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Showing posts with the label Exercise & Fitness

Can Running Backwards Really Better Burn Calories, Work Your Heart, and Build Muscle?

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  Running  has long been considered one of the most efficient, convenient, and beneficial workouts. But some claim you get more out of the classic way of exercising with a new technique — or rather a 180-degree about-face. Hashtag #runningbackwards has already amassed 1.2M views on TikTok, with #reverserunning (112.4K views), #backwardrunning (102.1K views) and #runbackwards (471K views) also on the rise. TikTokers, including Antonio “LionOfGod” Gillespie (@prolongevityfitness, 30.3K followers), a certified fitness trainer and founder of Prolongevity Fitness, are hyping up the benefits of reversing your run. “The longest I have run backwards is eight miles,” he proclaims at the start of a  video  with 258K views and 47K likes. He goes on to explain that reversing your run, “works your opposite muscle groups, which means your quads and your shins.” Other benefits, he says: “stronger and more enduranced base.” And he says it burns 2 to 3 times the calories as conventio...

Hot Yoga: Risks and Benefits

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  “Hot yoga” is a term that can be used to describe just about any style of yoga practice performed in a warm or humid room. When a class is called “hot yoga” you could be holding poses for a minute or moving quickly from pose to pose, but two things are nearly always constant: heat and sweat. “Hot yoga, in the simplest terms, is yoga performed in a heated room,” says  Samantha Scupp , the founder and a teacher at Heatwise, a New York City hot yoga studio, who is certified by Yoga Alliance, the world’s largest nonprofit yoga association that certifies teachers and schools. Hot yoga classes vary in length but typically last 60 to 120 minutes. Participants can sweat out up to three or four pounds of water in just one class, most of which will be replaced once the person is fully hydrated, according to a 2017 study . ( 1 ) Hot yoga classes often include postures and breathing techniques from other  traditional yoga , but the practice of intentionally heating the room hi...