En Forme et en Santé

More than a few studies have shown that people who actually keep track of what they eat on paper, in an app, or in some other record, have better success at losing weight, managing their diet, controlling their portions, and sticking to healthy habits.

Diet and exercise are only part of the equation when it comes to eating healthier and losing weight. The rest is in your head, and for many people, that's where the real battle is won or lost. To keep your head in the right place, consider keeping a food diary, or a regular log of what you've eaten and when. We don't mean counting calories either (although that can be helpful too.) The simple act of recording your meals forces you to think about what you ate, when you ate it, and how large your portions were.

One study concluded that people who kept a journal were more likely to keep the weight they lost off, and another review of studies concluded that people who kept a record of their meals and kept up with diet and exercise lost nearly twice as much as people who didn't keep a log (but did diet and exercise.) Once you start, you can go back at any time and see how you've progressed at simple goals, like shrinking your portion size or incorporating more vegetables and healthy foods in your diet.

Exercise your quadriceps by doing leg extensions while seated at work. A great way to get a leg workout into your daily routines.

Keeping fit while at work can be a challenge. You are stuck behind a desk and there’s a ton of work which needs to get done. But do not despair, there are plenty of good exercises well suited for your office space and this is just one of them. Leg extensions are great because they are easy to do and you don’t even have to take your focus away from the computer screen and still work your quads. The leg extension is an isometric exercise (static). This means that your joints or muscle length doesn’t change during the exercise.

How
Sit up straight and tense your abs. Lift one of your legs straight out to hip level and keep the foot pointing slightly upwards. Tense your quad (thigh) and maintain the tension for a desired period of time before relaxing and lowering your leg. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions and then switch to the other side. You can start with about 10 seconds for each rep, but feel free to do as short/long as you feel like.

Alternative
An alternative version is to perform the leg extension as a dynamic/isotonic exercise. When your leg is extended, slowly move it up and down while keeping the muscle tensed. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions and then switch to the other side.

After a bout of exercise, it's common for people to report that they seem to think a bit more clearly, and even be more creative. Scientific American explains exactly why we think this is.

When you exercise, you increase your blood pressure and blood flow throughout the body. This includes the brain, so when you exercise your brain gets more energy and more oxygen. That's not all though.

As Scientific American points out, it's also about longer term effects:

Another explanation for why working up a sweat enhances our mental capacity is that the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for learning and memory, is highly active during exercise. When the neurons in this structure rev up, research shows that our cognitive function improves. For instance, studies in mice have revealed that running enhances spatial learning.

Other recent work indicates that aerobic exercise can actually reverse hippocampal shrinkage, which occurs naturally with age, and consequently boost memory in older adults. Yet another study found that students who exercise perform better on tests than their less athletic peers.

Hate to run but love to walk? Then rejoice in the study accepted in February by the American Heart Association’s Journal of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, which concluded, “Equivalent energy expenditures by moderate walking and vigorous running exercise produced similar risk reductions for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, and possibly CHD.” 

In other words, at least according to the study, walking was just as effective as running in relieving stress, high cholesterol and heart disease and diabetes. But beyond the parallel benefits, are there times when is walking better than running?

Yes, but let us explain: 

1. Running can stress the immune system.

Walking, unlike running, especially long-distance running, does not seem to tax your immune system. Long-distance runners are more susceptible to developing infections, Dr. Uwe Schutz, from University Hospital of Ulm, Germany, told Reuters Health. Training for or running a marathon not only burns fat but also muscle tissue as well. This places undue burdens on the body’s immune system. 

2. Running can damage your heart.

In the journal Circulation, researchers performed echocardiographic measurements of cardiac function in 60 recreational runners before and 20 minutes after the 2004 and 2005 Boston Marathon. What they found was that before the race, none of the runners had elevated serum markers for cardiac stress. After the race, 36 runners, or 60 percent, had elevated markers of a certain triplet of proteins called troponin.

Troponin is a major component of cardiac muscle but elevated levels of subtypes of these proteins can lead to cardiovascular damage. If that’s not enough to discourage a long-distance run, consider that the researchers also discovered that 24 runners (40 percent) developed signs of myocardial necrosis, irreversible damage to heart muscle cells. The researchers also discovered at least 10 studies from 2004 to 2006 alone that documented increases in myocardial damage; there is no evidence that brisk walking can destroy heart muscle or cells. 

