on a trip, you don’t need to worry about not having your weights or local gym.

You can workout in your own hotel room.  This is also nice so that you can avoid going to the gym as often.  Some people feel self conscious at gyms.  With bodyweight exercises, you can workout in the privacy of your own home.  Bodyweight exercises have a dual function to both build muscle and increase your heart rate.  Another positive is that these exercises can easily be incorporated into any other workout that you may be comfortable with.

Tags: bodyweight training, Detox Diet, exercises, exercises for weight loss, Weight Loss, weight loss tips, weight loss training

Interval Training for Weight Loss

What is Interval Training?

Interval training is an exercise process which focuses upon alternating high and low intensity periods of exercise.  Training alternates between high and low intensity training.   High intensity training inhibits your body’s ability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.  Your body begins to eliminate lactic acid and your muscles lose their capability to contract.  When this occurs, interval training calls for a switch to low intensity exercise.  Low intensity training gives the body a chance to recover from the strain, but without the pulse dropping so much as to lose the aerobic benefit.  The alternating between these two forms of intensity throughout an aerobic workout is interval training.

How to Apply Interval Training

You may wonder how you can use interval training in your own exercise regimen.  It’s easy to incorporate this form of training into any exercise.  If you jog, walk, or use a treadmill, this is how you would go about using the technique.  Begin at a walk or your typical warm-up pace.  Once you have warmed up, you can break into a sprint, jog, or whatever your high intensity level is.  Maintain this intensity/speed until your muscles begin to tire and you feel that you cannot go much longer.  Then reduce your speed to a jog or energetic walk.  Do not slow down to the point of losing your aerobic heart rate.  Only slow down to a point where you feel that you could maintain the speed for a longer period.  This is the recovery time for your muscles.  Once your muscle burn goes away and your breathing and heart rate have leveled off, you can repeat the cycle and begin sprinting or jogging again.  Gradually you will be able to increase the length of your high intensity periods.

Achieving Weight Loss

Interval training is a great way to achieve weight loss through an exercise program.  You are strengthening your body’s aerobic and anaerobic systems.  This will cause your body to learn to burn calories faster.  By adding more muscle, you are also upping your metabolism which will cause fat to burn more quickly.  By continuing with an interval training program, you are training your body to burn fat more efficiently.  Weight loss and better health are certain to come.

It’s a Good Thing

Interval training is a great tool for achieving weight loss.  It also has many other perks to encourage its practice.

• Time saving- by incorporating your aerobic and anaerobic exercises into one activity, you will save time in your workout.
• Fun- interval training breaks up the monotony of aerobic exercise by functioning in cycles.
• Results- often with a workout program, people hit a plateau which they cannot break past; interval training is a different option that helps people get through their plateaus.
• Easy- the exercise program will be easy as you do not need to switch machines or learn anything new to receive a full and effective workout.

Give interval training a try for your weight loss goals.  You’ll find that it is a fun and easy way to get the results that you are looking for.

Tags: Detox Diet, exercises, exercises for weight loss, interval training, Weight Loss, weight loss tips, weight loss training

Yoga for Weight Loss & Detoxification

What is Yoga?
Yoga is an ancient Indian spiritual practice used to keep the mind and body clear and healthy.  In India, the practice is primarily to achieve mental and spiritual well-being.  In other countries, the practice of yoga is spreading as a great form of exercise.  This kind of yoga uses a combination of stretches, different postures, and breathing to achieve the health benefits.  Yoga is useful for meditation, weight loss, muscle toning, flexibility, and circulation.  Yoga can also be used for detoxification on all levels- physical, mental, and spiritual.

Need for Detoxification
Cellular waste tends to accumulate inside of the body.  The accumulation of these toxins can cause numerous ill effects such as

• Loss of energy
• Speeding of the aging process
• Lack of overall enthusiasm

Detoxification is necessary to flush out all of these toxins in the body and reverse the symptoms.  Just like automobiles need to have their oil changed regularly, you need to flush out the impurities from your body’s circulatory system to ensure proper functioning.  Detoxification involves infusing the body’s bloodstream with oxygen to carry away the harmful accumulations.

How Toxins Work
You may wonder why and how all of these toxins get into the body and why they harm it.  Our environment, including stress levels, nutrition, and hormones, can cause toxins to form around the body’s cells.  These toxins become free radicals which are highly unstable and cause cellular degeneration.  The free radicals lead to premature aging and loss of energy.  Therefore, detoxification should be a crucial and necessary part of your self-care routine.  Detoxification is just as important as nutrition and other forms of exercise.

Benefits of Yoga
Yoga is a great way to detoxify the body.  Exercise that is too strenuous can actually have an adverse effect upon the body.  The body produces lactic acid in certain levels of exercise.  This acid can undo all of the positives that the exercise would have otherwise accomplished.  Stretching positions of yoga help to make sure that good blood supply is flowing to all parts of the body.  Meanwhile, breathing exercises create an ample supply of oxygen in the blood.  This oxygen flowing throughout the body flushes out and carries away the toxins which have accumulated from cellular activity.

Establishing a Routine
Yoga should become a regular part of your routine.  Yoga is not a one time thing that you do.  Yoga must be practiced on a regular basis to have a healing and detoxifying impact on your body.  You should establish a regimen of at least once per week to focus upon your yoga.  You will begin to feel better and have more energy the more regularly that you cleanse your body through yoga.  Yoga has positive effects both physically and mentally for those who practice it with conviction.  Once you settle into a comfortable yoga program, you will begin to feel your body and mind reacting to the healing treatment.  Your bloodstream will detoxify, and you will feel better in general.

