Women’s Foot HealthWomen really have it tough when it comes to maintaining proper foot health. There are a wide range of afflictions, conditions and general health problems that can strike your feet at any time, regardless of age or other health considerations. As it is with most health problems, the key to overcoming – or dealing with – foot problems is to identify the problem early and get the proper treatment for it as quickly as possible. Here are just a few of the medical conditions that can knock a woman off her feet:

Bunions – Bunions are easy to recognize, but sometimes difficult to treat. Bunions appear as swollen or tender joints in your big toe, and they can be excruciatingly painful. While there is definitely evidence that genetics plays a part in who suffers from bunions, research also shows that wearing shoes that are too narrow in the toe area can exacerbate the problem. Treating the bunion non-surgically requires the person to spend more time off their feet, resting the area, as well as wearing wider, more comfortable dress shoes.

No matter which of these conditions you suffer from, you need to treat the problem yourself initially. Whether this means wearing more comfortable ladies walking shoes, changing your exercise regimen or dietary considerations, you can control how much you hurt. If the condition doesn’t improve and you still feel a significant amount of pain, then it is widely recommended that you see a professional podiatrist. You spend so much time on your feet…it just doesn’t make sense to take them for granted.

Whether you are an avid fitness junkie or just spend a good amount of time on your feet each day, women have been found to be more likely to incur knee injuries than men, according to studies conducted by orthopedic specialists. In particular, women are more likely to suffer anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than men.  There are a number of reasons why this occurs, with a couple of the more popular medical theories being:

1) Women are simply built differently than men. Women have wider pelvic regions than men, which makes their thigh bones (femurs) connect with their knee joints at a wider angle. This wider angle equates to more pressure on the knee joint. The space where the ACL is located in women is narrower than it is for men, which makes women’s ACLs more prone to strains and tears during physical activities.

2) Women experience significant changes in hormone levels during their menstrual cycle. This can make the knee joint loose and increase the chance of straining the ligaments. Teenage girls going through puberty tend to have elevated chances of incurring a serious ACL injury.

If these medical situations weren’t rough enough, long-term MRI tests have shown that women are far more likely to lose knee cartilage than men…sometimes up to 3 times as much! With these knee issues to contend with, women are well-served to make a conscious effort to take care of their knees. A few basic steps to assist women in maintaining knee health are:

• Maintain a healthy body weight through diet. Every extra pound from the knees up puts additional pressure on the knee joint.
• Stretch out your leg muscles adequately prior to working out or performing any strenuous activity. When you’re trying to answer the question “How to relieve knee pain,” a proper warm-up before your workout can go a long way.
• Ease into a new exercise routine, rather than jumping into it full bore.
• Wear comfortable women’s shoes that have proper arch and ankle support. There are different shoes for different activities, and wearing the proper shoe can go a long way toward keeping the knees healthy.
• Focus aspects of your workout on the muscle health of your legs. Walking, climbing stairs, lighter weight exercises can all pay dividends in knee health. There are even certain plyometric exercises that can build neuromuscular conditioning and improve your muscular reactions.

In conclusion, women face more challenges to maintaining proper knee health than their male counterparts. To keep your joints healthy and performing at peak capabilities, you need to take a holistic approach to taking care of your knees. From diet to exercise to wearing the right pair of walking shoes…all are important aspects to seriously consider if you want your knees to keep you on the move!

If you polled 100 people and asked them if they’d like to be healthy, 99 would probably say “yes,” and the one who didn’t say yes probably misunderstood the question. It’s a basic tenet of humanity…We all want to be healthier than we already are. Unfortunately, for many people who suffer from arthritis or other medical conditions, working out with traditional exercises can be extremely painful. If you fall into this category, how do you get started toward the goal of improved health? When normal exercises are among the primary causes of knee pain, the answer is simple…low impact exercises.

There are a wide range of different exercises you can use to not only improve your cardiovascular health and physical fitness level, but also tune up your immune system in the process. Here are five possible candidates for workouts that you can do without incurring so much pain and soreness that you are unable to maintain the regimen.

