Beauty & Health

Beauty & Health

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Pilates: A Workout for Body, Mind and Soul

By: Susan Miller

Concentration, control, flexibility, alertness, shape, alignment and strength. These wonderful characteristics unite in an effort to give you the body you’ve always wanted, merely using your strong mind and your determination. The unification of mind, body and spirit in a coordinated effort will produce the results that you seek as you weave Pilates into your life.

Pilates, founded by Joseph Pilates, focus on the strength of one’s powerhouse, which includes abdominal muscles, lower back, buttocks and inner thighs. Designed to follow a natural flow from one position and exercise to the next, Pilates typically features a low number of repetitions in a controlled setting.

By working with low reps and many diverse positions and exercises, those who practice Pilates are often able to

improve their body shape without becoming overly exhausted or losing interest. Pilates has also been designed for those who lead busy lifestyles. Without missing a beat during the daily grind, professionals can practice Pilates in 20 minutes or less from the comfort of home.

One of the keys to a successful Pilates program is directing your focus to the appropriate element, essentially your powerhouse. By allowing your mind and body to work together, you ultimately introduce visualization into your workout. Try picturing yourself as the object or perfectly in the desired position, and you will improve your posture and enhance your physical strength, not to mention your figure!

Some of the great benefits of Pilates include:

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Body alignment

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Body shape

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Flexibility

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Mental alertness

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Muscle tone

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Posture

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Renewed energy

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Slimming effects

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Stress relief and management

By learning Pilates, you will discover many things about yourself that may have been hidden behind a busy lifestyle. To achieve the most success with your Pilates workouts, you must focus on your center, or powerhouse.

Concentrate on your breathing, deep breaths in and out, keeping rhythm and clearing your mind. You will also need to focus on the desired positions and movements, striving for precision even if your body cries out in slight discomfort. Maintain control and highly focused concentration. Let each exercise and position flow into the next.

Lastly, imagine your body is a rectangle from your shoulders to your hips. With this rectangle serving as your frame, be conscious of your frame throughout the workout and try to stay within your frame for best results.

For Pilates to have an effective impact on your body, you must commit to a regular schedule of workouts. You will probably need to workout at least once or twice a week for several weeks before you notice any changes in your body. For best results, consider adding a cardio workout a few times throughout the week.

To get started in Pilates, you first need to make a commitment to yourself. You can read and learn from books, but unless you put what you learn into practice, it isn’t going to do you any good. You can rent, buy or borrow workout tapes and DVDs, but you’ve got to follow a regular routine in order to achieve the benefits of Pilates. Finally, you can join a class that meets weekly or attend a gym where you can drop into classes as you please.

Just remember that the results you achieve are largely tied to the commitment and persistence that you put forth. Your dedication is the key that will take you to the next level!

Facial Fitness Exercise

By: Susan Miller

Being beautiful on the outside is all about keeping the face young and looking healthy. We know that the absence of wrinkles and sags, as well as having taut, toned, smooth and glowing skin are the signs of youthful and healthy beauty. Some go through so much just to maintain the vigor and agelessness of their faces, so much that they would spend a fortune on face lifts and other procedures that would keep them looking as close to 18 years old as possible.

Forehead. This will smooth down the wrinkles of the forehead. Place your fingers just above your brow. Then, with your fingers, pull the skin down. At the same time, try to raise your eyebrows. Repeat this ten times.

Eyelids. To deal with crows' feet at the corners of the eyes, put the thumbs at the corners of the eyes and then shut your eyes tightly. Then, with your thumbs, pull at the skin towards the forehead. Repeat this ten times.

For sagging eyelids, hold your index fingers close to the brow bone. Afterwards, raise your eyebrows. At the same time, try to close your eyes. Again, repeat this ten times.

Cheeks. Form an 'O' with your lips and try to push them forward as fast as you can. Then release the 'O' and smile as widely as you can. Repeat ten times.

Lips. Push your lips outward in a pout as far as you can, then smile. Or you can suck on your finger as hard as you can. Once again, repeat ten times.

Neck. Arch your neck backward and place your hand on your neck just under the chin. After that, let your hand slide downward and push at your collarbone. An alternative to this one would be to push your lower lip outward as far as you can and tilt your chin up toward the ceiling, resting the hand against the collarbone as you are doing so.

Chin. Push your lower lip upward as high as you can. You can also press your thumb on the bone just under your chin and then push your tongue against your lower gums as if it is trying to meet your thumb. Another thing you can do is to tilt your chin up and massage the flesh under it with your thumb with strokes directed towards your neck. These exercises will take care of the double chin.

Just like in total body workouts, facial fitness exercises take time. However, if you truly want to see results on your face, try doing this once or twice a day, five times a week. You will be able to see changes in around a month or two.

There is, however, an inexpensive way of retaining youthful beauty, and that is through observing a regular facial fitness routine - that is, exercising the muscles of your face. The idea behind facial fitness is similar to the principle of doing a body workout: by exercising, you build up the muscles of your body and keep them toned and firm.

In case of the face, by exercising the facial muscles regularly, the muscles will be lifted enough to remove the sags, and the skin - sunny glow will be smooth enough to remove the wrinkles. The blood circulation to the face will also increase with facial exercises, enabling the tissues of the face to repair themselves more quickly.

Maintaining a regular facial fitness routine is easy. It only takesa few minutes of your time and it can be done while watching television or waiting for the stoplight to turn green when driving. Here are a few sample exercises for different areas of the face.

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