Coffee increases protection against Alzheimer's

A yet unidentified component of coffee interacts with the beverage's caffeine, which could be a surprising reason why daily coffee intake protects against Alzheimer's disease.
A new Alzheimer's mouse study by researchers at the University of South Florida found that this interaction boosts blood levels of a critical growth factor that seems to fight off the Alzheimer's disease process.

But keep in mind that even though there is some benefits with coffee there's also negative aspects.
I'd say if you drink 1 - 2 cups of coffee you're fine, but when you drink 3 + cups/day the cons are more than the pros.

Enjoy todays coffee!

Something for the coffee lovers!

Caffeine could help fight
skin cancers

Caffeine could be a useful addition to sunscreens since it both absorbs ultraviolet light and protects against skin cancer, say scientists.A new study has shown how the coffee stimulant acts at the molecular level to prevent sunlight triggering tumour development in the skin.The findings suggest that caffeine in creams or lotions could help prevent sun-induced skin cancer.
Previous studies had already shown that coffee and tea consumption reduced the risk of less serious, non-melanoma, skin cancers caused by exposure to ultraviolet rays.

Muscle spasm!!

After my pilates session I decided to work my abs a little bit more!

My favorite ab exercise is pretty much a chin up. I do a chin up and stay up, then I bring my legs up 5 times, before I slowly lower myself down. There is NO OTHER exercise that gets my abs that much!

I lowered myself down one last time.. Walked a few steps.. And suddenly: MUSCLE SPASM!! My neck was cramping like crazy!
I had no idea what to do!
I am so glad that John, the gym manager, was there. He's a massage therapist plus pretty much everything... And he gave me a 30 min free massage :) Painful at first, but okay afterwards.

I think I was tensing my neck muscles when I did the chin ups and the lowering, and they just couldn't take all that pressure. Ofcourse they could't.. Need to focus on keeping my neck relaxed next time :)

Pilates

I went to the gym earlier today and did some pilates. Love it!
Pilates is probably one of the most underrated things to do in a gym. Many people seam to think pilates is for weak girls that are only looking for flexibility.
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Pilates is actually super hard!
You use your whole body, and even though it's slow movements you get alot of neural messages through the body which makes you fatigue really quicky. And wooow how sweaty you get if your doing it right!! In the end I was shaking like a leaf!

So what exercises did I do?
I started of with an exercise which stretches the hamstring, and using adducturs to come back to the starting position. I went lower down than the girl on the picture to the right though, but used a stick for balance.

I did a superset with step ups on the trapeze table. I was holding on to the bars on the sida and had one foot on the table and the other foot on a connected bar below. Benefits of the exercise are flexibility, shoulder stability and strength in quads, gastoc, glutes, lats, lower traps and ofcourse core!
My quads were buring!

Superset: 2 x (2x5 extensions on reformer + 2x5 step ups on trapeze table)

After that I did a exersice for my adductur's and some more and shoulder stability.

Slide 2x5







"The gun" 3x5
That's the starting position . From there I brought my body back until my whole body was in a straight line.

The history behind pilates

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in the Germany in 1880. In 1912, Joseph travelled to England, some say to tour with a circus and others, to pursue a boxing career. In 1914, WW1 broke out and Joseph was interned in a POW camp in Lancaster. It was here that he began to develop his own exercise regime which he called 'Contrology'.

Inspired by the springs and pulleys of the hospital beds he began rehabilitating the sick and infirm.

Pilates and his wife began teaching in New York in 1926 at a gym and by the 1930's they had quite a diverse client base including famous people such as Vivien Leigh, Sir Laurence Olivier and Katherine Hepburn. Joseph Pilates’ skill of working with and healing injured clients became widely known and when American ballet movement began to grow ever more popular, so did he. Dancers and choreographers would go to "Uncle Joe" to "be fixed". It was among these dancers that the first generation of ‘Pilates’ teachers emerged.

What has become known simply as 'Pilates' is now an exercise regime that is recognized and practiced worldwide, with a count of more than 12 million practitioners.



MyFitnessPal

Lose Weight with MyFitnessPal.com — for FREE!

Losing weight isn't easy. But with a membership to MyFitnessPal.com, you'll get the tools you need to successfully take weight off - and keep it off. And best of all, everything on the site is 100% FREE.

Study after study has confirmed the benefits of keeping track of the food you eat and the activity you do. It's simple - the more consistently you track your food intake, the more likely you are to lose weight. That's why every successful weight management program suggests that you keep a food diary and/or an activity log. But recording everything you eat without the right tools can be tedious at best, or simply impossible at worst.

At MyFitnessPal.com, the focus is on making sure you can log your meals as quickly and easily as possible. Because the easier it is for you, the more likely you are to stay on track, and the more likely you are to succeed in your weight loss goals.

This site is amazing! Join today and add me (leliason) as a friend to see my food and exercise diary!

ENJOY!