Having a Ball Doing Exercise

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Exercise Ball

A few years ago I went to visit my hair stylist, a really nice woman who suffered, as many stylists do, from a bad back. At the time I had long hair I was really rather vain about, since it was a vibrant shade of red, but she scolded me for not taking care of it. She even said that if I wasn’t going to look after it properly I really should have it cut short. And that was a shock.
I hadn’t realized until then that I wasn’t just ignoring my hair, I wasn’t looking after myself at all. I had been ill for quite some time  I was feeling tired most of the time, and although I hadn’t admitted it, I was beginning to find it difficult to do some fairly basic things, like brushing my hair. (more…)

Working Out With a Rowing Machine

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Aerial View of Dorney Lake, Buckinghamshire, UK from Wikipedia

The first time I bought a rowing machine, it was a complete waste of time. It took up a lot of space in my bathroom and was used, well, not nearly as often as it should have been if I had wanted to see some effect. When I think back on the time I wasted, it really makes me feel bad.

Then several years later I met a personal trainer. Martin wasn’t one of these muscle bound types that look down on ordinary mortals. I could tell that he couldn’t understand how anyone could let themselves get into (or rather out of) shape like I was, but Martin was interesting to meet and fun to talk to. He really wanted to make a difference. His studio had all the basics, including a rowing machine and I was anxious that my son would make exercise a regular part of his life, so we began to travel to see Martin on a regular basis.
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Motivational Fitness QuotesSome of our favorite quotes about good health and fitness.   Some funny, some inspirational.

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”
- Tommy Lasorda

“The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively (more…)

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Elliptical Trainer MachineIf you’ve only just started setting up a home gym, you’ve probably looked at all the standard equipment, treadmill, exercise bike, rowing machine, but you may not have looked at another piece of equipment which is less well known, but becoming increasingly popular;  elliptical trainers

The first elliptical exercise machines provided a good workout, but only for the lower body. Most have some sort of handrail for balance, but many now have (more…)

PowerLung_Active_SeriesEveryone knows the feeling of difficulty in breathing during exercise, competitive sports, or any intense effort.  It stands to reason that if you could increase your breathing performance, thereby increasing oxygen intake, that you could dramatically increase performance in virtually everything you do.

For years I had looked for a product that would increase my endurance and lung capacity.  I had tried several breathing exercises that helped somewhat, but I can’t really say that it was noticeable.  Then I happened along a product called PowerLung.  They claim that this device can increase lung capacity and oxygen intake by more than 25%.  While I was somewhat doubtful, I gave it a try.

Powerlung Sport

Powerlung Sport

I found that PowerLung exercises your lung muscles.  Just like any other muscle in your body, your lung muscles can be worked and strengthened.  To do this, you have to work against resistance (just like weight lifting).  PowerLung allows you to adjust resistance both in the inhale and exhale, which works all your lung muscles.  Over time, I was able to increase the resistance, just like increasing weight when you are weight lifting.  At the same time, I experienced a very noticeable improvement in my breathing.  I really noticed improvement when playing basketball.

I’m an amateur athlete, but I put the bread on the table by managing an ecommerce company.  So naturally, after launching PowerLung on our sites, I went looking for competing products to offer as well.  What I found was that these products (Expand-a-Lung, SportsBreather, UltraBreather, etc) were like sucking/blowing through a straw.  These were basically restrictive breathing devices (like a straw).  My background is in engineering, and I realized that with these products you do not actually move anything except air.  The formula for work is: Work = Force x Distance.   If you are not moving anything, then there is no work.  If there is no work, there is no muscle building!  With a PowerLung, on the other hand, you are moving something a distance with the force from your lung muscles.  That may not be the best technical explanation, but I know that the best way to build my biceps is by doing curls with a dumbbell or on a home gym: moving an object a distance (work).  Same for building lung muscles, you must move something some distance.  PowerLung is the only device I’ve seen that can do this.

In the past couple years we have sold PowerLung to professional athletes, asthma sufferers, pick-up basketball players, people looking to quite smoking, yoga professionals, musicians, people needing help getting around the house without getting out of breath, and more.  PowerLung is truly a product that can benefit virtually anyone.

Click for more info on PowerLung on Better Health Innovations

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