Egyptian Collaborative Blog

- Hello once again, Today we finish the series of the home Fitness Tests with a test for your aerobic fitness… The Step Aerobics…

- This test is done by stepping on and off the 12-inch step (or any alternative) for 3 minutes and quickly beginning to measure your heart rate and check how much time it will take to return to your normal heart rate… You will have to use a metronome (if you don’t have one, check the links at the bottom for a link to an online one) and put it on 96 beats per minute, and you keep up the pace with it (with each beat you either get on the step with one of your legs and then when you get both on it, you begin getting down one by one too, and keep it on for 3 minutes)… At the end, sit on the step and count your heart rate (either from neck or wrist) for a minute…

YMCA

Ratings for Men, Based on Age

Ratings for Women, Based on Age

- If you’ve found that your rating is lower than average , or you just want to get above it, visit the Sparkpeople page to find ways of improvements, Have a Happier and Healthier life with better fitness levels Till next time…

Sources of Research/Links:-

Step Aerobics in Encyclopedia

Step Test

Online Metronome

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy

- Hey again, Today I’ll be introducing the second easy home Fitness Test… The perfect measure for the abdominal strength and endurance… The Crunch…

Not to be mistaken for a sit-up, a crunch is a different story… Not really very different, A crunch just can be considered a safer alternative for the sit-up… The noticeable difference is that in a crunch your lower back mustn’t leave the ground… and just like the first test… The Crunch test must be done in one minute

American College of Sports Medicine

Ratings for Men, Based on Age

Ratings for Women, Based on Age

- If you’ve found that your rating is lower than good , or you just want to get above it, visit the Sparkpeople page to find ways of improvements, Have a Happier and Healthier life with better fitness levels

Sources of the Research:-

Crunch in the Encyclopedia

Crunch Test

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy

- Did you ever wonder wether you are fit enough or not? and just wished there was some kind of machine that notifies you of your fitness level? While browing sparkpeople ( Yup, I’m a total addicted ), I’ve found an article just to inform you that there are 3 Tests to test your fitness easily at your home with no equipments whatsoever, and today I’ll talk about the first one…

- Push-ups… The official tracker and trainer for the muscular strength and endurance of many people (and official punishment way for others)

- There is an important unknown information about the push-ups, It has to be done in ONE minute interval

American College of Sports Medicine

Ratings for Men (Full Push-ups), based on Age

Ratings for Women (Modified -on the knees- Push-ups), based on Age

- If you’ve found that your rating is lower than average , or you just want to get above it, visit the Sparkpeople page to find ways of improvements, Have a Happier and Healthier life with better fitness levels

Sources of the Research:-

Push-ups in the Encyclopedia

Push-up Test

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy

- I know by now many readers are already annoyed that as you can see it that I’m becoming a lazy bum, which is totally not true, I’m just trying to make sure my studying career is not at risk (That sounded werid, right?), Well today, I’ll talk about something that i personally find spread all around us and nobody knows how to fight it, I’m talking about STRESS…

- Don’t worry, I won’t be talking today about the Biological meaning of stress ( no terms such as homeostasis and resistance, calm down ), but just as a brief description, it is a consequence that happens due to about ten factor : -

1. Sensory (Pain and Bright Light)
2. Life Events (Birth & Death and Marriage & Divorce)
3. Responsibilities (Money problems and Unemployment)
4. Illness (Depression)
5. Studying/Working (Exams, Project deadlines and Group projects)
6. Personal Relationships (Conflict, Deception and Breaking up)
7. Wrong Lifestyles (Heavy drinking and Insufficient sleep)
8. Environmental (Lack of control over environmental circumstances)
9. Social (Social Defeat)
10. Adverse experiences during development (poor attachment histories and of course… Sexual abuse)

- All of those can lead to high levels of stress which lead to ten (yup, ten again) characteristics, other than that people get a feeling of helplessness, and just blame other factors in their life instead trying to fight the stress, and I’ll list them here in brief

1. Over-planning everyday
2. Doing several things at the same time
3. An extreme need to win
4. Excessive desire for advancement
5. Inability to relax without feeling guilty
6. Impatience with delays
7. Overcommitment
8. Compulsion to overwork
9. Chronic urgency (Quite related to the sixth one… When you’re under pressure, everything in life takes on urgency and the additional burdens to get everything done as fast as possible)
10. Highly competitive drive (A simple game may cause anxiety)

- A very important note to those who find that they share many of those characteristics, Studies have shown that excessive stress may alter the brain structure which can result in a neuron damage in the brain… Well known and highly effective ways to fight stress is by practicing meditation, muscle relaxation, yoga or T’ai chi… Also talking to a good mental health professional can do the trick, or you can go to a stress management class… But if you are looking for some simple ways to break the stress, try those 7 recipes…

1. Taking a walk
2. Calling a friend (but choose the right one, don’t go for someone that may cause a higher level of stress, like ” THE EXAMS ARE NEAR, SUICIDE!!!” “)
3. Writing in a Journal (Don’t worry what others will say, just let it out)
4. Playing a Board game (Recommended by me when you are surrounded by cool/funny/nice group)
5. Exercising
6. Planning something fun (either if it is a trip or a dinner, just planning can get your mind off stressful problems)
7. Taking a hot bath

- Thanks for reading this article, hope you are not annoyed at my pace of blogging, and really hope that helped you, Have a Happier and Healthier life with no stress

Sources of the Research:-

Stress Biologically by Wikipedia

10 High-Stress Personality Characteristics

13 Ways to Maintain Your Brain (5th Page)

7 Simple Stress Busters

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy