These tips can head off your headache before it ruins your day

 

Press Pressure Points

There are two pressure points known to relieve headache pain. One is on your forehead. Press a thumb between your eyes while pressing down on your hairline with your first two fingers. The other pressure point is at the base of the web of flesh where the bones of your thumb and forefinger meet. Press hard with your opposite thumb.

 

Use Your Nose

Whiffs of peppermint can alleviate tension headaches. Some research, however, suggests that aromatherapy may only be useful if you like that particular smell. If you despise the odor of peppermint, try sniffing a green apple, another scent that has also had some success.

 

Sip Some Coffee

A jolt of caffeine as you feel a migraine coming on might sidetrack the attack. Try having some strong coffee, cola or a caffeine-laden energy drink.

 

Just Breathe

Learning how to relax can help combat tension, a common migraine trigger. Breathe slowly and deeply, with your eyes closed, concentrating on nothing but your breath.

 

Step Away

Go for a brisk walk. Mild exercise improves circulation, which counters the constriction of blood vessels that is a common precursor to headaches.

 

Apply Frozen Veggies

Grab a bag of frozen peas and apply it to the base of your neck while lying in a quiet, darkened room. Ice is an effective anti-inflammatory and it numbs pain—so try it on your throbbing temples, too.

 

Put Your Mind to Work

Close your eyes and imagine your pain as an object—a burning sun, perhaps—then picture it shrinking into the distance, or douse it with water, until it disappears. This technique, called visualization, takes practice but has been proven effective.

 

Simple Tips To Get the Perfect Beach Body

Tip One - Cardio
Shorter, high-intensity, interval cardio sessions are optimal for fat loss. Working at a high intensity for 30 seconds to a minute, recovering for 30-60 secs, and repeating for 25 minutes.



Tip Two - Resistance and Weights Training
For an upper body like this, you’d need to do a combination of core/abdominal exercises including crunches over the fit ball, cable wood chops, plank holds, hanging leg raises and controlled leg lowering with partner resistance. And with weight training you get more bang for your buck, increasing your metabolism for up to 48 hours after the session.



Tip Three - Diet
Embracing your inner caveman is also key. Once you have a good base of muscle the rest is all diet. Go crazy with foods that were around 10,000 years ago — vegies and protein. Up to 80 per cent of how you look is what, when and how much you eat. Avoid processed carbohydrates like bread, pasta, cakes, pastries and muffins as carbohydrate molecules bond with water molecules causing water retention and giving you a puffy look. Also stay away from things that have a long shelf life. They contain lots of chemicals and hidden nasties.



Tip Four - Alcohol Intake
As for a six pack, avoid the bottled variety if you really want definition. Alcohol is easily converted into fat, and it impacts your blood sugar, making you crave sugar and fat. It all adds up to a beer gut.

Road Running vs Treadmill

Not sure whether to do road or treadmill running? Both have their benefits and limitations. Ultimately, whichever best suits your physical and lifestyle needs is the best choice.

Road running

 

 

Pros: It's cheap and challenging - all you need is a good pair of shoes. You'll burn more energy due to wind resistance and the absence of a treadmill's forward propulsion, and the variety of surfaces is great on the body. It's also the best training for a running event.

Cons: Bad weather is an easy deterrent, and the greater impact on bones and joints can lead to injuries.

Treadmill running

 

 

Pros: It's easy to monitor and reliable. There are no external factors that can hinder your workout weather, vehicles and pedestrians). You can choose your own pace and gradient, there is less impact on your joints and it's easy to chart your progress.

Cons: Frequent use can hurt your knees, due to a lack of hamstring activation.


 

The Best Exercise You Should Do

The Best Leg Exercise
The best leg exercise: barbell squats

This is the best exercise for adding leg muscle. Here’s how to get 
tree-trunk thighs:

1. Stand with a barbell across the back of your shoulders.
2. Bend your knees and hips to lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then rise to the starting position.

The Best Abs Exercise
The best abs exercise: bicycle crunches

 

 To carve out your core, follow these instructions:

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent to 90 degrees. Lace your fingers behind your head. Move your knees towards your chest and lift up your shoulder blades.
2. Straighten your left leg and bring your left elbow towards your right knee.
3. Switch sides then pump in a cycling motion.

The Best V-Shape Exercise
The best exercise to build your v shape: lat pulldowns

 

Lat pulldowns is the best builder of upper-back mass, as they isolate your back muscles. For a muscular back that will make your waist appear smaller, do this:

1. Sit at a lat pulldown station and grab the bar with a wider-than-shoulder-width grip, palms facing forward.
2. Keeping your back straight, pull the bar to the top of your chest.
3. Pause, then let the bar rise to the starting position.

