If you suffer from bad knees or a bad back then you might be frustrated at the choices available to you when it comes to purchasing or buying an exercise bike.  The options can sometimes be a little bit narrow – and that’s all down to the action in which a person uses an exercise bike with the painful motion of pedalling downwards, plus having to sit upright on the stationary models.

But There is an Exercise Bike that will Help

But, don’t be despondent because there are certain models of exercise bike that will be suitable to someone who suffers from pain when doing physical exercise – so you can actually discount and ignore the upright models that you have experienced problems with – and instead check out the range of affordable recumbent exercise bikes that are on the market.

Recumbent models will be more suited to someone with bad knees because of the way a person uses them.  You will sit closer to the ground in a reclined position and won’t need to bend the knees as much – plus your back will be supported as you sit in a reclined position.  This will still let you burn calories and lose weight like the more traditional upright exercise bikes do.

With that in mind here is a small selection of superb recumbent exercise bikes that are best suited to someone who wants to know which exercise bike is best for bad knees and back problems.

V-Fit BST-RC Recumbent Magnetic Cycle

If you are on a strict budget then you can’t really go wrong with this V-Fit model.  It is one of the most affordable and cheap recumbent bike available to buy online – plus it will still help you to lose weight and get a fitter body.  It comes with magnetic resistance so you can work out in almost silence when at home and also has a very handy and free 2 year no questions asked warranty.  This might help you if you are unsure over the cheap price – because you can at least return it if things go wrong – great consumer protection and one reason why V-Fit are so well regarded when it comes to seeing which exercise bikes are the best on the market.

Reebok R900 Recumbent Exercise Bike

Everyone should know the Reebok brand and they are seen fitness experts – plus now have a wide range of great exercise bikes.  The Reebok R900 is really impressive and includes a computer display as well as twelve separate workout settings over twenty resistance levels.  In simple terms this means you can always find something different to do on this recumbent exercise bike.  Consumer review websites rate this as one of the finest recumbent exercise bikes for people with bad knees and back problems.

Spirit CR800 Club Series Recumbent Bike

Coming in at a similar cost to the Reebok model, the Spirit CR800 has a couple of different features that set it apart.  For example it has a far more advanced on-board LCD display and computer which let you measure progress as you cycle indoors.  Items you can track are things such as your heart rate, distance, calories, speed and time.  It even lets you put together your own custom work outs which you can keep going back to over time.

Need Further Details?

The Exercise Bike Planet website contains many different recumbent exercise bike reviews and also advice on how to get the best from your purchase – especially if you do suffer from joint and back pains.  You can find out more on www.exercisebikeplanet.co.uk.

If you have asked yourself recently “How Do I Gain Weight”, then there are some basic rules that you should follow in order to achieve weight gain both healthily, and at a reasonable rate of speed.  Put simply there’s one simple rule to weight gain and that is the need to take on more daily calories than you are actually burning off with physical exercise.  If you want to know the basics about how to gain weight then the following is a short guide to the food strategy you might need to adopt.

Additionally it is possible to gain weight (and not fat) by working on your muscle mass and most people will start the whole process off by counting the amount of calories that are currently eating each day.

Ultimately you are going to need to increase your calorie intake, and in order to do so you could either eat more food – or the more sensible and health approach which is to instead choose foods that are dense in energy and calories.  So in effect you will be avoiding fatty foods – plus working out on your muscle definition at the same time.

The foods that you choose should be nutrient-dense instead rather than the easy approach of high-fat content junk foods.  Here’s a short list of great food choices that are both energy and nutrient rich and work best for fast weight gain.

• Nuts
• Seeds
• Seafoods
• Olives
• Legumes
• Meats
• Poultry
• Avocados
• Dairy products

As your weight gain goals are to increase calorie intake it is also wise and recommended by health professionals that you increase the frequency of eating – and if training you will also look to have both pre and post-workout high energy snacks.

Balancing the intake of foods is also key to weight gain success because you should be eating the right amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fat.  As an example a meal could be something like this:

• Meat, or poultry, or fish (this is the protein source)
• Side dish of starchy foods for example potatoes or rice (this is the energy-dense carb source)
• Top with butter or olive oil (just to give some extra calories)

Big meals might not be suitable for you – and everybody is different.  If that is the case then you can snack throughout the day on smaller meals.  People taking this route should choose energy-dense foods like dried fruit, seeds, and nuts which sandwiches that include peanut butters or such like.

This is just a very short guide to prepare you for what life might be like if you are trying to gain weight.  For men weight gain programs should be supplemented with muscle mass building work outs – more of which you can find with generic men’s health magazines that you find in the shops.

Plateauing in weight loss usually occurs when someone has been on a diet for a long time and requires a very large weight loss – several stones as opposed to 1 or 2. It’s perfectly normal but very disheartening when you’ve exercised like an Olympian (in relative terms) and eaten sensibly, nay like a saint, and all you’ve lost is 6 ounces – a few spoons of flour.

A normal response is a sense of being punished or injustice. All it means in reality is that your body is in a rut. It’s accepted and got used to fewer calories and the increased level of exercise. It is maintaining weight on its new regime. Here’s some top tips on what to do to kick start that all important weight loss again…

How to kick your body out of it’s rut

Trick your body! You don’t necessarily have to exercise more (although, yes that will work of course); you need to do different exercises. Try swapping the same old exercise class for a 30 minute fast swim, change the exercise classes you go to. Swap Body Conditioning for Boxercise, change that walk to a cycle ride. Even if you alter  two exercise sessions, it’s usually enough to make your body take notice and start burning fat.

