Improve Concentration with Yoga

A constant state of distraction has become the central point of everyone’s life. There is always so much to do but very little time. Sometimes to get a task done requires simple concentration. But how does it really help? Concentration is focused attention to one thought and keeping other thoughts away. Better concentration increases efficiency and helps you achieve your goal faster and smoothly. Good concentration keeps your mind calm and peaceful and keeps stress away keeping mind and body healthier.

You need concentration for everything you do. Even exercising requires concentration for better results. How do you develop concentration? Here are some easy yoga poses that will help you with you concentration while relaxing your body and mind. The basic requirement is to the follow the yoga poses is to stay in the pose and concentrate on the breathing: Read more

Weight Loss Holidays

If you are planning your short vacation and looking for a different holiday experience then we have the perfect holiday for you. ‘Lose weight in the Jungles’ is a revolutionary holiday experience that helps you get fit while you are on a holiday. This holiday has been especially designed for you by Fitho & Leisure Hotels at their luxury resort. Corbett Hideaway, at Corbett.

This concept of weight loss holidays is unique and helpful to people with hectic lifestyle but have a desire for a healthy body and life but busy lifestyle & social commitments come in the way. So let your health not be side-tracked for another day  and  leave it to the experts to get you fit as you holiday. Read more

Yoga Poses to Improve Immunity

We know that changing season has most of us falling sick. There are simple ways of developing your immune system without taking any medicines.

Fifteen minutes a day and the following four wonder yoga asanas will help you build your immunity over time. Read more

Four Yoga Poses That Will Keep You Cool Through Summer

Benefits of the Half Spinal Twist Pose (Ardha-Matsyendrasana):

The Ardha-matsyendrasana helps in cultivating flexibility and strength in the spine. Its a great “cool down” pose that also smoothes stiff necks and upper back and tension caused by stress, poor posture, or prolonged periods of sitting in one position.

The alternating compression and release of the abdominal region flushes this area with blood and give massage the internal organs. Muscles of the stomach and hips are also toned from repeated practice of this asana.

How to perform the Half Spinal Twist Pose (Ardha-Matsyendrasana):

- Sit comfortable in a cross-legged position.

- Straighten both legs out in front. While bending your right knee, bring the heel of the right foot close to the left hip. Read more

Reduce Stress with Yoga

We all get stressed with some reason or the other depending upon our lifestyle. Work, home, partner, family and different aspects of life can be factors in causing stress. Stress can get difficult when it soars high in level causing anxiety, depression and you start to get inefficient. Stress can be tackled easily through yoga and exercise and help you rejuvenate with booming energy levels. Yoga is highly effective in tackling stress and the body releases endorphin, a chemical that makes you feel good.

Stress is mostly psychological showing its effect on our body and performance. Yoga is highly beneficial, de-stressing with our breathing and body postures that bring down the stress and clear the mind with the thoughts, eases muscles, makes you feel good and refill you Read more

Health News: De-stress, Pilates & V-Shaped Torso

“You are what you eat.” We’ve all heard it a thousand times before. So when my mom showed up at my house over the weekend with a bunch of bananas, I should have known there was a good reason. Read here for  7 Foods You Should be Eating Right Now to  instant de-stress.

One thing that often works is to enjoy more tropical fruits, such as mangoes, bananas, coconuts, or papayas Read more

Health News – Aerobics, Yoga & Diet

As long as you do some aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes, 3-4 times a week, you can stop fat gain in its tracks and start on the road to a lean sexy body. Let’s look at the best aerobic exercises for achieving weight loss.

Low calorie regimes lead to the paradox that the less we eat, the more our survival instinct drives our bodies to lay down fat reserves for fear of malnutrition. Calorie intake has nothing to do Read more

6 Steps to a Flat Stomach

Getting restless seeing your belly fat? Well you should be a concerned (see how belly fat is harmful). But since you’ve decided to take action, here are 6 simple steps you can take to reduce flatten your belly.

To reach your goal there are certain factors you should take into consideration while on your quest to a perfect flat belly. Follow the following guidelines to kick start your efforts.

