The best thing about physical activity is the refreshing feeling afterwards! Here, you can learn how exercise can be lots of fun.
Not everyone is suited for team sports or formal training. It works for some, but not for all! In the long term, it is much more effective and motivating to enjoy an activity that best suits you than constantly striving to become accomplished in one sport. For instance, you can enjoy the benefits of exercise by taking on little everyday challenges. Examples include, take the stairs as often as possible, have a race with your dog, take a dance class, or discover if you can still manage to climb a tree.
These activities can be more rewarding than joyless gym workouts or monotonous training for a race. And if you don’t care whether people are watching you, you are on the right track. On the track to finding your own bliss!
Naturalness, what does it actually mean in contemporary terms? What does it mean for us and our everyday lives to live more naturally and therefore more healthily? Biologically speaking, human beings are more or less in the same state as they were 10,000 years ago. Therefore, if we want to attach more importance to our human nature, we must integrate a little more of the lifestyle of our hunting and gathering ancestors into our lives. Shooting animals in the wild or wearing bearskins is, of course, trite. But drinking water, for example, is a good step.
Natural exercise: around the world, “Evolutionary Fitness” is gaining more and more fans. This involves the primal forms of human exercise – climbing, jumping, balancing and crawling. Christo Förster, who is one of the pioneers in Germany with his JUNGLEFIT concept, comments: “The human being is not only a runner; he is the most diverse living creature on this planet. This potential must be exploited. Natural forms of exercise generally train strength, stamina, flexibility and coordination at the same time. In addition, certain muscle groups are never isolated, like on a biceps machine, for example.” In other words: next time you go running, for example, simply be on the look-out for opportunities to challenge the body in new ways!
If you run regularly, you clearly enjoy many health benefits, as running (at any speed) not only strengthens your heart, bones and muscles, and improve your circulation; it also helps relieve stress. Scientists have proven, running releases feel-good endorphins, not only into your blood stream, but also in your brain: Negative thoughts and feelings disappear. Running can actually make you happy.
It’s never too late to build a running habit – simply take it slowly and find your own rhythm. Go at a pace that you can still have a chat and only run distances with which you feel comfortable. If running or jogging places too much stress on your joints, walking is a great alternative. Be sure to check with a medical professional before starting any new exercise program.
Neither stale nor boring in any way – today, hiking is once again cool. And rightly so! Not only is it great exercise, offering a full body workout, it also relaxes the mind and reduces stress. A study, conducted by Elmar Trunz-Carlisi from the Cologne Institute for Prevention and Aftercare, for Fit for Fun magazine, shows that hiking is a true fitness miracle. His research shows that a hike through mountainous or even hilly terrain prompts the heart rate to react in the same way it does during cycling or running interval training. Trunz-Carlisi elaborates “For hiking, the number of calories burned was even 20 percent higher than for cycling and twice as high as for fitness training in the same time duration”. So, get out there, even a walk in the park has a positive impact on your overall well-being.
Full disclosure – here at Gerolsteiner we’re totally biased as our beautiful Volcanic Eifel region is perfectly suited to hiking! Have a quick look at www.eifel.info and come join us for a hiking get away!
You have probably experienced how you can forget everything around you when you are dancing. If not, then it is high time to do so! This feeling is hugely important for the relaxation of body and mind. “Only if we abandon the learned hierarchy between body and mind can we feel very close to ourselves. Body and mind are of the same value, they are possibly even just two terms for the same thing”, says natural coaching expert Christo Förster. “With regard to dancing, this means that we only properly get into a flow when we switch off our thoughts and forget about how our movements have an effect on others”, continues Förster. Incidentally, dancing also helps stamina and coordination. With this in mind it’s not surprising that Zumba (a workout influenced by Latin American dance), has been the absolute megatrend in fitness studios around the world for several years.
Gerolsteiner fans seemingly love to dance! See for yourselves and be inspired to move to the rhythm...
Fit with Gerolsteiner - a summer with a star
You naturally loose fluid and minerals through all physical activity, but particularly when you exercise rigorously. Therefore, it is extremely important for active people to drink enough fluids and replenish the minerals the muscle cells use during exercise. Every litre of Gerolsteiner Sparkling Mineral Water contains 2,500 mg of minerals – more than most other mineral waters worldwide.
Calcium is quantitatively the most important mineral in the human body: 99 percent of calcium (approx. 1kg) is stored in the skeleton. For the most part, magnesium can be found in your skeleton as well and it is also present in your muscles and between your cells.
All of that make calcium and magnesium important minerals which our bodies are not able to produce on its own and therefore need to be obtained from our food and beverages.
Mineral Water contains mineral nutrients like magnesium and calcium in a dissolved form - this increases its bioavailability, enabling our bodies to absorb and use this vital nutrient more readily. One litre of Gerolsteiner Sparkling or Medium satisfies one third of the daily calcium requirement and one quarter of the daily magnesium requirement.
Learn more about a well-balanced diet and minerals here
Running barefoot activates the countless receptors on sole of the foot, which in turn improves the interaction between the brain and musculature. It also strengthens your foot muscles and enhances your physical balance. Barefoot shoes offer the same benefits.
Try standing on one leg while brushing your teeth. This is an old trick, but enormously effective. Look for other everyday occasions where you can briefly stand on one leg. Even putting on your socks and shoes without sitting down can be a suitable challenge.
Sounds strange, but if you regularly swap the side of the bed you sleep on with your partner, your body will be much more balanced. While sleeping, we intuitively move away from one another, which means that we generally sleep on the same side of the body. And, in the long term, this prompts an imbalance of the musculoskeletal system. So go on switch it up in bed!
Slacklining is a new adventure sport that combines the talents of tightrope walking and tramp lining – sounds complicated but it really isn’t – it increases body awareness, coordination and balance. Simply set up a slackline, a least a foot above the ground, between two trees in a park or your garden and the fun can begin!
A woman is having fun taking her dog for a walk: Nikada / iStockphoto, Two men are hiking in the mountains: deimagine / iStockphoto, A woman is wearing headphones and having fun while dancing: HconQ / iStockphoto, Mineralienstein mit Calcium, Magnesium und Hydrogencarbonat: ElementalImaging / iStockphoto
