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Obese
people are often advised to exercise off those excess pounds. Is
this good advice to give if you’re someone who has an obese or
morbidly obese loved one? It might help to understand that this
is not the best advice by imagining yourself holding a 25-pound
dumbbell in each hand—50 pounds total—and going for a 10-minute
walk. Chances are exhaustion would result after only a few
minutes, and injuries could occur. How, then, are obese people
expected to walk 20 to 30 minutes per day, a few days a week?
Isn’t this potentially too taxing to the cardiovascular system,
bones, joints, discs, and body in general?
Then
there are exercise addicts that work out more than the
recommended 40 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise, burning off
about 500 calories per day, 5 days a week, give or take a few
minutes, calories, or days. Like supplements and calories from
health foods, more exercise is not necessarily better and can
lead to disease. Exercising, especially resistance training, for
many hours isn’t better, because it can unnecessarily accelerate
your metabolism, leading to greater free radical formation or
body pollution from calorie burning. Just as eating a
super-high-calorie meal produces larger amounts of these body
pollutants that prompt disease, a marathon exercise session
(burning more than 800 calories) can be equally unhealthy
because a disproportionate amount of disease-causing free
radicals are also formed. Excessive exercise also increases the
potential for injury and muscle aches that make you want to give
up or that lead to risky surgery.
Another error fitness buffs often make is to rely on processed
protein in the form of soy or whey before a workout. Whey, the
watery part of milk that separates from the curds, is favored
among body builders who believe that it enhances muscle mass.
But whey and other amino-acid supplements haven’t received the
nod from scientists who’ve performed well-controlled studies on
them. Whey’s and processed soy’s health benefits are also not
well-established. Smart protein sources such as eggs, free-range
chicken, low-mercury fish such as flounder, beans, and minimally
processed whole grains may build body mass and general health as
well as whey, if not better. Another reason for avoiding excess
dietary protein is that, if it’s not used for energy, it’s
stored as fat instead of building muscle mass. We should only
consume recommended amounts of protein, which should constitute
about 30 percent of pre-workout calories, along with other
medicinal foods. Balanced amounts of bioavailable antioxidants,
vital oils, smart proteins, slowly absorbed glucose, resistance
training, and aerobic exercise will make us big without the help
of whey, or branched-chain, amino-acid supplements.
Anabolic
steroids such as testosterone, whether used intramuscularly,
orally, or topically, have no place in body building. Side
effects from steroid abuse can include cardiovascular disease,
stroke, tumor growth and cancer. Roids have the potential for
abuse and have been linked with impulsive and violent behaviors
known as roid-rage as well as other psychiatric symptoms that
mimic bipolar disorder.
As
far as wrong spiritual exercises are concerned, researchers have
linked negative emotions such as worry, tension, irritability,
depression, obsessive or overwhelming thoughts, compulsive
behavior and anxiety, to the prefrontal cortex on the right side
of the brain. In the same way that positive emotions such as
serenity and joy seem to stimulate the left prefrontal cortex,
experiencing negative feelings on a regular basis increases
activity in the right area of the brain; this lays the
foundation for a pessimistic and negative outlook even during
joyful circumstances. Negative emotions behave like static on a
television screen when it comes to learning, memory, and overall
performance. They can interrupt the flow of incoming information
and its processing, and therefore, impact negatively upon mood
and intelligence.
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