Tagged under: boot camp, health tips, how to choose right boot camp
While you could reach your health and fitness goals though other less-direct means, a weight loss boot camp would likely be your best bet for quick results. Weight loss and fitness boot camps get their name from their resemblance to basic military training camps, with the goal being better health rather than proficiency in military skills.
As in basic military training courses, a fitness boot camp will normally have emphasis on traditional calisthenics and strength training. While the physical fitness goals of a weight loss boot camp can normally be achieved on an individual basis, this can be far more difficult due to the lack of a positive group dynamic. As a result, fitness and weight loss camps are a popular way for people all over the world to lose weight.
Despite the military origins of weight loss boot camps, instructors in these camps now tend to rely on encouragement rather than intimidation. Indeed, the same holds true even in basic training courses in modern armed forces the world over. While there are still drill instructors that do their best to terrorize camp enrollees for their own benefit, this archetype is now quite obsolete and is more of the exception rather than the rule.
Weight loss camps have great diversity when it comes to the specific kinds of programs that they offer. Fitness boot camps may often have themes. For instance, some programs espouse old-fashioned strength training while others may emphasize approaches based on yoga, or other more novel philosophies. Most programs today offer a mix of approaches designed to help the most number of students.
It can be a challenge learning which programs are actually helpful and which ones are purely marketing, as many of the more gimmicky programs may even have actual benefits to go with their claims. As a rule of thumb, traditional programs are your best bets. The more radical the claims, the more skeptical you should be.
Another factor to consider when choosing a weight loss program would be class sizes. While standards for what constitutes a “big” class may change depending on where you are, it’s generally agreed that classes with less than 15 students are often the best for maximizing results. Classes with too many students per instructor are often unable to give sufficient attention to all participants.
The type of experience instructors have in a weight loss program is particularly crucial. In most jurisdictions there are no licenses required to become a fitness instructor, so the principle of caveat emptor readily applies when you’re in the process of selecting a fitness program to suit your needs.
Lastly, while much easier than going it alone, you shouldn't expect to breeze through a fitness boot camp like without getting a few lumps or getting a bit under the weather.
Fitness boot camps do require a lot of commitment and a fair degree of discipline from their participants, so getting results from these programs still lies in how willing you are to do the distance.
Tagged under: health tips, strength building dumbbell workout, workout
Dumbbells are a truly great piece of equipment to workout with. Because of their size and versatility there have been a bunch of great programs designed around using them. Along with a huge variety of exercises you can do there is also the aspect of creating better muscle balance by using dumbbells.
Typically everyone has a dominant side of the body that is stronger from more use, such as right handed people usually have a stronger right arm. When you perform machine exercises or barbell exercises the dominant side can end up lifting a great percentage of the load; but not with dumbbells!
This dumbbell workout is meant as a muscle builder and endurance workout. Is great when you are short on time but still want to get in a full-body workout in under 20 minutes. You can use it anywhere where you have at least one dumbbell because this workout is all about using a single bell to get in shape.
The Single Bell Body Blaster
The routine is to be done as a circuit. You should do each exercise for 30 to 45 seconds. Don’t bother counting repetitions but instead look at the clock. Don’t rest between exercises but take at least a minute between circuits. Do at least 3 total circuits. For your first time through try it with a 15 pound dumbbell. If that is too easy increase the weight but remember you will get tired as the circuit goes on. This routine is all about building strength, endurance, and burning some calories.
The Wood chopper
This is such a great exercise for your core, arms, and shoulders. A lot of athletes like baseball players and golfers use this one. Stand with feet shoulder width apart while holding a dumbbell in both hands overhead. Shift the dumbbell to over your right shoulder and then bend your knees and twist your body as your chop down with the dumbbell towards your left ankle. Then twist back to the starting position, shift the weight over your left shoulder and chop down towards your right ankle.
Dumbbell Squats
Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Grab each side of the dumbbell with a hand and hold it straight out in front of you (this helps with balance and works your shoulders). Slowly squat down and back (lead with your glutes) until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Push from your heels and explode back to a standing position.
Press Out and Up
Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Hold each end of the dumbbell in both hands. Start by slowly pressing the dumbbell outward from your chest until your arms are straight in front of you. Try and squeeze the dumbbell as your hands go out. Draw the dumbbell back while trying to squeeze your shoulder blades together. Then press the dumbbell overhead before lowering slowly while trying to draw your elbows close together.
