Saffron Extract Supplements - Health Benefits

Saffron spice is obtained from the saffron plant (Crocus sativus). Saffron extract is obtained from the dried stigmas of the crocus flowers.

 To make one pound of saffron spice, it takes about 75,000 floral blooms. The spice is largely cultivated by hand using labor intensive methods. Due to this reason, the spice is fairly expensive and so are the supplements.

In traditional systems of medicine, saffron is prescribed for treating a number of diseases. It is believed that saffron is helpful in asthma, pertusis, cough, and sleep problems. It is also used as an expectorant.

Modern studies have found that saffron is effective in the relieving the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome and treating depression. Some studies also find that saffron helps in weight loss.

When used as a weight loss supplement, saffron reduces appetite and cravings. It is believed that saffron contains biochemicals which increase the levels of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a chemical which regulates the mood and controls hunger.

 By increasing serotonin levels in the body, saffron prevents compulsive overeating and associated weight gain.

A study published in the journal Nutrition Research in 2010 found that women who took saffron extract regularly experienced a greater decrease in snacking and significant reduction in body weight. The authors of the study are of the opinion that saffron's mood enhancing properties may be responsible for these findings.

Saffron extract supplements have also been found effective in the treatment of depression.

 A 2005 study published in the journal 'Phytotherapy Research' found that saffron extract was more effective when compared to placebo in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. Another study published earlier in 2004 in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that saffron is equally effective as imipramine in the treatment of depression.

Saffron extract has also been found helpful in relieving the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. A study published in 2008 in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that women showed improved results within two menstrual cycles after taking saffron supplements.

Saffron extract is safe when consumed in prescribed dosages. However, in some cases side effects such as dry mouth, dizziness, drowsiness and headache may be observed.

Saffron should never be taken in excessive quantities as it can lead to poisoning. Symptoms of saffron poisoning include vomiting, bleeding and numbness.

Saffron supplements are available in most medical stores. They can also be purchased online. While purchasing any supplements, it is important for you to do your research properly. You should consult a nutritionist or a doctor before taking any supplements.

For more information on the health benefits of saffron extract, visit http://www.saffronextract.in.

Take Your Career In Fitness To A New Level

With the fast changing trends that come about in the fitness industry; as fitness professionals there is no negotiation when it comes to education.

What used to be the perfect science one year is no longer the next and in order to stay current and outrun competitors in the market, personal trainers need to stay up to date, keep learning and keep challenging their grey matter!

In order for personal trainers to gain respect and credibility as professionals in the health and wellness sectors it's something that they all need to play a part in to impact on the industry as a whole and improve public perception.

A good personal training qualification provides a great foundation for the learner to build from and branch into other areas of specialization as the trainer develops, gains experience and matures in both training their clients and managing a business.

In terms of furthering ones education and understanding what direction to move in, this may come naturally to some trainers and they will already have a mental plan before they even start studying personal training! For others it may take slightly longer and most probably be predicted by perceived gaps in the market or by the clients they are training; for example you may have a few pregnant clients which would naturally steer you in a direction to advance your studies in exercise and pregnancy as an area of specialization.

Personal Trainers advancing and continuing their education is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa. With relatively little regulation on the personal training industry it is up to gym owners to enforce continuing education on their trainers in order to guarantee it happens and ensure their members are in competent and capable hands.

As with any industry there are of course those trainers working outside of health clubs who do take their profession seriously and are interested in pursuing other more advanced courses.

Unfortunately all are outnumbered by the "certified" trainers who qualified ten years ago and think they know it all; they either are too "busy" or "have no funds" to further their education and regrettably are the worst advertisements for personal trainers and our industry.

How do I advance my studies?

Continuing education in fitness is a global requirement; there are great courses you can do online to keep you in tune and motivated! Topics may range from how to market yourself and your business to more in depth anatomy and even nutritional topics.

