Friday, January 18, 2008

Winsor Pilates - What Exactly Is It And Can I Do It At Home?

If you're much of a fitness buff, you're probably constantly alert for fun and challenging workout videos and products. pilates is a phenomenon that is catching the attention of many because of the results experienced by certain Hollywood stars. many community colleges, adult education and recreation centers, and gyms are now beginning to offer pilates classes.

pilates is a non-aerobic system of floor exercises that strengthens and firms the body while it promotes flexibility and coordination. It was invented by health and fitness guru Joseph pilates in the early 20th century and became especially popular among professional dancers.

pilates works the abdominal and the back muscles, which are referred to as the "core" muscles of the body. The core plays an important role in nearly all fitness related activities, so a strong, but flexible core means less risk of injury and enhanced performance in other workouts. Unlike many forms of exercise however, pilates requires great concentration. Because proper form is so crucial to success, you're forced to pay special attention to how your body is moving. In this way, it is actually quite similar to yoga and there is a lot of crossover between people who practice both.

It is advantageous that pilates is great for all fitness levels, even for beginners. With the many videos that have been produced, you can even do pilates at home. When you first work out to winsor pilates tapes, you may be quite surprised at how challenging the seemingly-simple movements actually are. That is because pilates works muscle groups you probably aren't used to exercising. If you keep up your workouts however, you will adapt quickly. Don't assume that just because it is difficult the first time that it will be impossible. You will get much better with practice.

Working out to the winsor system can be a great way to get in shape. You get a 20 minute workout and the longer, more challenging 50 minute accelerated body scultping video. So, once you're proficient in the basic moves, you have an additional video to keep you challenged. The instruction is clear and friendly, and modified moves are demonstrated for those who have a weak back or neck.

It is convenient that the mari winsor pilates workout tapes do not require extra equipment. The exercises can be performed comfortably on a carpeted floor. If you have hard floors, you will want to get a mat.

One drawback to these tapes is that once you know how to do the exercises, the instruction can seem too wordy. You get a better workout if you don't take breaks in between the exercises, but Mari frequently pauses the workout to explain how to do the next move. One solution is to hit fast forward; another, is to write down the sequence of moves and do them without the video once you're familiar with the exercises and comfortably know what to do.

The bottom line is, the winsor pilates videos are effective, especially when combined with a healthy diet and aerobic exercise.

Kathy Hildebrand is a professional writer who is easily bored with her "day job" assignments. So, she researches anything and everything of interest and starts writing. Writing about an extremely wide variety of subjects keeps her skills sharp, and gives her food for thought on future paid writing assignments.

More of her research and articles can be found at www.lasertargeted.com/pilates and other sites around the internet.

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Buy Pills With Ephedra - Is Ephedra Legal?

A utah state court judge declared the fda ban on ephedra, Ma-huang, as a drug wrong on April 14th 2005. The fda filed an appeal to have the ruling overturned in a higher court. The appeal was granted and the ruling was overturned as of August 18, 2006. This means the fda is entitled to pose restrictions and/or limitations on sales of pills with ephedra. However, the fda won't be allowed to write their own restrictions as they have done in the past. Any restrictions would be presented via a proposal. That proposal would then have to be voted on and passed through both the House of Representatives as well as the Senate.

So the question for the general public still remains,"Is ephedra legal?" For now, the future availability of ephedra in the U.S.A. is up in the air. The fda recently made a statement saying that, for the time being, they would be allowing the sale of capsules containing ephedra that did not exceed 10mg per capsule. Currently, this is only a recommendation since the fda doesn't have legal control over the herb. For the moment, you can still buy pills with ephedra in the United States, however, that could change at any time.

In December of 2000, the Cantox Report researched 9 controlled studies on ephedra. Each study observed was a minimum of 8 weeks long. These studies looked at heart rate, blood pressure, adverse side effects, and other related indicators. One study revealed that cardiac arrhythmia episodes didn't occur in subjects given 90mg of ephedra per day vs. a placebo. The Cantox Report concluded that 150mg of ephedrine alkaloids per day was the "lowest observed adverse effect level". According to their conclusion, the lowest observed adverse effect level is a full 50% higher than the recommended maximum daily dose of 100mg per day of ephedrine alkaloids you will see on ephedra containing diet supplements.

