HEALTH - Keeping in shape

Fitness exercises

Exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the effect they have on the human body:1) Flexibility exercises such as stretching improve the range of motion of muscles and joints. 2) Aerobic exercises such as walking and running increase cardiovascular endurances. 3) Anaerobic exercises such as weight training or sprinting increase short- term muscle strength. The most popular fitness exercises are: jogging which has been defined the most efficient way to prevent cardiovascular problems; cycling, swimming and jumping on the elastic carpet this last one may improve blood lymphatic circulation, the muscular tone, the coordination and the balance.

Good eating habits

A proper nutrition is just as, if not more, important to health as exercise because the body needs the correct nutrition and proper rest and recovery after exercise. People must learn what substances the human body needs in order to keep it going. Maintaining a healthy diet is the practise of making choices about what to eat with the intent of improving or maintaining good health. Many people falsely believe that there are "bad" and "good" foods, they develop bad diets because they think that eating a lot of food they consider "healthy" will create a healthy diet. However, this is not true. The only consumption of substances that are deemed healthy such as "all grain diet", a diet consisting only of pasta or only proteins etc... result deficient in other important nutrients. Foods as grain, fish, meat, vegetables, are healthy when consumed with a balanced diet, because in combination they supply us with all of rerquired nutrients. For example milk, cheese and other dairy products have a high level of fat but removing these products from a diet means removing the intake of calcium that such foods offer. In other words a properly balanced diet contains proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are a bar to our fitness and lots of people, especially young people, suffer from them. On the one hand people eat too much and lead a sedentary life, as consequence suffer from diseases caused by excess of food such as<: fatness, high cholesterol levels, tooth decay and so on.On the other hand there are people worried about their weight and keep themselves on rigorous diets skipping meals or eating very little.

Unfortunately the media give a false image of beauty : glamorous models, perfect showgirls ,  stimulating the so called " body image obsession" which is the major causes of eating disorders.People can decide to stop eating to lose weight without seeing any medical advice, in this case the risk of anorexia or bulimia is very high.

Worried about weight may cause unhealthy habits such as excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, the abuse of laxative.

In order to attein the image of perfection created by the media many men are now acquring problems that were associated only with women: eating disorders, body obsession and low physical self-esteem.

To avoid such problems it is important to encourage a sense of self-esteem and make people aware of the damage they are causing themselves. They must have a well-balanced idea of what is beautiful and what is not.

Stress

Unfortunately it is sometimes difficult to find a balanced way of life. The pressure of modern life does not give us enough time to concentrate on ourselves, this produces stress which is dangerous to our health. Stress physically influences the way our body works. Physical symptoms of stress are: irregular breathing, muscle tension, stomah cramp and chronic fatigue. Stress can us emotionally, too. Generally people who suffering from stress are irritable, depressed and find it hard to concentrate. We cannot avoid  the various sources of stress but we can learn a way to react to stressfull situations.

One remedy to this problem may be the practise of Yoga.

Yoga

Yoga can help to release hormones in our body which react against stress , help the mind feel better and the body more relaxed. Yoga exercise provides a  sense of calm and is useful to overcome the limitations of the body. Today a lot of people practise yoga because it has a strengthning and calming effect on the mind and frees it from negative feelings caused by the fast pace of life.