 Online courses are both cost effective and time effective - study material is downloaded and you can take your exam when it suits you.

Fit Principles Academy also presents two advanced courses to students who are already qualified personal trainers or have a degree in a health science.

The first being a brand new course launched by The American Council on Exercise; called The Health Coach (dealing with nutrition and the psychology of your clients) and the second being The Advanced Health and Fitness Specialist, where the emphasis is placed on training a client who imposes a greater risk profile. Both courses are offered on a home-study basis where the student studies at their own pace but are required to write an international exam at a predetermined date.

There is no excuse not to further your studies, budget for a short course once a month and a more comprehensive course once a year! Your clients will love you and you will always be motivated to give your best and share your knowledge.

Lisa Kowen has 20 years experience in the fitness industry in South Africa She is director at The F.I.T. Principles Academy, American Council on Exercise (ACE) representative in South Africa, co-owner and developer of http://fitnessconnect.co.za/

Icon Health and Fitness Pro-Form 990 CS Treadmill - Get in Shape on a Faster Pace

For those who are feeling down about your overweight - What if there is a fitness equipment that could burn your calories and get you in shape at a faster pace?

Well, if you're curious to know what it is, we don't want to get you more anxious.

The Icon Health and Fitness Pro-Form 990 CS Treadmill is a piece of good fortune for those who are striving hard to lose their weight!

This Icon Health and Fitness Treadmill stands out from the rest with its new inclusion - iFit Live! With the iFit Live, you can connect to the Internet and download your fitness programs, motivating mails and text messages, or even some workout videos.

Or you can even compete with your Facebook friends while working out.

Equipped with a 3.0 CHP Mach Z Commercial Pro Motor, we think that the Icon Health and Fitness Pro-Form 990 CS Treadmill will not get exhausted even after long hours of continuous workout! Also, it has a Dual-Grip EKG Heart Rate Monitor that checks your heart rate.

The Icon Health and Fitness Pro-Form 990 CS Treadmill has a CoolAire Workout Fan that'll let you stay cool even if you're on a strenuous workout session.

But in case, you feel the workout little tiring, just connect your MP3 player to the Interplay Music Port and listen to your favorite track.

This treadmill also comes with a console shelf where you can place your iPod at reach and change the tracks whenever desired! Doesn't it sound like an icing on the cake?

Buy Pro-Form 990 CS Treadmill from NFM. For more related articles visit [http://nfmblog.com]

Nintendo Wii Fitness With Wii Fit

Nintendo has announced a new fitness game Wii Fit which is a full on exercise product set to give you more of a workout than Wii Sports, while still retaining all the fun of gaming.

Wii Fit will help to keep you physically fit via a dedicated peripheral - a wireless balance board which comes with the game.

There are over 40 different activities, in 4 categories: aerobics, yoga, muscle conditioning and balance games. In addition, there will be various mini games including hula hooping, ski jumping and heading soccer balls.
 
Training

The training which includes step aerobics, muscle conditioning, yoga and balance games allows players to assign their height to a profile, to measure body mass index and Wii fitness age as well as monitor progress and record performance statistics. Advice is also given from these statistics on area's where you need to improve and where you are strongest.

Mini Games

The hula hooping consists of, as you'd expect, gyrating your hips with a virtual hoop onscreen and then as the game progresses, characters will throw more hoops for you to catch and rotate as many times as you can until the time runs out.

The skiing game gives you two chances to make the longest jump you can whilst keeping your balance when landing.

 Players can increase speed by leaning forward, the more you lean the faster you'll go, and upon reaching the jump, you stand up straight ensuring your weight is evenly balanced for a good landing.

For the Football game, you will need to balance on the board moving from side to side whilst balls are fired at you to hit back on to the field and avoiding other objects that are thrown at you at the same time.

Wii Balance Board - essentially, a slim, white scale with built-in gyroscopic technology that very accurately measures weight and how your balance shifts as you move on it and posture.