Reduce your calorie intake. Don’t do anything drastic. By reduce, I mean by a small amount such as around 8-10%. The smaller you are the less calories you need. Larger people should always start off on a higher calorie diet than a person of 12 stones who is dieting. The closer you get to your goal the more you should reduce calorie intake in increments.

A word of warning

Remember to always be sensible. A woman can live off 800 calories but it’s not ‘living’ as we know it. It is only in extreme cases where a person has been morbidly obese and towards the end of a very lengthy diet that this should be tried and in consultation with your doctor or dietician.

Some other ideas

Change the variety of food you eat. You’ll be surprised at how different concoctions can help you to lose weight. Check out natural foods that enhance weight loss and snack on them instead of a banana or another high calorie fruit.

Are your healthy snacks really that healthy? Most ‘diet’ bars really aren’t that diet and are usually just a handful of calories less than a KitKat. In addition they taste like gooey, sugared rabbit food (sugar is bad by the way).

‘Zig Zagging’ your calories is recommended by many weight loss professionals. For a  couple of days eat a few more calories than usual then the rest of the week eat a few less so that you’re body gets shocked into releasing the fat for energy. It kick starts your metabolism in effect and stops your body from going into “starvation mode”.

Summary

Plateauing is a despairing experience but if you follow at least some of these tips, you should find that the next week when you step on those scales, the result is much more pleasing. It is all about being pro-active and constantly finding new ways to give yourself a weight losing edge.

This article was written by Alex from www.wish.co.uk

Lack of Micro-Nutrients

One of the most overlooked causes of depression is a niacin deficiency. Many general practitioners and health experts are hesitant to advise increased consumption of niacin, because they cannot earn any money in doing that. However, a lack of micro-nutrients and in particular B vitamins does indeed cause depression. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to describe which micro-nutrients are essential for improving depression and how you can consume these vitamins.

When it goes wrong

If you live in the Western part of the world, you have not much too fear: Almost all diary and whole grain products contain some amounts of niacin, and it is very easy to attain the daily recommended dose of 20 mg per day this way. However, if you go to less developed countries or parts of the world where corn is a major part of the diet, you could develop a niacin deficiency. My personal solution to this is to take a notebook with me when I travel to note down the amount of niacin I consume though the day.

Another troublesome situation is when you go out binge drinking for an extended period of time. Alcohol destroys niacin stored in the body. In this case, it might be a good idea to consume more niacin than the daily recommended dose. Just be sure you do not exceed amounts of 100 mg that can lead to severe side effects.

Micro-nutrients

In order to treat depression by natural foods, the best source is niacin. However, there are also other micro-nutrients belonging to the vitamin B complex that can aid in curing depression. The most important are:

• Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)

Thiamin can influence your behavior, for example, it can cause anger irritability and insomnia. Especially pregnant women are very vulnerable to thiamin deficiencies. Thiamin is after niacin the most important micro-nutrient relating to depression and angst.

• Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid)

This vitamin B is especially useful for bodybuilders, since it aids in muscle development. However, it can also help in improving depression.

• Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)

Vitamin B6 is used for the production of serotonin, a hormone that causes ‘happy feelings’. If this vitamin is well balanced, it can lead to a very relaxed feeling and sereneness. However, if you drink a lot of alcohol or when you travel to less developed countries, you can easily develop a deficiency, just like with niacin.

Niacin consumption

In order to enjoy niacin benefits, you will have to eat foods that are rich in vitamin B. The best sources include:

1. Liver
2. Chicken
3. Fish
4. Mushrooms
5. Eggs

Consuming these foods on a daily basis can help you prevent niacin depression. Be sure to eat a little more of these foods when you are planning to go out binge drinking for some time.

Raw juice diets have been very popular lately, thanks to countless Hollywood celebrities who speak about just how effective they can be for people who want to lose weight and have a sexier body. Aside from helping people lose weight, juicing is also a very effective way of getting rid of all the impurities in the body. However it should be noted that when on the juice diet, a person cannot consume solids for a certain number of days. This deprives the body of important nutrients which it needs to function from day to day. This is why people who are on the juice diet are often weak while others experience side effects. Approval from a doctor is very important before going on a juice diet. Not everyone can go through a raw juice diet. For some people, a juice diet is very risky.

A raw juice diet involves consuming strictly raw fruits and vegetables which have been freshly squeezed. When on this diet, no solid food should be eaten. There are various juice diets out there but most of them last for as short as three days to as long as a month. In order to start on this diet, people must buy juicers. There are various proponents of the raw juice diet. According to its advocates, a person can lose as much as a pound a day on this diet. Juice diets are also very good in eliminating toxins from the body. Toxins have harmful effects on the body.

Even though a lot of people and personalities are promoting the goodness of juice diets, not a lot of health care professionals are very enthusiastic about it. According to Dr. Beth Reardon R.D., juice diets can help people lose a lot of weight quickly but it is not a safe way to lose weight. Sage weight loss is a pound or two each week, not each day. Juice diets will not help you keep the weight off and will also slow you metabolism. Many health advocates are saying that it is better to go on a healthy diet which will help you lose weight slowly then going through juice diet which will make you drastically lose weight with risks.