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Chiropractic Expertise Helps Reduce Golf Injuries and Improve Player Performance

Chiropractic Expertise Helps Reduce Golf Injuries and Improve Player Performance

golfer-at-sunset
golfer-at-sunset

Can chiropractic care improve your golf game? As a golfer, you may have pondered this very question—and now you’re in luck. A recent Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) study showed that a combination of chiropractic care and stretching enables golfers to increase their drive distance by nearly 10%. PGA golfers such as Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington certainly believe this to be true, as they’ve incorporated chiropractic treatment into their training regimens for years. Unsurprisingly, the Titleist Performance Institute believes this to be true as well.

Sponsored by one of the most respected and popular purveyors of golf equipment and apparel, the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) has incorporated chiropractic as a fundamental part of its program since its founding in 2003. TPI was created to study how the human body functions—and functions at its best—when it comes to the game of golf. TPI believes that chiropractors have a unique and valuable perspective in this area given their expertise in human biomechanics as well as their specialized knowledge of the musculoskeletal system. At present, there are over 9,000 TPI-certified professionals in 57 countries, employing chiropractic and other methodologies to help golfers not only improve their performance, but also to avoid injury.

TPI’s work over the past decade has clearly demonstrated that chiropractors have even more to offer golfers than pain relief and rehab support. In fact, chiropractic physicians can actually help golfers to improve their game by identifying and correcting physical limitations that can adversely affect their swings. As an example, the TPI study mentioned above compared two groups of golfers: one practicing only stretching exercises, and the other practicing stretching exercises while receiving chiropractic spinal adjustments. Both groups performed three full swing maneuvers before and after each treatment, and the driving distances they achieved were recorded. After four weeks, the stretching-only group showed no improvement in swing performance, whereas the stretching plus chiropractic group achieved greater driving distance after each treatment.

This is important information for performance-oriented golfers, because although many of them rely on chiropractic care to help them when they are in pain or injured, they may not recognize that chiropractic care can help prevent problems and improve their game. But the TPI-certified chiropractors may to be able to do just that, offering tips and techniques that allow golfers to improve their joint function, customize and optimize their warm-up exercises, recover faster from injuries and soreness, and maximize their efficiency.

So if you’re a golfer, give your chiropractor a call and ask how he or she might be able to help you. Who knows—you might end up seeing your chiropractor to relieve your back or neck pain after an overly enthusiastic round of golf and find that he or she can help take a few strokes off your score!

 

Building Better Bones for the Long Run

Building Better Bones for the Long Run

senior-man-working-dumbells
senior-man-working-dumbells

When it comes to leading a healthy, active lifestyle in middle age and beyond, maintaining your bone density (also called “bone mass”) is very important. To really understand the challenges associated with this—and to appreciate the opportunities—it’s necessary to know a little bit about how your skeleton grows and develops over the years.

Your bones are actually a lot more active than most people realize. Even if you’re an adult, somewhere between 7% and 10% of the cells in your bones are replaced during any given year. This means that your entire skeleton will be replaced in about a decade. The bones in the human body are constantly being broken down, reabsorbed and rebuilt, with those experiencing the most daily wear-and-tear being rebuilt the most frequently. This is referred to as “remodeling” or “bone turnover.”

Even though your bones stop growing in length in early adulthood, they can continue to grow in diameter throughout your life in response to activity. When this happens, special cells called osteoblasts form compact bone around the outside of the bone surface while other cells called osteoclasts break down and reabsorb older bone tissue from the internal bone surface. These two processes work together to increase the diameter of the bone while preventing it from becoming too thick and heavy.

Girls achieve up to 90% of their peak bone mass (the amount of bone tissue in the skeleton) by their 18th birthday. Boys hit that same milestone by the time they’re about 20 years old. Bone mass can keep growing until around age 30 for both men and women. After this point, bone mass tends to remain stable for a number of decades as bone building activities remain roughly in balance with bone resorption activities. However, this balance begins to change and bone mass begins to decline when you reach more advanced years. For women, this drop in bone density is closely related to menopause.

