7 benefits of making running a part of your life

1. Less Health Problems

There are several benefits that a person is going to see if they make running a part of their life. First, the person is going to be at a lower risk of health issues and any severe illnesses like depression, osteoporosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and heart attacks, stroke, and arthritis along with a variety of cancers like breast, ovarian, and colon cancer. This is because the running can help to build up a person’s immune system.

2. Handle stress better

A person is going to be able to handle their stress a lot better than they used to. This is because a person has the ability to get away from all of the hassles of life that can cause stress. Therefore, a person is going to be able to relax their mind. Plus, running can make a person feel a lot better about themselves. Some of the main things that a person can get stressed out about in their life is their job, their children, or their relationships.

3. A Sharper Mind
While running, a person is going to have the ability to clear their mind of all of the day’s events. Therefore, a person is going to feel like doing more things with their family since they are going to have more energy than they have ever felt before. Plus, a person is going to be able to do their job a lot better with a clearer mind. This is because they are going to be able to concentrate more on the job.

4. Better Sleep

Another benefit is that a person is going to be able to sleep a lot better. The running could make a person tired so they are going to be able to fall asleep a lot quicker. The person is also going to be able to sleep a little bit longer with a better quality of sleep. Therefore, in the morning a person is going to feel a lot more refreshed.

5. Sense of achievement

A person is going to feel like they have a greater sense of achievement. This is because a person’s physical and mental health is really going to start to get better over a period of time. Therefore, a person’s life is going to improve by a lot. A person is always going to feel like they have achieved something when they are no longer wasting their days by doing nothing with their life.

6. More attractive

Also, a person is going to feel like they are a lot more attractive. This is especially true for a person that loses a lot of weight because of the running that they do on a regular basis. This is because the person is going to look a lot more toned and athletic when they have been running for awhile. Plus, a person is going to be a lot healthier and have a good body weight on them because of the running.

7. Positive mindset

The seventh and final benefit is that a person is going to have a way better mindset on them if they have been running for awhile. Therefore, a person is going to be able to enjoy their life a lot more. This means that they are going to get a lot more out of their endeavors. Plus, everyone else in your life is going to be able to enjoy being around you. This is because you are going to be a much happier person.

Erica Janisen loves getting a good workout on the beach, spending time with her poodle, Carlisle, and getting a good deal. She recently purchased her first home, and got a great deal on insurance at homeownersinsurance.org

Listen to your body and live life to the fullest!

Exercise- we hate it we love it! Secretly, we want to exercise, but lack motivation. Here are some good reasons to motivate us into an active lifestyle.

1. Exercise improves mood and stamina.

Stress takes over our day. We feel cornered, finding ourselves in an angry mood. We need to blow steam in order to relax. Good news! Exercise does that automatically. When we take a fast walk, or play outside in the fresh air, the brain releases our endorphins. Endorphins are, literally,happy chemicals. Our body knows what we need and therefore, produces these happy chemicals to motivate us to be happier people, improving our self-esteem.

2. We sleep better.

Yes, stress causes lack of sleep. Exercise regulates and improves our sleep. There have been studies about this, and the results are clear. All of them show how important sleep is to our body. Activity actually help our body stay asleep. Studies show that we need to move, at least twenty to thirty minutes four times a week to see results! Since moving around increases energy, work out in the morning or afternoons, not evenings. A good night sleep is excellent for better health it gives the body the time to rejuvenate the cells.

3. Create stronger muscles and bones.

Regular exercise keeps our bones strong, bones, and muscles love a challenge. When we move, our bones thicken to help our body do heavy physical activity. This actually maintains good health, strength, and youthfulness. Exercising just a little, as few as three times a week, retains our flexibility, and prevention of serious diseases like osteoporosis. Exercise prevents us from being frail at our old age. As for myself, I want to be able get older gracefully avoiding the need of a walker! Strong bones lead to strong muscles. Strong muscles lead to better circulation. Better circulation lead to healthier body! How about it? Will you make the commitment?

