Running is an excellent form of exercise, in my opinion. For me, in the summer, there’s nothing like taking a jog out in the fresh air, past the corn fields in the backroads by our home, and just enjoying the feeling of being free, and using my legs what they were meant for.

I’m not a big “runner”, in that I don’t do sprints, but instead take a slower gait and jog, but there are some times when I’ll sprint short distances and alternate jogging and running to really get my metabolism going. 

One thing you have to be really careful of when running, especially if you’re just starting out, is to protect your back and your joints from being damaged.  Running is excellent for you, however, there is a high risk of back and joint injury because it is considered a high impact sport.

To lessen the blow of the concrete or pavement on your joints and back, it is absolutely impertive that you get a really great pair of running shoes. Without good running shoes, you are putting yourself at risk for injury and discomfort. 

Excellent running shoes will absorb the shock of the impact every time your foot hits the ground, so you get a smooth, impact free exercise, instead of a jarring, potentially damaging exercise.

My favorite pair of running shoes right now is the Adidas Supernova for women.  I don’t like the Supernova II’s, because in my opinion, they were not as well cushioned as the Supernova originals.  They make you feel like you’re running on air.  They work well on pavement and cement.

Another way you can help ensure you are running without to much jolting and pressure is to run on a rubberized track. This may be hard to find, but if you have a high school near you, many schools are now turning to these tracks because they lessen the amount of injuries seen in sprinter and track runner.

They are a much softer and safer surface to run on. We have on at the high school near us, and although it’s hard to find a time when it’s not being used by their track or football team, it’s excellent on your feet and joints whenever we do find a free time for it.

Running with the righ posture is also absolutely essential to protecting your back and joints from injury or damage. Too many people run with the wrong posture, which puts more pressure on their joints, and can make the back and neck strain to stay straight.

Run straight up and down, but not so that you’re bouncing up and down too much, rather that you’re driving forward.

Exercise is wonderful for your body, mind and spirit.  It helps us through stressful times, helps to elevate our mood and reduce anxiety, stress and depression, increases our heart and circulatory health, helps us manage a healthy weight, and even helps us to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

That’s just the beginning of exercise benefits.  Many studies show that it also elevates our immunity, fends off several kinds of cancer, and also helps to reduce the likelihood of a bevy of other deadly diseases that are an unfortunate part of the human condition.

Even though exercise is excellent for your health, psychological well being and even your spirit, there is such a thing as over doing it.  People who have an unhealthy obsession with working out often can go hours at the gym or exercising in their homes. 

This type of exercise obsession often accompanies serious eating disorders or other unhealthy and potentially deadly habits.  “Other” deadly habits may include something like taking anabolic steroids to get larger muscle mass in professional body builders.

I guess my rule of thumb for healthy means when something that is meant to enhance health takes up the majority of your life and starts to interfere with “living” on a day to day basis.  At that point, really anything, whether it’s considered a healthy habit or not, becomes destructive.

People with habits of working out too much actually endanger their heart by overworking it.  They often may also be endangering it by not eating enough food, if they happen to also be anorexic or bulimic. If they are not taking in enough potassium, they can go into cardiac arrest from over working their bodies.

The heart is a muscle, and although working it out on a daily basis is good for it because it keeps your heart in great condition, and able to handle challenges of the physical sort, over working it can have the effect of weakening the heart muscles.

One also may experience deyhdration as a result of overheating and excessive sweating. This can also cause the body to go into cardiac arrest, so constant hydration is very important when you are really pushing yourself at the gym.

Addiction to exercise can aslo interfere with one’s life by “taking over”.  If you feel that you absolutely have to get hours a day in to even feel normal, it’s probably safe to assume that you’ve become addicted to something.

There’s a lot of talk about this magical “40″ number. For some reason, the media seems to think that once a woman hits this age, it’s absolutely phenomenal if she still looks great in a bathing suit. That really irritates me as a woman who plans on being fit well past 40, and into my old age.

Sure, I know that things naturally don’t defy gravity as well as they used to when you pass 40 or 50 – that’s just a natural process. But that doesn’t mean that all women are doomed to put on pounds and pounds of fat and just give up on having a nice, trim and fit physique.