1) Walking
Basic, simple, and doesn’t require any special equipment or workout space. If you prefer to remain indoors, you can utilize a treadmill machine. If you enjoy being outdoors, walking around your neighborhood or on the beach can help you keep the scenery changing so you don’t get bored with walking. All you need are some comfortable clothes like sweats, shorts or leggings, plus a pair of comfortable walking shoes. Take it slowly at first…start out with 5-10 minutes at a leisurely pace. As your body gets used to the exercise, you can simply increase the amount of time you spend walking to make it more challenging and continue to increase your body’s physical ability to handle the exercise.

2) Swimming
When it comes to low-impact exercises, swimming is about as good as it gets. In addition to not causing any stress on your feet, knees and other lower body joints, swimming can provide an outstanding cardiovascular workout. Check out your local public pool to find out if there are any scheduled times set aside for lap swimming, or if you live near the ocean or a lake (one that has been deemed safe to swim in), you can set your own schedule.

3) Body Weight Exercises
This category of exercises refers to weight training that uses your own body weight as the resistance to help build muscle strength. Push-ups are the most well known of the body weight exercises, but if you are unable to do standard push-ups, you can modify the exercise by doing them standing up and leaning against a countertop. Increase the angle as your body gets stronger, until you get to the point where you can participate in the trendiest of the body weight exercises…Pilates!

4) Water Exercises
Combined with swimming, you can use water exercises to achieve an all-around workout that can provide benefits to virtually every muscle group in your body, plus your cardiovascular system. By doing basic calisthenics in the pool, you can perform many of the traditional exercises without causing nearly as much stress on your knees and ankles. Most gyms with swimming pool facilities offer organized water exercises that are fun and extremely social in a group setting. They have water dance classes…even water Zumba!

5) Circuit Training

Circuit training is an outstanding, and completely customizable, way to combine cardiovascular and strength training. It also allows for a quality workout in a very short amount of time. Circuit workouts commonly have two individual circuits, each with six strength/cardio exercises that you perform in order, one right after the other, with little or no rest in between. Some of the individual execises that routinely make up circuit training are squats, lunges, walking/jogging, jumping rope, back extensions and more.  Make sure you warm up with 5-10 minutes of light cardio and cool down with a stretch.

Having medical issues like arthritis shouldn’t prevent you from working toward a healthier body. Simply understand the limitations you have and work within those, and you’ll find that your fitness levels will continue to increase as you go along. It’s your life we’re talking about here…make it a healthy one!

The battle over how women view themselves has been raging in this country, and throughout the world, for decades. On one side, you have the magazines, television and other media, who portray women as needing to look like a real-life version of a Barbie doll if they want to be considered attractive. On the other side are the academics, from nutritionists to psychologists, who are desperately trying to turn the tide on how women view themselves, for reasons ranging from physical health to mental well-being. It’s an uphill fight though, as the media has been entrenched for generations in bunkers of misconception. Complicating the issue is the fact that the media controls the information, and therefore the opinions, of the general public. How bad has the problem become? Try the following body-image statistics on for size:

1. According to official studies, the average American woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American fashion model is 5’11” tall and weighs 117 pounds.

2) By the time they turn 13 years old, over 50% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This figure increases to over 75% by the time that girls reach seventeen.

3) One out of every four college-aged females suffers from an eating disorder.

4) Nearly 12.5 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2008. Women had nearly 11.4 million cosmetic procedures, 91% percent of the total.

Starting to get the picture?

It is a vicious cycle, and one that is difficult to break, given the male-dominated media and long-established stereotypes. The issue is compounded further by the fact that young men are also exposed to those same media-driven stereotypes, making them want to find a woman who fits those established body-image benchmarks. Look a certain way, act a certain way…you’re not even supposed to wear comfortable shoes, as you’re often expected to wear high heels.

