Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Fitness, Health and Nutrition

Chat with Dr. Mirkin’s AI research assistant about health issues that are discussed on the site

Should You Carry Weights while Walking or Jogging?

Should You Carry Weights while Walking or Jogging?

The only advantage to exercising while carrying weights is that you can get more exercise while moving slowly. To strengthen your heart, you have to exercise vigorously enough to increase your heart rate at least 20 beats a minute above resting. How fast your heart beats depends on how much blood it has to pump to your body.

Should You Carry Weights while Walking or Jogging?

Push-Ups: Train to Do the Most

If you want to be able to do 100 push-ups in a row, do not try to do as many push-ups as possible every day. You’ll probably injure yourself and end up unable to do any push-ups at all.

Should You Carry Weights while Walking or Jogging?

Sit-ups the Right Way

Sit-ups can strengthen your belly muscles, but doing them incorrectly can hurt your back. Sit-ups should be done while you lie on your back with your knees bent enough for the soles of your feet to touch the floor. Place both hands on your chest and slowly raise your head off the ground.

Sweet Potatoes vs White Potatoes

Weight Loss

All of the popular diet books, regardless of the “scientific” explanations they give, recommend menus that give you 1500-1800 calories or less per day, and for most people this means you will be taking in fewer calories. You can lose weight on any low-calorie diet, but ask yourself: Is this a way of eating I can follow for the rest of my life?

Should You Carry Weights while Walking or Jogging?

Support Stockings

Elastic compression stockings have no effect whatever on exercise, according to a study from France (European Journal of Applied Physiology, July 2006). They neither increase nor decrease endurance, strength, speed, recovery, or blood flow to the limbs.

Why Excess Weight Kills

Of the many factors causing more than 40 percent of Americans to die of heart attacks and 35 percent to become diabetic, the strongest are eating too much and exercising too little. Being Fat Makes You Even Fatter Having diabetes is one of the strongest risk factors...

The Despicable Dr. Julius Reiter

One of the greatest tributes a physician can receive is to have a medical condition named after him. For example, I had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Mike Leventhal and remember how all the residents in training with me treated him with the greatest reverence because he...

Antonio Vivaldi’s Asthma

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678. He became a famous opera and classical music composer because he had asthma. He was known as the “Red Priest” because of his red hair that he inherited from his father. His father was a barber and a professional...