Sorry to all my readers, but this blog won’t be having any new posts for a while and I dunno if it will ever… sorry but currently, it is as good as an archive…

- 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

- First of all, I would like to apologize for not writing any post yesterday, had a very bad case of Writer’s block, I just hope this post today will help…

- Some of you may say, “Why quit smoking now? I’ve already got damaged to the max, Quitting won’t get me back healthier”, Totally wrong… According to an article I’ve just read, you can give yourself a better health stopping to smoke this second (oh yeah you will still have the damages that smoking causes, but still It’s best to have all what you can still have)

- First of all, as soon as you stop smoking for several hours, the level carbon monoxide inside your body decreases, Increasing on the other side oxygen level to it’s normal state (which is very good if you can’t tell)…

- Let’s say you kept up the great work for few days, First your tasting and smelling will get better and the risk from heart diseases decreases… Keep it up for a day or two to find an increase in your lung capacity, which allows for a better breathing moments…

- You kept not smoking for a couple of weeks, great job, you don’t have any nicotine in your body, and your blood flow will get much better… Stay healthy for 3 months to get benefited with better circulation and lung function, and much easier physical activity…

- NINE MONTHS, you get to have a lower rate coughing, congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath… Have a Happier and Healthier life as a non-smoker

- At the end I would like to say thanks Kikolani for the support, and about the post if you don’t believe me, read this article (Yup, you can say this is the links section)

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy

I was really shocked to read that I didn’t get a single view the whole day… Even my first day had it’s views… I guess I’ve been slacking in my writing topics and my advertising…

Sorry for not writing any post today, a Writers’ block that I hope I can pass by tomorrow…

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy

- How healthy are you is not just measured by how much calories you take a day… But you also have to keep in mind that there is a big importance to how much you burn a day…

- I have in a site (sorry for no link, can’t remember it), that you have to measure the calories gained and burned (I would like to call it Net Calories), not how much calories you get a day… Which means that just taking low number of calories (or let’s say, within the right range) while totally being lazy the whole day is not really what you can call healthy, oh yeah that your net calories are still good, but you got that kind of value without exercising, which is dangerous. First of all, in the life part, you will keep on being lazy which can cause a downfall to your future. From the health side, you will grow a weak body.

- One of the big eye grabbers these days, The Michael Phelps (14-times olympic gold medalist, which is a highest number so far) calim that he eats 12,000 calories a day (remember that the right number of calories are between 2,100 to 2,450 calorie), but he didn’t forget to say about how much he exercises (Which i think was 5 hours?), and despite that, he has became an olympian legend.

- Hope that helped, and see you in my next blog (I’ll make sure I work harder on the next one and find the links)

- Hey, again, sorry for publishing this a little late. Anyways Today I’ve been researching about nothing has to do with Cholesterol ( ), but since I’m not finished (and looks like I won’t be for sometime), I’ll talk about some great information about Cholesterol on Sparkteens that you can probably use (Yes, I’ve been researching about Health for a long while now)

- First of all, What causes worse cholestrol level and what make it better?, Many factors, but mainly what make it worse are Obesity and Overweight, and high cholestrol level is a main cause of heart diseases. But still there are many ways of improving it, as Losing Weight (which is a huge factor if you are obese or even overweight, just losing 10% of your pounds weight can highly improve your cholesterol level), Eating in a healthier way, stop smoking, constant exercises (even for people with healthy bodies, but it doesn’t have to be Intense or Long-Lasting), and of course medication that was instructed by a doctor.

- Another question that i think I answered once in my older posts (but here it goes again), Is Cholesterol a harmful substance? No, Cholesterol is very important of metabolism, so you should have it in a healthy level (Which is below 200 mg/dL)

- I’ll leave you with that for today plus two links that can be quite helpful (and quiz can be quite easy if you paid attention), Hope for you a happier & healthier life.

Links:-

What is Cholesterol?

Test you Cholesterol IQ?

The Adminstrator,

Hassan Elwy