Workout Myths Busted

Workout practices happen to come out from everywhere, but not everything is effective. There are those that make us counterproductive instead. It is a fact that exercise is such a hard work. Wasting your energy on something that doesn’t bring results can frustrate you and make you give up on your dream of having a perfectly fit body. Read the rest of this article to know the workout myths that you shouldn’t be doing anymore.

1.       Walking or running a mile burns the same amount of calories. If you are just a new recruit to the fitness bandwagon, then you may be confused with the myth just stated. While walking is good for the physical fitness of the body, it doesn’t do much compared with running. Running requires 40% more energy than walking; thus doing the former will allow you to burn more calories by going through the same distance. Get out there and run while listening to upbeat music through your mobile earphones to keep up the pace and stimulate your mood.

2.       Morning exercises burn more fat. Studies have found out that morning exercises don’t increase the body’s metabolism any more than exercises during the rest of the day. So working out during mornings isn’t that advisable at all; the effects are just the same. Do it according to your convenience. Anyway, the most important thing is that you did your workout no matter what time it’s done.

3.       Exercising allows you to eat whatever you want. If one of your reasons for working out is to make you less guilty in satisfying your high-calorie cravings, then I am certain that you won’t be meeting the real objective of your endeavour. You may tell yourself that you burned this much calories in your workout session, but you reward yourself twice as much as the amount you burned. What you’re doing is like equipping yourself with a replacement battery for the energy you lost working out. The best thing to do is to monitor your caloric intake to make sure that exercises have an effect on your figure.

4.       Crunches will give you washboard abs. Crunches target the abdomen and surrounding areas causing the muscles to bulk up. You may have hard and well-formed abdominal muscles as a result of months of doing crunches, but they won’t appear if they are hidden under a layer of fat. What a waste of effort. To flaunt your abs, be mindful of your diet. Stick to healthy, fresh foods. Take note, crunches alone isn’t sufficient for having washboard abs that show.

5.       Cardio is the best way to lose weight. A lot of people who only want to shed off those extra pounds hit the gym just for the cardio. If you’re not adding strength training, such as weightlifting, then that practice won’t be effective at all. Strength training is an important part of any exercise routine. The more muscle mass a person has, the higher his resting metabolic rate will be; hence burning more fat.

6.       Stretching before a workout. Back in your formative years, you were taught to stretch before going for a strenuous activity. Stretching before a workout doesn’t make you perform better. It will only be the same even without stretching. In fact, stretching before working out has been shown to only waste time. Instead, why don’t you use the time saved from stretching to start with your workout sessions.

With the ineffective practices put aside, you’re sure to have that perfectly fit body in no time.

The Battle of the Brains

Over the years, the never-ending debate of which is the better gender still is left unanswered. While it’s true that men differ from women in a lot of aspects, the question still remains on which gender is superior overall. Therefore, scientists have scrutinized the differences between the two with regard emotions, memory, business success, and longevity.

A study conducted by Daniel Amen, MD, and other researchers that analyzed imaging scans among 26,000 people discovered that women have increased blood flow in 112 of the 128 brain regions than men. This indicates by sheer fact that women’s brains are much more active than men’s. The most intriguing difference of all is that women were found out to have higher level of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex. That part of the brain governs planning, organization, impulse control, and learning from mistakes. It is sometimes called the brain’s CEO. On the other hand, men’s brains show greater activity in the areas associated with visual perception, spatial intelligence, and form recognition.

Having identified those differences doesn’t mean that one specific gender is already dominant against the other. According to Dr. Amen, “Even when men and women succeed at the same task, they tend to call on different strengths and areas of the brain to achieve this result.” Read the rest of this article to have a closer look at the differences found by experts between men and women.

·         Women have better memories. It has been found out that women have greater activity in the hippocampus of the brain, which is the reason why women are better in recalling where things were last placed and rarely misplaces items such as the car keys, smartphone, or the remote control. Swedish psychologists found out that in the tests on several types of memory done on both genders, results favoured women in almost all the areas studied. Although women have the upper hand when it comes to recalling, men have the edge in a type of memory called visuospatial processing. In simple words, men have better sense of direction than women, which is why men are more likely to remember how to find his way out of the woods.

·         Men have larger brains. Because men’s bodies are generally bigger than women’s, the brains of the former are 8 to 10 percent bigger than the latter. Additionally, men have about 4 percent more neurons than women do. It’s actually too early to jump into conclusions that men are intellectually superior to women. Amid the brain size and number of neurons, scientists point that the distribution of neurons is different between genders. Dr. Jill Goldstein at Harvard Medical School found out that women have larger volume in both the frontal cortex and the limbic cortex, which is involved in emotional responses. This is why women deal with their emotions as transparent as an LCD screen protector as compared to men who typically hide their emotions within themselves.

·         Women live longer. Studies suggest that women have greater self-control than men. This can be seen by how women take better care of themselves more than men do. Statistics also show that women have lower rates of substance abuse, anti-social personalities, and ADHD. Women are also 14 times less likely to be locked up in jail or get traffic tickets. That trait in women is what makes them outlive men. However, their lack of adventure in life due to increased self-limitations makes women more prone to anxiety disorders and depression. While women live longer, men are generally happier.

There, the facts have been laid out. Now it’s up to you to answer one of the most controversial questions of all time, “Which gender is more superior?”

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The List Will Never End

The world will continue revolving around the sun along with the other planets stuck on the canvas called the Milky Way. A lot of warnings have been casted as for the end of the world but no one has proved their theories entirely. Just the same, our technology strives to spin around our daily lives to enhance what needs to be with the society at the heart of it. As of now, nothing seems satisfactory enough which is why experts continue to explore the impossible with unwavering feelings.

We were overwhelmed by the up and coming smartphones for 2013 which was lead by Sony Xperia Z with its waterproof capability and followed suit by the soon to be launched Samsung Galaxy S4. The world is waiting what Apple has in store as the battle for the throne continues. The list doesn’t stop there, fortunately. It’s not only the smartphones that will be taking the stage. A line of tablets will soon be spread out for our mouths to drool over.

The iPad Mini had gotten most of the attention last year and they don’t see a reason to stop now especially when the competition are adding up like bacteria every millisecond. Okay, that might be a little exaggerated, but you get my point. Back to my story, Apple is foreseen to be releasing a better version for the iPad Mini – Retina iPad Mini. The Retina iPad Mini is lighter and more elegant than the previous model plus the screen size will be accommodating to the hopes of its dear customers.

Moving on the list of cool mobile accessories will be Oculus Rift. Oculus Rift was created for the gamers of the world seeking more of virtual reality. Though it’s still in its development stage, the Oculus Rift has caught the attention of the public (namely the gamers). To me, it looked like the embodiment of the headset in the popular anime series Sword Art Online that centered on virtual reality as it is the very facet of gaming we are all indulging in right now.

Continuing with the cool mobile accessories today is the astounding Google Glass 2.0. It is like the simplified version for the Oculus Rift although the Google Glass 2.0 will be facilitating most of the activities done by smartphone users. Critics as well as the entire media see this technology as the next big breakthrough for hands-free computation.

This isn’t the end of the list of the new technologies we are to expect this 2013 because the list won’t end as long as man won’t cease to have himself contented.