There are essentially three things you can do to maintain healthy bone mass:

  1. Stimulate as much bone growth as possible while you are still young. Timing counts—the higher your peak bone mass is when you hit your early 20s and 30s, the more bone loss you can experience later in life without the risk of osteopenia or osteoporosis. We recognize that, for many readers, this bit of information will come too late. We include it here for the benefit of parents who are still in a position to help their children.
  2. Eat a bone-healthy diet. Calcium, vitamin K and vitamin D are the keys, but vitamin A, vitamin B12 and vitamin C matter too!

    Calcium is integral to maintaining bone strength. Dark green, leafy vegetables are the single best source of this mineral. Ounce for ounce, they’re even better than dairy products (which are also good). So the key to feeding your bones is to incorporate more spinach, collard greens, broccoli and bok choy into your diet in addition to dairy (milk, yogurt and cheese). Tofu is often fortified with calcium as well, so a quick stir-fry including tofu, bok choy and sesame seeds (another great source of calcium) makes an excellent bone-healthy meal.

    Vitamin K is key to the production of osteocalcin, a bone protein. Vitamin K is needed to bind calcium to the bones and reduces the amount of calcium that is excreted in the urine. It has been shown to promote higher bone density and reduce the risk of fractures. Fortunately, the same dark green, leafy vegetables that are chock full of calcium are also a great source of vitamin K.

    Vitamin D is critical for calcium absorption. However, many experts believe that most Americans may be vitamin D deficient, particularly during the winter months when days are short and there is little sunlight. However, the general trends toward less outdoor activity at other times of the year and more sunscreen use may increase the risk of year-round vitamin D deficiency. According to Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D expert, “We want everyone to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter,” Holick says, “but currently in the United States, Caucasians average 18 to 22 nanograms and African-Americans average 13 to 15 nanograms.” This is perhaps the best argument for vitamin D-enriched milk and supplementation.

  3. Weight-bearing exercise stimulates bone formation and lowers the rate of calcium loss. You can help to increase your bone density at any age by practicing weight-bearing exercise three times per week for 20 to 30 minutes. This can include activities such as lifting weights, walking or running, dancing, playing tennis, climbing stairs, or jumping rope. Remember—even if you get bone-friendly vitamins and minerals, you will still lose bone mass more quickly if you are a couch potato.

    Gary Null, in his book Power Aging notes “Weight lifting, including curls and bench presses, is a beneficial activity.” And for those who’d rather not visit the health club, “Dancing, stair-climbing and brisk walking are all weight-bearing exercises, which promote (good) mechanical stress in the skeletal system, contributing to the placement of calcium in bones.” But what about aerobic exercises? While they are very good for your cardiovascular system, “aerobic exercises such as biking, rowing and swimming do not strengthen the bones.” They simply don’t place enough stress on the skeletal system to stimulate bone growth.

Beyond their role in giving your body its shape as well as supporting and moving it, the bones that make up your skeleton do a number of other really important things that are less obvious:

  • They provide protection for your body’s vital organs.
  • They are where your red blood cells and lymphocytes are produced (within your bone marrow).
  • They store important minerals, including calcium and iron, and are involved in metabolizing them.
  • They help regulate your body’s endocrine system (including regulation of blood sugar and storing fat).

Be good to your bones and they’ll be good to you!

Have any questions? If so, please call or visit our office today!

 

Additional Resources

To Ensure Bone Health, Start Early. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/to-ensure-bone-health-start-early/

Bone Health: Tips to Keep Your Bones Healthy. http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/in-depth/bone-health/art-20045060

Maintaining Bone Health: Why Bone Health is Important. http://nihseniorhealth.gov/falls/bonehealth/01.html

Exercise and Physical Activity. http://www.americanbonehealth.org/what-you-should-know/exercise

5 Exercise Tips for Better Posture

5 Exercise Tips for Better Posture

woman-working-abs
woman-working-abs

“Good posture” is more than an indication of whether you paid attention as a kid when your parents admonished you to “Stand up straighter” or “Don’t slump your shoulders like that”. Posture is the position in which you naturally hold your body when you are standing, sitting, and even lying down. “Good posture” is when you do this while maintaining the correct alignment of your body parts, supported by the right amounts of muscle tension against the pull of gravity.

Most of us normally give no thought to our posture. Our muscles tend to “do it for us,” without us even thinking about it. The problem with this largely unconscious process is that over time our muscles can become weak or improperly trained to hold our bodies in less than an optimum position. This is bad because proper posture helps us to keep our bones in correct alignment so that their supporting muscles are used correctly. Proper posture also reduces stress on our ligaments, and helps to prevent muscle strain and overuse disorders. Improper posture can have many negative effects on our general health, including excessive strain on our postural-support muscles, reduced lung capacity and chronic back or neck pain.

