When is the best time of day to do your exercise? The answer is any time! But…. if you want to get the maximum benefits possible from every minute you invest in your workouts, then you should consider getting up early and doing exercise before you eat your first meal – even if you’re not a “morning person.” Early morning exercise has three major advantages over exercising later in the day:
Early morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that’s 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar – the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. How much more fat you’ll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.

Morning Exercise Benefit #1

So how exactly does this work? It’s quite simple, really. Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body’s primary and preferred energy source. When your primary fuel source is in short supply, this forces your body to tap into its secondary or reserve energy source; body fat. If you do cardio immediately after eating a meal, you’ll still burn fat, but you’ll burn less of it because you’ll be burning off the carbohydrates you ate first. You always burn a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on when you exercise, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate.

Morning Cardio Benefit #2

The second benefit you’ll get from early morning exercise sessions is what I call the “afterburn” effect. When you do a cardio session in the morning, you not only burn fat during the session, but you also continue to burn fat at an accelerated rate after the workout. Why? Because an intense session of cardiovascular exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the session is over. If you do exercise at night, you will still burn fat during the session, so you definitely benefit from it. However, nighttime exercise fails to take advantage of the “afterburn” effect because your metabolism drops like a ton of bricks as soon as you go to sleep. While you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than any other time of the day.

Morning Cardio Benefit #3

Burning more fat isn’t the only reason you should do morning exercise. The third benefit of morning exercise is the “rush” and feeling of accomplishment that stays with you all day long after an invigorating workout. Exercise can become a pleasant and enjoyable experience, but the more difficult or challenging it is for you, the more important it is to get it out of the way early. When you put off any task you consider unpleasant, it hangs over you all day long, leaving you with a feeling of guilt, stress and incompleteness (not to mention that you are more likely to “blow off” an evening workout if you are tired from a long day at work or if your friends try to persuade you to join them at the pub for happy hour.)

You might find it hard to wake up early in the morning and get motivated to workout. But think back for a moment to a time in your life when you tackled a difficult task and you finished it. Didn’t you feel great afterwards? Completing any task, especially a physically challenging one, gives you a “buzz.” When the task is exercise, the buzz is physiological and psychological. Physiologically, exercise releases endorphins in your body. Endorphins are opiate-like hormones hundreds of times more powerful than the strongest morphine. Endorphins create a natural “high” that makes you feel positively euphoric! Endorphins reduce stress, improve your mood, increase circulation and relieve pain. The “high” is partly psychological too. Getting up early and successfully achieving a small goal kick starts your day and gives you feelings of completion, satisfaction and accomplishment. For the rest of the day you feel happy and you feel less stress knowing that the most difficult part of the day is behind you.

So, you say you’re not a morning person? Sure it’s a challenge at first, but you know what? After a few short weeks, It’s no longer a chore and you are “in the groove” . Just try it. Make a commitment to yourself to do it for just 21 days. Once those 21 days have gone by, you’ll already be leaner and you’ll be on your way to making morning workouts a habit that’s as natural as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Once you start getting used to feeling that buzz, you’ll become “positively addicted” to it. The more you do it, the more you’ll want to do it. Before you know it, early morning workout will be your new habit; you’ll be leaner, your metabolism will be faster and you’ll feel fantastic all day long!

(Yeah, Right.)

If we told you there is a natural superfood that, in a single teaspoon full contains a powerhouse of over 100 vitimins, minerals, protiens, anti-oxidents and phtyo-nutrients… you might a littles sceptical. Fair enough.

How are you managing your five veg a day?

Nutritionists tell us that we need five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Many of us struggle with that.
But if you were told that you could get more nutritional value from one heaped teaspoon of this superfood than you can from 3 servings of veges, you’d probably snort with disbelief and reach for another choccie biscuit.
We live in a time of healthy scepticism about big claims. But every one of those statements above happens to be absolutly true.
The miracle superfood is Spirulina, from Synergy Natural.

Feel Better About Eating Badly

We also live in a time of great concern about diet and the nutritional value of the food we eat. The pressure of modern living means most of us exist on diets that are less than ideal. But with the daily addition of a little Spirulina into your diet, you can feel better about everything else you eat… No matter how good you diet. Or how bad.

Control Weight More Effectively

You know when you get that hungry feeling, you have an overwhelming urge to eat more? That’s actually your body telling you it’s not getting enough nutrition.
But when you regularly eat foods that are highly nutritious, it has the effect if suppressing between-meals hunger pangs.
So by eating something that’s good for you, you eat less of other things that aren’t!