Surely 40 is really the new fifty since we’ve come such a long way in fitness and sports nutrition, ways of working out that are more efficient and far healthier for us, and ways to eat that stretch our life span to its max.

As we age, our levels of an important hormone called HGH, or Human Growth Hormone, which gives us our youthful supple look and more muscular and less fatty physiques when we are younger, drop.  They really start to drop off after the age of thirty in fact.  Well, guess what increases HGH production?  Sleep and exercise!

That’s right. Exercising helps your body to produce this miracle youth hormone that helps you to reduce body and keep more muscle on your body for a longer time, as well as maintain a healthier weight more easily.  Especially if you exercise hard and then do not eat any carbs before or after your workout, that’s especially good for increased HGH production.

You may want to consider taking a supplement to help increase HGH production as well as you age. There are known amino acids and other natural ingredients which can help your body increase it’s own production of HGH which are much more practical, not to mention safer and cheaper, than getting HGH injections.

Continue to push your body by exploring new boundaries in your workouts, and keeping them fresh. Try rebounding, mountain climbing, rowing, elliptical machines, yoga, weight lifting and a variety of other types of fitness exercises that will really challenge your body and keep it in top shape by creating muscle confusion and burning fat.

If you follow this philosophy of fitness for the rest of your life, you’ll experience high energy, positive outlook, and a bangin’ body for a loooong time.

If you have a desk job, like I do, then you may want to listen up. Because even little standing and walking breaks during the day can make a big difference on your waistline, according to a new study.  Instead of being totally mobile for those eight hours, you should really try to get up and just take little mini-breaks from sitting on your duff.

I actually already do this simply because I really can’t sit still for long periods of time without feeling like I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t get up and get away.  It’s easy to sort of get caught up in whatever you’re working on, but just be mindful that getting up often, even if it’s just for a minute or two, can make a big difference not only in how you feel and your energy levels, but also in the way your body metabolizes fat and calories.

The study that broke this “news” actually found that those who got up and walked around or just stood the most during the week – meaning 1,000 times or more (believe me, it’s very easy, you lose track if you get up a lot, and even those little mini breaks really make a difference, for example, today alone I’ve probably gotten up at least one hundred times), you were much more likely to be much thinner – to the tune of 2 pants sizes less – than the counterparts who did not get up very much throughout their week.

How could simply getting up and moving, or standing up make such a difference? Well, apparently, just the mere act of getting up and standing from a sitting position, makes the back of your leg muscles move. These are large muscles, and they actually take some energy to put into motion, so you are burning calories pretty much as soon as they are activated.

Doing this several times throughout the day helps prevent your metabolic rate from slowing down, as it would traditionally do if you were in a sitting still position for hours at a time. This way, you continuously trip you metabolism on, over and over throughout the day, not even giving it a chance to slow down or switch itself off.

Hey, it’s not like you have to be running a marathon to get the calorie burning benefits, you just have to get up more often than you usually do – not bad ‘tall!

It’s amazing that our bodies can do what they do, just remember, get up, GET UP GET UP!  Once you get in the habit, it’s really easy to keep up with.

If you’ve ever heard that all you need to do to get flat, muscular abs is to do intense, grueling ab workouts, then you’ve been misinformed.

Because flat abs do not have as much fat layered over them, and therefore appear smooth and muscular, you must take the fat layers off in order to get there.

To do that, you really need to focus not only on your workouts and on this area of your body of course, but you also need to figure out a lowfat, high protein diet that suits you.

Because higher carb, high salt and fat diets are not going to get you those flat abs, trust me!

These types of diets create puffiness, bloat and excess layers of fat, the exact opposite of that washboard look you’re seeking.

In order to get those flat, sexy abs that are the envy of every man and woman, there are two ingredients that you will want to rely on heavily in your diet.  They are omega 3 fatty acids, which are the “healthy fats” you’re probably sick of hearing about, and fiber.

Omega 3 fats help to keep you full and reduce the amount of food you eat, ideally, while fiber helps keep you full and ideally reduces bloating and gas, both of which of course detract from “flat abs”.