The Balance Board looks a little larger than a set of bathroom scales and contains pressure sensors that detect when the user leans, moves or jumps in time with the action on screen.

Tested to withstand all players regardless of your weight, the idea is that you stand on the board and interact with the exercise task onscreen following the animated Mii character.

The calorie busting fun is expected appeal to couch potato kids as well as traditionally non-gamers, perhaps using the Nintendo Wii as a slimming tool which would be a move into the lifestyle category, covering the market from another angle.

Wii Fit is due to be released on 25th May 2008 and is set to be yet another hot seller from Nintendo.

Wii Personal Trainer - 10 Facts You Should Know Before Buying "My Fitness Coach" For Wii

Any Wii fanatic knows just how popular My Fitness Coach for the Wii is. In fact, even though it's more of a workout program than a traditional video game, it once ranked as the best selling video game on Amazon.
 
While its popularity is high, My Fitness Coach may not be for everyone. Here are 10 facts that you should know before buying this Wii personal trainer program:

1. My Fitness Coach does not use the Wii Balance Board. Instead, the program relies on the honor system. Your Wii personal trainer, Maya, will have you go through a quick set of exercises including jumping jacks, push-ups, lunges, and crunches to assess what kind of shape you're in.

You will be asked to enter your name, gender, weight, height, date of birth as well as some measurements  including waist, chest, thigh, bicep and neck circumferences.

 The benefit of not using the balance board is that you get to incorporate a wide variety of exercises into your workouts that could never be possible with the balance board.

Maya will also ask you if you have a heart monitor, stability balls, step benches and/or hand weights. If you have them, Maya will incorporate them into your workouts.

2. My Fitness Coach feels more like an aerobics DVD than a video game.

 The main difference here is that the program will change your routine depending on your progress and keep your workouts challenging and fresh. How many times have you stopped using workout DVD's because you grew tired of the same thing over and over?

 Your Wii personal trainer will check in with you multiple times during your workout to see how you're doing. The only time you use the controller is to respond to her queries. Maya will then adjust future workouts based on your responses.

3. My Fitness Coach contains six areas of focus. They are: weight loss, cardio, upper body strength, core body strength, lower body strength and flexibility. Based on the info you provide, Maya will suggest the area she feels needs the most focus. However, you have the ability to choose which area you feel needs the most attention.

4. My Fitness Coach contains nearly 500 workouts. In order to provide you with an extremely well rounded and productive workout experience, your Wii personal trainer will be able to choose from nearly 500 workouts to get the job done. You can also be certain that no two workouts will ever be quite the same.

5. Choose from multiple workout locations and styles of music.

Another issue with with workout DVD's other than routines becoming stale is the fact that you're looking at the same video shot in the same location day after day.

Whether it's shot in an aerobics studio or on a California beach, one gets tired of seeing the same thing over and over. Not so with My Fitness Coach. Are you in the mood for an urban environment or a dojo? How about a desert oasis?

Different locations help keep your workout experience fresh and enjoyable. You can also choose from seven different types of music including 80's, Hip Hop, Latin and Dance.

6. Your Wii personal trainer works around your schedule.

No one understands the importance of commitment more than Maya. She will suggest a workout schedule for you based on your goals, but in the end you decide your schedule.

After all, many of us lead busy lives and have hectic schedules.

You can choose what days of the week to work out on as well as the duration of each workout. For example, on Tuesday you can workout for 15 minutes and then go for a more intense 45 minute session on Thursday.

7. My Fitness Coach has a group exercise mode.

You can create up to four profiles on My Fitness Coach, so it makes sense to allow multiple people to work out at the same time. Your Wii personal trainer thankfully allows this. Just be sure to have a massive space available if you plan to work out with two or three other people.

8. You will sweat.

The workouts designed by your Wii personal trainer are not to be taken lightly.

You will get your heart rate up and sweat during these sessions. Many believe My Fitness Coach provides a much more productive and intense workout than Wii Fit.

