Thursday, May 10, 2007

Top Five Methods to Check How Physically Fit You Are



Top Five Methods to Check How Physically Fit You Are.


Image coutsey: info.hotel-adler.com


Dear blogger pals we have been thinking loudly about the whole world and too much concerned about the way things go. How many of us have spent about 10% of this concern about the health of ourselves. We spend hours before the machine to express our concern while neglecting our own physical well being.


Here are five tips for checking how physically fit we ourselves are. Lack of physical activity tends for the accumulation of fat in various parts of our body, this hinders flow of blood taxing the heart and ultimately making it sick. Excess fat is the curse of modern living and early detection makes it easy to check.


Measure the fat that is in excess.


Test 1. Pinch yourself at the waist and on the upper arm, grasping as much flesh as possible between your forefinger and thump.


If you can pinch more than 1 inch of spare flesh, you probably need to shed some fat. To do so, you have to ‘tone up’ – replace fat with muscle – or simply lose weight. Every quarter inch beyond one inch maximum represents about 10 pounds of fat.


Test 2. Measure - Modern life and food habits tend to accumulate fat in different parts of our body. In men it is around waist, shoulders, and upper arms. Ladies have it at the waist, hips, thighs etc.


First breathe out completely relax the muscles and measure yourself with a tape around the waist at the level of the navel; next breathe in and measure the circumference of your chest when your lungs are full. If your waist measures more than your chest, you are fat.





For those who swim it is easy to measure as well as getting rid of it, just float on your back, don’t make attempt to keep afloat, breathe out all the air in lungs. See how fast you sink to the bottom! Lesser your body fat more time you take to sink (a fat one sinks faster), this test can be done everyday. Nice game; floating to measure fat, swimming for getting it away.


Test 3. Test the efficiency of your lungs.


The following simple checks can test the efficiency of your lungs.


Take a deep breath and measure your chest as well as the time (how long you can hold your breath).


Breathe and out fully; measure your chest in that position.


Your lungs are probably working with adequate efficiency if you can hold your breath for 45 seconds or more and if the difference between the two chest measurements is 2 to 3 inches or more.


Test 4. Is your body flexible enough? Flexibility of the joints is the key of all physical activities and lessens pain and stiffness. In general, women are more ‘flexible’ than men (no pun intended).



To test your flexibility, lay a yardstick or a 3 foot length of tape on the floor and sit with your heels touching it. With legs straight and feet comfortably apart, slowly bend forward from the waist, reaching as far as you can without straining. Place a marker at the spot where your fingers touch the floor.


Measure the distance between your heels and the marker. If the marker lies beyond the yardstick, score a plus-1 or 2 etc, for the number of inches it lies beyond the yardstick; if the marker is in front of the yardstick score a minus1 or 2 etc.


Test 5 test your strength. Muscular strength and endurance are essential for fitness. One way to ensure strength is by counting the number of sit ups you can do.


Lie on your back with your ankles firmly wedged under a solid object or held by another person. Bend your knees and place your arms behind your head. Pull up to a sitting position, using the strength of your stomach muscles. Count the number of sit-ups you can do in 1 minute. Measure your results against the ratings in the chart below.


Blogging could be injurious to health, stick to these five steps these will keep ill health at bay!



3 comments:

Hungry Traveller said...

Thanks for coming by my Blog 'One Moment in Time'

Adsense Tips said...

A very timely post, and we should all make those checks regularly. Thanks for commenting at my blog,

Anonymous said...

Great tips. I've working out a lot lately and your ideas are helping me track my progress.

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