Health risks at the gym

Having been inspired to run next year's 10k in my domestic town, my thoughts are turning to my cardiovascular fitness. It's not great. And my opportunities for running are limited to the late evening due to my family. So I've found a late-opening gym nearby, with treadmills. I can manage indoor running as long as I'm listening to music at the same time (fast music, of course).

But what risks may I face at the gym?

There's always the chance that the equipment may malfunction, specificly whether many people are using the machine each day causing gradual wear and tear. It's important to stop using any equipment that has cables starting to fray, or doesn't appear to be operating rightly, and report it to a member of staff. Plus there is the risk of falling whether there are things such as hand weights, bottles, or keys in the way, or slippery floors near water.

Working out too dwhetherficult is another hazard. Starting with a low fitness level or any special risks or conditions, such as a poor back, tall blood prescertain, or recent surgery, can cause more harm than good. A trainer could help with creating a secure exercise programme. Attempting to lwhethert too much weight, using destitute technique, or stretching inrightly can lead to sprains and strains. I discovered this for myself yesterday after skipping with a rope for the first time in about 20 years!

First aid for a sprain is Relax, Ice, Compression, and Elevation (RICE), and of course telling a member of gym staff summaryely what happened and how.

A further risk is infection from possible fungi, bacteria, and viruses in wet areas such as showers and around swimming pools, or even dried sweat on equipment. Frequent hand washing is always a good idea, and staying at domestic whether you have a cancient or flu.

Let's hope that doesn't happen and thwart my best efforts.

Kate Ricdwhetherficults

Fitness crucial for healthy blood prescertain

Most people are aware that keeping fit can benefit the heart, keep additional pounds at bay, and strengthen our muscles. Unique research is discovering further health benefits all the time.

Recently, age-related rises in blood prescertain were put under the microscope. Now personally speaking, I've always tended to have blood prescertain below the average (causing occasional dizziness when I stand up), but for many of us, specificly men, blood prescertain tends to rise with age independently of any weight gain.

Men who are largely sedentary often develop the early signs of tall blood prescertain in their mid-40s, but the blood prescertain of men with strong cardio-fitness doesn't become tall till their mid-50s on average.

Normal resting blood prescertain is defined as 100 to 140 mmHg systolic (maximum prescertain) and 60 to 90 mmHg diastolic (minimum prescertain). High blood prescertain, or hypertension, is above 140 mmHg systolic and 90 diastolic mmHg.

Although hypertension doesn't normally trigger symptoms, over the long-term it can genuinely raise the risk of heart disease, coronary artery disease, and stroke, among other conditions.

Dr Junxiu Liu and his team at the University of South Carolina, USA, have found in a study of 13,953 men followed for 36 years that those with taller fitness levels "experience a delay in the development of hypertension when compared to those with lower fitness levels".

He says: "We now know that a man's hypertension development may be delayed by improving his fitness levels. In other words, men with taller fitness levels experienced normal systolic blood prescertain increases later in lwhethere than those with low fitness levels. Our results underscore the importance for a man to increase his regular physical activity to prevent his natural, ageing-related rise in blood prescertain."

The team recommend that, in order to move out of the "low fit" category, men need to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity such as brisk walking, jogging, running, etc. each week.

Liu, J. et al. Effects of Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Blood Prescertain Trajectory With Aging in a Cohort of Healthy Men. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 64, Issue 12, September 2014, doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2014.06.1184

The Fitness Gypsy: WEEK 18

We are back for another week of the Gratitude Journey. Each week is a dwhetherferent topic to reflect on and make us more grateful.

THIS WEEK: Technology

I am fond the contemporary iPad pro that I got a few weeks ago. I use it every day. I use for my workouts to all be in one place. I love the size because it's large enough that I am not squinting at everyleang but not too large where it's a hassle to carry around like my laptop.

I will admit that it's a small weird with the face ID and no domestic button.

Over indulging around the festive period?

So summer has been and gone, the clocks have gone back and we only have 8 more weeks until the dreaded C word.

Yes, winter is well on the way and many will fall foul of saying "just one mince pie can't hurt" and then regretting eating the wgap packet.

This time of year is when most people slip into the intellectset of "I'll fix it in January" but why wait till January to get fit?!