How to change the trend?

Women need to understand that changing self-image begins on the inside, with how each woman views themself. Self-esteem begins with a healthy dose of reality… You have to establish your own standards of beauty, rather than accepting the one that the media hands you. You need to clearly define who you are, as well as who you want to be. That standard needs to be based on health and wellness-related standards, rather than physical appearance alone.

The long road back from misguided and misapplied self-image is possible. It requires that you say no to the system and try to change the way you perceive your body. Too often it seems that beauty is a competition with other women instead of a nice gesture to ourselves. Make beauty about gestures, rather than a competition. When we understand that we all can be beautiful, even when we ditch the heels for a pair of comfortable sandals, then we start to win the war on self-image. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing indeed!

As we head into Spring, you are probably already thinking about spending time at the beach, or relaxing by the pool. Once that plan settles in, maybe a small moment of panic ensues…”How am I ever going to get into my swimsuit?” It’s a natural part of the seasonal cycle, where we put on “a few” extra pounds over the winter, due to the holiday seasons and general winterizing that our bodies go through.

No worries though…there is plenty of time for you to shed those extra inches and pounds, to ensure that you not only are able to fit into that swimsuit, but look amazing once you’re in it! The answer isn’t to go on some extreme dieting that makes you miserable. The key is to make a few healthy adjustments to your diet that are simple to implement into your daily eating. Here are 4 easy-to-follow diet tips designed specifically to help you lose those winter pounds.

1) Don’t Deprive Yourself of Your Favorite Foods

This is where many people who are trying to lose weight go wrong. They cut out certain foods that they really enjoy, just because they aren’t the healthiest foods. Then we get angry and unhappy because we aren’t eating the foods we like, and the diet goes South in a hurry. Instead of cutting out those “not entirely diet-friendly” foods and snacks, try reducing the amount of those foods that you eat. If you love chocolate chip cookies, and usually grab a half-dozen to snack on, try only taking 2-3 cookies instead. This will keep your brain thinking ”I’m getting what I want,” while you are actually reducing the amount of the unhealthy snacks that you consume.

2) Keep Healthy Snacks in Your Kitchen

Tie this in with the first point above. By keeping healthy snacks that taste good in your kitchen, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to eat healthier on a daily basis. Keep lots of fruits and vegetables on-hand, and particularly, fruits that you consider “treats” like strawberries, cantaloupe, pomegranates, etc…

3) Set a Cut-off Time at Night for Eating

So many of the weight problems that we experience have less to do with “what” we eat and more to do with “when” we eat. By setting a “no more eating” curfew a couple of hours before you go to bed at night, you’ll avoid the late night snacking and give your body time to begin digesting the food before you go to sleep. Taking a nice casual walk after your last evening snack will go a long way toward expediting the digestion process as well.

4) Substitute Water for Sodas or Alcohol

It’s OK to occasionally have a glass of wine or a cocktail, and it’s even semi-OK to have the occasional soda, but by taking the majority of those empty calorie beverages out of your diet, you’ll increase the speed with which your body metabolizes the sugars in your system and make all of your other weight loss and dieting efforts pay off more quickly.

There are some good tips to get you started. Even if you aren’t the type of person who considers healthy eating on a regular basis, you should give it a little thought now. Remember, your swimsuit is calling…

Everyone knows that when you work out your muscles, those muscles get stronger. But did you realize that certain exercises can actually help your bones get stronger as well? It’s true, and by incorporating some of these bone-strengthening exercises into your regular workout regimen, you can improve the health of your bones, and head off some potential health issues later in life.

First things first: Before you start any physical fitness activities for the first time, you really should speak to a physician and get a check up. The doctor can tell you what exercises your body can handle and, more importantly, which ones you should avoid. Many exercises are high impact, meaning they apply the most torque and strain to your joints. Low-impact exercises, like exercises done in the water, tend to be easier on the joints, as the water will help buoy some of your body weight, putting less pressure on those joints and bones.