The Best Barrel Chest Exercise
The best exercise for a 
barrel chest: flat dumbbell bench press

 

Dumbbell bench press used slightly more muscle than its nearest rival, the barbell bench press. Here’s how to build a treasure chest she’ll adore:

1. Lie on a flat bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand above your chest with your elbows locked.
2. Lower the weights to the sides of your chest, then press them back to the starting position.

The Best Triceps Exercise
The best exercise for triceps: decline triceps extensions

Triceps make up 66 per cent of the muscle in your upper arm — ignore them at your peril. The following move uses 92 per cent of the muscle fibres in your triceps:

1. Lie on a decline bench and position a barbell above your shoulders.
2. Bend your elbows to lower the weight until it is behind your head.
3. Keep your elbows pointed up throughout the move.
4. Straighten your arms to return to the start.

The Best Biceps Exercise
The best exercise for biceps: straight bar preacher curls

 

This move roped in a whopping 90 per cent of the muscle fibres in biceps. To tighten your sleeves, do this:

1. Grasp a bar with an underhand, shoulder-width grip. Lean across an incline bench and extend your arms fully.
2. Bend your elbows 
to curl the weight up as far as possible.
3. Keep your elbows anchored.

The superfoods for "supermen"

You’d be surprised to discover many of the foods already in your diet are considered super.

A food is deemed “super” when it is packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids or other beneficial substances.

Superfoods can help protect against cancer and heart disease, lower cholesterol, protect the organs from toxins and improve digestive health. Some nutritionists even say superfoods can help you live longer.

So next time you head to the supermarket and your partner reaches for the goji berries, ensure you tick some of the following off the list too...

1.    Oats

That’s right – your morning muesli or porridge is a superfood before you add berries or coconut to it.

When grains contain high amounts of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals, we call them supergrains. Supergrains also include quinoa and chia.

Oats are high in fibre and can help lower cholesterol. They’re also packed with protein and therefore a natural energy booster. Kick-start your day with a bowl of oats and milk or soy milk, and add some more superfoods for twice the power!

2.    Almonds

In their raw state, almonds contain almost entirely 'good' fats or monosaturated fats, which can lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Almonds are packed full of minerals including magnesium, potassium and calcium, as well as vitamin B6.

3.    Eggs

Eggs are the super hero of superfoods, with the highest nutritional quality protein of all food sources. Eggs also contain 11 different vitamins and minerals including vitamin A and folate.

They are an exceptional source of vitamin B12, vital for healthy red blood cells. Just one serve of eggs provides almost half the recommended dietary intake for vitamin B12.

4.    Coconut

The coconut, in its many shapes and forms (oil, flesh and water) has many superpowers.

When eaten raw, it is high in fibre and acts like a probiotic, feeding  the good bacteria in the intestines and keeping you regular.

Fresh coconut water is rich in electrolytes, aiding in hydration, providing minerals essential for bodily functions such as movement and brain function.

5.    Avocado

Avocadoes are packed with healthy fats and nutrients including oleic acid, lutein, folate, vitamin E, monounsaturated fats and glutathione.

Eating avocadoes will help protect your body from heart disease, cancer, degenerative eye and brain diseases.

6.    Wild salmon

Wild salmon is packed with Omega-3 (healthy fats which help lower cholesterol and risk of developing heart disease). Salmon has also been touted as having slimming superpowers.

Always go for wild salmon over farmed local salmon – it’s higher in Omega-3 and free of unwanted toxins and contamination. That includes Scandinavian, Scottish or Canadian salmon.

7.    Dark chocolate

UK researchers have recently found dark chocolate and natural cocoa powder contain more flavenols and polyphenols than the juices of such superfoods as blueberries, cranberries and acai berries.

The antioxidants of dark chocolate help reduce heart disease and fight ageing.

A deep breathing is a key to calm & to help beat stress

Breathe in for five, breathe out for five. We've all heard those simple instructions when we've felt anxious, nervous or stressed. It's a familiar refrain: "a few deep breaths and you'll be fine". But can deep breathing really calm your stress? In short, yes.

In Eastern cultures, breathing has long been recognised as essential for maintaining life force energy or chi. In Western culture, it's finally being recognised as one of the most beneficial things you can do to improve health and wellbeing, yet most of us do it wrong.

Basically, deep breathing occurs when you push downwards on your diaphragm – the large muscle at the base of your stomach – and allow your lungs to fill with air, starting at the bottom and reaching all the way to the top.