3. Running may cause osteoarthritis.

The study of risk versus reward when it comes to exercise is ongoing. In terms of the effects that exercising has on our knees, hips and other joints, the verdict is still undecided. It seems that at a certain “dose,” as researchers put it in a study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, running does not cause osteoarthritis, but after a certain point, reduced risk of disease is offset by an increased risk of injury and osteoarthritis.

If you’ve been running for a long time and have had injuries — and most runners have — then you’re more likely to “to deplete the joint of the lubricating glycoproteins, disrupt the collagen network, slowly wear away the cartilage, and cause numerous microfractures in the underlying bones.” 

4. Running can also damage cartilage.

Although authors of a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine state that there is continuing controversy as to whether long-distance running results in irreversible articular cartilage damage, this specific study concluded that through the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), biochemical changes in articular cartilage remained elevated after three months of reduced activity. The patellofemoral joint and medial compartment of the knee showed the greatest wear and tear, suggesting higher risk for degeneration. 

5. Running in hot weather can lead to heat stroke.

With summer approaching, runners need to be careful not to overdo it. Running in hot weather can lead to multi-organ dysfunction. Although walking in hot weather can also lead to heat stroke, there is probably less chance of developing organ failure when walking versus running. 

Although the benefits of walking are numerous, keep in mind that it’s the minimum someone should do if they want to get in shape; shorter bursts of moderate-intensity exercise is probably the most beneficial way to get fit.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a popular form of exercise that combines two of the most effective fat-burning methods.

The first is high-intensity training, which pushes the body to maximum effort to achieve muscle fatigue and maximum oxygen use in a quick burst. The harder muscles work, the more oxygen they require. This is measured relative to one’s VO2 max, which is the highest amount of oxygen your body consumes during exercise. Working your body close to its VO2 max triggers the afterburn effect, where the body continues to consume oxygen (and burn calories) up to 48 hours after the workout (it takes approximately five calories to consume one liter of oxygen).

The second method is interval training, which alternates periods of intense effort with periods of moderate-to-low intensity effort. Interval training boosts metabolism significantly longer than a steady workout of equal or even greater length (for example, a 20 minute workout of alternating high/low-intensity periods burns more calories than a 20 minute workout of stead intensity). Interval training also builds lean muscle tissue faster than steady state training.

By combining the above two principles, exercisers can maximize fat-burning and muscle-building potential through significantly shorter workouts. HIIT maximizes increased metabolic rate, optimizes muscle building and muscle retention during fat loss, and increases calorie burn during and after workouts.

Read More : http://goo.gl/GnAqV

Don't have an hour or even twenty minutes to exercise each day? You might not need it. This routine of 12 exercises is a complete workout based on the latest fitness research—and it only takes 7 minutes.

As with other short, but highly efficient exercises, this routine is based on interval training, where you're combining intense activity with brief recovery periods. We've seen interval training touted before as the most efficient type of exercise. You could do it with cycling, but this workout is an alternative guide and you can do it basically anywhere with almost no equipment.

The routine was posted in the May-June issue of the American College of Sports Medicine's Health & Fitness Journal and highlighted by The New York Times.

In this program : The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each [with a 10-second rest between exercises], while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, [director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute] Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.

As you can see from the chart at the top of this post, all you need is your own body weight and a chair to get "maximum results with minimal investment." However, this was designed for people with pretty sedentary lives, so if you're starting out somewhat in shape, you should probably do this a few times in a row.

Here are 12 videos that show how to do each of those exercises properly (http://goo.gl/r4O1Q).

Do each exercise as many times as you can for 30 seconds (or in the plank poses, hold for 30 seconds), and pause for 10 seconds between each exercise.

Keep in mind that for many people this isn't meant to be just a 7-minute workout, but rather a 7-minute cycle that you do a few (e.g., 2 or 3) times.

Each person has their own limit, and I was completely oblivious to mine. I love to work, so spending countless hours in an office wasn’t crazy, it was normal. But burnout crept up on me, so I had to find a way to avoid it from happening again.

After much trial and error, I did, and here’s how I did it.

1. Morning Workouts

I start out each day with a workout. It doesn’t have to be long, and it doesn’t matter what kind of workout it is. Some days I run, other days I lift weights. The method is irrelevant, but doing something active each morning clears my mind and provides a fresh dose of endorphins that puts me in the right physical state for the rest of the day.

