Why is strength training important?

Are you a person like me who resolves to lose a few extra pounds every year when a family vacation or a wedding is fast approaching? Do you want to give your best shot at firming up your sagging muscles and look amazing in a favourite old dress?

If you have been thinking of starting with just a cardio exercise schedule to achieve this and more, you must seriously give a thought to trying strength training or exercising with weights along with it. Though cardio exercises or aerobic exercises are one of the most propagated forms of exercises to increase the heart rate and metabolism that are important to shed fat, strength training helps you to gain muscles, improve balance, improve heart fitness, strengthen your bones and give your body a toned look.

It’s a myth that strength training makes women bulk up. High levels of estrogen in women make it difficult for women to bulk up. Bodybuilders have to go through rigorous training and maintain a protein rich diet to bulk up. Thus, if you think that only lifting a few weights a few days a week will make you bulk up like them, be rest assured that bodybuilding needs a lot more effort than this. So instead of worrying about this, let’s look at some of the benefits that strength training offers.

Shedding fat and maintaining weight loss: Strength training helps in replacing the fat loss by building lean body mass. This muscle gain helps your body to burn fat more efficiently and also helps in maintaining weight loss.

While performing cardio exercises, your body consumes oxygen proportionately to the amount of calories burnt, resulting in weight loss in the form of fat and water loss. Whereas, strength training results in afterburn as the proportion in which the calories are burnt and oxygen is consumed is not proportional. Hence, an oxygen debt is created which results in excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC. This helps in replenishing the body after the wear and tear post exercise in a resting state. Thus, calories are burnt even after you have completed your workout. The more intense the workout the more afterburn you experience. But, the exerted muscles require rest to repair themselves and hence, strength training of the same set of muscles should be done only after a day’s rest. Ideally, performing aerobic exercises and strength training on alternate days provides best results.

Preserving muscle mass and strengthen bones: As we age, your lean body mass depletes slowly and fat piles on. But strength training helps in preserving and enhancing muscle mass and keeps our body toned and fat gain at bay. Also, as we get older, hormonal changes result in loss of bone density that can put you at the risk of encountering osteoporosis and make the bones brittle. Whereas, regular strength training can slow the rate of bone deterioration and also help in strengthening bones by improving bone density.

Preventing and reducing blood pressure: Strength training exercises also help in improving the muscles of the heart because while during strenuous exercise our muscles required more blood and the heart needs to work extra hard to keep up with it. Thus, over time the muscles of our heart strengthen and its efficiency to beat blood goes higher.

Reducing back pain: Strength training exercises helps in strengthening the muscles that hold up your back bone and thus helps in reducing back pain.

Improving the ability to carry out everyday work better: Toning your muscles will not only improve the way you look but will also help you improve your posture, balance, flexibility and coordination. With the strength you gain, you can carry out your everyday chores easily. You can easily carry your groceries, pick up a heavy package, push your lawn mover, carry you young ones, etc.

If these aren’t good enough reasons for you to start strength training, one more of its benefits is that it acts as an anti-depressant as it increases the level of endorphin in your body and makes you feel happier. You feel energetic and fit. It also helps you sleep better and improves the overall quality of your life. So pack up your gym bag and get ready to pump some iron!

Baking Soda - Its uses in solving everyday health and beauty issues

Did you know that a simple ingredient in your kitchen can help in solving a number of health and beauty issues? Be it indigestion, gas, acidity or a pimple on your face, it works wonders in all these cases.

What is sodium bicarbonate or baking soda?

It is a soluble white powder called Nahcolite. It is a part of the natural mineral called natron that is found in different parts of the world as well as naturally occurring mineral springs. It has natural cleansing properties because of which it is used in most of the household cleaning products, but it has a number of amazing medical benefits too.

How does sodium bicarbonate in solving health issues?

It is important for the human body to maintain its acid-base balance to remain healthy. The bicarbonate in soda is found in all the fluids in the human body and also in the organs to help maintain its pH balance.  When taken orally, sodium bicarbonate turns into carbon dioxide in the stomach after reacting with the organic acids in it. This results in an increase in the carbon dioxide level of the blood and tissues, which in turn also increasing the level of oxygen in the blood. A gain in one gas does not result in the loss of the other. Carbon dioxide helps in forming the bond between the oxygen and haemoglobin and results in release of oxygen from haemoglobin.

Some doctors give their patients oral, intravenous and aerosol doses of sodium bicarbonate to treat diseases like prostate cancer, breast cancer etc. Cancer cells multiply rapidly and result in the breakdown of sugars and the production of organic acids in the vicinity of the tumors. This acidic environment around the tumor in turn helps the cancer cells to spread rapidly. Thus, by raising the pH level around the microenvironment of the tumor prevents the cancer from spreading by starving the cancer cells. It also protects the organs from the harmful effects of chemotherapy and other cancer drugs.

What are the other everyday health and beauty benefits of sodium carbonate?

Treating cold and flu: One of the first uses of baking soda for medical purpose was to treat cold and flu. Consuming it with water helped in prevention of cold and flu, and also its treatment by reducing its symptoms in a day or two.

Treating heartburn and indigestion:  To treat heartburn and indigestion, you can stir half a teaspoon of baking soda into half a cup of water and drink it an hour or two after meals. Avoid drinking this alkaline liquid too often as this can also weaken your gut and the digestive system in general.

Reducing allergic itching: Baking soda can be applied as a topical antiseptic agent that helps in reducing itching caused by allergic skin reactions. It helps in balancing the pH balance of the skin and sooth itching.

Preventing blisters and scarring: Since blisters are tender areas on skin that are filled with fluid, application of baking soda on them can help in drying them out. Since it sooths itching, it also reduces your desire to scratch and pick at scabs and thus helps in avoiding scars from forming. A paste of three parts of baking soda combined with one part water can be used as a scrub to remove dead skin and lighten scars.

Treating pimples: A teaspoon of baking soda can be mixed with a little water and applied directly on the pimples. It can be kept on for about 15 minutes and should then be rinsed off with water. The paste can be applied and kept overnight too but with precaution as it quickly dries out skin. You must apply moisturizer to the skin after the application of baking soda to keep it hydrated.

Removing splinters: Baking soda can be mixed with a few drops of water and applied to the affected area and kept for a few minutes twice daily. After a few applications, the splinter will come out on its own.

Busting plaque and stains from teeth: A mixture of six parts of baking soda to one part of sea salt can be stored in a container and used to clean gums and remove plaque from teeth. This mixture can also be used with a few drops of lemon and applied to remove stains from teeth. This should be done just once a week as using it more often and keeping it too long on teeth can damage the tooth enamel.

Deodorizing feet and underarms: You can add one-half cup of baking soda to bathwater to sooth your skin and also remove bacteria from it to make it odour free. You can also mix a little of baking soda and water to form a paste and apply it on your feet or on the underarms to deodorize them.

I’m sure that by now you are convinced to bring out the unused packet of baking soda lying in your kitchen drawer and try it out to see its magical properties work wonders for you!