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Legs are the parts of the
body that are most neglected by men at gyms in India. It's common
to see men diligently work out their pecs and deltoids, biceps and
triceps and avoid doing anything for their legs. I think that's
partly because Indian men aren't big wearers of shorts. It's curious
why more Indian men don't wear shorts, given the largely hot and
humid Indian climate but it is probably because most Indian men
don't prefer baring their legs that they can get by without working
them out. On the other hand, women gymmers don't skimp on working
out their legs and in most gyms the leg-press and curl machines
are used more by them than their male co-members.
Yet, because we are an upright, erect species, our legs are
the foundation for the rest of our bodies and it is essential
that a holistic workout regime also includes exercises for legs.
Even those who do work their legs at gyms tend to concentrate
on their thigh muscles-the quadriceps in front and the hamstrings
behind-and ignore their calves.
If you want to develop your calf muscles, you need to be prepared
to put them through high levels of stress. That's the only way
these somewhat unique muscles respond to exercise. But remember,
since the blood supply to the lower part of your legs is limited,
calf muscles turn sore very quickly after exercising them.
Here are a couple of routines you can put your calves through
to get those shorts-ready lower legs.
Standing calf raises: These can be done either with weights
or using your own body weight. Stand on balls of your feet at
the edge of a step and raise your body on your toes; now slowly
lower them to the starting position. That's one repetition. Do
10-12 for a set and complete five such sets. As you progress,
you could use a loaded barbell across your back (like in a squat)
to increase the resistance.
One-legged calf raises: This is a variant of the first exercise.
Like above, stand on the edge of a step but curl your right foot
around the ankle of your left foot and hold a dumb-bell in your
left arm, which should be by the side of your body. Now raise
your body by going up on your left foot. That's one rep for the
left calf. Do 10 for a set and then switch your legs and the dumb-bell
and do it for the right calf. See illustration for help.
Calves, as I have said before, require a lot of coaxing before
they get ripped and shapely. So, ideally, unlike other muscles,
calf muscles should be exercised as many times as you can and
with intensity. You could build in a calf muscle routine every
other day, pairing it with whatever else you are doing that day.
-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.
BRAIN BOOSTERS
Here are some health tips to keep the brain,
the boss of our body, humming:
Go green. There is no better way to flood your brain cells with
nutrition. Says Dr Surender Kumar, Senior Consultant, Sir Ganga
Ram Hospital: "Leafy green vegetables and fruits are loaded
with antioxidants, minerals, and folate. These work to prevent
unstable molecules, called free radicals, from damaging cells."
Also, pay close attention to how much you eat, and try not to
go to bed stuffed.
Vital vitamins. "Vitamin B, found in whole grain products
like bread, rice, pasta, and fortified cereals, is an essential
brain food. Folic acids, in the form of bananas, orange juice,
fortified cereals, lemons and strawberry, are good for metabolism
of long-chain fatty acids in the brain. Also, the intake of Omega
3 fatty acids, found in fish, reduces the risk of depression,
and lowers the risk of developing Alzheimer's," says Dr Kumar.
Meditation marvels. Pranayama (control of breath) and Sheershasana
ensure pure blood flow through the brain cells. Says Dr Kumar:
"Aim initially for 15 minutes once a day at a regular time."
Customise your workspace. One quick way to ease tension is to
make your desk uncluttered. Ventilation and lighting affect your
work environment. You must also take adequate measures to ensure
a certain level of comfort. The bonus: Peace of mind.
Social stimulus. Lifelong community involvement is an investment
in brain health. Spend time with friends and family. Travelling
and hobbies can keep your mind active and healthy.
-Manu Kaushik
PRINTED CIRCUIT
City Sense
Throw away that directory; you can now get addresses, phone numbers,
restaurant reviews and more at the click of a mouse.
City-specific websites have been around in India for over a
decade, but in the last few months, three interesting new services
(I won't call them websites, because they are online services!)
have been launched, and offer quite different value propositions
from each other. While two services come from home-grown start-ups,
the third, which is the first service we will review, comes from
Yahoo!, and is called Ourcity (http://ourcity.yahoo.co.in) and
currently covers only the top six cities of the country.
What Yahoo! has done is fairly interesting, because it offers
a range of online services. So, blog posts come in from Yahoo
360 (but Ourcities Delhi, for example, does pull all posts tagged
with Delhi from Technorati), Yahoo Answers gets pulled in (by
the way, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is asking stuff there) as
does Del.icio.us (so that Yahoo! users can submit bookmarks) and
Flickr pulls in photographs tagged with that city's name.
Yes, there are teething troubles; Firefox users might have some
issues with the drop-down menus (works fine on ie7), but this
service is still clearly in beta and is advertised as such. But,
with its fairly nice, clean and bright layout, this service is
really fun to play around with.
The second service isn't a city portal. Rather, Guruji.com advertises
itself as 'The Indian Search Engine'. And Sequoia has invested
good money in it, and given that firm's track record (Yahoo!,
Google, YouTube), its management knows a thing or two about dotcoms.
Guruji is not a substitute for Google, but its search results
are pretty much India-focussed; say, for example, when you search
for Mainland China, Guruji assumes you are searching for the restaurant,
but Google's first result is to a Wikipedia entry-though to be
fair, Google does have Mainland China Restaurant on the front
page itself. Guruji adds another twist by also giving City Search
which, thanks to a tie-up with Infomedia Yellow Pages, provides
a fairly easy way to get phone numbers of restaurants, doctors,
dentists and all the other people one needs to call in life.
The third service, Burrp.com, is yet another home-grown one,
and like the previous two, is also still in beta testing and offers
services for Mumbai and Bangalore. The concept behind Burrp is
that it is a community site where users go in and rate and review
movies, music, restaurants and the like. Of course, unless there
is a sizeable bank of reviews for every place, the reviews tend
to be skewed, but it is possible for people to flag reviews. At
least one hotspot in Bangalore had a rating which I thought was
fairly generous and my favourite watering hole in Bandra's Waterfield
Road had a surprisingly low rating (though I do agree with some
of the reviewers that service standards are pretty sad). Another
interesting feature about Burrp is its Free Business Location
SMS that eliminates the need to scribble down a location or take
a printout. Pretty nifty.
All three services are still getting off their feet, but they
point to increasing localisation of content that is happening
online, and I doubt that Ourcity, Guruji or Burrp will be the
last of their sort.
-Kushan Mitra
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