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Hi,
I am a regular reader of Treadmill and I wanted some guidance
regarding my health and fitness. I am in better-than-average shape
but want to shed the flab from the sides of my waist. Could you
suggest some exercises?
Regards, Satya
Dear Muscles Mani,
How do I get rid of my stubborn love-handles? I do side-bends
and crunches every day but that doesn't seem to help.
Sincerely, Radhika
These
two e-mails are representative of what most readers who write
in ask about. That's one reason why the past few instalments of
Treadmill have been focussing on exercises for abs. While we've
talked about weighted crunches, leg raises and other forms of
strengthening the abdominal muscles, this time I have yet another
exercise that can prove beneficial. Unlike the others, this one
needs to be done-not as a solo exercise but as a duo. So you need
to find a partner. That shouldn't be difficult because, as I mentioned,
most people want to target their mid-sections. In fact, even the
most ripped, six-pack owner would want to retain that rare condition.
So, without further ado, let's cut to the chase. Or, the twist.
Because the exercise I'm talking about this time is called the
Seated Twist.
You'll need a medicine ball for this. This
is a weighted leather ball, somewhat smaller than a football but
larger than a tennis ball. If you can't get one easily, you could
use a moderate weight, say 15 lbs (around 7 kg). For the exercise,
the two partners sit at either end of a bench with their backs
towards each other and legs straddling the bench and feet flat
on the floor. Partner 1 holds the medicine ball with both hands.
Both partners then rotate their torso (upper body till the waist)
to the same side. Partner 1 hands the ball to Partner 2. Now,
both partners twist their torsos to the other side and Partner
2 hands over the ball to Partner 1. This sequence is repeated
again in the opposite direction. Begin slowly, before stepping
up the speed to do as many repetitions as you can for a set. Do
three sets of these.
Much that I dislike jargon, I need to mention
that this is a plyometric exercise. In plyometric exercises, muscles
are contracted eccentrically and then, immediately, concentrically.
In plainspeak, they are quickly alternated between stretches and
contractions. Besides strengthening your oblique (side) muscles
around your waist, this exercise also improves flexibilities.
You may have seen athletes and sportspersons do this exercise.
I think it's a good exercise to incorporate into your abs routine.
I've mentioned here before that I'm not a
great proponent of weighted side-bends-an exercise in which you
hold dumb-bells and, while standing on your feet, bend to either
side. Side-bends with heavy weights can bulk up the sides of the
waist and give you a chunky, square appearance (ugh!). Seated
twists seem to work much better. So get a partner and a ball and
get going.
-Muscles
Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com
Caveat: The physical exercises described
in Treadmill are not recommendations. Readers should exercise
caution and consult a physician before attempting to follow any
of these.
BALDNESS
In
this image conscious age, hair loss can cause you embarrassment-unless
you're making a fashion statement a la Feroze Khan and Rakesh
Roshan. Yet, people are surprisingly naïve about this issue.
What Is It: Baldness, also known as
alopecia, is partial or complete loss of hair on the head. The
severity and nature of baldness can vary from person to person;
it ranges from male and female pattern alopecia, which involves
the loss of some hair on the head to the most extreme form involving
the loss of all hair on the head and body. The condition is more
common in men than in women. It can be genetic, environmental
or biological in origin.
Causes: Says Dr Mukesh Girdhar, Consultant,
Max Balaji Hospital, New Delhi: "Although the most common
cause of hair loss in men is Male Pattern Baldness, there are
many other ailments and conditions which cause or contribute to
premature hair loss in both men and women." These conditions
include ageing, heredity, androgenic disorders (thyroid diseases),
auto-immune diseases, infectious diseases, dietary deficiencies,
pregnancy, dandruff, drugs and stress.
Treatment: The treatment option depends
on the nature of hair loss and is not always helpful. "It
may involve oral treatment (tablets), topical (minoxidil) application,
local therapies and dietary changes," says Dr Girdhar. "It
could, however, take up to six months to see a substantial improvement
in re-growth and thickening of hair." Hair transplants are
also effective and can be used as a last resort. In this, scalp
plugs, containing active hair follicles, are taken from the back
of the head and transplanted to areas affected by hair loss. In
the new location, the transplanted follicles continue to produce
hair just as before. Another treatment option is to pop a medicine
called Rogen, which is normally used as a birth control pill in
Europe and the US.
-Manu Kaushik
PRINTED
CIRCUIT
Hack Your Way To Happiness
Here are some simple
tips to making your computer more obedient to your commands.
 Hacking
computers began as a way for individuals to enhance the performance
of their machines. Lifehacking is quite a similar concept; you
make small, subtle changes in your life, and given that your life
probably revolves around electronics and software, most of these
changes are based around the software and the technology you use.
Small technological changes-a keystroke here, a new program there-can
considerably reduce the time you spend on certain tasks and can
also reduce your stress levels. In this article, therefore, we
will give you some tips to hack your way to a better life.
First tip: Get Google Desktop Search, a tremendously capable
program (and the single biggest timesaver in case your computer
is cluttered) that allows you to search even for a string of words
inside a document on your computer. For example, your Microsoft
Outlook will be full of hundreds of old mails sent ages ago, but
what if you want to find that one mail you sent your colleague
some time ago? Google Desktop allows you to search for e-mails
in both ms Outlook and your Gmail account using operators such
as "To:"; "Subject:"; "From:"; "Cc:"
and "Bcc:". Even better if you remember what the mail
was talking about and who it was from; you can then search for
the string-like I would search for something like this, "Brilliant
From: Editor". If you are searching for a specific file type
in a specific folder, you can also use the 'under' operator-so
your search query might look like this-"Filetype: PDF under
C:\Documents and Settings\Kushan\". Google desktop is available
from www.google.com/desktop (it's free to download, in under 10
minutes on a broadband connection).
If you are the sort of person who likes keeping
a lot of lists-to do's, expense lists or even grocery lists, what
you should do instead of using a fancy word processor is to use
a simple text editor. Why? Well, txt files can be easily ported
to your phone and they are readable on virtually every computer
in the world and on any operating system. And for all you know,
there is already a basic text editor on your computer.
 AutoHotKey:
A hotkey is a term used for a sequence of keys on any program
that will perform a particular task. For example on Firefox, Control+T
opens a new tab and if you have the 'Showcase' plug-in installed
F10 showcases all open tabs in one window. But AutoHotKey goes
one step further; it allows you to automate functions in Windows
and other programs. For example, when you are dealing with repetitive
e-mails, you can easily program your computer to send a simple
reply at the press of a few keystrokes. Download from www.autohotkey.com.
Say, you're the sort that likes clicking
pictures and sending them to all your friends. Well, there are
tens of tools out there that make this task easier. Google Picasa
and Adobe's new Lightroom software may not be as good as Photoshop,
but they allow you to easily touch up your image, remove the red
eye and alter the colour range. Then, instead of mailing your
picture and clogging up your email server, you can get a service
such as Flickr to host your images. Visit: www.adobe.com, www.google.com/
picasa, www.flickr.com.
There are tens of ways to save time; these
are just a few tips and tricks and some software that you can
use. www.lifehacker.com comes out with regular tips and tricks
to hack your life and make it so much more fun. Happy hacking!
-Kushan Mitra
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