There are many exercises that can help strengthen your postural-support muscles, but the best approach to take if you want to improve your posture in a more systematic way is to see your chiropractor. He or she can analyze your posture and then prescribe a customized set of exercises to restore strength and balance to your postural-support muscles. Your chiropractor can also make adjustments to your spine and other joints to eliminate abnormalities that encourage improper posture.

When using exercise to help improve your posture, it’s a good idea to follow a few simple guidelines.

  • Focus first on core-strengthening exercises. That is, work to strengthen the sets of muscles around your waist and lower back, which do most of the work of maintaining proper posture. Don’t simply rely on old-fashioned “sit-ups,” however. Pilates, yoga, and the set of core-strengthening exercises recommended by the North American Spine Society are more effective, providing more benefits with less strain.
  • Keep these core-strengthening exercises safe. Practice the single-leg lifts, crunches or “curl-ups,” and crossovers slowly and with controlled motions, avoiding the tendency to “overdo it.” Pull your abdominal muscles in (up and towards the spine) as you exercise, and breathe normally. Start with a low number of repetitions tailored to your current fitness level and increase the number only as you grow stronger.
  • Perform shoulder and neck exercises to strengthen your upper body. Weak shoulder muscles are the most common cause of “slumped shoulders.” Also, stiff muscles in the neck and upper back can aggravate and perpetuate poor posture.
  • Strengthen your hips and pelvis. Exercises such as anterior pelvic tilts strengthen your hip and butt muscles, which are essential to enabling you to stand and walk with correct posture.
  • Don’t forget your feet. Good posture and a healthy musculoskeletal system start from the ground up. You should work with your chiropractor on this one, especially if he or she has indicated that you suffer from either “pigeon toes” or “duck feet,” meaning that your feet point at an angle either inward or outward, rather than straight ahead. Chiropractic adjustments can help to correct this, but there are also exercises that can strengthen your muscles to correct these conditions, and allow you to stand and walk more normally.
Keys to Strengthening Your Immune System

Keys to Strengthening Your Immune System

Three girlfriends in white T-shorts jump having waved hands
Three girlfriends in white T-shorts jump having waved hands

We are bombarded daily with all sorts of microbes that can cause illness. Interestingly, if we are exposed to a wide range of these microbes as children, studies have shown that we will have a lower risk of asthma and allergies as well as a stronger immune system. There are a number of factors that influence the health of our immune system, including diet, stress, exercise and aging. Following are some strategies you can use to help strengthen your immune system.

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables – These are high in the vitamins, minerals and trace elements you need to help keep you healthy, particularly those high in vitamin C (red bell peppers, strawberries, broccoli, citrus fruits) and zinc (nuts, seeds, wheat germ).

Reduce stress – Chronic stress has been shown to inhibit the production of interleukins and cytokines, which are responsible for stimulating the action of white blood cells. Chronic stress also causes the stress hormone cortisol to be continually released into the bloodstream, which in the long term suppresses the production of pathogen-fighting T cells and antibodies.

Get out in the sun – Insufficient vitamin D has been linked to greater susceptibility to infection. Approximately one out of three Americans is deficient in vitamin D. Try to get out in the sun in the summer months wearing minimal clothing and no sunscreen for 5 to 10 minutes two or three times a week between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. This will provide you with sufficient vitamin D without increasing your risk of skin cancer. You can also take a supplement in the winter months or if you live in a place without much sun.

Get sufficient sleep – Sleep deprivation increases inflammation and inhibits the immune response. One study found that people who habitually slept less than seven hours each night were nearly three times more likely to catch a cold than people who slept eight hours or more.

Exercise – Moderate exercise has been shown to decrease stress and boost the immune system. Thirty minutes of moderate exercise each day, such as a brisk walk, raises the body’s levels of leukocytes, which are cells that help guard against infection.

Eat probiotics – Perhaps even more important than antibiotics in the fight against infection are probiotics, beneficial bacteria that live in the gut and upper respiratory tract. They boost the immune system by encouraging the production of certain T cells. You can find probiotics in yogurt, sauerkraut and kimchi, or you can take a probiotic supplement.

