Walking Exercise for Prostate Health by Flickr mockstar
If you found out that you had prostate cancer, would you regret not having exercised if the diagnosis could have been prevented? The truth is you can protect your prostate from enlargement or cancer simply by exercising three times a week.
Vigorous exercising is preferable, but non-vigorous exercise help increase survival. The Harvard School of Public Health researched men over 18 years and found those that exercised on a regular basis, including running, bicycling, walking, swimming, other sports — or even outdoor work — reduced their risk of death, not just from prostate cancer, but from many other diseases.
If you can sport a vigorous training session at least 3 hours in a week, then you lower your risk of prostate cancer by 61%. Consider this rude awakening, that just a single hour workout session a week doesn’t cut it. It would be better to walk 90 minutes at a brisk pace over the course of a week and lower your risk of prostate cancer by 46%. Don’t fool yourself into believing that one workout a week makes you healthier.
You won’t want to wait until you hear that dreadful prostate cancer diagnosis before your consider adding physical activity into your weekly routine. Walking 90 minutes in a week is good enough, but 3 hours of vigorous training give you 50% of life back to live – especially when it counts.
By simply taking an hour walk after dinner every night will decrease your chances of developing these issues.
In a recent Johns Hopkins study, researchers determined that men who gained 5 or more pounds prior to—and up to one year after–prostate surgery were nearly twice as likely to battle cancer again, compared to with those who maintained their weight.
“Obesity and weight gain are associated with inflammation, which might influence prostate prostate-cancer recurrence,” explains says study author Corinne Joshu, Ph.D.
“Exercise is the single thing that comes closest to a magic bullet in terms of its strong and universal benefits,” says Harvard associate professor Frank Hu.
So, head to the gym (and try to lose some weight) for these top 3 exercises for better prostate health.
Aerobic exercise
Whether you want to maintain a healthy prostate, prevent prostate cancer, prostatitis, or BPH, or improve quality of life after prostate surgery or other treatments for prostate cancer, examples of aerobic exercise include walking, jogging/running, bicycling, tennis, jumping rope and rowing.
According to a study published in the “Journal of Urology” in 2007 and cited in Harvard Prostate Knowledge, men who did aerobic exercise had an improvement in prostatitis symptoms when conventional treatments failed.
Resistance exercise
The basic idea behind resistance exercise is that your muscles work in opposition to a force that pulls or pushes them. Examples of resistance exercises are push-ups, weight lifting, and swimming. Resistance exercises improve strength and muscle tone and also have an anti-inflammatory effect.
The healthy prostate study posted in the “Journal of Urology” found that men who participated in both aerobic and strengthening exercises together had a greater improvement in prostatitis symptoms than those who did just one type of exercise.
Kegel exercises
No, Kegel exercises are not just for women. Kegel exercises can help men better control urine flow, achieve better sexual arousal, enjoy better orgasms and ejaculation control. (See Kegel exercise instructions HERE.)
Lastly, researchers at Nottingham University concluded that men who kept up a regular sex life in their 50s were also at lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
This backs up the findings of a major study five years ago by the National Cancer Institute, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that increased sexual activity is protective for older men. The reduced risk is due to the release of toxins from the prostate gland.
So, now you have two options for an after-dinner activity.
Amino Acids: Amino Acids are an integral part of bone density and important part of the bone matrix. The best source of amino acids is quality protein like organic or free range chicken and eggs, pasture raised beef and whey protein powder.
Declining fitness was once expected at about age 35 – now we know it doesn’t have to.
Women are particularly prone to osteoporosis or the thinning of bones. This problem can begin as early as age 25, and speeds up as menopause is approached. It is during the first few years after menopause that the rate at which bone density is lost is tremendously accelerated.
Substantially reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and osteoporosis
Rearrange Your Schedule
You get one morning and discover your arms and legs are full of unexplained itchy welts and rashes. This is unfortunate news. You have just been attacked by the enemy at your most unaware moment. The welts are proof that a bed bug has crawled all over you for a snack. If you wake up welts all over your torso, it could signify that you are now sharing living quarters with a bed bug (or an army of bed bugs), who lurk in the dark crannies of your room and stand by until you are deep in slumber to crawl out and dine on your blood.
You already know this move as a terrific leg and butt toner, but did you know that it can also get the blood flowing to the places that may energize your libido? “Sometimes your heart might be there, but you don’t feel anything in the ‘southern hemisphere,’” explains Debbie Mandel, MA, a stress and fitness expert and the author of Addicted to Stress: A Woman’s 7-Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life. “Many women need a little physical help with arousal to get blood flowing to the genitalia.” She suggests squats. With your feet spread shoulder-width apart, “make sure your heels stay on the floor as you ‘sit’ on an imaginary chair,” she explains. “The lower you squat, the more you recruit your glutes and reap the benefits. Push off from your heels and hold your abdominals in tightly [as you return to standing position].” Do them slowly, aiming for 15 to 30 reps.