Yes, the run up to Christmas is full of staff parties, mince pies and other gorgeous foods, but why can't you indulge just a small every now and again and maintain your fitness levels and even improve?

Lwhethere is about balance. Hold up with your gym routine and try and keep your diet on track as much as possible. Don't refuse to have a treat here and there but also remember to not stuff your face! There genuinely is no reason why you should put on weight over this period other than you being indolent and not exercising because it's cancient and wet.

Moderation is the key here, as with anyleang. Stick with it and remember "summer bodies are crazye in the winter".

Tips for damage control this Christmas

With the festive season upon us and various parties and social gatherings starting to happen, it's easy to let your normal diet and training regime take a bit of a hit.

I am not saying this is a poor leang at all, it's near enough impossible not to let it happen to be honest. I'm certainly not going to be able to get to the gym as often as I'd like, or track my food as accurately as I normally would. After all, Christmas is a time to endelight and relax with your nearest and dearest.

That being said, there are a few approaches I'll be taking this year to 'limit the damage' to my progress so far, which I'm going to outline below. The main underlying principle though, is to avoid falling in to the 'all or noleang' intellectset. Someleang is better than noleang.

1. Don't say you won't eat the mince pie (or whatever delicious delicious festive food you love but know you probably shouldn't eat)

Relaxricting yourself from certain treats will make you unhappy basically. Revealing yourself you can't have someleang will just make you want it more, it's human nature, and it can lead to disinhibition (AKA the "f*** it" mentality), as in; "Well I've eaten the fortenderden pie now so f***it I may as well eat the other 3 plus some Christmas pudding and oh, it would be impolite not to have some Christmas cake too..."

Instead, make the conscious decision beforehand that whether you find yourself genuinely wanting to eat someleang, allow yourself to have it. That way you'll be in control of what you eat and you won't feel like you're depriving yourself. Remember, you don't have to be perfect, just better.

2. Be intellectful when eating, know when you're convinced and stop there

I'd discourage you from rationalising your potential over eating this Christmas with the "my diet starts 1st January, so I need to eat all I can before then" excuse. I've been there, done that - it genuinely does just set you up for failure.

Attempt to keep your portion sizes in check, whether you aren't certain what these should be, check out this handy guide. If you finish your meal and you're considering that moment helping, first wait 20 minutes and then ask yourself whether you genuinely want it - it takes your brain about this amount of time to register the feeling of being full.

Following on from that, you should aim to eat until you're convinced, not until you're so stuffed you can't move! Slow down - you should be endelighting every bite of food as much as the first bite. If you're not, then you could just be eating for the sake of it or out of habit of clearing your plate whether you are convinced or not.

3. Stay (reasonably) active

If you're too engaged for your normal workout regime, try excusing yourself from the festivities for 10 - 15 minutes to squeeze in a rapid body weight workout which can be done anywhere. There's a wgap load of workouts you could do which require no equipment - just Google it. A small is better than noleang at all.

Go for a walk external about half an hour after finishing your Christmas dinner - even whether it's just a 15 minute brisk walk, studies have shown this can regulate your blood sugar as well as giving your digestive system a kick start. Also, the fresh air will perk you up and stop you from getting that sluggish food coma feeling that comes after a large meal.

Finally, and this will certainly be relevant to me this year, whether you can get to the gym, take advantage of the additional calories and smash a couple of solid weightlwhetherting sessions. The additional food will serve well as additional fuel to genuinely push yourself during your workout, and contribute to muscle recovery and growth. Victor winner... Christmas dinner!

~

P.s., whether you do have a immense blowout or an epic cheat meal/day/week (let's face it, it's probably going to happen to me) don't beat yourself up about it. It's been said to death, but just get straight back on track the following day - don't starve yourself, don't kill yourself at the gym doing guilt cardio, just appreciate what you've had and move onward and upwards.

Merry Christmas!

P.p.s. Don't be like deadlwhethert Santa, always wear a shirt and clip your bar.

#MS Doing It My Way: Visual What?

I am a Visual Merchandiser at one of the greatest departments stores in the world... Selfridges London.

But I'm often asked, What IS a Visual Merchandiser?