If you are a fan of pasta and bread, it’s absolutely essential that you begin to enjoy whole grain varieties instead of the white flour kind.  This not only adds beneficial vitamins to your diet that you don’t get form the white variety, but it also adds fiber, which helps things keep moving along instead of staying put, which means a flatter belly.

Probiotics are an excellent addition to any diet.  These tiny micro organisms actually help to cleanse your digestive tract. They also reduce bloating and gas because they aid in digestion and the swift and efficient elimination of food.  They are one of the vital pieces to maintaining clean insides, which means your abs stay flatter looking.

Probiotics are a must if you experience sluggish digestion!  You can get them through yogurt, which is the preferred way since this is the most efficiently delivered to the areas of digestion where it is needed, but if you don’t like yogurt there are some health drinks available that have it as well.

It’s that time of year. The new year.  A year of new promises we make to ourselves, and many times that promise involves a promise to our bodies.

A promise to be better to our bodies. to work out more, to start working out if you never have, or to eat right.

And many times unfortunately, the people who are not really serious or really committed to their body’s health and well being and longevity, fall off this “wagon” of new promises within the first month or two of trying to make the effort to be more fit.

So, are you a wagon jumper, or are you someone who is really serious about treating their body right. About being in shape always and forever, and only skipping workouts periodically, ALWAYS getting back on the wagon quickly, never even questioning that you would get back on or not when you fall off.

I am of the latter group, and I never plan on slipping off of that wagon at all.  I’ve been working out, for better or for worse, since I was 15 years old. I knew right since then how exercise made me feel.

I had plenty of years to experiment and see how occasionally skipping a few days made me feel, and I knew that I didn’t want to feel that way if I didn’t have to. I’ve experienced the wonderful healing qualities of exercise, the quiet it gives my mind, and the way it makes me feel strong in every facet of my life – not just physically.

I made that commitment to myself a long time ago and I never intend to break it!  Hopefully you are all on the same journey and we can help support one another so that we can all live a long, healthy and prosperous life together and share our knowledge and inspiration.

Well, I went almost a full week without working out, which is almost unheard of for me. I literally feel like I’m going to go nuts when I don’t work out for that long.

SO, I try to keep my sedentary periods as short and as few and far between as possible.  I become impossibly short fused, tired and moody and unable to focus otherwise.

There’s several prices that sedentary people pay actually, and they may not even know it, especially if they’ve pretty much lived their whole lives that way, just not moving around much.

Not only is it bad for your body to sit all day, but it’s bad for your mind. When you don’t have blood pumping to your brain like it should be, you can begin to get pools of blood in places that you shouldn’t, and that can lead to both heart and stroke risks.

Not only that, but your mind just isn’t as sharp or as active as it should be when you are not getting up and moving around and getting oxygen to your blood, and getting that oxygenated blood to your brain.

I find that a huge price that I pay for not working out for periods of time is that my body gets incredibly stiff and sore. My neck and my back really act up, and it seems like my bones crack with even the slightest wrong move.

This is because when you work out, it’s almost like “oiling” your joints and bones. It makes you more limber, more lithe and more physically capable and able to be still without hurting.  I find that I get injured a lot more easily as well.

For instance, I’ll be walking up the stairs and twist my ankle by merely taking the corner a little too quickly. When I’m working out, that stuff doesn’t happen, at least not nearly as often.

Last but not least, my ATTITUDE is so much better when I’m being active and physical. I feel like I want to crawl the walls when I’m not getting enough exercise, and exercise really remedies that problem and makes my attitude toward life a lot more peaceful and enjoyable. And I am consequently more enjoyable to be around for my husband and my other loved ones.

I’ve had asthma since I was a relatively young age. I remember it very clearly, the first time I had a bad asthma attack. The ragweed and the queen anne’s lace, a common weed/flower that grows here in the midwest, really gave me a run for my money when I was a kid.  I was eight years old, and we were at an outdoor YMCA hiking.