Avoid sugar – Even 100 grams of sugar, the equivalent of a 24-oz soda, depresses your immune system by reducing the ability of white blood cells to combat bacteria. This effect can last for a few hours after sugar ingestion, so if you are trying to stay healthy, keep away from the sweets!

How to Get Your Kids Up and Moving

How to Get Your Kids Up and Moving

??????????About one third of children in the United States are overweight. This is a worrying statistic, but not necessarily a surprising one. Busy school and family schedules leave kids little time for physical activity, while computers and television are often a much more appealing way to spend time than running around outside.

However, if you watch kids on a playground, you’ll notice something interesting: when it comes to running, jumping, and playing, kids are a natural. Most kids want to get moving: all they need is the right environment and a little encouragement. Here’s how you can help.

Encouraging Kids to Be More Active

Kids need at least an hour of physical activity every day to stay healthy. You can help them achieve this amount of activity by providing opportunities to play and monitoring the amount of time they spend on sedentary activities. Use your knowledge of your child’s likes and dislikes to choose activities to direct them towards. Some kids will thrive on a soccer team or in a martial arts class, while others are miserable in these more structured environments. Never force a child to participate in a physical activity he or she don’t enjoy. Instead, work with them to find appealing ways to play.

Similarly, encouraging kids to stay active is much more effective when things are kept simple. If your kids are not naturally drawn to competition, keep the focus off winning and instead encourage them to just have a good time. Try to focus on age-appropriate activities and stifle the urge to push your kids towards better performance. Running, playing, and having a great time is enough.

Your children look to you to learn what kinds of habits constitute a healthy lifestyle. If you tend towards more sedentary pursuits yourself, your kids will likely mimic you. The opposite is also true: if you show them that you find physical activities fun, they’ll want to give them a try too. Make exercise a family activity. Go on walks or bike rides together, spend an afternoon hiking on some easy mountain trails, or take a trip to a skating rink. Engaging in physical activity together will help bring you closer and start building habits that your child can come back to throughout their lifetime.

Finally, do your best to limit the amount of screen time your children indulge in. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the leading causes of obesity, so monitor and control how much time kids spend on the couch. An hour a day is a good rule of thumb, but again, use your knowledge of your child to determine which amount of time is most appropriate.

Encouraging kids to be more active is an important part of keeping them healthy. For more guidance on how to maintain your children’s health, consider consulting with a chiropractor. Chiropractic care focuses on the whole body, making your chiropractor a great resource for more information on keeping your kids (and yourself) active.

With some time and a little encouragement, even the most TV-loving kids can learn how to get up and have a great time. Get out there with them and get in on the active fun.

Top 5 Low-Impact Aerobic Exercises for Winter Fitness

Top 5 Low-Impact Aerobic Exercises for Winter Fitness

snowboarder-grabbing-air-200-300Everyone knows that exercise is essential to maintaining your health. However, not everyone is able to perform the kinds of high-impact exercises that are hard on the joints. Whether your particular concern relates to aging, injury, or some type of chronic musculoskeletal problem, there are several low-impact aerobic exercises that can help keep you fit throughout the winter.

Walking—This simple activity costs absolutely nothing, requires no additional equipment and can be done in most any weather conditions. If walking seems too boring, then try different routes. Mix it up! If you have hills nearby, include them for greater aerobic challenge. Make certain you have good footwear before taking on anything other than flat terrain. If walking isn’t giving you enough of a challenge, add ankle weights or carry barbells. If you don’t have nearby hills, then take to the stairs. Your local high school or college likely has a stadium with steps that can increase your workout intensity.

Swimming—If you have access to an indoor pool, count your blessings. Swimming is not only one of the lowest impact exercises there is, but it may also be the best full-body workouts around. Swimming involves even less impact than walking, and merely staying afloat (without pool floats) requires far more energy than just standing still. Do laps. Time yourself. There are numerous swimming strokes available, plus aerobic activities and games that you can play in the water. Whether you bring friends or go it alone, swimming can give you just as much aerobic “bang for your buck” time-wise as any other activity, and maybe more.