Small Plant. Big Benefits.

Spirulina is not pasta (but in its natural state it is curly – which, of course, is why it’s called Spirulina).
It’s a vivid green microscopic, naturally-grown freshwater plant. Gram for gram, it contains more nutritional value than any other food on the planet.
Alternative lifestylers have known about the benefits of Spirulina for years. But it’s time the knowledge was shared more widely.

From Plant to Powder

Spirulina is grown in water, but it’s dehydrated and formed into a powder for ease of consumption. No nutritional value is lost, because nothing is added and only water is taken away.
In raw form it’s not naturally appetising, so Spirulina from Syngery Natural is most easily taken as tablets but by far the most popular way to enjoy it daily is to whiz the powder up into a fruit smoothie. All you need is a blender.

Going Green Inside

The most striking thing about Spirulina when you open the container is the vivid green colour of the powder. The aroma is neutral, as is the taste.
But take it regularly and almost immediately your body will feel the benefits of going green inside. Spirulina is easily absorbed into your system.
The green colour turns your Spirulina Smoothie the same vivid green – it looks a little weird, but just make sure you wipe your mouth after you drink!
And whatever you do, don’t drop it – going green all over your kitchen floor is not a good look.

Energy, Vitality, Libido

When you add Spirulina from Synergy Natural to your daily diet, you’ll feel the benefits before long. And your friends will soon notice the difference too. Clearer eyes. A glow of vitality. More energy.
If you’re an athelte, then you will experience a noticeable increase in performance. Many athletes who use Spirulina write and tell us of their ability to perform better.
You can see the letters on our website.

Supplement Your Vitiamin Supplements

If you’re in the habit of taking vitamin supplements, be aware that most are synthetically manufactured. Therefore – the human body does not digest them as well as naturally-occurring vitamins. The most important factor when determining the effectiveness of any nutritional supplement is the body’s ability to absorb it. Clinical studies show that organic nutrients are absorbed up to 16 times more effectively than synthetic ones.
Synergy Spirulina contains just pure organic nutrients, exactly as they occur in their natural form.
Unlike synthetic supplements the vitamins, co-vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids, enzymes, co-enzymes and essential fatty acids all work together to ensure maximum assimilation and utilization. Nothing has been added, and nothing removed but the water.

Start Your Spirulina Miracle

Go green inside, with the purest most potentSpirulina you can get – from Synergy Natural.
WHERE TO BUY SPIRULINA from Synergy Natural. Tablets and powder (for smoothies) avaliable in the Vitamin sections of most Coles, Woolworths, Safeway and IGA supermarkets, most health food stores and selected pharmacies. Powder may not be avaliable in all stores. All products, in all sizes, avaliable direct from the website or by phoning 1300 009 005.

Source: Wellbeing, Issue 124, December, 2009

High impact boost for ageing bones
A recent US study has shown that high impact physical activity may help to strengthen bone density in older exercisers.

Data gathered from participants in the 2005 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh was analysed for the study. The male and female athletes were aged between 50 and 93, and 560 of them competed in high-impact sports including track and field, volleyball, basketball and triathlon.

Using ultrasound scans, the researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre discovered that the bone mineral density of those who participated in high-impact sports was greater than in their low-impact participating colleagues.

Dr Vonda Wright, an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre said, ‘Our study represents the largest sample of bone mineral density data in mature athletes to date. My colleagues and I were surprised to see that active adult participation in the high-impact sports had such a positive influence on bone health, even in the oldest athletes’.

Wright said that although osteoarthritis and other age-related conditions could prevent older people from taking part in high-impact sports, the study findings suggested that high-impact sports may significantly contribute to healthy bone ageing.

‘With a multi-part approach and the appropriate use of high-impact exercises, individuals may be able to make greater strides against bone loss than the current treatment strategies imply’ she said.

Source: Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach

You may not have heard about it, but inflammation is a hot topic in health research. Now a new variant has been added to this: ‘inflamm – aging’, or a form of inflammation that occurs throughout the arteries of the body simply as a process of ageing. So what is it, what causes it and how, if possible, can it be avoided? Let’s start at the beginning: [Read more...]

Excessive sitting compromises health
A recent Australian study has found that too much sitting down has health repercussions.

After conducting a study, University of Queensland researchers came to the conclusion that excessive inactivity has a negative effect on levels of both blood pressure and blood sugar, which in turn can lead to heart attacks, cancer and type 2 diabetes. [Read more...]