Tags: Detox Diet, exercises, exercises for weight loss, Weight Loss, weight loss tips, weight loss training, yoga for weight loss

Yoga Weight Loss: Fact vs. Fiction

Common Myths
Many fans of high impact exercise would tell you that yoga is useless for weight loss.  They would say that yoga is good for staying mentally fit but ultimately ineffective for serious weight loss and muscle toning.  Although yoga is not as powerful for immediate, drastic results, to say that it is powerless for weight loss is entirely untrue.  However, the goal of yoga is not to simply shed pounds quickly.  There are obviously other exercise regimens which would yield a faster result.  Yoga involves more than weight loss alone and incorporates a mental change toward healthier living.  Yoga promotes spiritual growth along side a shrinking waist.

What Yoga can’t do
Doing a half an hour of yoga per day cannot compete with doing a half hour of running or lifting weights as far as calories burned are concerned.  Therefore, don’t go into a yoga program expecting fast, dramatic results.  Yoga is far different than traditional weight loss programs, and this should be recognized from the start.  Yoga does have many benefits which do not accompany traditional exercises.  Talk to an expert before beginning a yoga weight loss program and set reasonable goals for yourself.

Necessity of Nutrition
Any fitness trainer will tell you that a nutritious lifestyle is important regardless of how much you exercise.  This is especially true in yoga.  Yoga does not burn calories at the rate of other exercises, so set up a nutritional eating plan as you begin the program.  Don’t starve yourself, but rather eat a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables.  If you load your body down with junk food, yoga will not be able to yield you the results which it otherwise could.  You need to have respect for your body and allow your mind and body to be truly cleansed.

How to Use Yoga
The actual practice of yoga postures needs to be in accompaniment with other aspects including

• Nutrition
• Mindfulness
• Meditation

You can also use yoga in combination with another more strenuous exercise program.  A good suggestion would be to alternate yoga with, for example, jogging or weight training.  Do these programs every other day or in some rotation that gives you a good balance of exercise.  If you are steadfast in your efforts to truly benefit from yoga, you will receive the results that you desire.  Yoga is also a great way to maintain your weight once you are happy with it.

Power Yoga
A new “Americanized” version of traditional yoga techniques is emerging.  This new form is known as “power yoga,” and it is rapidly attracting followers.  Power yoga uses similar positions, but the movements are more active and paired with meditative breathing.  This breathing in combination with the active movements creates an aerobic workout that traditional yoga lacks.  The infusion of oxygen into the bloodstream during a yoga workout results in the positive aerobic benefit.  Power yoga can be an effective tool in weight loss if used in a proper manner.

Tags: Detox Diet, exercises, exercises for weight loss, Weight Loss, weight loss tips, weight loss training, yoga for weight loss

Hot Yoga for Weight Loss & Detoxification

The Difference
How is hot yoga any different than regular yoga?  The difference lies in sweat.  Hot yoga is performed in a room at a temperature of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  The body function of sweating provides another element to the yoga process.  The internal heat produced by the body’s performing of the yoga positions combines with the external heat of the room resulting in massive sweating.  Yoga on its own is an incredible path toward healing physically and mentally.  Combined with heat, the process becomes even more amazing.

The Skin
Most people know that the liver and kidneys serve to extract waste from the body and eliminate it.  Many do not, however, think about the skin when it comes to waste excretion.  Through the skin’s ability to sweat, it can excrete a great deal of toxic material out of the body.  The skin is powerful in its ability to sweat out toxic and unhealthy materials from the body.  Other than protecting and water-proofing the body from external forces, this is one of the skin’s primary functions.

For Detoxification
Hot yoga is an ideal program for detoxification.  Detoxification is a recommended part of everyone’s health routine.  It is important to eliminate toxins which build up in the body over time.  Detoxification should be a regular part of your overall health maintenance.  Hot yoga provides one of the most ideal ways to rid your body of these toxic accumulations.  Regular yoga in itself is a wonderful way to use oxygen to flush out toxins in the bloodstream.  Hot yoga adds the value of sweat to the equation providing another way for toxins to leave the body.  Hot yoga functions through several different ways to bring healing and toxic elimination.

• Posture- Hot yoga utilizes a series of different postures to maximize blood flow to all areas of the body.
• Breathing technique- When practicing hot yoga, you must use a specific style of breathing to maximize the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream.
• Relaxation- When the mind relaxes, stress toxins are lowered.
• Temperature/sweat- The differentiating factor of hot yoga is the 100 degree temperature of the room which causes heavy sweating (a pathway for toxins to leave).

Combined with other Programs
The keys to detoxification lie in a balanced and healthy life.  How you achieve this balance is up to you.  Hot yoga is a great way to detoxify your body.  You can also, however, combine this practice with other detoxification treatments.  Colon cleansing is becoming a popular way to clean out toxins from one’s digestive tract.  Foot pads are also now being sold which claim to draw toxins from the body through the feet and onto the pad.  The trick is to find what works for you.  Colon cleansing may be too drastic for your tastes, and the stress toxins you create could outweigh the benefits.  Determine which detoxification program works for you, and then stick to it. If you do this, you’ll be ready to live a healthier and happier life.

Tags: Detox, Detox Diet, exercises, exercises for weight loss, hot yoga, Weight Loss, weight loss tips, weight loss training