A few good exercises you can use to help build your bone strength are:

Yoga: Many women with joint disorders like arthritis enjoy yoga, as it removes tightness in the joints and helps you mentally relax. Many of the postures involved with yoga can have a very beneficial effect on your bone strength though. Medical research projects have shown that women over the age of 50 who regularly practiced yoga multiple times each week experienced less bone loss as they aged.

Walking: Pretty basic stuff here, but many people don’t realize that weight-beqaring exercises like walking and running can help strengthen the bones in your legs and hips quite a bit. Be sure to wear a pair of comfortable walking shoes and clothing that doesn’t bind or restrict your movement.

Strength Training: Resistance training works as well, and can be a better option for those people who suffer from joint disorders like rheumatoid arthritis. By doing some very basic strength training exercises on a regular basis, women can prevent or slow osteoporosis from taking hold. Try joining a gym to get started, but if one isn’t convenient for you, simply purchase some small dumbbells and hand weights from your local sporting goods store and get your workout in while in the comfort of your own home.

In short, remember your muscles, but don’t forget your bones. Without strong bones, you are far more likely to suffer a serious injury, and in many cases, experience a lesser quality of life.

Flexibility is an often-overlooked aspect of overall fitness. We remember to work on our cardiovascular fitness, and we remember to work on our strength training…but flexibility training? Most people stop at “a light stretch before the workout” and never give it another thought. A little bit of forethought, however, will point to flexibility being as important as either of the other areas of fitness. When you improve your flexibility, you benefit in a number of ways. You improve your range of motion in your joints, which allows you to do more of whatever it is you do, from working out to shopping, without tiring as easily. It has also been proven that increased flexibility is an excellent way to avoid injury as your body ages.

Below are just a few ways you can incorporate a little flexibility training into your regular workout routine…

Stretch with a purpose: Also known as functional flexibility, what this means is that you focus on improving your flexibility in areas where you actually need it. If you like to play golf, then improving your core muscle flexibility (stomach, back, chest, shoulders) will help you hit the ball harder and with more accuracy, plus keep the post-golf soreness to a minimum.

Get Warm before you fire up the stretching: If you are working on your flexibility by yourself, rather than in a class environment, take some time to warm up before you start stretching. A short 10-15 minute walk is a good way to warm up the body and get it ready for the serious stretching.

Keep at it!: Consistency is the key to any workout regimen, and that goes doubly so for flexibility. Make flexibility training a regular part of your workout routine, and maintain the discipline to work on that flexibility every time you work out.

Commit to the Flex: In other words, take your stretching seriously. Too many people think that a casual stretch for 5 minutes or so is all they really need to improve their flexibility. Wrong answer, folks… Commit to an extended stretching routine, and speak with a personal trainer or physician to help you establish a thorough program that will maximize your results.

Strength in Numbers: Most gyms and workout centers offer classes in flexibility training. By finding one of those nearby, you will be able to get in some serious stretching, with friends (or soon-to-be new friends) and a professional teacher to guide you through the process.

In closing, always remember to stretch it out good, and keep stretching. If you want to get the most out of this world, you really need to be limber enough to reach out and grab it! Never forget that you need to wear comfortable clothing that allows you to stretch without binding, and remember to wear your most comfortable walking shoes or workout shoes, depending on your specific needs.

(If you missed part 1, you can click here to start reading at the beginning.)

Walking is a great way to maintain your cardiovascular health, keep your legs, hips and buttocks toned and improve your respiratory conditioning. In part 1, we discussed some of the excuses that people make to get out of walking, as well as a few key areas to consider to help your motivation survive and prosper, as your feet carry you down the road to good health.

Motivation is good…rewarding yourself is better.
By creating a situation where you reward yourself for walking, you will become more likely to get up, put those walking shoes on, and get out there every night (or every other night, depending on how you’ve arranged your workouts). A good way to establish the “reward profram” is, for every milestone you reach in your walking regimen, you get to buy yourself a walking-related present. Maybe it’s a pedometer or other walking tech toy. Maybe its some new walking gear. Maybe it’s new clothes that help you show off that new leaner and more toned body.