Cycling—Whether you take to the cycle in your gym or take your bicycle out for a spin, this activity produces virtually zero impact and delivers lots of aerobic benefit. Going nowhere in the gym may seem tedious and even boring to some, so take to the bike lanes or walkways with your bicycle. Once you’ve built up your strength, climbing hills can give your legs a good burn. Inside, no helmet is required. Outside, always protect your head when cycling.

Dancing—This might well be the most fun, low-impact aerobic exercise you can do (at least in public). Of course, many dance routines require a partner, but that’s what makes it all so much fun. Don’t be afraid to go beyond the simple waltz. Try the foxtrot for a little variety. Or try salsa, tango and other more strenuous styles to test your timing, finesse and stamina. A good dance routine can get your heart pumping. Performed well, it can even be downright sexy. And if you don’t like being on the dance floor alone with a partner, there’s always line dancing. It’s a great opportunity to work on your timing and coordination while getting a low-impact workout!

In-Line Skating (Rollerblading)—Protective gear is essential for your safety, as is choosing the best path. Most sidewalks have bumps and imperfections that can prove challenging… or disastrous. An empty parking lot might offer a better alternative for beginners. Some parks also have paths that are perfect for this kind of low-impact activity. Taking to the blades can burn more calories than many other exercises. Until you get your balance perfected, you might want to squat down to keep your center of gravity lower to the ground. Take shorter strides when starting out. Don’t go too fast until you’ve perfected your ability to maneuver, slow down and (yes) stop!

 

The Best In-Pool Exercises

The Best In-Pool Exercises

People are doing water aerobic in poolWith summer here, many fitness enthusiasts are taking to a cooler place to get their workout: the pool. According to Women’s Health magazine, “No other workout burns calories, boosts metabolism, and firms every muscle in your body (without putting stress on your joints) better than a swimming workout.” If you’re sick of jogging in the hot sun, if you’re looking for a cool and low-impact way to get your exercise, or if you’ve got a bad back and you’re searching for the right exercises, look to the water—pool exercises may be right up your alley. Here are a few of the best in-pool exercises to get started with:

  • Water walking. For this exercise, you’ll need a piece of fitness equipment called “hand webs,” which are sort of like fins for your hands. As the Mayo Clinic suggests, “In water that’s about waist-high, walk across the pool swinging your arms like you do when walking on land. Avoid walking on your tiptoes, and keep your back straight. Tighten your abdominal muscles to avoid leaning too far forward or to the side. To increase resistance as your hands and arms move through the water, wear hand webs or other resistance devices. Water shoes can help you maintain traction on the bottom of the pool.” For more intensity, try deep-water walking next.

 

  • Arm exercises. These can also be done with hand webs to increase resistance for better muscle toning and more calories burned. In waist-high water, put your arms down at your sides, then slowly raise them, extended, to the surface of the water. The hand webs will create a drag that will force your arm and abdominal muscles to work harder. Then simply lower your extended arms back down to your sides and repeats.

 

  • Resistance exercise. For this, you’ll need a kickboard. This exercise provides another type of resistance. From the Mayo Clinic, “Standing up straight with your legs comfortably apart, tighten your abdominal muscles. Extend your right arm and hold the kickboard on each end. Keeping your left elbow close to your body, move the kickboard toward the center of your body. Return to the starting position and repeat 12 to 15 times or until you’re fatigued. Then extend your left arm and repeat the exercise on the other side. Standing up straight with your legs comfortably apart, tighten your abdominal muscles. Extend your right arm and hold the kickboard on each end. Keeping your left elbow close to your body, move the kickboard toward the center of your body. Return to the starting position and repeat 12 to 15 times or until you’re fatigued. Then extend your left arm and repeat the exercise on the other side.”

 

  • Leg exercises. These require a pool noodle, which are very inexpensive and quite easy to come by. To work out your leg muscles, tie the pool noodle around your leg or water shoe, if you use one. In waist-high water, stand with your back against the edge of the pool. For stability, grab hold of the pool’s edge with your hands, then straighten your right leg in front of you until it is at a 90 degree angle. Then return your leg to the first position and begin again, doing 12 to 15 reps for each leg.
“Exercise” Versus “Lifestyle Activity”: How Active Are You-Really?

