Quick Relaxation Techniques

By Matt Wolfe | July 31, 2010

Tina Druv asked:


Adopting relaxation techniques can help you let go of numerous factors, including the hustle of the work day, the details of a stressful circumstance, even deep-rooted issues that can only be resolved with focused stillness. Try just a few minutes each day to accept relaxation into your routine, and find the power in the practice.

For a sample relaxation technique, try this simple exercise:

Quick Relaxation Techniques

1.Loosen your clothing and get comfortable.

2.Tighten the muscles in your toes. Hold for a count of 10. Relax and enjoy the sensation of

release from tension.

3.Flex the muscles in your feet. Hold for a count of 10. Relax.

4.Move slowly up through your body- legs, abdomen, back, neck, face- contracting and relaxing muscles as you go.

5.Breathe deeply and slowly.

When you’ve got 1 minute

Place your hand just beneath your navel so you can feel the gentle rise and fall of your belly as you breathe. Breathe in slowly. Pause for a count of three. Breathe out. Pause for a count of three. Continue to breathe deeply for one minute, pausing for a count of three after each inhalation and exhalation.

Or alternatively, while sitting comfortably, take a few slow deep breaths and quietly repeat to yourself “I am” as you breathe in and “at peace” as you breathe out. Repeat slowly two or three times. Then feel your entire body relax into the support of the chair.

When you’ve got 2 minutes

Count down slowly from 10 to zero. With each number, take one complete breath, inhaling and exhaling. For example, breathe in deeply saying “10” to yourself. Breathe out slowly. On your next breath, say “nine,” and so on. If you feel lightheaded, count down more slowly to space your breaths further apart. When you reach zero, you should feel more relaxed. If not, go through the exercise again.

When you’ve got 3 minutes

While sitting down, take a break from whatever you’re doing and check your body for tension. Relax your facial muscles and allow your jaw to fall open slightly. Let your shoulders drop. Let your arms fall to your sides. Allow your hands to loosen so that there are spaces between your fingers. Uncross your legs or ankles. Feel your thighs sink into your chair, letting your legs fall comfortably apart. Feel your shins and calves become heavier and your feet grow roots into the floor. Now breathe in slowly and breathe out slowly. Each time you breathe out, try to relax even more.

When you’ve got 5 minutes

Try self-massage. A combination of strokes works well to relieve muscle tension. Try gentle chops with the edge of your hands or tapping with fingers or cupped palms. Put fingertip pressure on muscle knots. Knead across muscles, and try long, light, gliding strokes. You can apply these strokes to any part of the body that falls easily within your reach. For a short session like this, try focusing on your neck and head.

•Start by kneading the muscles at the back of your neck and shoulders. Make a loose fist and drum swiftly up and down the sides and back of your neck. Next, use your thumbs to work tiny circles around the base of your skull. Slowly massage the rest of your scalp with your fingertips. Then tap your fingers against your scalp, moving from the front to the back and then over the sides.

•Now massage your face. Make a series of tiny circles with your thumbs or fingertips. Pay particular attention to your temples, forehead, and jaw muscles. Use your middle fingers to massage the bridge of your nose and work outward over your eyebrows to your temples.

•Finally, close your eyes. Cup your hands loosely over your face and inhale and exhale easily for a short while.

When you’ve got 10 minutes

Try imagery. Start by sitting comfortably in a quiet room. Breathe deeply for a few minutes. Now picture yourself in a place that conjures up good memories. What do you smell — the heavy scent of roses on a hot day, crisp fall air, the wholesome smell of baking bread? What do you hear? Drink in the colors and shapes that surround you. Focus on sensory pleasures: the swoosh of a gentle wind; soft, cool grass tickling your feet; the salty smell and rhythmic beat of the ocean. Passively observe intrusive thoughts, and then gently disengage from them to return to the world you’ve created.



The Fat Burning Furnace

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New Site Provides All-inclusive Resource for Diet Shoppers

By Joe Fier | July 30, 2010

Diets In Review asked:


Everyday it seems we learn about the newest quick-fix, must-work, end-all, be-all to dieting. With diets available on the market as plentiful as excuses for not following one, it’s hard to weed out the right choice for you. With so many options available, it can be a difficult task to determine which diets are healthy, fads or guaranteed to help you find success.