I was running up a hill, something that I could always do when I was a kid with no real problems. I noticed that I suddenly felt like there was a vice around my lungs.  I started wheezing, which was totally foreign to me. This probably freaked me out more and made my asthma attack worse.

As many of you with asthma know, stress and mental disarray can often lead to an asthma attack, making a good argument that the disorder is largely psychosomatically controlled. I notice that when my stress levels are low, I rarely have any problems with asthma.

Which brings me to the topic of exercise, working out hard, and having asthma. I am living proof that you can have asthma and still work your body out hard. In fact, working out actually helps you kick asthma.

You see, exercise actually lowers stress, and it lowers certain hormones and irritants and inflammatory chemicals in the body which greatly contribute to asthma attacks. Because asthma is inflammatory in nature, and is actually worsened by foods and habits that increase inflammation, it benefits greatly from exercise.

You just have to know your body’s limits. If you are really out of breath and wheezing, kick the intensity back a notch. Or stop and take a breath completely.  Always remember that it’s all about exhaling long enough, not just inhaling.

A lot of people think if you have asthma you have to inhale more, but really you may not be exhaling long enough, so make sure you are exhaling all of the carbon dioxide out of the lungs as well.

One of the best ways you can keep youthful, glowing and supple skin for years after forty is to make sure you work out on a regular basis. Another key is not smoking, and of course eating right, but exercising is one of the key components to keeping your skin youthful for a much longer time. Why?

Exercising regularly actually boosts the circulation in the skin dramatically. This way, the crucial nutrients, antioxidants and all the other good stuff your skin needs to thrive and stay healthy get to the upper layers of the skin more easily. Not only does that make your skin look a much healthier, pinkish color, but it also helps keep the health and integrity of your skin in top shape.

It also may help to keep your collagen and crucial skin fibers from breaking down prematurely. By keeping that circulation going in all parts of the body, you are essentially feeding the necessary building blocks, which include proteins and collagen fibers, the essential food they need to stay intact and prevent wrinkles, crevices and fine lines from forming.

Exercise also greatly reduces stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety will both age you beyond your years when it comes to your skin. Ever had a really stressful week? Look in the mirror, I guarantee your face will tell the story of your life in it’s appearance and attractiveness.

Exercise is my personally favorite way to crack stressful periods of time and bring back peace and harmony to my life. Of course, I also notice my skin looks much better when I feel like my life is flowing harmoniously.  Another favorite way for me to de-stress is to ease on in to our infrared sauna, which is always good for relaxation and reflection – and of course warming our cold bones on frigid winter days here.

Another key point is to avoid sugar. Not only does this help you keep fat off your body and build lean muscle, but it also helps to prevent something called glycation, which is the process by which glucose (sugar) breaks down collagen and makes it rigid, which in turn makes your skin wrinkle easier and be more prone to damage.

Many women think that exercising during pregnancy is a no-no, or at the very least they think they need to take it WAY easier than they normally do during their workouts.  But many times, that is not true, especially if you are a really fit, healthy person to begin with, who is used to exerting yourself physically.

It all depends on what your OBGYN says ultimately of course, since they usually know what is best for your personal situation, but usually you can work out the same way you have been and are used to doing when you are preggers, up to the last days of your pregnancy, as long as you aren’t doing anything to strenuous in those last few weeks and days.

One question that women runners often have is that they want to know if their frequent runs outdoors (or elsewhere like on a treadmill) could be bad for their pregnancy.  The basic consensus on this one, since running does put a lot of stress on joints, and a lot of jostling on the body, which can make for soreness and injury when you’re not pregnant, can be even more damaging if you’re not listening to your body while you’re pregnant.

You just need to be mindful that you are carrying around an extra weight when you are pregnant. Also, you need to be mindful that you may not have the same endurance capacity or lung capacity while pregnant.

Your blood oxygen levels may be lower when pregnant, which causes earlier fatigue while working out that may impact your workouts and have you noticing that you just can’t go the distance you used to be able to. It’s very important to listen to your body and not over do it just to prove a point. You’ll soon have that baby, and be able to start running again shortly after, so don’t push yourself too hard when you’re still carrying that child, it’s just not worth it.