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Current Dietary Recommendations in Strength Training
Efforts to expand the limits of human strength and endurance have kept the scientist and the athlete occupied for centuries. The quest for another pound of muscle, or to lift next couple of kilos has been relentlessly pursued in the gym and the...
How Proper Calorie Fragmentation Improves Body Composition?
It is a well-established fact that calories control everyone's bodyweight. No matter how many meals a day you have, it is the calorie balance in the end of the day that matters. If you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you will lose...
Is A Treadmill The Right Exercise Equipment For You?
The #1 fear people have when buying a treadmill is that they won't use it. (That's the #1 fear when buying any piece of exercise equipment).
They know that a treadmill can help them lose weight, get fit, burn extra calories and reach their...
Making time for Exercise
By now you know that exercise is good for you, and that you should do something on a regular basis. What’s the best time for you to exercise? Anytime. Honestly. For example, when you’re sitting and watching TV, stretch your muscles. Never stretch...
What’s 100 Calories A Day?
According to the American Dietetic Association, the difference between weight loss and weight gain can be as little as 100 calories a day. Most Americans suffer from 'weight creep' - those nagging pounds that creep on over the years - at an average...
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God's New Hairdo
Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin
Okay, there's a story behind the title. It's a running joke
between my wife and myself. A few months ago, I made a crack
about how her hair looked one morning. Something about Elvis. I
didn't get out of the doghouse for a week. Fortunately, she has
a sense of humor, even if it's a little slow sometimes.
I usually get up an hour or two before she does, and one morning
a few weeks after that faux pas, she came out with her hair in
wild disarray (as usual). She looked sleepily at me and said, "I
looked in the mirror....God's been arranging my hair again while
I sleep."
Since then, we often greet each other with some remark about the
new hairdo God arranged overnight.
Silly little joke, but it got me to thinking.
So often, I will go to bed, puzzling over some problem. I might
be working on an article, or even worse, be completely unable to
come up with one. I might be worried about the bills, or the
kids (even though they're grown and gone), or retirement (which
I'm halfway into anyway). I'm lost or bewildered when I go to
bed, but when I wake up in the morning (and have that first cup
of coffee), I have a handle on what to do. No matter how things
were when I went to bed, I have a different, and usually better,
take on it when I wake up.
Now, this is not particularly surprising. For years, many
studies have demonstrated the ability of the your brain to solve
problems while you sleep. Most commonly this consists of one
group of people being given a problem to solve while awake,
while another group has the opportunity to, well, "sleep on it."
Many students, including myself, have used the technique of
reviewing or studying right before bed. When the material is
scanned shortly after rising the next day, the student often is
better able to understand and retain it.
Many scientists and leaders in business and politics have used
and praised the
technique. One of the more famous examples is
that of Friedrich August Kekule, who described a major break
through in the structure of molecules coming to him as he dozed.
Some studies have even shown the ability of an athelete to
"practice" and improve his or her technique while asleep. Such
problem solving and nocturnal improvement in both physical and
mental areas is often ascribed to your brain's attempt to "make
sense" of everything it has encountered during its waking
periods. Very often, this attempt to "make sense" manifests
itself as a dream.
In April, 2004, psychologists at the Western Psychological
Association's 84th Annual Convention in Phoenix dedicated
several sessions to discussing sleep, its effects on health and
impact on social policy. Experts representing such institutions
as Scripps Mercy Sleep Disorders Center, the University of
Arizona, and the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic discussed many
benefits of sleep, including its affect on health and memory.
One piece of information presented was that during sleep,
information is often stored in long-term memory. During sleep,
your brain is at work replenishing neurotransmitters that
organize neural networks essential to remembering, learning,
performance and problem solving, according to James B. Maas,
PhD, former chairman of the psychology department at Cornell
University, and author of the book "Power Sleep". Dr. Maas went
on to state that lack of sleep "makes you clumsy, stupid and
unhealthy."
While sleep has many benefits which I have not gone into here,
it's good to know that we can learn and grow each night while
God's arranging our hair.
About the author:
The author's interest in fitness and health began in 1970 when
he first read Dr. Kenneth Cooper's "Aerobics". He has articles
on weight loss at http://nodiet4me.com and at
http://nodiet4me.blogspot.com . He has an online herbal
supplement store at http://eherbsstore.com .
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