4. Develop a strong immune system.

One reason to keep on moving is our internal ability to fight disease. As we exercise, our body takes in more air, improves its circulation, and therefore is able to fight disease. Our very immunity becomes stronger. We are able to fight heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and strokes. Our life is at stake here! Remember, a little work out goes a long way. Listen to your body and move around.  Go on…we all know exercise helps preventing disease. Our body is ready to fight for us.  All we have to do is move a little.

5. Exercise burns fat plain and simple.

Not moving has taken over. We live in the computer age, TV, movies, and staying indoors. We order take out food, or cook fast frozen food. That’s the way we gain weight. Moving around is good. Exercise burns fat, and allows you to eat more without gaining fat back. When muscles get big they love to eat fat, because fat ultimately is extra stored energy just waiting to be consumed, besides, exercise gives us a great body.

6. Improve mental ability, yes the brain!

Walking a half hour three times a week has proven to bring better memory, the ability to concentrate on difficult tasks, and improves our reaction time. Studies have shown that diseases such as Alzheimer and mental deterioration in general, improve a lot. Moving energetically stimulates the middle of our brain, improving memory and attention span.

Exercise does not have to be hard. You just have to set aside time every day to be active. Go for a walk, or play ball with the kids. As long as we move, we will be ok. Your very life is on the line!

Jamie Wright is a stay at home mom who tries to include her twin daughters, Annie and Alexia, in her daily fitness routine. She knows that taking care of her young children is important, and that includes insurance. For a great rate, she checked out healthinsurancequotes.org

Runner’s Remedy Cold Compressions Stop the Pain

It happened so fast I wasn’t even sure what had exactly had happened. All I felt was a blinding hot pain in my right calf muscle. I had a history of rolling my ankles and was used to the sprains and swelling that went with it.

This time was different. My ankle had rolled underneath me while I was walking down a flight of stairs and all of my weight had come straight down, pinning my lower leg between the weight of my body and the sharp corner of the step I was on. At the hospital, I was informed that I had torn my Achilles tendon.

I was sent home in a walking boot and a pair of crutches. The doctor had instructed me to keep ice on the area as much as possible to keep swelling down and promote healing. After the first day of trying to keep ice cubes on my leg, I was frustrated. I couldn’t get up and move around much as it was, but then to have to keep ice on it all the time was quickly pushing me over the edge. I am a very active person and I don’t like being tied down to a chair.

I was almost out of patience when I remembered a product I had used in the past, when my muscles were sore and I needed to ice them. I used a Runner s Remedy cold compression. Like the name sounds Runner s Remedy makes compression wraps for runners. They have different types of wraps for different injuries. Lucky for me, among the different styles they had Achilles tendon compression wraps for runners.

Once I started using my new Runner’s Remedy cold compression, I noticed an immediate change in how my leg felt. On top of that, the frustration of having to sit still and hold ice cubes or an ice pack on my leg was no longer an issue, as Runner’s Remedy leg packs go around your leg, kind of like a sock and they provide a pocket that the ice pack slips right into and stays in place. This gave me light support along with the ice therapy that I needed.

I still use my runner’s remedy cold compression wrap when my leg starts getting sore and each time I do, I am grateful that I have it.

The Benefits of A Friendly Squash Game

I played my first real squash game a month ago. I’d heard of the game in college but I had no idea how to play. My husband and I headed to the gym with borrowed squash equipment. It was a little confusing to me at first. I didn’t even understand the squash balls, they’re practically dead and you have to roll them under your feet to warm them up. Overall, the game is like racquetball, with a few different rules and that non-bouncing ball. I really enjoyed that first experience and have tried to play regularly to this day.

One thing I like about this game is that it moves very fast and is a really good cardio workout. It does not feel like a workout because you have to focus on the strategy and tactics of the game. It did not take that long to learn how to play squash, by the end of our first session I had it down pretty well. It was not long before I went ahead and bought squash equipment and balls of my own.