2. An Evening Walk

Evenings were tough for me, I wasn’t sure how to turn it off. Hence, the “Always On” blog title. I would come home and hop on my computer, right after leaving the office. It wasn’t that I needed to, it was habit. I didn’t have closure to my day, so I simply extended it. To help with this, I started going for walks each evening before heading home after work. Not long, just enough to digest the day and clear my mind.

3. Fiction Reading

I was never a big fan of fiction. But there’s something about it that helps in avoiding burnout. Allowing your mind to think creatively and wander outside of your everyday routine can be extremely valuable. Each night before bed, I try to read a bit of fiction to remove myself from my traditional business mindset.

4. A Day A Week

The past few weeks, I felt myself getting close to burnout again, so I instituted a rule for myself. One day a week, work is off limits – answering email, writing a blog post – anything. For one day a week, it’s off limits. I tend to rotate between Saturdays and Sundays, but it’s completely up to your schedule. To ensure that I stick to it, I tend to save errands and personal obligations for the weekend, forcing myself into a schedule without work.

5. Intellectual Hobbies

I recently bought an espresso machine because I needed to nerd out on something other than work. Roasting coffee beans, playing with the granularity of the grind, steaming the milk, it’s all part of my new intellectual hobby. Whether it’s discovering the science of taking the perfect picture, mastering your golf-swing, or studying the art of roasting an espresso bean, we need intellectual hobbies outside of work to cleanse and stretch the mind.

6. Small Wins

So much of burnout is mental. In order to avoid physical burnout, you need to show your mind progression for all of the effort that you’re exerting. I’ve found that one way to do this is to set small and easily attainable goals that you can reach each day. This can be parsing down larger goals into smaller chunks or just going though the motion of checking-off completed operational tasks. Anything to show your mind progression towards a finish line can do wonders.

7. A Healthy Diet

We all know that we’re supposed to eat well, but it’s especially true when you’re pushing yourself hard. Eating the right food can help extend your runway and give you the needed nutritional energy to stay strong.

8. Limiting Decisions

After reading this article in Vanity Fair on Obama, there was one piece that stuck out to me. As the author interviewed the president, he said “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” Making too many decisions about mundane details is a waste of a limited resource: your mental energy. Operationalizing decisions in your life that are less impactful (like the clothes you wear and the fruit you pair with your cereal) allows you to invest that energy elsewhere.

9. Yearly Unplugs

Finally, a yearly unplug is a must. Especially when you work in technology. Having a set time each year where you can turn off the cell phone and go off the grid is a way for you to hit the ‘reset’ button on your body. I’m still working on extending my yearly unplug to more than four days, but even with that, I feel refreshed when I return.

Push-ups—we've all done ‘em, but sometimes they just don't look so pretty. Fear not! We've got the guide to get it right. Push-ups are a total-body functional move that are great for increasing strength, much like bench-pressing, and have the added benefit of engaging the core and lower body (thanks, gravity!). The bodyweight exercise can be done just about anywhere—with a ton of variations to liven things up. So let's drop down and do the perfect push-up.

In order to be successful with your stomach fat burning exercises, you must start at a slow pace. This is especially true to those whose body has not done any kind of strenuous activity for several years.

It is best that you start with simple brisk walking before you perform any activity that is too exhausting. Walking is also great for the lungs and hear.
A great tip if you want to burn the fat in your stomach, if to walk with your spine straight up with your stomach sucked in for the duration of your walk. Maintain a pace that you are comfortable doing. If you walk every day for twenty or thirty minutes you should see some great results in less than a month.

Another great way to lose belly fat is by doing yoga, Pilates and other stretching-type exercises. When doing these exercises, you must have a mat where you can lie down. Here are some of the stomach fat burning exercises that you can try at home.

Place a pillow in between your upper thigh and slowly bring your legs straight up, towards the ceiling. Now, flex your feet upwards making sure that you keep your back firmly planted on the ground. Hold on to this position for a few seconds and then slowly lower your legs to the ground half way, before bringing it back up.

Another exercise that is great for burning fats in your tummy is by sitting on the floor with knees bent on your chest area while you hands are on your calves. Now slowly hunch forward and form a C-shape curve with your spine while you position yourself onto your tailbone. Slowly rock your body back and forth while balancing on your tailbone.

These stomach fat burning exercises will help to strengthen your core while trimming your tummy at the same time.

Source : http://goo.gl/W6RJ8

The ultimate collection of ways to climb up stairs. 8 illustrations to describe spicy ways to get you up and down stairs.