Diets In Review is a new site that offers consumers a one-stop-shop for diets. Here you can find reviews of nearly 100 diets and weight loss plans- everything from the tried-and-true to the more obscure. With a simple interface, shoppers can quickly find diets in four categories and compare and contrast for themselves with informative reviews of each plan. You’ll quickly be able to identify what you’re looking for- be it quick weight loss for an event or benefits for long-term weight loss and a healthier lifestyle.

Diets In Review organizes the plans into four categories:* Lifestyle Diets – meant to help makeover not just the number on the scale, but your overall health. * Calorie Counting Diets – require you to keep tabs of exactly what you’re eating and how much. * Meal Based Diets – centered around a prescribed meal plan, either via pre-assembled or strict guidelines. * Diet Supplements – a variety of pill, powder and beverage supplements that can aid your efforts for just about any other diet program.

The most exciting part about Diets In Review, is that it is completely customer-centric. Offering visitors the opportunity to post commentary on each diet, give ratings and participate in discussions in the forum. Diets In Review is a well-rounded dieting community, and they’re not only helping you take control of your health, but take control of the site and content.

It’s important to be armed with as much information as possible before making such a decision. After all, your health should be your top priority. Diets In Review is continually updating with new and valuable content to help you remain sharp and fully informed.



No Nonsense Muscle Building

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Dieting Made Simple

By Joe Fier | July 30, 2010

Diets In Review asked:


NutriSystem is a wildly successful weight loss program that uses the Glycemic index to help you lose weight while still eating foods you love. Prepackaged meal options and a healthy approach to hunger and snacking can help even the most difficult dieter achieve success.

The NutriSystem program includes a meal plan with 120 delicious pre-packed options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts! You select the foods you want online or over the phone and they are shipped right to your door, no cooking involved. All you have to do is add a few ingredients like fresh vegetables and fruits. After all, who has time to hunt down special ingredients for low-fat cooking, or to prepare one diet meal for yourself and something else for the rest of your family? All of the meals are perfectly portioned so there is no weighing, measuring, or counting calories or points. And if you have any questions, a counselor, nutritionist, and dietitian are a phone call or e-mail away.

The foods in the NutriSystem program are designed based on the Glycemic Index. They are low in fat and include the right amounts of protein, fiber, and good carbohydrates. This balance of ingredients makes each of the meals easy for your body to digest and turn into energy, without spikes in your blood sugar that can lead to energy crashes. Instead, you get to eat tasty meals five times a day that help you stay full and provide constant energy levels so that you have plenty of motivation to workout. Best of all, the meals aren’t standard diet fare. You get to have burgers, lasagna, pizza, and even chocolate desserts! It’s much easier to stick to a diet when you get to eat the things you love without feeling guilty.

More diet tips and diet reviews at www.dietsinreview.com and the diet forum



The Fat Loss Secret

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Muscle Building Guide- 3 Build Muscle Tips You Must Know

By Matt Wolfe | July 29, 2010

Rory Wilkinson asked:


Has all the money, time and effort spent in the gym been a waste of time? Have you still not gotten the kind of results that you expect- that you deserve? Well that’s because most of what you have heard and learnt about how to build muscle up is dead WRONG! A lot of build muscle tips and tips to build muscle are actually doing you more damage than good.

However today with my simple 3 step muscle building guide, you will right your wrongs and actually start to get close to that beach body you desperately desire.

Ok, so here are the 3 build muscle tips that you must know if you want to build muscle.

1.    Make sure you do your cardio. A lot of trainers preach that weight training is just as good as cardio for keeping your heart and lungs in good shape. However weight training, designed for body building, is actually almost completely useless for enhancing your cardiovascular system. In fact weight training is about as good as sitting watching TV all day for your cardio system. Furthermore don’t listen to all the trainers who believe that cardio will make it much harder to build muscle. In fact a cardio workout speeds up your recovery and is vital for building maximum muscle gain. Cardio is a crucial aspect in this muscle building guide.

2.    Spending too much time training your biceps and triceps. Most people want to have bulging biceps and triceps so that’s the only thing they work on. The point that they miss is that your biceps and triceps are much smaller than your back, chest, shoulders, thighs etc. By focusing on your majority muscle groups, you will find that building your arm muscles (biceps and triceps) will become much easier.

3.    Focus on getting stronger. A lot of people ask for tips to build muscle. Instead of just trying to become more ripped and muscular, focus your efforts on getting much stronger. Then in turn you will actually get much more ripped and muscular. When you become stronger you will be able to perform more reps, lift more, recover quicker and have better technique. Then in turn, you will have the big muscles to show for it.