This study also examined the long-term safety and effectiveness for weight loss of an herbal supplement containing Ma Huang and Kola Nut. The results of this six month randomized, double-blind placebo controlled trial were published in the International journal of obesity for May of 2002. after a 6 month study, the conclusion was that, "the tested product produces no adverse events and minimal side effects. This is consistent with the known mechanism and action of Ephedrine and Caffeine".

An estimated 61% of the U.S. adults are over-weight or obese and obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. obesity continues to be the second leading cause of preventable death. By current estimations, there are 300,000 obesity related deaths per year. Given the current obesity problems in America, the fda not allowing U.S. citizens to buy pills with ephedra, a diet pill that actually works, seems pretty silly.

Right now, you can still buy pills with ephedra. How long that will last is anyone's guess. take advantage of the opportunity while it still exists!

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Residential VoIP is a Great Call

These days, the demand and market for voip Service is growing at an exponential rate, and for good reason. Voice over IP technology has come quite a long way over even just a few years ago, and voip has grown up into a reliable, cost effective alternative (even replacement) for calling services.

As a disclaimer, I will say up front that most industry pros still recommend having one POTS line (i.e. traditional land line) as a backup for emergencies (911.) To clarify, this is not to imply inadequacy of voip 911 directory services, since they have vastly improved in the recent past, and are federally mandated. The recommendation to keep a land line is more about having a back-up alternative for 911.

Sounds almost like a contradiction to our statement above ("...reliable alternative") but it really isn't. If you think about it, there are many reasons that an interruption in power could occur more easily, while land lines are more likely to remain in service, electric storms being one example. And, along with the practical implications of keeping an inexpensive land line along side of your voip service, it also makes strategic financial sense. The reason is, the cost of a basic local access line, in addition to your voip service bill, still represents a considerable savings over the cost of traditional calling plans. The bulk of those savings are realized in the low cost of toll and international calling with voip.

Let voip save you Money

Probably the greatest attraction to voip for the consumer is in the potential cost savings. Many voip providers are offering unlimited local and long distance calling for as low as $19.99 a month. On top of that, with voip service, toll service charges are eliminated, and International calls are significantly lower on average than with traditional telephony. Common estimates of yearly savings range from $350 to $500 annually.

Say Goodbye to Hidden Charges

Everyone knows the frustration of combing through your phone bill and seeing charges associated with acronyms you've never heard of, and wondering what exactly you're paying for and why your phone bill is always a few dollars (or more) higher per month than the package you signed up for. With voip, that all goes away.

Free voip Features are standard

This is another big reason why people love voip. You get many standard features with a typical voip plan that would prove cost prohibitive with your traditional phone company. Things like call waiting, 3 way calling, and even voicemail are completely free and standard with voip. I recall a couple of years ago paying $29 a month JUST for digital voicemail feature on my land line, in addition to the monthly service charges, tolls, long distance, etc.

Freedom and Flexibility

Since a pre-requisite for voip is broadband internet connection, there are a few benefits built into your decision to integrate voip service into your home. Namely, you'll most likely be using a multi port router, which allows you to place more computers and devices on your home's network.

And ideally, you would opt for a wireless router, which gives you the greatest flexibility of all. Besides providing broadband access to multiple computers without the headaches of hard-wire connections, you will also have options for using SoftPhone voip service on multiple devices such as your PC and laptop, and your voip phone. Another perk is that with a wireless router, you can configure other devices to function wirelessly on your network (like the printer in the basement connected to laptop in the livingroom.)

Speaking of voip phones, many of those are inherently more flexible by design. For example, you can buy a voip phone system that includes a "base station" handset with speakerphone, keyboard, etc. and additional wireless handsets with independent docking/charging stations. This is a great way to supply multiple rooms within your home with wireless phones that are built to be totally "feature friendly" i.e. to accommodate the many and varied voip features commonly available, as mentioned above. This even includes "Videophone" in some cases, which is real time video transmission that is delivered via broadband and uses the same software/protocols as voip phone service.