As a beginner, I used squash balls that had a lot more bounce in them but I have moved on to a more challenging, firmer ball. There are different levels of bounce in the different styles of squash balls which helps make the game easier for those with less experience. It is a lot easier to play with someone about your same skill level or a bit better who uses the same equipment as you. The game becomes very challenging playing a highly skilled player and using their balls with less bounce.

One thing about squash equipment I learned is that goggles are almost imperative. Eye protection should be a top priority considering the swinging rackets and speed of the ball. You will get in the other players way and you will swing the racket close to each other. With a few precautions though, the game is as safe as any other pick-up sport.

I would absolutely recommend this sport to anyone interested in trying something new. At least ask someone who plays to let you join in a squash game. It is a great workout, is quite strategic, and is inexpensive to play. Best of all, you can burn up to 1400 calories in just one hour! It may take a while to get really good, but it does not take long to learn how to play squash.

ASICS GEL DS Trainer

Does anyone remember their first pair of athletic shoes? Probably not, but you probably do remember your first pair of really good athletic shoes. The ones that you wore until the sole was falling off and your big toe had punched through the top.

Anyone that is a runner remembers that pair of Asics, the ones that fit like a great pair of jeans, which were wrapped with duct tape around the ball of the shoe covering a hole in the bottom. That same pair of shoes that saw you through your first 5k race, the one where you barely finished, just got you through a 10K where you finished in the front of the pack.

Asics has been a reputable name in the athletic shoe game in the U.S. since 1977, when Mr. Kihachiro Onitsuka a Japanese businessman, transformed his basketball shoe company, into the athletic shoe dynasty we know today. The name ASICS is based on a Latin phrase “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano”. This translated means “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body” which was Onisuka’s belief that the best way to a healthy and happy lifestyle is to promote total health and fitness.

Today, the company still strives to bring harmony to the body and soul. This philosophy is evident in their products like the Asics Gel DS Trainer. This trainer, so light weight you barely feel them on your feet, has great stability to protect you through whatever training you want to engage. The beauty of this newest trainer is they are suitable for a beginning runner, yet its stability is suitable for a race veteran. One report stated that the Asics Gel running shoe was the most worn shoe of participants in the Ironman Triathlon.

Today ASICS Gel running shoes upper layers are thinner, with more ventilation for your toes, making the shoe ultra-lightweight. This breathing capability means less need for washing, giving the shoe a longer life span. The Asics Gel DS trainer changes more with each new edition, more than any of the Asics Gel running shoes. The company’s website claims that the Asics designers “mess with” this shoe more than anything they make. Why change this shoe more with each version than any other shoe that Asics makes? I would guess that runners demand more “out of their shoes” than other consumer athletes.

On paper, the shoes available today from Asics sound like they make your feet enjoy the workout. I guess the only way to find out is to buy a pair of Asics Gel DS Trainers and take them for a test run.

 

Holabird Sports is offering Asics Gel DS Trainer running shoes at low closeout prices. Get yours today before they’re gone!

The Wahoo Fitness BlueHR Heart Rate Monitor for Weight Loss

When I finally made the decision that this was time that I got serious about losing weight and getting back into shape, I decided I would give running a try. While I certainly did not start out being much of a runner, I did progress with time and have really come to enjoy my workouts. One of the best things I did was to purchase a Wahoo Fitness BlueHR heart rate monitor. This little Wahoo monitor allows me to keep track of my progress and it provides the impetus I needed to keep me on track and moving forward.

One of the major benefits with the Wahoo Fitness monitor is that it allows you to not only keep a check on your heart rate, which is ideal for ensuring that you get the best workout possible, but it also gives you the flexibility of being able to add various features, such as a stride sensor. I love the fact that I can use my Wahoo Fitness BlueHR heart rate monitor with my iPhone 4S. This amazing little feature lets me run wirelessly and the built in Bluetooth technology sends the information from my Wahoo monitor directly to my iPhone. Talk about convenient!