Sprint
Maybe the most cardio intense way you can climb a stair is to run it. Try to keep your legs high and maintain a high pace. An alternative way of you have long legs is to take several steps at a time.

Jump
This is a rather time consuming way to climb stairs but quite a pulse raiser. Keep your feet parallel feet and jump one or several steps at a time. There are several ways to jump up stairs but one thing they have in common is that you need to be careful so you don’t fall and get hurt.

Calf raises
A you are walking up the stairs, place your feet on the edge of each step and push yourself up with your calves.

Crouched walk
Try to maintain a continuous low center of gravity and crouch down as you are climbing the stairs. This on work well both when for up and down.

Long steps
Try to take as long steps as you possibly can. It’s quite straining on your thighs when you have to lift yourself up from a low position.

Traverse
Move up and down stairs sideways by crossing one leg in front of the other and altering which leg is in front. This method also targets the muscles on the outside of your legs.

Monkey crawl
We’ve all been kids once and then we loved running up and down stairs on all four. Now that we are a bit older it just seem stupid, but if you are in the privacy of your home and have a stair available then why not give it a go. The really advanced version is to also climb down the stairs on all four, but be careful you don’t get hurt.

Walk to toes
This is one of my favourites because it comes very natural and is also discreet, so you can do it in public. Tense your calves and make sure you are only moving up and down stairs without letting your heel touch the ground.

It's the never ending question of how much workout is enough. Now some Norwegian scientists think they might have found the answer; It’s 4 minutes.

The latest trend in exercise is High Intensity Interval Training (HIT), aka Short Burst Training (SBT). The principle is easy. Go all out for a short period of time instead of spending a lot of time at a lower pace.

In May 2013 a study was published in journal PLoS One by researcher from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway where they sat out to investigate the minimum amount of exercise needed to acquire acceptable health gain.

“One of the main reasons people give” for not exercising is that they don’t have time, says Arnt Erik Tjonna, a postdoctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who led the study.

The study gathered two groups of 26 overweight middle-aged men. One group did 4 sets of 4 minutes of running on a treadmill at 90% of their max heart rate. The other group did just one set of 4 minutes at 90% capacity. This was repeated 3 times a week for 10 weeks.

The results showed that the men had increased their endurance capacity by an average of 10%, but there were no difference between the two groups. It didn’t matter if they did 4, or 16 minutes of workout, the results were the same.

Ce plan, d’une durée de 21 jours, vous amène, petit à petit, à accumuler 30 minutes d’exercices modérés par jour, ce qui constitue une quantité d’exercices suffisante pour profiter des effets bénéfiques de la vie active sur la santé physique et mentale. Il repose sur le plus vieil exercice du monde et un des meilleurs; la marche. Mais, attention, une marche ordinaire qui va devenir en moins de trois semaines une marche d’entraînement.

Pendant ces 21 jours, vous n’avez même pas de pulsations à prendre pour vérifier l’intensité de vos efforts. Il vous suffit de compter vos pas. La vitesse de marche est, en effet, déterminée par le nombre de pas à la minute. Plus ce nombre est élevé, plus votre marche est rapide.

Le tableau suivant présente les types de marche en fonction de ce critère (nombre de pas à la minute).

1. Marche lente : Moins de 95 pas à la minute

2. Marche rythmée : 95-110 pas à la minute

3. Marche rapide : 110-120 pas à la minute

4. Marche très rapide : 120 pas à la minute et plus

Comptez vos pas lors des premières minutes de marche, afin de vous assurer que vous faites le nombre de pas prévus par minute. Une fois que vous avez le bon nombre, il vous suffit de maintenir cette allure pendant le temps prescrit. Lorsqu’il faut augmenter la vitesse de marche, et donc le nombre de pas à la minute, comptez à nouveau vos pas au début de votre séance d’exercice.

Si vous ne souhaitez pas compter vos pas, il existe une solution toute simple; le podomètre. Il s’agit d’un petit appareil qu’on fixe à la taille et qui compte les pas pour vous. Si vous devez marcher, par exemple, à 100 pas par minute pendant 30 minutes, cela vous fait un total de quelque 3000 pas. C’est ce que vous devriez lire sur le podomètre à la fin de la séance de marche.

