Stretch Ring Finger With Your Thumb For A Few Seconds – Surprising Benefits

How is it possible to reach a state of peace and harmony just with our hands?

The positions of hands or ” mudras ” develop a very important role in the practice of yoga, so much so that they are known as “producers of joy.”

The explanation for this strange practice it is in the huge amount of nerve endings containing our fingers and that when pressed in a specific way, help us connect channels that allow energy circulating through the body.

The good thing is that these exercises can be done anywhere and at any time of day. Simply spend a few minutes and put forward to reach a state of absolute relaxation.

1. GYAN MUDRA FOR HEALING (MUDRA OF KNOWLEDGE) :

How To Do :

Peacefully sit in a lotus posture and keep your hand on knee then touch thumb tip with your index finger tip and keep the remaining three fingers free like straight or close.

Benefits :

• This gyan hand mudra helps to relax your mind and improves the ability to concentrate better.
• It keeps brain power sharp and smart.
• It can cure insomnia (inability to sleep)
• Regular practice can keep you stress relief and depression.

2. VAYU MUDRA (MUDRA OF AIR) :

How To Do :

Fold Your index finger towards palm show like above image and the press with the base of thumb. And rest of the three fingers keep extend as much as possible.

Benefits :

• This yoga mudra eliminates excessive gas from your body
• It can gives relief in problems associated with the air element such as: Flatulence, constipation, cervical spondylitis, arthritis etc.

3. PRITHVI MUDRA FOR HEALING (MUDRA OF EARTH):

How To Do :

First you bend your little finger and ring finger then touch these two fingers tips to tip of thumb.

Benefits :

• It makes you feel more energetic and helps boost the body’s immunity, too.
• This can prevent tiredness
• Cure the eye problems and increase eye power.

4 Crucial Eating Tips & Exercises to Get Rid of Stomach Fat

Excess abdominal fat places you at an increased risk for major health issues, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Even if you're at a normal weight overall, carrying that excess fat around your weight elevates the risk, so taking measures to lose belly fat can give your health -- and your self-esteem -- a big boost. Although genetics determine where your body stores fat, and there's no way to spot reduce, there are still some things you can do to get rid of belly fat and prevent it from returning.

You must create a caloric deficit to lose fat. Each pound is equal to 3,500 calories, which means you have to burn 3,500 more calories than you consume to lose 1 pound of fat. If you place yourself in a daily deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories, you can lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. Calculate your basal metabolic rate and then factor in your activities and exercises to determine how many calories you need to consume each day to break even. From there, reduce your intake to create your desired deficit. Remember, your body will lose fat from the places it wants in the order it wants to. If your stomach was the first place you put on extra fat, it will probably be the last place you lose it from. Don't let this be disheartening, though. Just understand you may have to work a little harder for a little longer to shed the fat around your waist.

While genetics largely determine where your body stores fat, you can minimize the likelihood of gaining belly fat by avoiding foods known to trigger storage around your midsection. A 2010 study in "Nutrition Research" found that consumption of foods that are high on the glycemic index, such as those containing white sugars and flours, can cause the storage of abdominal fat. Researchers at the University of Buffalo found that alcohol consumption can also lead to belly fat accumulation. Their findings, published in the 2003 issue of the "Journal of Nutrition," revealed that wine drinkers had the least belly fat, while liquor drinkers had the most. The degree of participants' belly fat correlated with the amount of alcohol they regularly consumed.

Regular exercise will help your body burn and keep off excess belly fat. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise each week. It doesn't matter how you break it down to squeeze cardio into your schedule, as long as you do it. If you're only able to exercise in 15-minute blocks, that's fine -- just do 10 blocks throughout the week. Resistance training will increase lean muscle mass and fire up your metabolism. This makes it easier for your body to burn fat and harder to gain it. ACSM suggests that adults train with weights two to three days each week, using a variety of equipment.

The stress hormone, cortisol, has been strongly linked to abdominal fat. In a 2008 study in "Endocrinology and Metabolism," researchers found a strong correlation between the cortisol levels of overweight girls and excessive abdominal fat. Similarly, a 2011 study published in "Obesity" examined how stress affected cortisol levels and visceral fat in Hispanic girls. Participants who had high levels of school-related stress also had high levels of cortisol and abdominal fat. Proper diet, exercise and meditation are all effective ways to reduce cortisol.

6 Steps To Help Kids Fall Asleep Fast

Sleep is something everyone needs. In order to stay healthy, our bodies require an adequate amount of rest. Kids, especially, need sleep in order to grow and develop properly. If you tend to have a hard time falling asleep at night, maybe it's time to try some techniques to help you fall asleep faster. There are several methods you can try. Adequate amounts of sleep may help you improve your concentration and perform better at school.

Step 1

Stay away from chocolate and sugary foods before bedtime. Chocolate contains caffeine, a stimulant that causes alertness and elevates your mood. And sugar gives you a sugar rush, making it more difficult for you to fall asleep.

Step 2

Keep a routine sleep schedule. This means you need to wake up and go to bed at the same time each day. Your body will adjust to a steady sleep schedule, making it easier for you to fall asleep faster.

Step 3

Sleep in your bed and avoid eating, watching television or doing homework in your bed. You body will learn that when you lay in your bed, it's time to fall asleep. Doing other things on your bed will make it harder to fall asleep when you're ready.

Step 4

Avoid taking naps during the day. A nap will make it harder for you to fall asleep at night and harder to wake up in the morning, affecting your sleep schedule.