“Exercise” Versus “Lifestyle Activity”: How Active Are You-Really?

canotIf you are like most people, working out just for the sake of working out does not really appeal (although there are many dedicated gym buffs who couldn’t live without their daily workouts!). We all know that it’s important to exercise regularly if we want to live a long and healthy life. However, if you find the idea of trotting along on a treadmill for 15 minutes and then spending half an hour of working out on Nautilus machines to be about as exciting as a trip to the dentist, then this article is for you!

Experts recommend that we get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week to stay in shape. But many people find taking this much exercise at once (or in three 50-minute stretches) too daunting. The good news is that a recent study conducted by researchers at Boston University that was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that bouts of exercise lasting less than 10 minutes a couple of times daily, such as the kind you get when cleaning the house, were sufficient to meet your weekly exercise needs.

Over 2,000 participants were included in the study, more than half of whom were overweight. Motion detectors were attached to each of the subjects for eight days, and an average of half the participants met their weekly exercise quota of 150 minutes. The average participant met his or her quota with exercise that lasted less than 10 minutes at a time. The types of exercise ranged from moderate (heavy cleaning, walking briskly and sports such as golf and badminton) to vigorous (running, hiking, shoveling and farm work).

As long as the participants met their 150-minute per week quota, no matter the length of their exercise, they had lower body mass index, smaller waists, lower triglycerides and better cholesterol levels than those who did not meet the quota. Assistant professor at Boston University’s School of Medicine, Nicole Glazer, says “But this study really speaks to the idea that some activity is better than nothing. Parking a little bit farther away, getting off the bus one stop early-all of these little things can add up and are related to a healthier profile.”

For years, researchers have studied the effects of exercise from practicing sports or visiting the gym. However, according to Glazer, “This idea of lifestyle activity is one that is under-measured in research studies.” Activities such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, using a push mower instead of a riding mower, etc. can add up to a significant amount of energy expenditure. Experts still stress that it’s important to also get in some traditional forms of exercise and not merely replace it with lifestyle activity. Still, any exercise is useful.

 
“The levels of sedentary behavior in this country are alarming. So the concern that someone’s going to stop exercising and instead just get off the bus a stop earlier, that’s not my concern,” Glazer says. “The real concern is, is this a stepping-stone? Is this the way we can get inactive people to do any sort of activity? People will come up with any excuse to not exercise. I don’t need to worry about my giving them one. They’ll be able to think of something.”

Better Workouts in Less Time

Better Workouts in Less Time

Woman Lifting Weights in GymAlmost everyone is pressed for time these days, and squeezing a workout into your day is often not easy to do. However, it is possible to learn some ways of exercising more efficiently so you get a better workout in less time. Following are a few tips on getting the most out of your workouts.

Exercise both your upper and lower body at the same time – This allows you to not only save time, but also burn more calories. Use hand-held weights and pump your arms hard while running and walking, or use a rowing machine that causes you to give both upper and lower body a good workout.

Do high-intensity interval training – Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, found that shorter but more intense workouts were far more effective than longer workouts of lower intensity. Professor Martin Gibala was the lead author of a two-week study that analyzed the workouts of healthy middle-aged men who performed six sessions of high-intensity interval training for 20 minutes each. Each session consisted of 10 intervals at 90 percent intensity lasting one minute each, with a minute of rest between each interval. The results matched or were better than those from participants who practiced traditional aerobic exercise for longer lengths of time.

Gibala says, “The participants showed dramatic improvement in their exercise capacity. Before, maybe they could ride a bike pretty intensely for 25 minutes. After those two weeks, they could ride it for 50 minutes.” Some exercises that lend themselves well to this type of training are the elliptical machine, rowing machine, bicycling and sprinting. Do one minute of intense exercise at 90 percent of your capacity for one minute, then rest for one minute. Repeat this sequence ten times for a 20-minute workout and you’re done!

Vary your workouts – Studies have shown that the body becomes more efficient at a particular type of exercise if it is done repeatedly, so if you want to burn more calories, vary the exercises you do. Physical trainer Dino Novak says, “When the body is doing a set rhythm, it expends less energy than when it’s forced into multiple movements.” He advises, “For example, instead of just going for a run, do sprints — and then stop, start, turn, twist. Add motion and movement into your activity and you’ll literally keep your body expending the maximum energy.”

 
Listen to fast music – According to the results of a study performed by scientists at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, subjects who listened to fast music while working out pedaled an exercise bicycle faster and achieved a faster heart rate than when they listened to slow music. So crank up the tunes!