Sweet Dreams Thru Excercise

Sleep and Sports are a perfect match

Sleep and Sports go well together: who is physically active will regularly get better, deeper and relaxed sleep, and improve ones general well-being. This is the result of a study performed by the University of Basel, Switzerland. Swiss researchers studied nearly 500 young people at the age of about 17 years over a prolonged period of time. Slightly more than half of all participants actively moved around several hours every day doing soccer practice, swim, walk or just spent time in fresh air, while the others were significantly less active. The resulting analysis showed this: the sporting youngsters could fall asleep faster, enjoy better sleep and were able to concentrate better during the day.

Sleep & Sport: Men benefit even more

Especially the lazy ones among the participants were encountering tiredness during the day and suffered more often from depressions and anxiety. That should be reason enough to encourage everyone to get up and become more active. Our advice: If you want better sleep, you should put together a training or workout plan, but not too late in the evening, because the cycle usually get you too hyped up to sleep well. Incidentally, the positive effect of regular exercise was more significant in men than women.

How To Get Fit In 2010

To tackle the new year fit and healthy, you do not need to train like a champion. But a little more exercise in everyday life cannot hurt.
To become and stay fit, you won’t need to torture yourself. 30 minutes more exercise in your daily life is all you need. And according to U.S. scientists, this is high on the list of resolutions for the new year of most Americans. Half an hour is enough to trim your body into shape and to protect against the most common diseases of civilization.

To achieve this goal, the team led by Professor Peter Brubaker from Wake Forest University has put together the following task list:

• 30 minutes a day is the goal. You don’t have to be on the move for half an hour at a stretch. A short ride with the bike for shopping, a short walk – very quickly you’ll accumulate half an hour before you even know it.

• Walks are suitable for most people and it’s by far the easiest way to get moving.

• Get a pedometer, it’ll motivate you and it’s actually fun to watch the calories increase. Recent studies have shown to increase the activity level by 25 percent.

• Write down your everyday activities in a notebook. This increases the motivation.

• Do not force yourself to too much. Regular and consistent exercises are good for your health and you’ll lose a few pounds without much sweat.

• Try out different activities and sports – and stick with what provides the most fun. Only then can you keep motivated in the long run.

• Persuade your friends or family to accompany you on the walk, or work out together with them.

• Set realistic goals. Start in small but consistent steps.