Step 5

Play soft, soothing music at bedtime. Classical music, lullabies or soft yoga music will help soothe your senses and relax you. If you're relaxed, you will have an easier time falling asleep.

Step 6

Try doing yoga or basic stretches right before bedtime. Dim the lights and breathe deeply while you stretch. These exercises will slow your heart rate and relax your muscles, making it easier to fall asleep.

6 Triceps Exercises to Tone Your Arms For Beach Season

Yes, biceps curls are great for making you feel like a low-level action hero, but you're a wily gym veteran, so you know that the key to super-swole arms is the triceps. In honor of the suns-out-guns-out season that is nearly upon us, we asked some fitness pros for a few new triceps exercises to try instead of the old, reliable EZ bar skullcrusher. The names may not be as cool, but the workout will be just as good.

Idalis Velazquez: Dumbbell skullcrusher. Stick with the same exercise, but use dumbbells instead. This variation requires each arm to work independently of the other. The fact that dumbbells are harder to control than an EZ bar provides an additional challenge to your muscles (so yes, this means you should use less weight!). You can also experiment with different grips on the dumbbell, which affects how the triceps are recruited.

Robin Arzon: Incline single-arm dumbbell skullcrusher. Using an incline bench recruits core muscles to help develop balance, while focusing on single-arm movements addresses any imbalances that may have arisen on either side.

Jay Cardiello: Crisscross push-ups. Begin in a push-up position, but with your arms crisscrossed. Your right hand should be directly under your left shoulder, with your left hand slightly behind your right shoulder. To check your positioning, lower yourself to the floor until your forearms rest flat on the ground — your right hand will be in front of your left elbow, and your left hand will be behind your right elbow. Press through your palms and raise your body back into a push-up position. Repeat as many times as possible for 30 seconds.

Ben Booker: Single-arm cable push-downs and pull-downs. Skullcrushers are great for working the triceps, but I see many people performing them incorrectly due to shoddy elbow placement or poor shoulder mobility. Try single-arm cable push-downs and pull-downs instead. Switching up the positioning of your grip during cable work targets a different part of that magical triceps horseshoe.

Gideon Akande: Bear plank push-up. It’s as nasty as it sounds. Assume a bear hold position, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips, like so. Lift your knees one inch off of the ground, and then perform a push-up in that position. Keeping the elbows close to the body will smoke the shoulders and ignite the triceps. Besides, this looks way cooler than regular skull crushers.

Alexia Clark: Standing rotation triceps extension. Start with your arms bent at a 90-degree angle and your palms facing each other, holding dumbbells. Keeping your arms at that degree angle, rotate your arms so that your elbows are pointing straight up to the air and your biceps are by your ears. From this position, straighten your arms to perform a tricep extension, as shown here. Rotate your arms back down to a 90-degree angle at chest level and repeat. The rotation helps develop shoulder mobility, and standing while doing the extension engages the deeper end of your triceps.

5 Best Bodyweight Training Exercises

You'll be surprised how effective these bodyweight exercises can be for maintaining your muscle and fitness.

Many people don’t realize the benefits of bodyweight training because in every magazine you see, there are dudes in the gym hitting weights. But, with all training, there is a regression and progression to every exercise. For example a regression for hanging leg lifts is performing a plank. The progression would be performing the movement with a medicine ball between your feet.

Another example would be a bench press. Many people can’t do a conventional bench press because of existing shoulder issues, their form is bad or they just don’t have access to the equipment.

Pushups are a great alternative. Not only can you perform push-ups with various hand positions but you can also do them from an elevated surface extending the range of motion for the shoulders and engage more muscle fibers.

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING BENEFITS

1. Free
2. Versatile, many different variations
3. Can be done anywhere
4. Improves movement
5. Improves relative strength
6. Can improve reactive strength

Here are my top 5 bodyweight movements

1. PUSHUPS

Not only builds up the chest, shoulders and triceps, but is a great stabilizer of the torso and lower back.

Can be done with various hand, feet and elevated positions. Pushups variations such as EQI’s, hindus and push-up plus are incredible rehabilitative exercises.

2. BODYWEIGHT SQUATS

This basic movement has huge benefits! It can be an indicator for ankle, hip and thoracic mobility, or it can be an incredible conditioning tool.

Perform them against the wall to drill proficiency and technique, or perform linked in a bodyweight circuit.

You can also create a complex linking with a plyometric movement like sprints, jumping or zig zag hops.

3. PULLUPS

One of the biggest mass builders for the back, pullups are also one of the most versatile.

How to Modify the Pullup:

• Varying grip element (towel, thick rope, offset grip)
• Modifying linear movement; you can perform side to side movement, you can perform a leg lift or L-sit with each rep
• Overload the movement with a bookbag between your feet.

Remember if you can’t do a pullup, inverted rows are an excellent choice!

4. BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUATS

I really like this movement because it not only builds muscle and leg strength, but it also improves hip mobility and knee stability. If you have a bookbag with some books in it, you can hold it during this movement overhead, in a zercher or bear hug at the chest or out in front of you.

Don’t forget, elevating your front leg on a box will extend the range of motion for this exercise. Also, an EQI in this position is amazing for rehabbing hip and knee issues.

5. AB ROLL-OUTS

A more advanced modification to a plank, this movement forces torso rigidity for better movement and increased strength potential for compound, ground-based exercises.

The difference between this movement and a plank is that movement of the upper body is engaged while the torso remain rigid (resisting extension).  Many of you know that there are some pretty innovative modifications to this exercise in Combat Core. I suggest an ab roller, but you can also use blast straps or gymnastic rings to mimic the movement.