Wake Up and drink water: Rehydrate your body with 500 ml of chilled water as soon as you wake up in the morning. Research shows that following this routine will boost your metabolism by 24% for an hour and a half afterward. Body performs well when it is hydrated. What’s more, a previous study determined that muscle cells grow faster when they’re well hydrated. You know what more muscle means…. higher
metabolic rate, and more fat burning.

Eat Your Breakfast: A recent research shows that people who miss their breakfast are more likely to have bulging belly by about 4 & 1/2 times to a person who has regular breakfast and breakfast size is inversely proportional to waist size. So have a good breakfast before heading out for the days work: have some oatmeal, fruits, yogurt, eggs, … or anything that you enjoy

Track it: Monitoring your diet and exercise is important as it keeps you focused towards your objective. Research says that people who tracked their diet and exercise are more likely to reach their goal, than people who do not.

Carry Your Lunch: Practice the habit of carrying lunch. This helps you in two ways. If you’re busy, you can eat at your desk, and avoid skipping meals. And when you’re hungry, you don’t have to eat the unhealthy options available in the cafeteria.

Pick the Right Exercise: You have abs, but they are under that layer of belly fat which needs to be burnt off for your abs to show. So doing 100 crunches a day will not work. You will have to spend as little at 20 minutes a day to follow a proper exercise plan, and see the belly fat melt away. The perfect exercise plan is a combination of active (like cardio) and passive (weights, yoga, etc).

Get the 7-8 hours of sleep: Sleep well and schedule your sleep because research says that lack of sleep might disrupt the hormones that control our ability to burn fat. It says that the muscle cells become resistant to insulin which results in storage of fat around your belly.

So, start your flat belly plan now, and see how this 30 year old client went from flabby to flat in less than a month.

Yoga for Beginners

Ever thought of starting yoga, but known where to start? At the beginners level, performing yoga should be focused on learning how to do basic poses correctly. One of the best advantages of Yoga is that it can be practiced almost anywhere, without special equipment, and by people of all ages.

Yoga is different from regular exercises, as it doesn’t involve fasr movements, but instead slow, steady & focused movements. Basic yoga helps achieve relaxation which reduces stress.

Basic requirements to start yoga are a Read more

Expert weight loss advice & more- Fitho Discussion Forums

Ever wanted personalized fitness advice for free, from experts? Or wanted to share your fitness knowledge with others? Well, we have just the right thing for you- Fitho’s Health and Fitness Discussion forums. Here, you can discuss anything from Weight Loss, to Beauty Tips to Sexual Health, to Healthy Recipes, to Muscle Building to Yoga, Martial Arts, or even discuss anything even non health related.

Why discuss health and fitness?

Ever had any doubts? Ask them here. Get your questions answered and doubts cleared. Someone of the forum there would know the right answer, and answer your questions.

Ask anything, and get answers. Share your experiences and get fit!

Excited?! Want to take part in the forums? Then, just do a quick registration and get rolling! We are very excited to bring all this to you. Hope you have fun with it!

Bikram Hot Yoga- Benefits, Myths

I’m sure you’ve heard that Bikram Yoga is all the rage. We’ve all seen pictures of half naked people sweating their bodies away in super heated rooms while holding all those difficult yoga positions! So, here’s a little bit about Bikram Yoga- it was developed by Bikram Choudhury- born in Calcutta; but currently lives in Beverly Hills, California.

Bikram Yoga is ideally practiced in a room heated to 40.5 Celcius (105 Farenheit) .There are 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. [In India, we don't need those heated rooms- it gets that hot in summer without any special heating equipment ]

Since your body sweats a lot performing those positions in the heated rooms, Bikram Yoga claims to help rid your body of toxins and promotes blood circulation.

People claim to lose a lot of weight after performing these classes, but this weight is primarily water weight. Since the body sweats so profusely in those heated rooms, that losing a half a kg of weight (1 lb) should not be surprising. This is temporary weight loss, since it is water weight and once you consume the water, your body weight will return to normal. From a calorie bruning point of view, Bikram Yoga probably burns a reasonable amount of calories, but running for the same amount of time or playing a strenuous sport for that long will probably burn more calories.

