Mind Body & Soul

Archive for December, 2008

Whole Body Vibration exercise is becoming a popular method of training, and for good reason, not only can vibration training work your muscles in a way that conventional training cannot, but also using a vibration machine has numerous proven therapeutic benefits too.

As more and more companies appear on the market each week, most giving conflicting information, it becomes difficult for consumers to know who to believe. In this article I hope to share some basic information backed by evidence as a guide for consumers when purchasing a Whole Body Vibration machine.

The first thing you need to understand before buying a vibration machine, is that there are basically just two types of vibration machines available, pivotal and vertical. A pivotal vibration plate vibrates from a centre axis in a see-saw like action. A vertical vibration plate vibrates straight up and down in a jack hammer like action. Both machines have proven benefits, and there is very little, if any, evidence to suggest one method is better than the other. As a consumer you will find marketers will tell you one method is better than the other, if you find this, ask for evidence and don’t take just their word for it. Personally I prefer pivotal vibration, with vertical vibration I feel there is too much unwanted vibration in the head, however I know others that prefer vertical vibration. I always suggest trying both methods first and see what you prefer. Pivotal platforms are sometimes referred to as oscillating platforms, as vertical platforms are sometimes referred to as lineal platforms.

This is a question that people often ask but is actually a very difficult one to answer. Addiction is not just one single and simple process, it is a complex process that has both physical and psychological aspects. Nevertheless despite this complexity two attempts have been made to determine the most addictive drug. Independently Dr. Jack E. Henningfield of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California at San Francisco, ranked six psychoactive substances, nicotine, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, caffeine and marijuana, on the five criteria they felt were most important in addiction.

The first of these criteria was withdrawal. This is defined as the severity of withdrawal symptoms produced by stopping the use of the drug. Both researchers rated alcohol as having the most severe withdrawal symptoms, for example hallucinations and convulsions, and the fact that withdrawal from alcohol is the only one of the included drugs that is potentially fatal.

The second criterion is reinforcement, that is the drug’s tendency to induce users to take it again and again. This is influenced by the feelings that taking the drug brings, that is whether it is a pleasurable high or not, obviously if the feelings are negative there will be little incentive to repeat the experience. Again both researchers were in agreement and rated cocaine as the most reinforcing.

When people want to lose weight, they always think about what foods they should avoid like high calorie, high fat, sugary foods that can quickly add inches to their growing waistlines. However, when people try to lose weight by avoiding their favorite foods, they always end up feeling deprived, hungry and unsatisfied. These emotions lead them to crave for food more and this results to food binges. That is why knowing the right foods to eat to lose weight is just as important.
Eating a variety of foods from the different food groups will help you get the good nutrients that you will need to burn the fat and lose weight. Research shows that people get full depending on the amount of food they eat so to create a caloric deficit without eating less you will need to replace your “usual” food with lower calories.

Types Of Food You Should Eat To Lose Weight

1. It’s a common knowledge that you will need to avoid eating excessive fat when trying to lose weight but you should not avoid foods where you can get the essential fat. Fish, nuts and olives are rich in essential fat and they are used by our body as fuel.

2. Eating high protein foods can do a lot of good for your muscle building and keeping your bones strong. Just be sure to take off the skin from chicken and turkey. Eat a lot of white kidney beans or peas.

3. I’m sure you have heard fitness advisers and trainers say time and time again to drink plenty of water. Water helps in flushing out toxins from our body and if you add some slices of lemon to your drinking water, this can increase your metabolism thus, it will help you burn fat faster.