Limberness goes hand in hand with great sex—after all, who wants to deal with aching legs or a stiff lower back while in the heat of the moment? That’s why Marta Montenegro, MF, MS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, a fitness expert and the creator of the fitness DVD series Montenegro Method, suggests certain stretches to prepare you for intercourse agility between the sheets. “One of the most common reasons for lower back pain is tight hamstrings and hip flexors,” she says. “Also, after spending eight hours asleep, there is a natural inflammation of the spinal discs due to the increase of the homeostatic pressure.”
Pelvic Tilts
Biceps Curls
When it comes to fitness, Kegels count too! These pelvic-floor-strengthening exercises that your ob-gyn is always encouraging you to do can have big payoffs when it comes to sexual enjoyment, says Tone It Up cofounder Karena Dawn, a certified personal trainer in Los Angeles. “Kegels consist of contracting and relaxing the muscles in your pelvic floor,” she explains. “Improving the strength of these vaginal muscles is beneficial for greater sexual satisfaction and stronger orgasms, as well as preventing urinary or bowel incontinence and pelvic prolapse in women.” To do a proper Kegel, tighten your pelvic muscles (the ones that control the start and stop of urine). Hold for about 5 seconds, relax and then repeat. Dawn recommends doing Kegels for at least 5 minutes every day. (Psst! You can do them anywhere—even right now—and no one will know but you!)
The core is compromised of more than 20 muscles, and working them “will give you the strength to support your man’s weight without hyperextending your back,” says Montenegro. “A great exercise that works both the core and the muscles of the upper body is the roll-in, roll-out on a stability ball.” Start with your hands fully extended on the floor in a push-up-like position. Place your shins on a stability ball, keeping your back straight. Roll the ball in toward your chest and back out, using the abdominals to drag your knees toward your chest and to push your feet back out. Keep your back flat and hips tight, and don’t move your upper body. Do three sets of 10 reps.
Is there one move that can make you more sexually confident, daring and strong? Yes: the plank, a core-building exercise popular in yoga, says Madeleine Castellanos, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in sexual medicine and sex therapy in New York City. “This exercise works upper arms, abdominals, obliques, thighs and buttocks,” she says. “These are important muscles that help stabilize you when you are engaged in intercourse on all fours, any sex position where the woman is on top, or in transition from one position to another while maintaining close genital contact with your partner.” Lay facedown with the palms of your hands flat on the floor on each side of your shoulders. In this position, your forearms should also be flat on the floor and will act as your support when you raise your body. Push your weight to the balls of your feet as you push up onto your forearms and palms so that your entire body is suspended in the air. Be careful to keep your body as straight and flat as possible, and avoid lifting your hips in the air. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then relax for a few seconds before repeating; do three sets of 10 reps.
Another yoga pose that can improve your sexual enjoyment is the bridge pose. “This exercise helps strengthen the lower back, gluteus muscles and hamstrings,” says Dr. Castellanos. “It helps enhance a woman’s sexual experience because it increases her strength and endurance in these muscles, which are used to create resistance during a man’s thrusting, thereby increasing the intensity of the thrust.” Start out lying flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Lay your arms to the side of your body, lift your hips up in the air and squeeze your gluteus muscles. Continue to press upward until just your upper back/shoulders, arms and feet are touching the floor. Hold this position for 10 seconds, breathing normally, then slowly lower back down to the floor and relax for a few seconds before repeating again. Aim for three sets of 10 reps each.
Do your thighs quiver during orgasm and after sex—but not in a good way? “The large muscles of the thighs are often used during sex and can get fatigued quickly since they are such a large muscle group,” says Dr. Castellanos. The solution: seated leg extensions. “Find a stable chair in which you can sit up straight and have your knees bent at a 90-degree angle with your feet flat on the floor,” she says. “While keeping your thigh and knee as steady as possible, lift one foot up to straighten your leg slowly, then bring it back down to the floor. Do three sets of 10 reps for each leg.
Revealing Age Defying Secrets To Staying Young And Sexy
Many of us stuffer with stress, some of us more than others. However, few of us are really aware that stress impacts our health. Fear not. There are simple steps you can take to help better manage it.
Exercise is touted as an integral part of fitness, health and maintaining a trim physique, but what if it also could benefit the brain? Recent research suggests that physical activity could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
David Kekich (Living Healthy to 120: Anti-Aging Breakthroughs) is President/CEO of Maximum Life Foundation that focuses on aging research, a 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to curing aging-related diseases. For more information, visit: www.MaxLife.org. David contributes to our column Living Healthy to 120: Anti-Aging Breakthroughs. MaxLife is helping to make the anti-aging dream a reality with cutting edge Bio-Engineering research and products.
