Rise and Exercise

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If you haven’t heard by now, there is a strong correlation between the amount of hours of sleep we get a night and obesity.  As a general rule of thumb, adults need an average of seven to eight hours of sleep a day in order to function properly.  Getting less than six hours of sleep can cause a number of problems within in the body and within the mind.

According to research in the American Journal of Human Biology has shown that not getting enough sleep could affect glucose metabolism and even raise blood pressure.  It can also affect the ways that our appetites are regulated.

“These findings show that sleeping poorly can increase a person’s risk of developing obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease,” says Dr Kristen Knutson, of the University of Chicago.

According to the research, there is a link between sleeping fewer than six hours a night and having a higher body mass index (BMI).  This study shows that the link is stronger in teens and kids.

The research also suggests that sleep deprivation increases the secretion of gherlin, the appetite hormone, and leptin, which tells us when we’re full, which then increases how much food we consume.

These findings can be very relevant to those seeking to lose weight, as not getting enough sleep can actually be counterproductive to that goal.

Aside from the fact that not getting enough sleep may contribute to obesity, it also dulls reaction times and oftentimes causes irritability and makes concentrating more difficult.

The bottom line is, make sure no to sell yourself short in the evening.  Make sure you get enough sleep as it will not only improve your physical performance, but also your mental performance.

So next time you’re faced with the option of staying up late and getting up early, opt to go to bed early instead.

Carlos Morgan is a 22 year old Communications Major hoping to get into Law School one day and make a difference. If you feel you want to know more, check out his Google+

You’ve decided to get in shape. You’ve thought long and hard about it and made your decision. You know what you have to do. You have to run, jog, walk, lift, stretch, and many other such exercises. Where are you going to go to do these things? Yeah, you could probably just do them around your neighborhood or at a gym. There are better places though. Have your ever thought about going on a trip to a close-by state or national park for the sole purpose of running until you can’t anymore? Our world is beautiful and there is no motivation like strolling past some of the most tranquil, peaceful, and inspiring landscapes. It will sure beat being stuck in a smelly gym that’s for sure.

This place is misleading, hearing the name Joshua Tree immediately makes me think of trees and  also of my friend Joshua.  First off I don’t know if there is actually a tree called the Joshua tree. I assume there might be, but it really doesn’t concern me enough to even deserve a Google search to find out.  However, I do know of a placed called in California called Joshua Tree and this places concerns me a great deal.  Not like I am concerned because this places is going to do something bad, but more like I am interested and affected by it.

Oh that's concerning

This place is a climbers paradise, one of those places that really makes me want to learn how to grab a boulder and traverse it, ya know.  No, just kidding I am an avid climber and a good one too.  However, I am sorry to say I have never been to Joshua tree, so I can’t tell you how the rock feels, whether or not it’s sandy or if it is going to tear your hands up. Furthermore I don’t know what the temperature is like down in California year round, so I can’t tell you if it is humid or hot or what not. But, from the looks of it people have a good time here.  California is a little far away for me to just up and trot on down to, but I do plan on running down there on some holiday weekend and making a climbing trip out of it.  When that time comes you can bet I will post a much more comprehensive blog about the place. Oh yeah, they have bouldering too.  So if you are a scaredy-cat and you are totally afraid of heights then you can work some dynamic problems.  Basically, I feel like i need to get myself on a rock soon.

Exercising is something of a mystery to lots of people. I’m not an expert but I don have an exercise routine that I actually enjoy and that I have seen results from. The two characteristics of my routine is consistency and the use of the buddy system. Working out with a close friend can be one of the most helpful things you will ever do for your personal fitness.

Some people think that they need to go to the gym with their spouse or a good friend in order to have the workout buddy system work for them. Unless your spouse or friend is actually going to the same gym as you in the first place it could be hard to manipulate them into adopting your exercise regimen for your benefit.

Better than waiting for your friends or your spouse to start coming to the gym with you, you can try finding your exercise buddy at the gym. This makes more sense because that person will already be going to the gym and probably wants to workout regularly.

Besides having an exercise buddy you will need to be consistent in your workouts. Consistency is second in workout importance only to actually getting out and exercising in the first place. There are lots of people who made huge lifestyle changes just by doing a little bit at a time.

Of course, if you can do a lot at a time and still be consistent then you will be even better off. If you really get into heavy training though you will eventually need to be a little less consistent so that you can give your body a break.

These days people live in a semi-virtual type of existence.  Presumably you are just perusing fitness articles in between time spent facebooking, texting, and periodically gazing out the window.   Now days it is very easy to forget that there is more to the world than fits inside our windowsill frame.  Luckily for you we will tell you exactly how to go about reinvigorating your mind, and we will do it in four easy steps.

Reinvigorate your mind like she does.