Ce plan s’étend sur trois semaines ou 21 jours. L’idéal est de le suivre à la lettre. Si, pour diverses raisons, il vous faut manquer une séance, ne culpabilisez surtout pas. On fait de l’exercice pour se détendre, pas pour se stresser. Vous reprendrez cette séance plus tard. Vous pouvez en faire plus ou en faire moins et remplacer une ou plusieurs séances de marches par une autre activité aérobique modérée (natation, vélo, patins à roulettes…).

Une fois que vous serez capable de faire régulièrement vos 30 minutes d’exercices modérés chaque jour, rien ne vous empêche de modifier la durée et l’intensité des exercices. Si, à un moment donné, votre agenda se noircit de plus en plus, vous pouvez fort bien remplacer les 30 minutes par jour par des exercices plus vigoureux qui vous demanderont moins de temps pour réaliser la même dépense calorique (1000 calories par semaine).

Sachez que 120 minutes d’exercices vigoureux équivalent, grosso modo, à 200 minutes d’exercices modérés.

La technologie remplace la plupart des activités humaines. Mais notre corps, lui, n’a pas changé: il est conditionné pour bouger. Les experts s’entendent pour dire que 30 minutes d’activité par jour à une intensité modérée suffisent pour obtenir des effets bénéfiques sur la santé. Que nos activités soient formelles (sports, entraînement, etc.) ou informelles (activités domestiques, loisirs, déplacements ou autre), l’important est de s’activer.

Le plus difficile reste bien souvent de se motiver et de passer à l’action. Besoin d’inspiration? Voici des conseils d’experts pour nous faire bouger davantage au quotidien.

++ Dans nos déplacements

1, On ne cède plus à la tentation de prendre l’auto quand on peut faire le trajet à pied ou à vélo. Ce sera plus facile si on est bien équipé pour ces activités (vêtements chauds, bottes confortables, sac à dos, etc.)

2. On se rend trop loin? On stationne à 15 minutes de marche de notre destination, ou on descend à l’arrêt d’autobus ou à la station de métro précédant notre point d’arrivée et on termine le trajet à pied.

3. On boycotte les escaliers roulants et les ascenseurs. On se rend au 30e étage de l’édifice? On en grimpe une partie.

4. Si on emprunte régulièrement le même itinéraire à pied ou à vélo, on peut modifier le circuit lorsqu’on a pris de la vitesse et de l’assurance: on l’allonge de quelques coins de rue, on y insère une côte ou deux, ou on traverse un parc, pourquoi pas?

++ En faisant les courses

5. On gare notre voiture le plus loin possible dans le stationnement du centre commercial. Double avantage: ça nous donne l’occasion de marcher, et il y a toujours de la place.

6. Au lieu de laisser pendre les sacs d’épicerie au bout de nos bras, on les  transporte en fléchissant légèrement les bras et les poignets. Un bon exercice pour nos biceps! Si on achète peu d’articles, on troque le chariot d’épicerie contre un panier à poignées, qu’on manipule, là aussi, en pliant légèrement le bras.

++ En entretenant la maison

7. On augmente notre tempo habituel en faisant le ménage. On effectue des mouvements vigoureux et on marche d’un bon pas d’une pièce à l’autre. On sera plus active, et on aura fini en un rien de temps!

8. On garde le dos droit et on fléchit légèrement les genoux en passant l’aspirateur pour solliciter les muscles des cuisses.

9. Pour laver les planchers, la baignoire, les fenêtres et les murs, on effectue des mouvements circulaires en changeant régulièrement de direction et de main pour faire travailler nos deux bras.

10. On change souvent de position lorsqu’on jardine, en se tenant tantôt accroupi, tantôt à quatre pattes, tantôt à la japonaise (les fesses appuyées sur les talons et le dos bien droit), etc. On alterne ainsi les muscles qui travaillent et ceux qui sont en flexion.

11. On profite de la vaisselle pour faire travailler nos mollets. On rentre le ventre, on étire légèrement le tronc et la tête sans lever les épaules et on se met sur la pointe des pieds. On maintient la position quelques secondes, on relâche et on recommence.

12. On ne laisse plus rien s’accumuler au haut ou au bas de l’escalier. Au contraire, on multiplie les occasions de descendre ou de gravir les marches: c’est bon pour la forme.

13. On prend l’habitude de tout faire nous-même. Tondre la pelouse (pas avec le tracteur, évidemment), pelleter l’entrée, ramasser les feuilles mortes, s’occuper du jardin, corder du bois, laver la voiture: toutes ces activités demandent de l’énergie et font travailler nos muscles.