I was surprised to find the many apps that work with this amazing Wahoo Fitness monitor. In fact, I use a number of different apps, but my favorite, so far, is the mapping app called MapMyRun. This is a really handy tool that not only maps my run, but after inputting my height and weight it now keeps track of how many calories I have burned during my workout. There are certainly lots of other great apps that I also like to use with my Wahoo Fitness BlueHR heart rate monitor. For example, the 3, 2, 1 Run app records my GPS coordinates as I run and the iBody app is perfect for tracking my running routes and distance, as well as my blood pressure, weight, body fat, cholesterol and of course, the number of calories I have burned.

Finding a Wahoo monitor that can keep me motivated and losing weight has been the biggest factor in helping me to achieve my weight loss goals. Of course, I still have a ways to go, but this gadget gives me the incentive and motivation I need to keep moving and I have been able to gradually increase the length of my runs as well as the intensity of my workouts.

Tennis for Kids: The Right Equipment Makes a Big Difference When You’re Playing 10 and Under Tennis

I remember when I was very young, and I was very focused on 10 and under tennis. It was my only hobby and after-school sport after I got out of elementary school class. USTA junior tennis was also something I was involved in. I remember purchasing kids tennis racquets with my mom. There is something so fun about starting tennis for the first time. I saw a lot of kids that I knew from school which made it easy to start up a tennis match with them when I got to practice. I was lucky because there were also reliable instructors on hand to help make those match-ups that were so fun to play.

Starting tennis when you’re young is the best way to do it. It is a great time to get a handle on the basics and learn the ropes. The USTA has made it even easier by launching a complete 10 and Under Tennis Program. You can really get a feel for what it’s like to be a tennis player, the excitement and joy of playing a match, when you’re younger and learning how to do the basic moves. When you’re young the stress of playing right isn’t too overwhelming, and it’s easier to really enjoy the sport and get the hang of it. USTA junior tennis is where it gets a little tougher. Luckily, junior tennis racquets are a bit cheaper than regular adult racquets. You have to continually purchase kids tennis racquets throughout your life as you’re growing up and changing size. It’s important that you always play with the right size racquet so that you can avoid injury and play your best.
I remember way back when I was a child, and we went to the store to get my first junior tennis racquet and shoes. My mother had played tennis throughout her entire life and she was a very good player. In addition to my instructors, she taught me a lot. Plus, she knew the importance of me having the right equipment and she was right: the proper size racquet completely changed my game.

I had a lot more fun when I was young and just learning how to play versus when I was a bit older and had to play in professional practice. If you have a kid who is interested in playing tennis the best advice that I can give you is to start him or her early and to make sure your kid has the proper equipment for his or her ability and size.

Camden Yards: 20 Years of Changing Baseball

Baseball season has officially begun! Here in Baltimore we’re rooting for the Orioles. To be honest, the past few years haven’t been great, but we do have Camden Yards. When I was online today looking for tickets to tonight’s Orioles / Yankees game I noticed something interesting on the website, a trademarked statement: “The Ballpark That Forever Changed Baseball.”

April 6, 1992—twenty years ago—Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened and, according the Orioles website, “a new era of Major League Baseball began.” The park changed ballpark construction and is the new standard by which other ballparks are measured. It’s new but still feels old-fashioned, able to bring fans back to days of hot dogs and cracker jacks… but with local microbreweries and much better food. It is, as USA Today aptly called it, “tradition based.”

USA Today continued to say, “The park’s success sparked a boom that has produced 20 new stadiums since it opened, a trend that has affected perhaps the greatest impact on the game since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947.”