Now that you have read my muscle building guide and my 3 special build muscle tips you are much closer to your ideal body. Remember and apply these tips and you will be building muscle like never before.



The Fat Burning Furnace

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Relaxation Tips That Will Help Reduce The Stress In Your Life!

By Matt Wolfe | July 27, 2010

Howard Platt asked:


ng to relax is a vital skill because our instinctive responses to stress are often more harmful than the stress itself. When things are not going as planned and we begin to feel the anxiety building up we have a tendency to overreact to some of the most insignificant situations. Think about the times you have endured stress just by thinking about something that might happen. My Mother used to tell me that I was just borrowing trouble when I did this and now I can see how right she was. We are going to learn some techniques we can use that will help us deal with or even avoid stress altogether while helping us to enjoy some relaxation in our hectic lives.

Relaxation is that wonderful feeling you have when the pressures of life seem to be non-existent and you have a positive mental outlook about your surroundings, your work and the day ahead of you. Relaxation is really a wonderful feeling and we all should make concerted attempts to enjoy the peaceful feelings that relaxation invokes. Reducing stress, creating peace of mind and just easing all the tension throughout your body has so many positive affects on your life.

Meditation is one way to bring about a sense of calmness, quietness and peaceful relaxation. Meditation allows the mind to settle down and really experience an inner state of calmness. When you use meditation on a regular basis, after a short amount of time you will begin to notice an improvement in your memory and your problem solving skills. The more you use meditation to help yourself relax the easier it becomes to bring yourself to that peaceful state of mind. Using meditation on a daily basis will help you to focus more on the positives in life, you will notice an increase in your creativity and you will find joy in the small things in life. The use of soothing music such as the sounds of nature or symphonic harmonies are perfect for relaxing your mind allowing you to enter that peaceful meditative state.

The use of visualization is another powerful tool that you may use to rid yourself of stress and bring about true relaxation. To effectively use visualization you should find yourself a place where you can be alone with no noise around you. Close your eyes and try to quite your mind then vividly imagine that you are in the most peaceful place you can think of, picture that place in your mind. Completely immerse yourself in the picture as though you are really there experiencing the whole event involve all your senses, feel the wind, imagine how it smells, hear all the sounds allow yourself to be a part of the scenery. The practice of visualization is so powerful it can remove you from the stress of real life in a matter of moments. Practice it often as the more you use it the easier it becomes to relax and really get yourself swept up into a beautiful fantasy. I visualize the perfect outcomes of many events in my life, the more you visualize something the easier it becomes for your sub-conscious mind to accept the visualization as reality.

Slow easy stretching is a wonderful exercise to use to bring you into a state of complete relaxation. When we become stressed our muscles tighten up and get sore leaving you uncomfortable and tense. Slowly stretching the muscles and tendons loosens you up in a couple of ways, first it stretches the muscles helping you to feel like your not all tied up in knots and just the act of stretching takes your mind off anything that may have been causing you stress. Stretching exercises can be done almost anywhere and while your stretching you can add to your relaxation by adding visualization as you perform your stretches. Now you have connected the body and the mind which helps to bring about a complete state of relaxation.

Muscle relaxation is a very effective technique that involves concentrating on one muscle group at a time. When using this technique you focus on tightening and then relaxing the muscle group. Using this method helps to take your mind off any worries you might have and it allows you to focus on the physical sensation of bringing your muscles to a state of relaxation. You should start tensing and relaxing your muscles in your toes then your feet and progressively work your way up through all the muscles in your body in a methodical pattern. You should tense your muscles for five to ten seconds and then relax for 30 seconds then repeat this process for every muscle group. You will find this exercise to be very relaxing and stress relieving as it frees your mind from the pressures of the day.

Bringing yourself to a state of total relaxation takes practice but the benefits you will receive such as stress relief make it all worthwhile. Whether you have a lot of stress in your life or a little and you believe you have it under control, you can always benefit from the many types of relaxation techniques. The use of soothing music such as the calming sounds of nature will only enhance the benefits you receive from using these forms of relaxation. Music therapy itself has the strong ability to bring you into a peaceful state of relaxation or to help you avoid stress altogether by playing it in the background while at work in the car or at home.



No Nonsense Muscle Building

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