• 1 Connect with Nature

It is said that the mind is governed by perceptions of reality that are all taken from sensations absorbed from external stimuli.  In other words, what you see, hear, smell, taste and feel are all going to attribute to the thoughts that you think.  It makes sense that your mind would only consist of thoughts learned through perception.  Now day’s people spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, on social networking sites.  If I were Tyler Durden I would say something like “You are not the amount of friends you have, you are not your clever status update, and you are not the amount of likes you get”.

Though internet blogging and social networking is very fun, it is very therapeutic and enlightening to get outside and actually connect with nature mono e mono, man to man or more appropriately man to nature.  Exposing yourself to a different set of external stimuli is scientifically proven to give you a new perspective, stimulate your senses, and raise cognitive awareness.

• 2 Eat Healthy Invigorating Super-Food

Good nutrition is the key. The food you eat is the fuel your body is going to use.  If you are a normal person you probably make the same clandestine midnight trips to McDonalds to get a hamburger and some fries, and perhaps you even hide the evidence.  Admit it, I find it hard to believe I am the only one that does this.

There are a few things that food does for the body: provides satisfaction, offers burnable calories, and delivers sustainable nutrition (most foods anyway).  Fast food is not going to do two of these three things.  If you really want to reinvigorate your mind you need to get nutrients from the foods you eat.

There are chemicals that directly influence cognition in the brain.  For example Sodium (Na) found in salt and potassium (K) popularly found in bananas, are going be used in synapse throughout the brain, that is when information is passed from one brain cell to another which creates cognitive thought.

Elemental components of nutrients, for your viewing pleasure

• 3 Exercise Your Body

The body needs to undergo some physical strains every now and again; resistance is the key to development.  Imagine if you never had to exert yourself in your entire life, you would be very similar to the way you were back as an infant.  Resistance is the catalyst that creates development, not only in the physical aspect of things either it is the same for the emotional state of being and mental state of being too.

Obviously you have to exercise to become stronger, and you have to study to learn, and you won’t ever understand complex emotions unless you experience them. But, interestingly enough, physical exercise is directly correlated to healthy cognition.

Remember we talked about nutrition for like half a second back in bullet number 2.  Well it is the hearts job to pump these nutrients through the body and to the brain, and to make it easier on your heart all you have to do is a little bit of cardio exercise.   The additional blood flow from your exercise is going to be pumped to your brain and will directly affect your mental acuity.

• 4 Coach Yourself
  

  He is you, and his coach is also you.

These days it is very easy to go into auto-pilot, drive to school, listen to a lecture, go to work, get home and realize that you never once ever checked to see what the heck you were thinking throughout the day.

Do you want to stimulate your mind, this is a very effective an easy trick to implement upon yourself. Simply take a step back every now and then throughout your day and ask yourself “is this what you want to be doing?” Hopefully, your answer is yes.  If it is not you should be able to change your mind and start doing something more productive. Simply changing your perspective can be very enlightening and may help to motivate you to do new more progressive things.

At least that is the intended purpose of this technique. If you do not have enough self-discipline to choose to do productive activities, well maybe you need to get a coach who isn’t the same person as you. However, just becoming aware of yourself from an objective perspective will help to motivate you.

Rebounders are going to seem sissy to some people: standing in one spot bouncing up and down probably giggling like a little school girl.  When you put it that way it seems like they are sissy. But let’s step back, what makes rebounders any more sissy than a treadmill?  Abso-freaking-lutely nothing, that is what.

• NASA (that space company) says it more effective than running.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) gives the rebounder good reviews.  They say it is 65 percent more effective than running, and it isn’t going to be detrimental to any joints or bones.  This means if you are old, crippled, diseased, or otherwise incapacitated in any way this is a great way of exercising without hurting yourself.

Rebounders work through gravitational resistance (G-force), which is probably what made NASA find an interest in them.  This G-doesn’t just affect the muscles though. It affects the whole body, so from head to toe you are going to be looking young and fit.

Not that young.

• Rebounding creates energy.

Inside your body there are these organs that all work together in what is called the endocrine system.  This is responsible for helping your body regulate hormones, which help to produce energy, maintain cognitive clarity, and prevent you from having radical mood swings.

The G-force actually works the body at a cellular level which is going to reinforce organ’s strength as well as muscle strength.  So, rebounding actually helps to keep your hormones in check and balanced, and that is something no other exercise is going to be able to do.

• Rebounding promotes overall health.

We talked about the endocrine system and muscles a tiny bit, but there is another thing that rebounding does which no other exercise  has ever even attempted.  The lymphatic system is a series of tubes that runs alongside the circulatory system, and its main function is to strain toxins from the blood.  However to do this there must be external locomotion.

Yeah, you get it, rebounding creates a lymphatic cleanse that cannot be matched.  Unless you have some sort of weird hot-cup-toxin-extract process done.

When people say cardio the first word that comes into mind is aerobics, soon after that I start thinking about yoga, and Tai Chi and want-to-be workouts that— common let’s be honest— don’t really count. Cardio was never meant to have such bad connotations; in fact, it is actually the number one doctor recommended item to be improved upon. When it comes down to it cardio is all in the intensity.  So the bloggers here at Rise and Exercise got together and devised a few simple ways to increase intensity during your workouts.

