Stress can make blood pressure go up for a while, and it has been thought to contribute to high blood pressure. But the long-term effects of stress are as yet unclear. Stress management techniques do not seem to prevent high blood pressure. However, such techniques may have other benefits, such as making you feel better or helping you to control over-eating thus helping in decreasing your blood pressure.

Remember Your blood pressure increases remarkably when you are under physical or emotional stress. If you constantly feel "stressed out," your body may maintain an abnormally high level of responsiveness, creating an artificially induced state of high blood pressure.

Exercise can also cause stress, but Unlike exercise, which provides your body with well-controlled physical stress for a limited amount of time, chronic stress does not benefit your circulatory system. Rather, it increases your risk of illness. However, stress is very much a part of modern life, ... [more]

Muscle cramps are temporary contractions of the muscles and they usually appear during physical effort. The sensation is similar to the one you have when you feel a strong, involuntary tightening of the muscle group that you can't control any more. There are many causes which bring about cramps, but they happen most often because of insufficient warming up before training.

Good and correct warming up has two stages: the general one (cardio), for increasing the body temperature (running, cycling, etc.) and the specific one, during which the main joints and groups of muscles which will be involved in training are warmed up. It is enough not to give, from different reasons (rush, superficiality, ignorance), the necessary time or importance to one of these stages, and cramps can become a current phenomenon.

As important as warming up is the relaxation stage after the training. This has, like warming up, two stages: a dynamic one (aerobic) and a static one (stretc... [more]

Move it throughout the day! Get enough activity that makes you breathe a little harder. Five minutes here, ten there - add it up and go for thirty minutes a day. You don't have to suit up or climb on an exercise machine to get the benefits of activity.

Balance your activity so that you're still able to talk while you're exercising, but not as easily as you could sitting down or just standing. If you find yourself unable to talk, you're probably overworking yourself.

The more you move and use your muscles, the better fit you'll become. Your bones will become stronger, too.

Don't forget the stretching. It will help keep you flexible and able to move more easily. Do walk around a bit to warm up your muscles--save the stretching for the end of your workout so you don't hurt or damage any muscles. If you save your stretching to the end of your workout, your muscles will be "warmed up- already and you'll find that your flexibility is increased with each... [more]