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Running May Help You Live Longer and Healthier

Run for your life! It is never too late to start running, a new study finds. Running may help you to not only live longer, but also live free of disabilities. The study, performed by Stanford University School of Medicine, studied the benefits of running. The researchers based their study on two groups of people 50 and older, a group of runners and non-runners that were monitored for over two decades. Based on the study, if you aren't running already you may want to start.

Can Meditation Make Society More Compassionate?

Practice may make perfect when it comes to kindness and compassion. A new study shows that regularly practicing kindness and compassion through meditation actually activates the brain and makes people more empathetic to others.

Working Out 101 - NOT

Working out, cardio, toning, weight lifting, Pilates and yoga - most of them suffice to accomplish an end if they are applied individually but work best when applied as an overall body composition make over and maintenance. Let’s take a look at each individually:

Working Out

When Joe says he went to the gym today and worked out, what do you think he actually did? Perhaps a bit of abdominal work, maybe shoulders, or legs, or maybe he just strolled around the indoor track for a few minutes and then hit the pool and Jacuzzi.

Free Weight Machines

Free weight machines and free weights differ in the respect that free weights can be moved freely in a concentrated area of space. Free weight machines are restricted to moving in one of two directions.

Home workout equipment often consists of one machine that will perform a variety of functions and the machine easily converts to a heavier weight by simply inserting a pin in a block of weights, or by adding weight plates, or by adding a band. Some of the most widely known are:

Muscles: Turning Energy into Motion

Most of us take our muscles for granted, not realizing how crucial they are to us. Muscles are the body’s engine, and energy is the fuel. It would be impossible for us to do anything without them, including expressing ourselves. We convey ideas through spoken words using the muscles of the mouth, tongue and larynx, through written words using the muscles of the fingers, or through body language using skeletal muscles.

Exercise Equipment – Free Weights

Free Weights are one of the easiest and least expensive ways to set up your home work out area; the options are almost endless in free weight category - including dumbbells; balance/resistance/exercise balls; and exercise bands/tubing. Free weights all accomplish the basics of building muscle and toning, cardiovascular, and weight loss, but each have their own twist.

Preventing Winter Sports' Injuries

When Dr. Dan Gregorie’s daughter, an experienced snowboarder, died from injuries sustained from a fall while walking across a steep passage outside the boundaries of the Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe, California, in February 2006, he resolved, “to improve safety so another person like my daughter doesn’t lose her life.”

Metabolism and Aging

If you’ve noticed that your metabolism has seemed to slow as the years have flashed by, you are not imaganing things, and you aren’t alone. The speedier metabolisms seem to go to males, rather than females; those who exercise regularly, rather than those who don’t; and to younger people, rather than older people.

Women’s Health: The Treadmill or the Road

When planning an exercise routine, most people want to incorporate some type of walking, jogging, or running. The multiple benefits of such activities – cardiovascular, bone density, muscles, weight loss, and energy, to name a few – are enough to encourage most to add this physical activity to the exercise plan.

Smoking - The Benefits of Quitting

The best immediate benefit of quitting smoking is that your body will begin to heal itself within 12 hours. The worst part is that you will most likely feel worse for a while instead of feeling better. The healing process does start immediately but continues over time based on the level of damage being repaired. Carbon monoxide and nicotine in your system will dissipate rapidly, and your heart and lungs will start to repair the damage caused immediately. Withdrawal symptoms, though uncomfortable, are a part of the recovery process.