14. Au lieu de sortir le chien dans la cour, on l’emmène marcher au moins deux fois par jour.

++ Dans nos loisirs

15. On fait l’inventaire de ce qui occupe nos loisirs. La question à se poser: bouge-t-on suffisamment pendant nos moments libres? Si la réponse est non, on cherche une activité qui nous fera bouger davantage. Le mot d’ordre: en essayer de nouvelles à chaque saison. Des exemples? La danse (latine, country, sociale, en ligne, le baladi), le yoga, le patinage, la natation, les arts martiaux, l’ornithologie, la randonnée pédestre, la raquette, pour ne nommer que celles-là.

16. On s’équipe à la maison d’une table de ping-pong, d’un jeu de fléchettes, de balles pour jongler, d’un cerceau pour le hula-hoop, etc. On se réunit en famille ou entre amis pour des mini-tournois ou simplement pour s’amuser.

17. On maximise le temps passé devant la télé. En regardant nos émissions, on peut faire des étirements, de la musculation, de la bicyclette stationnaire. On profite des pauses publicitaires pour pratiquer quelques activités plus exigeantes: redressements assis ou sauts à la corde, par exemple. Ou encore, on s’assoit sur un ballon d’exercice (tout au plus 30 minutes) au lieu de s’étendre sur le canapé.

18. Chaque jour, on remplace une demi-heure de télévision par une activité qui bouge. Au lieu de regarder la télévision, on allume la radio, qui nous permet de faire autre chose en même temps.

++ Avec les amis

19. Plutôt que de rencontrer les amis au resto, on se donne rendez-vous pour bouger ensemble: marcher, patiner, faire une courte randonnée de ski de fond, jouer au badminton intérieur.

20. On va danser le samedi soir. Quelques heures sur la piste de danse, c’est bon pour la forme... si on n’abuse pas de l’alcool. Ou encore, on organise des corvées de groupe: râteler les feuilles, faire le grand ménage de l’automne ou du printemps, c’est plus plaisant lorsqu’on s’y met ensemble!

Great news for those who know they have to get in better shape but don’t have a lot of time to exercise: Less is more. 

The best way to maximize your workout if you’re short on time is to do shorter bursts of moderate to moderately vigorous exercise. There are highly effective and relatively simple exercises you can do that will help you burn more fat than if you were to do a much longer workout, say a 60-minute jog. 

More research is confirming that shorter bursts of exercise help you burn more fat. One Japanese study in the Journal of Applied Physiology concluded, “[R]epeated bouts of exercise cause[d] enhanced fat metabolism compared with a single bout of prolonged exercise of equivalent total exercise duration.” 

To maximize your short workouts, follow these principles:

1. Pick movements/exercises that utilize as many major muscle groups as possible

2. Allow your heart rate to elevate at a level where maintaining a conversation is slightly difficult (with your doctor’s clearance and after you’ve built up to that level)

3. Let your heart rate come down until you feel almost fully recovered

4. Perform movements that combine strengthening and stretching, and stimulate the cardiovascular system

5. Challenge yourself but don’t exercise to exhaustion as that will stress your body

+ The 3-5 minute warm-up

Warm up by moving major joints around in different directions such as hip circles, arm swings, knee lifts, ballet leg swings, shoulder rotations, etc. These movements are called dynamic stretches and will help lubricate the joints better than stationary or static stretching. (Static stretching will not hinder muscle performance, contrary to some contemporary studies, but only if the stretches are under 60 seconds, so says one study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.) 

+ The 15-minute workout

After your dynamic warm-up, climb a deep flight of stairs. Skip every other step and make sure you are pushing off with your entire foot and activating the buttocks and hips as you push off. If your heart is pounding at the top, rest for 30 seconds until your breathing is back to normal or almost back to normal. Perform a set of pushups until near failure at the top of the steps (modified if necessary, for example, on the knees). Run back down the stairs. Immediately come back up. 

When you have worked up to it, try sprinting up a segment of steps until your breathing is significantly labored. Pause, whether it’s quarter-way or halfway up the steps, if you’re out of breath. Rest. Repeat until you reach the top. Repeat pushups. Do this for 15 minutes and you’ll feel like you’ve been at the gym for an hour. 

Alternatives: rope jumping to a count of 100, then perform a downward dog yoga stretch, then do bodyweight squats, followed by cat-cow yoga stretch. Repeat for several cycles. 