Track your Progress
One of the main reasons why women stop walking is that they are unsure whether they are making any progress toward the goals they established for that walking program. Some women want to lose a certain amount of weight, some want to just feel healthier and have more energy to do all the other fun things in their life. Whichever camp you’re camped out in, keeping track of your walking progress can help you meet those goals, and help keep you motivated until you reach those goals. A journal is a great way to track things. When you come back in from your walk, note how far you walked, where you walked, as well as any personal notes that can help you keep a grip on all of the details. If you went for an evening walk by the ocean, and you love the way the ocean breeze smells at night, put it in your journal. If you are walking in the city and pass by a restaurant or shop that you want to visit in the future…note it in the journal.

Picture your progress, and it shall be yours!
From a personal perspective, this is a tool that really helped me keep my motivation level high. If you walk three times a week, take a weekly photo of yourself. Keep all your weekly pictures together, and when you feel your motivation flagging, you take out the pictures and look at them in chronological order. You’d be amazed how well this works to show you your progress and let you know that all the hard work is really paying dividends. Once you see how good you’re looking, then you can go back to the whole “reward” thing again and go treat yourself to something special. After all, you deserve it for being such a self-motivated walking machine!

(In this two part article, we’ll take a look at the reasons why many people start walking programs, only to lose motivation and not maintain the workouts for the long-term.)

So, you’ve decided (again) to start a walking regimen, either to try shaking some of those excess pounds or for general fitness purposes. You’ve been at this point before though, and weren’t able to keep yourself motivated in order to extend those good intentions more than a week or two before giving up on it.

“It’s too hard”

“I couldn’t find the time…”

These are the most common reasons that people who have started a walking regimen note as being the reasons they weren’t able to maintain the activity levels. One of those lines probably passed through your head before giving up on walking activities in the past. You swear that this time will be different… You go out and spend good money on a high quality pair of comfortable walking shoes and some new sweatpants or walking shorts and get ready to try it again.

But how do you make “this time” more lasting…and effective than the times before?

Self-motivation is a tricky business, because all of the conflicts involved are internal, and it’s you battling yourself. Winner-take-all, with the loser probably ending up sitting on the couch with a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s. You can avoid this fate though, if you just take some steps (all puns intended) to ensure that your walks are more interesting, more enjoyable…more appealing.

Here are a few areas to consider before getting started:

Where are you walking?
Cue the “I got bored” excuse… Now stuff that back in your subconscious pocket, because there’s an easy way to get past the boredom aspect. The answer is simply to stop walking in familiar places. You know your neighborhood well enough at this point, so why would you want to spend a half hour or an hour walking around your familiar stomping grounds, looking at all the same old houses and scenery that you see every day already? I know, I know…it’s convenient to just walk out your front door, walk for a bit, and end up back home again. Sure, convenience is good, but it’s three strides past boring. Instead of the same old neighborhood walk, go find a different route! ind a nearby lake and walk around that. Golf courses and nature trails abound in most parts of the country, so you know that you could find a place to walk that you find interesting. Who cares if you have to drive 5-10 minutes to find it? If it keeps you from yawning over the tedium, it’s worth the effort.

Who are you walking with?
Too many times, people start a walking regimen by themselves, walk by themselves, and wonder why they got bored and quit after a few weeks. It probably had something to do with those folks getting bored with their own company. By getting other people involved, whether it is friends or coworkers, you suddenly turn that lonely walk into a social activity. If you are doing longer walks with one or more friends, you can even arrange it so that you have a “halfway point” break at a juice bar, or some other healthy establishment. This will break up the walk into two smaller, less intensive walks, and gives you another “fun thing” to incorporate into your workout.

In part two, we’ll discuss personal rewards and even more motivational tools to help you sustain your walking workouts!