As mentioned earlier, this is more of a workout program than a video game, and the goal here is to see and feel real results. If you listen to Maya it's almost certain that you will.

9. You can track and see your progress on screen.

After a certain number of workouts, your Wii personal trainer will assess your progress to see how you're coming along.

You will perform the same exercises you performed when you first started the program and then take your measurements again, including your weight.

All this information is entered into the program so that Maya can determine how to structure your workouts for the next couple of weeks.

 You will also be able to see a graphical representation of your progress, which can often be a huge motivational booster.

10. Maya remembers all.

 Being your Wii personal trainer, Maya will be the first to let you know if you've been skipping your workouts.

After all, she's here to get you in shape and keep you motivated. She provides pep talks during workouts, gives you tips on how to correctly perform exercises and provides you with tips on staying in shape between workouts.

Whether you're in strength training for your upper or lower body, hoping to up your cardio training level or are just burning a few extra calories, by allowing you to choose your own workout calendar, length of program and frequency of use, My Fitness Coach lets you to achieve your goals at a pace that is right for you. At around a one time cost of 30 dollars, a Wii personal trainer may just be the affordable alternative you're looking for.

What to hear what other users of My Fitness Coach are saying? Visit our Wii Personal Trainer Page for reviews, additional product information and purchasing options.

Best Wii Fit Games - What Are the Best Wii Fitness Games For Christmas Holiday Shoppers?

It can be hard to get outside and exercise properly in the middle of winter, but several Wii video games offer good workout options without leaving the house.
 
Topping the list of the most popular fitness games and the one that offers the best all around workout is EA Active from EA Sports.

 EA Active can be used with or without the Wii Balance Board and comes with a stretchable band to be used for strength exercises and a neoprene holster you place around your thigh and use to hold the Wii nunchuck.

EA Active focuses on traditional exercises to build stamina and strength and allows users to set up their own regimen quickly and offers a challenge by fitness guru Bob Greene.

 The game measures calorie burning for exercises and has a two-player mode in which you can take on a friend in competitions.

An expansion pack is being planned for a November release. Another big advantage of EA Active is the price is much lower than Wii Fit since the balance board is not necessary, yet if one is already owned it can be used.

The original Wii fitness game, Wii Fit, is still near the top of the list and also has just released an expansion pack that includes more mini-games.

 The Wii Balance Board is required for both. Wii Fit uses the balance board to concentrate on yoga and other exercises to increase your core balance.

Many of its mini-games are fun for the whole family, even if they are not necessarily the toughest workouts. Wii Fit starts out with a few simple exercises and allows you to unlock others as you workout more.

While some seem simple, they will leave you a little sore.

Though not technically a Wii fitness designed game, Punchout for Wii can also offer a fun, aerobically intense workout if used with the Wii balance board. Punchout is a boxing game and if playing in single-player mode with the balance board, ducking and dodging punches offers quite a workout.

Gold's Gym Cardio Workout is an intense aerobic exercise experience via cardio kickboxing. It also features scheduled workouts and difficulty levels as you improve.

Wii Fitness Games - A New Way to Get in Shape

Wii fitness games have become increasingly popular and sophisticated since the Wii was launched in 2006.

With its motion sensor controllers, casual gaming platform and worldwide appeal to men and women of all ages, the Wii console has become the perfect platform for fitness video games.

The first major fitness game for the Wii was Wii Fit. Wii Fit comes bundled with the Wii Balance Board that lets you control your on-screen movements.

When performing your exercises, the Balance Board feeds back every movement you make to the game, and the game tells you how well you are doing.

Even though Nintendo launched Wii Fit to show how well the Balance Board worked as a new game controller (in the same way that Wii Sports showed off how well the Wii remote controller worked), the Wii Fit game has been hugely popular, and is still number 1 in the game charts in the UK and other countries, almost 18 months after its release.