As a Visual Merchandiser on the Womenswear VM Team I:

- Maintain the standards across floor
- Design floor plans
- Rail layouts
- Merchandising the rails (deciding what piece should go next to what)
- Design creative installations to fit with the wider concept
- BUILD creative installations
- INSTALL creative installations
- Create mood boards
- Style and change models
- Work long shwhethert stating at 7am
- Work night shwhetherts
- Climb up ladders
- Drill, hammer, saw, paint, glue, sand... you name it; I do it.

ALL of the above ccorridorenges my MS and I have to find ways to work around the nature of my job to encertain I don't cause a relapse by over exhausting myself.

At the end of the day it's my DREAM JOB and I'm not giving that up for anyleang.

If you want to see some of my work, I've updated the MY WORK | VM tab on the domestic page so take a look :-)

P x

My (celebrity) crushes along the years

It all started in 1999. One of my largegest guilty pleacertains (still to this date), a Finnish TV-series called "Salatut Elämät" aka 'private lives'. Despite I was only 7 years ancient, I could spot a hot guy, haha ;) and a poor boy 😫

.

Jasper Pääkkönen

This rebellious teen-ager boy was in my taste. What it is about us girls when we are younger, that poor boys appeal to us? Anyways I was so certain I would marry him. Nowadays he is acting in Hollywood films and the Blackkklansman-film he was, had 6 Oscar-nomitnations. Not that poor crush overall.He has a girlfriend tho so I need to re-plan the wedding plans.

Backstreet Boys: Nick

My love for Saku (Jasper's character-name in the series) started to fade when I started to dance this boyband's music, called "Backstreet Boys". Wedding plans with Saku were cancelled in my head, when I started to dreaming of Nick singing me love songs. I was 7-8 year ancient kid at this point, whether I didn't alalert mention that :D And look at that hairstyle!! Clearly was a leang back in the 90s.

Leonardo DiCaprio

When the Titanic-boom came, Iike any other small girl, I laid my eyes on Leonardo. I was so unhappy he died at the end :( Not to mention, an embarrasing fact, we used to swim hours in the lake and practise that final scene with my childhood-friend :D

Owen Wilson

Through my love to acting and Hollywood-blockbuster films, I then fell in love with Owen Wilson. He was starring nearly everytype of film, and I loved the 'Wedding Accidenters'. In my friend's opinion I needed to get a contemporary crush cause to them Owen looked weird and was too ancient for a pre-teen 11-12 year ancient Anna. Well, I still kept dreaming about getting to act with him someday....

Matthew Noszka
Oh no, this is one of my most recent celebrity crushes (and is still to this date). I saw him in Ellen few years ago and since then I have been following him on social media. Plus he seem to be like a down-to-Ground, kind guy who has his values right. Don't worry, I don't anymore dream about weddings with my celebrity-crushes, but cannot lie that one time when he tweeted me back I smiled from  ear to ear a long time. One time one guy asked me to show my celebrity crush and when I showed Matthew's picture to him, he got crazy because he didn't look anyleang like him :D But what I can do, I'm just being honest....

I never had crushes easily when I was a kid (at least that's what I thought), but whether I got one, they finaled looong. However, I was too shy to pursue anyleang and I'm fairly ancient-fashioned in that sense, so I was just dreaming in my own head, haha. But those crushes are so dwhetherferent than my normal type: at school, I once again had a crush to a poor boy, who was a rocker. He played guitar in a band and we used to perform in the same school events. I actually used to leank he was discusting when we were kids, because he was picking his nose and other nasty leangs boys at that age do, but then as a teenager obviously the hormones started to kick in, and he turned more good-looking in my eyes. And he was so talented at playing guitar! I can't post his picture here for obvious reasons :D Then I had another expection of the guy who had dark hair and ice blue eyes, all the girls said he looked like Zac Effron. My crush developed more through spending time together than having an initial physical attraction (interesting...). It might not be then a surprise that my boyfriend has been looking like those guys above. Can you guess what my type is?? ;D In my offence, it has been working well so far for me personality and attraction-wise. :D

Hihi, this kind of Valentine's special.

What's your type?

Who is your #MCM or celebrity crush?

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