Sounds simple but, in fact, most of us do the opposite and suck in the stomach as we inhale, leaving less room for air in the lungs. Or worse yet, we lift our shoulders and only fill the top third of the lungs, taking in the bare minimum of oxygen necessary for survival.

Owing to bad habits such as slouching – which diminishes lung capacity – or the many stressors we face day-to-day, many of us have become habitual 'chest breathers'.

Deep breathing improves the overall functioning of our bodies by providing an optimal supply of oxygen to all of our organs and improving detoxification through stimulating the lymphatic system. Deep breathing can clear your mind and improve concentration and focus.

Try it for yourself

Try this basic deep breathing technique and see how you feel afterwards.

• Sit or lie in a comfortable position, hands on your knees or by your sides, shoulders relaxed.
• Inhale slowly to the count of five. Expand your belly as you breathe in.
• As you exhale, breathe out slowly through your nose, counting to five. Activate your abdominal muscles and draw in your diaphragm to help your lungs deflate.
• Pause for two counts and then inhale slowly again.
• Repeat this cycle at least five to 10 times.

How to avoid a sporting injury? You can minimise your risk of getting hurt

A sprained ankle can catch even the most seasoned fitness enthusiast off guard. So whatever it is you do for exercise, it's worth familiarising yourself with the RICE regime: rest, ice, compress, elevate. A serious ankle sprain can take up to eight weeks to heal. The good news is the majority of sporting injuries can be avoided with the right gear, technique and a little patience.

Running

Common injuries: Wear and tear on joints, in particular ankles, knees and hips; shin splints; pulled muscles; sprained ligaments; stress fractures.

Why: From pounding hard surfaces; wearing incorrect shoes; not building up slowly in training.

Avoid by: Getting the right footwear; building up slowly.

You don't see too many older people jogging or running and there's a valid reason for this. Over a period of time, it certainly wears out joints because it's a pounding activity. A fast walk that gets your heart rate up is better than a slow jog in terms of cardiovascular benefits, and because of what it does to your joints, ankles and knees in particular, and hips to some extent. Runners tend to do too much too soon, risking pulling a muscle, spraining a ligament and shin splints or stress fractures from pounding hard surfaces.

Get into training slowly in terms of pace and distance. Make sure you have the right shoe. You need a running shoe rather than a cross-trainer because they've been designed to absorb different types of impact forces.

 

Cycling

Common injuries: Injuries from falling off or being hit by a car; back and shoulder pain; knee or hand damage.

Why: Insufficient caution and awareness or bad luck; not setting up the bike to suit your body; gripping handlebars too hard.

Avoid by: Wearing a helmet and the right gear; setting your bike up correctly.

Cycling is a great way to keep fit outdoors, but the most serious injuries occur from falling off the bike or being hit by a car. That's why wearing a helmet and the right gear is crucial.
Other injuries, such as back and shoulder pain or knee and hand damage, occur from a bike that doesn't fit your body, incorrect posture and overextending yourself. Cycling is a fairly injury-free activity, especially for recreational cyclists.

Be cautious of where you ride and be very alert. You should get your bike set up correctly with correct balance and not be too heavy on hands or feet. Adjusting the seat height and learning to spin rather than pushing heavy gears can help relieve pressure on knees and hips. Standing and riding with a straight back can ease lower back pain, while not gripping the handles too firmly can eliminate tingling or numbness in the fingers or palms.

Yoga

Common injuries: Torn ligaments or strained muscles; dislocated joints (if prone to joint problems).

Why: Overstretching.

Avoid by: Listening to your body.

Those who turn to yoga who have been inactive for a while are at greater risk of injury, including tearing a ligament or straining a muscle. People who have had joint replacements need to be careful not to dislocate the joint. On the whole, yoga is safe. Most people should have the common sense to listen to what their body's telling them and if it's telling them it's going to an extreme, back off.

It's important to take classes from a qualified instructor and be careful if you've had recent back pain. Just stretch as far as you can to a comfort point, not any further. Flexibility will build up over time; patience is key.

 

At the gym

Common injuries: Tendonitis; shin splints; stress fractures.

Why: Insufficient warm-up or warm-down; doing too much too soon; not wearing the right shoes.

Avoid by: Easing yourself into your routine.

Start slowly, and ensure your gym has a well-sprung floor (rather than concrete). Also, get the right shoes and start with low-impact classes. Improper technique can result in soft-tissue damage, and warm-up is crucial.

A gym program needs 15 to 20 minutes of warm-up and 10 to 15 minutes warm-down, depending on the intensity of the middle block of training. Learning how to lift weights correctly is also important in preventing strains.