Saturday, January 12, 2008

Weight Loss Benefits of Massage

There is no question that having a massage makes you feel great. Even having a deep-tissue, sports massage makes you feel wonderful afterwards. Massage can relieve stress, help you recover from hard physical activity or injury and even reduce anxiety, but can it help you to achieve your weight loss goals?

Research shows that massage can have a positive effect on your muscle-building capabilities and fitness levels, which in turn increases your capacity to control or loose weight.

healthy strong muscles burn calories and give you the freedom to participate in all sorts of sports and activities that can help you burn excess calories and improve your overall fitness and wellbeing.

Massage has the following benefits that can directly influence your ability to control or loose weight:

1. Massage has been shown to improve circulation and the supply of nutrition to the muscles. Massage increases the interchange of vital substances between the blood and tissue cells, which increases tissue metabolism. after muscles are exercised, vital nutrients must be supplied to them so that they can recover and rebuild themselves. Massage maximizes the supply of these nutrients and oxygen though increased blood flow, which helps the muscles to grow and burn more calories as a result.

2. Massage improves your muscles range of motion and their flexibility. This allows them to maintain maximum power and performance while active, and burn the maximum number of calories in the process.

Improved range of motion and flexibility also reduces muscle soreness during periods of recovery and muscle repair.

Having a wide range of motion and maximum muscle flexibility also reduces the danger of experiencing injuries during exercise which can severely limit activity, exercise and weight loss progress.

3. Massage helps to shorten the recovery time needed between your workouts. Waste products such as lactic and carbonic acid build up in muscles during and after exercise. Increased circulation to these muscles helps to eliminate toxic debris buildup caused by these waste products and in doing so shorten recovery time.

Shortened recovery time means you can safely have more workouts over a given period of time, which in turn means that you have the opportunity to burn more total calories in your effort to achieve your individual weight loss goals.

4. Massage can also help reduce the chance of you over-training. Massage has a relaxing effect on the muscles and a sedative effect on the nervous system. By helping you to rest, which is a very important element of any exercise program, massage can reduce the likelihood of you experiencing over-training syndrome, which is known to limit your ability to build strong healthy muscles and therefore loose weight with maximum efficiency.

5. In addition to all of the above, massage may directly aid in fat loss. According to some research studies, massage is thought to be able to burst the fat capsule in subcutaneous tissue so that the fat exudes and becomes absorbed. In this way, combined with proper nutrition and exercise, massage may actually help in weight loss.

6. As we have already touched upon, massage helps prevent and heal injuries. By stretching connective tissue, massage improves circulation to help prevent or break down adhesions and scar tissue that result from muscle tears and other common muscle injuries. Massage also influences the excretion of certain fluids (nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur) that aid in tissue repair. fast and effective recovery from injuries means that you can begin exercising sooner after suffering an injury and getting your weight loss progress back on track.

So there you have it. Massage has a lot of benefits that can indirectly and possibly even directly aid you in achieving your weight loss goals.

Regular massage is just as important a component as regular workouts and correct nutrition in any comprehensive fitness and weight loss program, which is great news for those of us who thought that exercising and loosing weight was all hard work! Remember, weight loss is all about leading a balanced lifestyle and massage is an essential part of any balanced lifestyle.

If you havent had a massage lately, what are you waiting for? Get on the phone and make yourself a booking. If you havent had a massage before, just remember to have your massage done by a qualified massage therapist.

If you are unsure about a massage practitioners qualifications and experience, ask for referrals, professional training information, and make sure they are certified by reputable agency or institution.

And remember, have fun!

Scott Haywood is the editor of Australia's leading weight loss and healthy lifestyle website weightloss.com.au. Weightloss.com.au is a free weight loss resource that has healthy recipes, weight loss product reviews, a weight loss business directory and a very popular weight loss forum.

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Thoughtful Golf Gifts For Golf Lovers

If any of your friends or family are golfers, you may wonder what kind of present you could give them. It can be hard to choose, but, if you know how interested the player is, and how experienced they are, then you can make the selection process a little easier.

There are some golf gifts that any golfer will appreciate. If you can get someone vouchers for a round at their favorite course, then they will most certainly enjoy that. Usually, vouchers are good for a round of 18 holes, but many courses will allow them to be used in batches of 9, making them ideal gifts for even casual golfers. If you are buying vouchers, make sure that you buy them at the right rate if your friend qualifies for a certain discount, often vouchers will be available at that rate too.

Another great gift for golf lovers are golf balls. golf Balls are another of the many golf gifts that most players will enjoy. bear in mind that the recipient may be partial to a specific brand ball. Nevertheless, if you give someone the gift of golf balls, there is an excellent chance they will appreciate them and use them. You should know that there are different compression ratings for golf balls and they are used in different weather, but these details may not be crucial for your weekend hobby golfer. Just make sure that you don't buy your male friends what may be considered to be women's golf balls.

Let Them Choose

If you are thinking of buying golf clubs, then perhaps you should reconsider. They are a very personal choice, and most golfers would prefer to test out the clubs themselves, and select them based on their own preferences. A gift certificate for a sports store would be much better than spending money on clubs that are unlikely to get used. Either ask them what set of clubs they would like, or give them a gift certificate, and let them choose their own.

Another golf gift that would be most welcome would be a towel that hangs on their bag to wipe their hands or club heads. A ball retriever would also be generally acceptable by everyone. They can be very handy and are used when fishing balls from water hazards. And for youngsters who may want to surprise dad with a golf gift, a bag of wood tees would always be welcomed by any golfer.

You could also think about getting them a range finder, a stroke counter, or some other score keeping device, or some golf clothing such as gloves or a cap. There are lots of great golf gifts out there, you just need to find out what they already have, and what they may be interested in. The fact that you have chosen to take an interest in their hobby and selected an interesting gift for them will stand for itself, and they are sure to appreciate whatever you pick out for them.

Visit http://vacation.every1loves2travel.com for great golf vacation destinations, and helpful articles and tips about golf holidays.

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