Benefits of Freehand exercises

Freehand exercises have a tonic effect on the muscles and internal organs. They tone up the circulatory system and are beneficial in safeguarding the general health of the body. Advanced freehand exercises shape and muscularize the body.
Freehand exercises consist of push-ups, dips between chairs, dips on a bench, rowing between chairs, rope climbs (if there is a gymnasium accessible!), pull-ups, knee bends, one-leg squats or stationary lunges, sprinting, race-walking, lying leg curls, one-leg and two-leg calf raises, and perhaps the most challenging: handstand push-ups. Most of these exercises can be done in your home or hotel room when you are out of town. There is never an excuse not to exercise or "tone up!"
Benefits
Cutting Your Expenses
Gyms used to ask for extra charges for providing exercising equipments to the practitioners. So, when you are practicing free hand exercises, you are instantly cutting down the expenses.
Fitness and Confidence
As in these types of exercises, you need to pull or push your own body weight; therefore, the exercises are balance based and outdoorsy. So, you get an opportunity to get out of the sedentary lifestyle and workout in the open. Experts believe that running, swimming, push-ups, crunches etc are free hand exercises that improve wholesome fitness and confidence
Involving Family
As these exercises are easy to perform and have minimum to zero chances of side effects, therefore, you can practice these exercises with your family members. Workout techniques such as- running, hiking, push-ups etc are suited for people of every age group.
Health of Heart
Use of equipments while exercising, reduces the stress and isolates the focused muscle group for extensive pressure. It improves the tone of these muscles but reduces the heart beating rate and metabolism level.
Experts believe that free hand exercises can increase heart beat rate and improve inner health.

Benefits of running

Running is one of the easiest and healthiest fitness tips to quickly boost your fitness and helps you to shed excess flab almost as soon as you start a regime. Running doesn’t cost a single penny aside from perhaps buying some exercise clothing (don’t attempt a sprint in slim jeans), and it can be done anywhere, anytime. If you feel self-conscious, use Google Maps to find a location near where you live that’s not densely populated. You don’t have to be embarrassed to run in public and you should feel good about yourself for making an effort.

 Benefits of running

1. Healthy heart Running is one of the best ways to give your heart muscle an effective workout.
2. Weight loss The average runner burns 1,000 calories an hour during a training session.
3. Osteoporosis If you run on a regular basis you are continually taxing your muscles and bones.
4. Mental health A regular running habit will you lift your mood and build self-esteem. It also increases your self-confidence.
5. Sleep Studies show that runners find it easier to get to sleep at night and sleep longer.
6. Stress Running increases your ability to cope with everyday minor irritations and stresses.
7. Happiness Endorphins engendered by exercise mean that people who run are often happier than those who don't: ever felt that sense of elation during or after a run (known as the runner's high)? Running regularly can also improve patience, humour and ambition, and make you more good-tempered and easy-going.
8. Anxiety Runners generally have a lower level of anxiety than those who don't run. One study suggests that regular training reduces the activity of the serotonin receptors in the brain which regulate mood.
9. Immune system If you are a runner you will find that you have a stronger immune system, that means you'll suffer less from minor illnesses such as colds, allergies, fatigue, menstrual discomfort, backache, and digestive disorders.
10. Brain power You can increase your mental functions by going running as it boosts blood flow to the brain and helps it receive oxygen and nutrients, making you more productive at work.
11. Complexion Running stimulates your circulation, improving the transportation of nutrients around your system and flushing out waste products.
12. Fat burn By running you are building lean muscle, changing your body composition and your metabolism. Cultivate a regular running habit and you should see a gradual, healthy inch loss.

Push Ups for Overall Fitness

The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips, and legs... Push-ups are important for older people, too. The ability to do them more than once and with proper form is an important indicator of the capacity to withstand the rigors of aging.

How can something as old-school as a push up—hands on the ground, knees off the floor, and push—still be in use, and even be growing in acceptance? Because it works out your whole body, it's better on your back than crunches, and you can use your raw push up count as a graduated curve toward fitness, as with the Hundred Push Ups program. Some things about getting in shape never get tired.

Curb your sweet tooth

Got a late-night sugar craving that just won't quit? "To satisfy your sweet tooth without pushing yourself over the calorie edge, even in the late night hours, think 'fruit first,'" says Jackie Newgent, RD, author of The Big Green Cookbook. So resist that chocolate cake siren, and instead enjoy a sliced apple with a tablespoon of nut butter or fresh fig halves spread with ricotta. Then sleep sweet, knowing you're still on the right, healthy track.

Skip Expensive Running Shoes

You might just think of shoes as a fancy cover for your foot, but people run very differently in shoes than barefoot. What's more, running barefoot isn't just a natural kick—it's usually better than wearing expensive, engineered running shoes. There's more to it than just kicking off your shoes, of course. Leo Babuta of the Zen Habits blog has a wealth of advice on barefoot running, as do the experts interviewed by Science Daily. One halfway solution is a barely-there shoe like the Vibram FiveFingers, but our readers are definitely divided on it. In any case, consider that it's the foot, not the shoe, that does the running. (Original posts: barefoot 1, barefoot 2, FiveFingers).

Some Fitness tips

• Try to Keep your weight workouts under an hour. After 60 minutes, your body starts producing more of the stress hormone cortisol, which can have a testosterone-blocking, muscle-wasting effect.

• Don't work your abdominal muscles every day. Your abs are just like any other muscle in your body, try to train them only 2 or 3 days a week.

• Try to test your body measurement in every 4 weeks, measure a variable—waist size, body fat, bench press—that equates to your end goal.

• Try to increase the speed of your running strides—not their length—to get faster. Your foot should always land under your body, rather than out in front of it, and you should push off with the toes of your rear leg for propulsion.

• Between sets, take 20 to 30 seconds to stretch the muscle you just worked. Boston researchers found that men who did this increased their strength by 20 percent.

• Don't worry about specific rest periods between sets. Instead, rest as you need it—less in your early sets when your muscles are fresh, and more as they become fatigued. "You'll cut your workout time between 15 and 20 percent," says Staley.

• Try to spend twice as much time stretching your tight muscles as your flexible muscles. "Focus on problem areas instead of muscles that are already flexible," says Bill Bandy, Ph.D., a professor of physical therapy at the University of Central Arkansas. Typical problem areas for men: hamstrings, shoulders, and lower back.

• Drink low-fat milk. Scientists in Canada found that people who consumed more than 600 milligrams of calcium a day—roughly the amount in 2 cups of milk, a cup of broccoli, and a half cup of cottage cheese—had lower body fat than those who consumed less than 600 milligrams a day.

• Try to lift light weights fast to build strength. Your muscles will generate as much force as if you were lifting a heavier weight more slowly. Try it with the bench press: Use a weight that's 40 to 60 percent of what you can lift one time, and do eight sets of three repetitions, pushing the weight up as fast as possible. Rest 30 seconds between sets.

• Try to go faster for shorter distances to improve your running form. You'll not only perform better, but you'll also be less susceptible to injuries.

• Try skip the treadmill warmup before lifting weights. Instead, do a warmup that targets the muscles you'll be using. For a full-body warmup, grab a bar and do two sets of 10 repetitions each of the squat, deadlift, bench press, and bent-over row.

• Try to do squats and deadlifts . . . to build your abs. Research shows that these two exercises force your abdominal muscles to do a significant amount of work to maintain your posture.