BodyTweaking.com

Too much of good stuff is usually worse than no stuff at all As I said long time ago, balance has to be found in everything you do: be it in sports, sleep patterns or in your diet. It seems that vitamin D is not an exception to this rule.

Recently, high vitamin D dosages of +3,000 IU have been linked to kidney stones and nausea. So by taking too much of it out of the bottle might eventually be counter-productive and even harmfull! The findings are yet to be proven, which won’t happen till the mids of 2010, but you’re better off using your common sense and keeping your “the more the better” philosophy in check. It doesn’t matter whom to blame: the general public ignorance or industry’s abusive disinformation campaigns. You are resonsible for yourself. No one else.

And while the world is getting more and more complicated everyday and you seem to lose track of what is truth and what is a lie, you need just a few simple rules that will always keep you on the safe side. Rule #1:  too much of anything is never good.

This is an absolute rule that applies to anything. Vitamin D is not an exception. Just take a 20 minutes walk in the sun, which will give you some 1,500-2,000 IU of Vitamin D. This way you’ll avoid the bottled supplements and do something for your fitness in the process.

Keep it safe bodytweakers!

If you have a cracking sound in your knees and a certain “uneasiness” or even pain when doing movements like going up the stairs, do not disregard this. Eventually, it could grow into a bigger problem as it was in my case.

Knee problems have always been an issue for me. I suppose, it lies in my family’s genes since my mother and his father had the same problem as me. It started as I was about 14 years old It didn’t hurt at all and I didn’t feel anything disturbing. Just this strange cracking sound. So I though “whatever… I can live with it!”. Unfortunately, it changed during the following years.

The cracking sound got louder and I felt a small pain in my knees. I mean, I still could live with this problem, but I was worried if it could get worse at the age of 30, 40 or 50? So I went for an specialist’s advise and was told that there was nothing wrong with my knees and that the sound would go away with the age. I was also advised that I should start running and train my quads as it usually helps in this kind of problem.

However, running didn’t change much. I think, it even got a bit worse since I was running on concrete back in Madrid and this impact is not very healthy for the knee joints. (Follow my advice and go run on a beach if you have one nearby! You will avoid the trouble in the long run! )

Fortunately enough a friend of mine suggested to try cycling. It doesn’t have much impact on your knees, trains your whole legs and is fun as hell! So I started with simple spinning classes half a year ago. Very soon I was doing 2 classes in a row, 3 to 4 times a week. Apart of dramatically improving my endurance and cutting all that fat I have saved up during my time off running, I have noticed an incredible improvement in my knee joints! There’s no pain anymore and the sound is almost nonexisten. Hooooray!!

Two months ago I have bought a mountain bike (which was my biggest fitness investment ever) and have started to train going up and down the hills in my area. Sometimes aroung 100 miles in one go! This is really fun and gets very addicting! Leg strength, endurance and overall health keeps improving. I am even considering to participate in a few mountain bike marathons this fall!!

Summing up, cycling is probably the best choice if you have knee problems (better than running or leg training at the gym). Good road or mountain bikes can get somehow expensive, but they are worth every penny! I consider my bike as my best investment since the benefits you get are worth much much more. Cut the costs on other crap. Get rid of junkfood and stop bying stuff you do not need. Save money for things that DO matter!

Waking up early in the morning and doing exercises is a great way to start your day.

Exercising before anybody else is up in your household can have several short term and long-term benefits. Some short-term benefits include improvement of sleep patterns, reduced anxiety and depression due to a feeling of well-being, increased mental acuity for most of the day, increased energy levels for the day and increased calorie burning among others. The long-term effects of exercising in the morning are reduced risk of coronary heart disease, developing high blood pressure, developing type 2 diabetes, developing breast and colon cancer, obesity and having a stroke.

Most people who exercise in the morning benefit much in getting more things done in the day compared to waking up late. Even if you do not really do conventional exercises in the morning and just try to clean up the house, you are already exerting too much energy and burning calories. These simple and inexpensive exercises can help keep you trim and fit without you enrolling in some exercise training programs in gyms.

You might wonder what kinds of exercises are suitable for the early hours of the morning. You do not have to be a pro in learning the basic warm ups and stretching. You can do warm ups in repeating stretches and clutches for the first week before going out for a run or do cardiovascular exercises especially if you have not done any exercises previously, early morning or any other time. Remember, you can browse through simple and inexpensive exercise activities through the pages of magazines and Internet. You can follow through these simple exercises in keeping yourself fit and trim.

However, the best exercise there is, incomparable is waking up early in the morning and stimulate your mental powers. Positively welcoming the day is the critical part of the day. Next to optimism is your simple warm ups or stretches. Remember, there are many stretching exercises that could serve as warm ups before the main workout or training. However, using appropriate warm up exercise will help you best stimulates better functions of your body relieving tensions and lead to better feeling moving forward. With an intention to release stress and starting your day right, exercising anytime or stretching your muscles whenever there is a need will regulate your body weight and keep you from being unproductive.

Moreover, the danger of obesity is one of the primary causes of cancer and is also a cause for many illnesses. Considering the numbers of unhealthy big people in the society these times, make your resolve to go out of the sedentary lifestyle bandwagon. Do your cross country training and find time to jog in the early morning when all other people are still sleeping and while the streets are traffic-free—no traffic, less stress. The pollution level would most likely be down at this time of day compared to rush hours when people are getting to work and driving there. Supply your lungs with the early morning fresh air and embrace the day’s challenges right.