+ The 30-minute workout

You can simply choose to do additional cycles of the 15-minute workout; you’ll certainly get in better shape once you’ve gotten used to the 15-minute short burst workout. Or you can perform the first 15 minutes doing short bursts of bodyweight strengthening exercises followed by 15 minutes of power yoga. For example, 15 minutes of pushups, dips, squats and lunges, then, 15 minutes of sun salutations or eccentric (lowering phase) pushups to a jump-to-standing position. After 25 minutes of this, you’ll feel spent. Take the last 5 minutes to do static stretching. 

+ The 45-minute workout

If you have 45 minutes or longer to exercise, you’ll still want to interval train, i.e. get your heart rate up, way up, to about 160 to 180-plus beats per minute (bpm) and then let your heart rate gradually drop to, say, 100 bpm. Sprints are excellent for fat burning and increasing your lung capacity. Rather than jogging for 45 minutes — which might seem like a great fitness activity — vary your speeds from sprinting to slow jogs and you’ll maximize your workout. Every few minutes, drop to the ground and crank out a set of pushups.  

Saviez-vous que l'hypertension est le plus important facteur de risque d'accidents vasculaires cérébraux? Si vous avez reçu un diagnostic d'hypertension, vous savez probablement déjà à quel point il peut être difficile de maîtriser le problème.

Voilà pourquoi nous avons créé l'outil gratuit Plan d'action de tension artérielle afin de vous aider à prendre en charge votre pression artérielle.

En vous inscrivant, vous aurez les outils qu'il vous faut pour prendre en charge et surveiller votre pression artérielle. Vous recevrez des rappels de rendez-vous, des conseils pratiques et des astuces. Plus important encore, le Plan d'action de tension artérielle regroupera sous un format électronique pratique tous les renseignements nécessaires à vous et votre médecin pour gérer votre pression artérielle.

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Getting in shape without access to a gym or any fancy equipment is totally doable. In fact, bodyweight exercises can not only build muscle and burn fat, they’ve been shown to improve athletic performance and build speed and power, too. Make those moves explosive, and they can help build endurance and really help elevate an athlete’s game.

Before getting started, keep in mind that plyometric training should focus on awesome form and all-out effort. That's why explosive exercises like these are best placed at the start of a workout before muscles are fatigued and performance starts to slow down. Greatist Expert Matt Delaney suggests focusing on just three to four plyometric moves at the beginning of a workout, performing them no more than three times per week. (Giving the body ample time to recover is key.)

When it’s time to bust a move, short sets (just three to five reps) is often all it takes to get a killer workout that may end with jelly legs and an amazing feeling of self-satisfaction. And for those who want to keep the heart rate high between weight training sets, these moves can work well sprinkled in with the rest, says Greatist Expert Joe Venarre. From fiery to flat-out explosive, here are 17 strength- and speed-boosting exercises to get the job done.

Sitting is killing you. Numerous studies have pointed to the health risks of sitting all day, but here you have in one illustration how prolonged sitting affects our bodies and reminders to interrupt sitting time whenever possible.

The human body simply isn't built to sit all day at a desk or for hours vegging out on the couch.

Many of us spend more time sitting than sleeping. To avoid the health risks, we need not just 30 minutes of daily exercise, the infographic advises, but taking every opportunity to get up during the day.

SPRINT training for 60 minutes a week burns the same amount of body fat in men as jogging for seven hours a week, Sydney scientists report.

More than 40 overweight males participated in a short, high-intensity training regime based on cycle sprints over 12 weeks and measured a significant drop in their abdominal fat and an increase in muscle mass.

The lead researcher, Steve Boutcher, said the training program provided the ideal amount of exercise intensity for health benefits, including weight loss, in a short time frame.

''We've been searching for about 10 years for the minimum amount of exercise you can do with the biggest health impact factor,'' Dr Boutcher, an exercise physiologist and associate professor at the University of NSW, said.

By exercising three times a week, participants, mostly university students in their 20s, lost an average two kilograms of fat and gained 1.1 kilograms of muscle mass, mainly in their trunk and legs.

Other studies have shown men would need to jog for between five and seven hours a week for more than three months to lose the same amount of fat.

While the study, funded by Diabetes Australia, only measured the effect of sprints on an exercise bike, other types of activity, such as fast running, rowing, stair climbing, shadow boxing and skipping , could also raise a person's heart rate to a high level for the body to release catecholamines.

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