• Harder is smarter.

When it comes down to it, not just in exercise but in life, harder is actually smarter.  You want better grades, well shoot try harder.  You want more money, work harder.  You want a better physique, yup, you guessed it.  Harder is smarter.

So instead of prancing around for a little while on your yoga mat get outside and run, not to dis yoga some types can be very effective.  However the kind you are doing in your living room, probably isn’t taxing you the same way an instructed session would, just trying to be honest is all.

• Pump up the volume.

As it turns out psychologist say that music can actually aid you, by helping you to help yourself lose weight.  Turns out those hard core rock and roll bands aren’t the bad influence everyone thinks they are. (Truthfully, they probably are a bad influence.) Research suggests that music will do a number of things for you. One of which, create a pseudo-mutant endurance sort of like Beast from X-men.  Music has also been shown to reveal a measurable amount of mood modification. Hmm. Go figure.

Mainly what you need to do is get a big fancy pair of head phones, turn your Ipod to full blast and then continue on by trying to blow your eardrums out of your skull. During the time your brain is being bombarded with loud synthetic poly-dynamic rhythms, try to pay attention to what your body is doing. – We are legally obligated to state loud music may cause hearing loss.

This is how you pump up the volume.

• Sound Sleep.

Many people consider this to be a valuable waste of time.  However, it is valuable, but it is not a waste.  Turns out, not sleeping is more of a waste than sleeping is.  Getting a good eight hours of sleep a night is going to provide you with a lot more energy during the day, the type of energy you can only get rid of by hardcore intensive cardio exercise.

As you meander through your listless life you may be blissfully ignorant to your own physique and physical health. Then out of nowhere you are hit with the realization that you are totally out of shape. Look you’re not a teen anymore, your body isn’t what it used to be, and honestly you probably don’t look good.  Sorry, you have just been chap-slapped with some truth. But before you leave this website in a huff and start browsing for some exercise/fitness sites that are going to coddle your infantile ego, listen to what has to be said.

This could be you, if you weren't so terribly lazy.

Look it’s just you and me. No one is standing over your shoulder watching you read this, there is no reason to be embarrassed.  Let’s be honest with ourselves. Are you completely happy with your physique? Hopefully your answer was no. Yes, the correct answer is NO.  Look, the greatest gift in life is desire.  You should always want to be better no matter where you are at.  It is not some sort of pessimistic way of looking down on yourself, but rather an optimistic view toward progression. Now you thought this blog was going to be hurtful and satirical all the way through, nope just a little bit of a sting in the beginning to wake you up.

Keeping a healthy desire toward physical progression will help to boost that pathetic confidence of yours, strengthen your shriveled muscles, and promote all around health.  The trick is to make the desire a part of who you are.  Motivation can come and go, it is fleeting.  Creating an constant desire within yourself is going to help you maintain that motivation.  Consistency brings changes, not a single exercise a month.  Good luck and stop being a wuss.

Most people realize that exercise is good for your mental well being, especially the older you are. What most people do not know is why it works this way.

The process your brain goes through to replace dying brain cells is called neurogenesis. As you age your body makes a build up of a protein called BMP which stands for Bone Morphogenetic Protein. The BMP slows down the stem cells that in turn slows down and can even stop the neurogenesis process.

The way exercise comes into formula is because exercise releases a counter protein named Noggin. Noggin is a natural inhibitor of BMP and keeps the stem cells in the brain from being slowed down.  Thus the stem cells are able to generate the necessary neurons and function as normal.

In the past 11 hours I have ran 10 miles. Last night I dreamt about running. This morning I rolled out of bed at 5:30 am…to go running. I am about to eat a big breakfast, so later I can go running. Needless to say, I am beginning to feel like running is taking over my life. When I decided to do cross country for Dixie State this year I had no idea what I was getting myself into!
It is painful, discouraging, and hard. But then there are those mornings when it is beautiful, encouraging, and rewarding. That’s what keeps me waking up day after day.
Running in the morning is great because you know you are one of the few people awake at such an hour. Not only that, but you’re also one of the even fewer people awake and being so productive.
There’s nothing like your shoes hitting the pavement while it’s still dark outside, only to keep on running until the sun rises. To keep running while more cars show up on the road. More people groggily roll out of bed. More people are headed to work, to starbucks, McDonald’s… And YOU are still running.
Honestly, cross country is a love-hate relationship but it’s the great days that make all the terrible ones worth the pain.
Because how rewarding would the good days be if it weren’t for the bad ones? That’s what you have to focus on because otherwise no one would get anywhere. You almost have to make your brain forget about the day before and focus on the present. That is something I love about running, it pulls you into the present whether you like it or not. And at the end of the day, all that really matters is that you just keep going.

“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must move faster than the lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must move faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn’t matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be moving.”
– Maurice Greene