Summing it Up with voip

voip is a valid (if not revolutionary) telecommunications technology that is well supported and standardized within a now-exploding industry. It may soon completely replace POTS (plain old telephone service) calling. voip can definitely save you a significant amount of money, while providing ease, flexibility, and features that traditional calling couldn't touch.

Doug maintains the voip blog at 5PCom, a VoIP Service provider offering exceptional quality, savings, and pricing for Residential and Small Business VoIP services.

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Calcium, What's The Big Deal?

The big question about Calcium, exactly what is Calcium and why is Calcium so important to you and I?

What is Calcium?

Calcium is one of the most abundant micro-nutrient found in our body. 99% of our bodys total calcium is stores in the bones and teeth. The remaining 1% of calcium is then found throughout our body in blood, muscles, and the fluid in between cells. Calcium is also needed for muscle contraction and the secretion of hormones and enzymes. There are much more usage of Calcium, but to put simply, Calcium is important for Bone repair/formations and the contraction of muscles. Calcium is also the answer to strong and dense bones.

Different Types of Calcium, Which is Best?

Calcium is an element and it comes in various forms. Theres Calcium citrate, Calcium phosphate, Calcium Gluconate, Calcium Carbonate, and e.t.c. The list can go on and on, but which is the most common one that is best absorbed by the body?

There is something called the elemental weight. Calcium phosphate has an elemental weight of 31-38% whilst Calcium carbonate has an elemental weight of 40%. Lets use Calcium Carbonate (Most common form of Calcium found in the market) as an example, if you take 500mg of Calcium carbonate, only 200mg of elemental Calcium is available for absorption. Ill make things simpler by giving you an analogy; lets presume that youre now going down to the fuel station to pump some petrol for your car. There are 2 types of Petrol and both are mixed with water. For every liter of petrol, Petrol X contains 20% petrol whilst Petrol Y contains 40% petrol. We do know that cars require petrol to move and not water. So the obvious choice will be Petrol Y. The same goes to us, our body can only utilize elemental Calcium, and therefore, Calcium Carbonate is one of the better choices of Calcium supplements to take.

vitamin D & Calcium Absorption
Taking Calcium alone is not as effective taking calcium with a good dose of vitamin D. vitamin D helps improve Calcium absorption. To put things simply, lets imagine things this way. before calcium is absorbed by our body, it needs go through a door which is locked and requires a key to open it. vitamin D is the key to opening this door to allow calcium into your body and from there allows the body to utilize the Calcium.

What NOT to Consume Calcium With
We should not be consuming Calcium with Zinc and Iron. This is so as our body prioritizes Calcium over the other two minerals. I advise you to take Zinc and Iron at a time when your body has little Calcium, preferably 30mins-60mins after drinking your milk. When purchasing multivitamins, do also look at the nutrition fact sheet to see if any of this minerals are stashed together.

How much Calcium is Needed?
If youre just an average adult, I would recommend taking anything from 800mg 1200mg of Calcium a day. However, if youre an athlete or bodybuilder, you should be taking up to 2000mg 2300mg of Calcium a day. Good sources of protein include milk, yoghurt, cheese. Taking more than 2500mg of Calcium may cause you to get wet stools.

Benefits
Calcium will help you maintain a healthy bone mass, delay the onset of osteoporosis and recent research articles have also shown that Calcium aids weight loss.

Reference
Hartman TJ, Albert PS, Snyder K, et al. The association of calcium and vitamin d with risk of colorectal adenomas. J Nutr. 2005 Feb;135(2):252-9.

Shi H, Dirienzo D, Zemel MB. Effects of dietary calcium on adipocyte lipid metabolism and body weight regulation in energy-restricted aP2-agouti transgenic mice. FASEB J 2001; 15:291-293.

Zemel MB, Thompson W, Milstead A, Morris K, Campbell P. Calcium and dairy acceleration of weight and fat loss during energy restriction in obese adults. Obes Res. 2004 Apr;12(4):582-90.

dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/calcium.asp#h7

Darcy is currently studying and researching into Sports and Exercise Sciences. He Co-Owns http://www.Supplementtracker.com Contact: Darcy[at] http://www.Supplementtracker.com
"Our body is like a delicate piece of art, every portion and every detail has to be sculpt carefully and patiently to get what we want" -Darcy

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