Beginners can feel dizzy and nauseous during and after the first few classes. The Bikram Yoga School of India recommends drinking 64-80 oz (about 2 litres) of extra water when you perform Bikram Yoga.

There is controversy around Bikram Yoga in India, since Yoga traditionalists don’t approve of certain practices. Either way, if decide to try Bikram Yoga, ensure to hydrate yourself before, during and after your session.

We are yet to come across any Bikram yoga classes in Delhi. There might be some bikram yoga centers in Mumbai. If you know of them, please share with us!

Quick Fitness Quiz

What’s your Health IQ?

Try this quick myth buster fitness quiz, and test your fitness knowledge. For each question, note down your answer (True or False). Once you complete all 9 questions, check your answers with the correct answers given below.

The best part about this fitness quiz is that if you crack it, you can gloat in the glory of being a myth-buster And if you don’t crack it, then read the answers to become a myth-buster.

State whether the following statements are True or False -

1. Toe touching helps to reduce fat?

2. Potatoes are fattening?

3. A non-vegetarian diet makes you fat?

4. By doing a 200 crunches a day, I can lose my paunch and get a six pack?

5. Eating Banana and Milk will make me fat?

6. Walking is a great exercise to get in shape?

7. I’m diabetic. I should avoid sugar, but refined flour (Maida) is okay for my diet?

8. Nuts are high in fat, and thus bad for you?

9. Running is only for kids and athletes?

Answers are given below -

If you score:

0-3: This is the average score for this fitness quiz. Don’t believe any information without understanding why it is so. You should read the explanations below to understand better.

3-6: Congratulations, you are above the average fitness awareness levels. Read the answers below to understand more.

6-9: You are well aware of fitness information. You should educate the people around you with this information. Hope you are using your knowledge of fitness information to your benefit.

Answers -

1. False

2. False

3. False

4. False

5. False

6. Partly True

7. False

8. Partly False

9. False

Answer Explanations -

1. Yoga has some toe touching exercises. From that a common myth has spread in India that toe touching will help lose fat from the belly. But what does toe touching do?

- Every time you bend to touch your feet, you stretch your back muscles, and compress your belly. So, your belly fat is getting compressed.

Now, think about an analogy – take a rubber ball. Compress it 20 times. Has the rubber reduced? Similarly, by compressing your fat, it doesn’t reduce. You might burn some calories doing this, but that calorie burn is minimal.

2. Potatoes are very healthy vegetables – they’re loaded with energy providing carbohydrates, fiber, protein, iron, Vitamin C and other minerals. They Glycemic Index of a potato is not high.
But potatoes absorb fat, so depending on the cooking process they might absorb the oil/butter. So, its the potato concoction that can be fattening, but not the poor spud by itself.

3. Many meats like fish and chicken are high in protein, and low in saturated fat (bad fat). The protein helps to build muscle, which in turn burns calories.

Again, the cooking process might make it fattening. If you eat butter chicken, its not the chicken itself that is fattening, but the curry that is loaded with cream and fat.

4. Crunches help you work those abdominal muscles, but not lose fat on that belly. Read on to see why crunches won’t help you get that six pack.

5. Banana and milk are not fattening. Both banana and milk have a relatively low Glycemic Index, so its not the carbohydrate content that makes you fat. The total calories from this concoction are lower than a bag of chips. Besides, it provides you with lots of nutrients.

6. Walking is an exercise and may help you burn calories. But the calorie burn is not significant enough to make a big enough dent in your fat loss plan.

Also, your body gets used to walking very fast, so it burns fewer calories when walking the same distance. What do you do then? Read to find out how to overcome weight loss plateau!

7. Maida (refined flour) has a very high Glycemic Index, and has the same effect on your body as sugar.

8. Nuts are loaded with unsaturated fat (good fat) and have cholesterol lowering power, along with protein.

9. Most adults in India assume this. But why should running be limited to kids and athletes. According to a recent study, running can actually help you live longer and healthier.