Based on the Wii Fit's success, many other fitness games are now available on the Wii console, including the sequel to Wii Fit, called Wii Fit Plus.

The original fitness booms of the 80s and 90s were fuelled by the availability of video recorders and DVD players in every house.

Celebrities and their trainers were quick to produce workout videos, and the low price of videos and DVDs made it easy for people to do these workouts at home.

The problem with these workout videos though, was that they were a one-size-fits-all solution, and users couldn't personalize their workouts or change the exercise routines in any way.

 If you wanted a different workout, you had to buy a new workout video.

The huge popularity of the Wii console around the world has now sparked a new fitness boom, and the Wii's interactive features now let users choose a variety of exercise routines in a single game.

Most Wii fitness games let users create highly personalised workout programs based on answers they input into the game.

Games can also create multiple workout routines for different users, making them ideal for families to use.

And as these Wii fitness video games have become more and more popular, celebrities and their trainers have been quick to add their names to the titles too.

These include Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum and Daisy Fuentes Pilates.

Each fitness game uses a slightly different format to make the games fun, engaging and challenging, and users need to decide what motivates them to exercise when choosing a fitness video game.

Wii Fit introduced the Wii Balance Board, and most of the games on the market now incorporate the Balance Board into the game for at least some of the exercises.

 This lets people use their Balance Boards if they have them, but doesn't stop people from using the game if they don't own a Wii Balance Board.

My Fitness Coach is one of the leading fitness video games on the Wii, and is one of the few that doesn't make use of the Balance Board or remote controller during workouts.

 Instead the game makes use of an in-game avatar, called Maya, who acts as your personal trainer. Maya gives you exercise advice, does your workouts with you, and shouts encouragement when you feel like you're about to collapse.

This in-game personal trainer works really well to create a highly personalised experience.

EA Sports Active takes a different approach and makes use of the Wii remote controller, nunchuck controller and an exercise resistance band during workouts.

Your movements with the Wii remote and nunchuck tell the game how well you're doing your exercises and the resistance band acts as weights for people who don't have any exercise equipment at home.

 EA Sports Active also includes a few exercises that can be done with the Wii Balance Board.

One thing that most of these fitness games have in common is the huge selection of exercises that come with each game.

This lets all of the games mix and match exercises to give you lots of different workouts and to stop you from getting bored.

 Exercises usually include stretching, cardio, upper body strength, lower body strength, abdominals, and yoga.

In addition to these general fitness games, there are a few specialized games that focus on only one type of exercise program.

 Yoga for Wii and Daisy Fuentes Pilates are great for yoga and pilates fans who want to do only these workouts and not worry about cardio or other strength exercises.

While the first wave of fitness video games have been purely exercise games, the second generation of fitness games now include healthy eating plans to complement the great workout programs.

NewU Personal Trainer includes comprehensive exercise programs from the personal trainers at the Fitness First gym chain, together with personalized healthy menus from the team at "You Are What You Eat".

Combining exercise and healthy eating makes these perfect lifestyle games for the whole family.

Based on the success of the current fitness video games, and the inclusion of healthy eating menus that will take upcoming games to the next level, it's hard not to recommend a Wii fitness game to anyone who is seriously thinking of starting an exercise routine.

The relatively cheap price of most games, and the wide variety of exercises in each game, makes it a very cost effective option for most people when compared to the price of a gym membership. This is highlighted even more when comparing the cost of a game to the cost of gym memberships for a whole family.

The ability to work out whenever you want (and in the comfort of your own home), the ability to create and store personal workouts and eating plans for each member of the family, and the ability to select your own personal on-screen workout environments and music, makes Wii fitness games ideal for singles, married couples and families looking to get active.

Steve Braude runs the website Nintendo Wii Explained.com. Like the Nintendo Wii, this website is fun and vibrant with articles that explain all the features of the Wii console, its games and accessories in plain, simple English.