Dumbbell Row
Bend at the waist with your back flat and knees slightly bent. Grasp the dumbbell in both hands with arms hanging straight below you. Using your back muscles pull your elbows back and bring the dumbbell towards your lower abdomen. Squeeze your back at contraction and slowly lower the weight.
It might sound easy but after the second circuit with a heavy enough dumbbell you will be hurting for certain.
Tagged under: health tips, prevent baby tooth decay, tips for mother
When it comes to ensuring their child enjoys a lifetime of quality oral health, parents need to start practicing good oral hygiene on their child’s teeth and gums at a young age. While the temporary nature of a child’s baby teeth might make them seem less important than her adult teeth, baby teeth are still vulnerable to cavities and play an important role in how your child’s adult teeth form.
In infants and toddlers, tooth decay is often referred to as Early Childhood Carries, or Baby Bottle Tooth Decay. Just like with adult teeth, baby teeth that are exposed to plaque, a stick bacteria that lives in everyone’s mouth, can become decayed, which could result in tooth loss or gum disease if not caught early.
Even though a child will eventually lose his baby teeth, having them removed too early due to tooth decay can cause your child problems with the formation of his adult teeth. Baby teeth hold the place for when a child’s adult teeth begin to form. Without the baby tooth in position, an adult tooth may start to drift from its natural position into the unoccupied space left by the missing baby tooth. When the tooth that would normally of taken that space begins to form, your child may suffer from crooked or crowded teeth that could require surgery or braces to correct.
In order to ensure this doesn’t happen, parents must take the necessary precautions to prevent Baby Bottle Tooth Decay from developing in their child’s mouth.
Baby Bottle Tooth Decay
Your child’s front teeth are the ones most often affected by Baby Bottle Tooth Decay, but other teeth in your child’s mouth can also experience decay.
While a number of factors can contribute to decay, the most common is frequent, continued exposure of your child’s teeth to sweetened drinks. When either a child or an adult eats or drinks something that contains sugar, the plaque in their mouth begins to produce acids that eat away at tooth enamel. Over time, the acids created by plaque can to create small pits inside of teeth where bacteria begins to pool, which eventually leads to tooth decay and gum disease.
Putting a child to bed with a bottle or using a bottle to pacify a fussy baby that contains a sweetened liquid, such as juice, formula, or milk, baths your child’s teeth in what basically amounts to plaque fuel for the entire night. This kind of prolonged exposure to harmful acids can quickly destroy the health of your child’s teeth.
The amount of plaque in a child’s mouth can very depending on how frequently they’re exposed to the bacteria by a parent or caregiver. For example, parents who place objects in their mouth, such as a spoon or pacifier, to quickly wash off the item prior to placing it back into their child’s mouth transfer plaque from their mouth to that of their child’s.
Children who don’t receive the right amount of fluoride may also experience an increased risk of developing tooth decay. Fortunately for parents, Baby Bottle Tooth Decay is easily preventable.
How to Prevent Tooth Decay
Preventing tooth decay from occurring in your child’s mouth means:
- Not sharing items that could transfer plaque from your mouth to your child’s during feeding. Also, after feeding your child, you should wipe their gums with a soft, clean washcloth or gauze pad.
- After your child’s first teeth begin to form, your need to gently brush them with a child’s size toothbrush. Until your child is old enough not to swallow toothpaste (this usually doesn’t occur until a child turns two), you should only use water when brushing.
- Between the ages of two and six, use a small, pea-sized amount of toothpaste with fluoride to brush your child’s teeth.
- Parents should continue to brush their child’s teeth until she can tie her own shoelaces. Children under the age of seven generally don’t possess the necessary manual dexterity or patience to brush their own teeth.
- Encourage your child to drink from a cup by his first birthday. Bacteria in your child’s mouth tend to thrive around the spouts on sippy cups.
- Only provide your child with a clean pacifier, and never with one dipped in honey or sugar.
- Schedule your child’s first visit to the dentist at a young age. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends a child see the dentist by their first birthday, or following the emergence of their first baby tooth, whichever comes first.
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