In addition to being new yet old, the stadium was smaller and built into Baltimore, not on the outskirts, to help with the revitalization of the city. And, at least to some extent, it has worked. Going to see the Yankees play in New York is extremely expensive. Fans can travel to Baltimore, stay in a hotel, go to a restaurant and attend the game for less money than New York tickets. It’s a lot more bang for your buck. It’s easy to walk to the ballpark from downtown and enjoy much of what the city has to offer—the Baltimore Aquarium, the Inner Harbor and the new, upscale Harbor East for starters. Having all the tourists in our city for baseball helps us in so many ways, and while Baltimore is more than The Wire, and while we have been getting better and better, we still need the help.

However, as Camden Yards celebrates its 20-year anniversary, Miami’s new Marlin Parks may be the end of the Camden Yard era. It’s modern, futuristic, shiny and full of technology. It may be the new mold for ballparks of the future but for those of us who have enough technology every time we open our doors and who crave a little more tradition, we’ll enjoy Camden Yards and the many parks which came after.

This Group of People Cannot Be Members in the Masters Golf Club

The green-jacketed Augusta Golf Club needs to wake up and greet the 21^st century. The club is 80 years old and so is their sexist and restrictive membership policy. Hopefully this year, their out-of-date, hateful policy will lose them a huge amount of funding.

The Augusta Golf Club, home of the elite Masters Tournament and green jackets, does not allow women to be members. According to Reuters, “IBM, the world’s largest technology services company, is a long-standing sponsor of the Masters and its past four CEO’s have been granted membership to Augusta National.” Augusta is in for a big decision because IBM’s newest CEO is Ginni Rometty, a woman.

Will the club grant her membership? Or will they spurn a major sponsor? I hope that if Augusta slights Rometty that she sticks up for women everywhere and pulls IBM’s sponsorship. I hope other companies follow suit and leave Augusta with nothing.

Augusta didn’t invite their first black member until 1990 and IBM was a big part of that change. Let IBM do the same thing for women, especially now that we seem to be under attack on all sorts of issues.

I understand that it’s a private club. That’s fine; they can be a private club with archaic practices but let’s take the Masters away from them. Any place that practices in discrimination doesn’t deserve the money and prestige that come with hosting such a major tournament.

In 2010 the International Olympic Committee looked at a 2002 controversy when re-examining whether golf meets Olympic criteria of a “sport practiced without discrimination with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” I guess they think it’s okay because golf will return in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

French Open

The French Open 2012 also known as Roland Garros is hosted in Paris, France and will be held May 27th to June 10th this year. Defending his title this year for the Mens tennis tournament is Rafael Nadal from Spain. The Women’s defender, currently ranked 17 is Na Li from China. This exhilarating sport will be live on television keeping us on the edge of our seat to see who will reign supreme this year.

Roland Garros was a famous French aviator in which the tennis tournament is named after. The French Open is a premier clay court and the second of four annual Grand Slam tennis tournaments and the only one using clay. The other Grand Slam tournaments are held on grass includes Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open.

Big serves on clay is no longer big and become slower. The clay surface changes the balls speed and many high profile players in the past never won a tournament at the French Open. John McEnroe, Venus Williams, Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport to name a few, have never won on a clay surface.

The trophies for the French Open 2012 are made of the finest pure silver with detailed etched decorations on the sides. Each winner will get their name etched onto a silver plate attached to the trophy for their distinguished accomplishment being a champion tennis player winning the tennis tournament.

In 2009 it was determined that the French Open was becoming inadequate and too small. French architect Marc Mimram was commissioned to design an addition with a retractable roof and larger seating capacity, but then the plans were renounced to a later date. The expansion of the French Open underwent considerations to relocate the tournament outside of Paris. It was later decided to keep the current location in Paris. Renovations will now take place in 2016 including a retractable room and the venue seating area will expand by sixty percent. This major improvement will include demolishing Court 1 and two new courts will be built.

The prize money for both the men’s and women’s singles tennis tournaments are divided equally. The winner of either tournament will receive the same prize money. The Roland Garros tennis Grand Slam tournament is a highly respected tournament which possesses a different type of strategy on clay which players tend to enjoy. The challenge is diverse and the expectations are high for the players with the potential benefit of winning this prestigious tournament.