Stretching  If you rise in the morning feeling cramped and achy try a few gentle stretches to loosen up. Simple stretches such as raising your arms straight above your head then bending to touch your toes, should suffice. Gentle is the operative word here, use slow fluid movements, avoid jerky bone jarring motions and keep to comfortable limits.

Pelvic Floor Exercises for Women  Strengthening the pelvic floor can help to control an incontinence or leaking problem that besets many women as they start to age. 

This exercise also has the attraction of adding a little zest to your sex life; in ancient cultures women practiced this exercise to give extra pleasure during lovemaking.

 It’s never too late to start, and if you start early and make it a habit you stand a good chance of avoiding the problem all together. It’s a good exercise because you can do it at the bus stop, sitting in a car, or virtually anywhere if you have a few minutes to spare.

It’s important to remember not to tighten your thighs or buttocks and to keep your stomach relaxed. A good way to monitor this is to put a hand lightly on your abdomen. Your tummy should remain still while you do this exercise The exercise involves the muscle that is used to control the flow of urine. Squeeze and hold this muscle for the count of three seconds. Relax for five seconds, then repeat the exercise.

 Do this as many times a day as you can manage, gradually working up, over a period of time, until you can hold for a count of ten seconds. When you do this exercise, you should get a feeling of drawing up.

It may be difficult at first, and if you’re unsure what’s happening insert a finger gently into your vagina, as you hold the contraction you will be able to feel the muscle clamp your finger.

Deep Breathing  Women especially suffer from shallow breathing habits. Healthy breathing cleanses the body of all the toxins in the blood system. Get into the habit of doing a few deep breathing exercises every day.

If you can do these exercises in the fresh air, so much the better. Stand with your feet slightly apart and arms at your side, breath in deeply through the nose and clasp your hands loosely behind your back. Hold the breath for a few seconds, then breathe out slowly, bringing your arms back to your sides.

Take longer to breathe out than you did to breathe in, as the idea is to exhale the stale breath that carries the toxins from your body. Start with four or five and increase it over time, you will soon notice that you can do ten or more comfortably.

At no time should you make yourself dizzy, this is hyperventilating with too much oxygen going to the brain.

Digestion  For thousands of people indigestion is a fact of life and while antacids offer immediate relief they aren’t a healthy alternative in the long run.

A short stroll after a meal, especially in the evenings does wonders for the digestive system. Fifteen minutes at a nice leisurely pace should suffice. If you don’t feel inclined to leave home, spend a few minutes in the garden or even the lounge room walking up and down.

Circulation  Here is a good exercise to get the circulation going on a cold morning, or any morning that you think a cup of coffee is needed to get you going!

Marching on the spot. Keep your back straight and lift your knees as high as possible. Do this fairly briskly counting on the down stroke of the right leg. Fifty is a good target to aim for but be warned this is an exhausting exercise.

 You will need to start slowly and build up both numbers and speed. After completing the exercise you should feel the blood tingling in your legs and feet. Remember as with all exercises to stay within your comfort zone. What seems OK today may have repercussions tomorrow.

 Exercise to stimulate hair growth.  Thinning hair or hair loss is of major concern to thousands of people. Reasons why are many and varied but one of the reasons for hair loss is poor blood circulation to the scalp. This starves the hair roots of oxygen and nutrients.

Here is an exercise that will promote blood flow to the scalp.  Lay on the floor and support your trunk on your elbows, lift your legs straight in the air above your head. If you are not fit enough or strong enough to take your weight on your arms, support your legs against a wall. Do this for at least two minutes both morning and at night.

 If you can’t manage either of those, try laying across your bed with your head and shoulders hanging over the edge. Again don’t overdo this one, more frequently is better than longer.

Invest in a quality natural bristle brush and after the morning exercise brush your scalp. Lean over as far as possible from the waist and brush with firm even strokes. This will massage your scalp, and the tingling feeling in your head will tell you that it is working.

 Unfortunately this is not an overnight remedy, growing hair is a slow process, but if you are patient you should see an improvement in the health of your hair after a few months.

Don’t forget oily fish such as mackerel, tuna, sardines and salmon, all are good for the hair. A recipe to stimulate hair growth is included in the chapter on Aromatherapy.

Eye exercises  As we age our eyesight gradually deteriorates, indeed some people start to need spectacles for reading in their early thirties. Whether computers and television play a big part in failing eyesight is debatable, however if we exercise our eyes on a regular basis it’s possible to retard the onset of diminishing eye sight by several years.

It may also be possible to greatly improve eye sight that is poor due only to age. Two simple exercises that can be beneficial in maintaining good eye health are palming and focusing.

Palming helps to keep the cornea from hardening, and can be very helpful for soothing tired eyes. Focusing, this exercises the muscles that are responsible for just that.

 Palming  Sit at a table where you can rest on your elbows comfortably. Rub your hands together to make them warm, then cover your closed eyes with your palms. Cup your palms to avoid pressing too hard on your eyes, and make sure you blot out any light.

Keep your eyes covered for several minutes rubbing your hands together frequently to generate the heat. Do this several times a day, especially if you are doing close work or working with computers.

Focusing  You’ve seen those movies where someone is about to jump from a tall building and the firemen stand underneath holding out a catcher. Well the catcher is an analogy of your eye lens.

At rest, your lens has a convex shape that allows you to focus at a distance. This is the fireman waiting and there is a sag in the catcher.

Now if the person jumps they all pull out so the catcher becomes flat and tight. The firemen are like the muscles around the lens. If you want to focus on a close object the muscles pull the lens flat

The problem is that as we get older and/or we do a lot of close work the lens becomes stiff, and the muscles get weaker, so focusing is harder. 

The simple solution is to wear glasses that will do the focusing for you, like getting in the car instead of walking. but if we send our eyes to the gym this needn’t happen.

 For this exercise you will need to focus on three objects. If you wear glasses, take them off for this exercise and the objects need not be in clear focus. 

One object should be in the distance such as a building or tree. Another object in the middle distance; about half way between you and the first object. Then the third is a pencil or your finger held up about a hand span from your nose. 

Lining up all three objects, focus on the distant object, then the middle and then the closest. Now go back the other way, only spending a few seconds on each object.  Now move at random between the objects. Rest your eyes every few minutes by palming.

 If you do a lot of close work then try to look up and refocus on more distant objects as often as possible. If you can do these two exercises for fifteen minutes, twice a day you may never need to wear glasses or you might be able to give up those you do wear. There are some excellent books on the market if you would like more information on this subject.

Mental exercises  Exercising the mind means just that, stretching our mind to make it think. We are thinking all the time but mostly on a mundane level that doesn’t require much effort.

Some simple exercises on a regular basis will help to keep the brain active and alert. Stimulate your memory by trying to remember what you had for dinner a week ago, or in what order you visited the shops last time you went shopping.  As you get better at this make the questions harder.

Crosswords are a good form of exercise. If you do them on a regular basis, buy a completely different newspaper or magazine to make it more difficult.

Doing a quiz can be entertaining for family groups as well as a good way of learning, and don’t forget the two good old standbys, Scrabble and chess .

 If you read novels, browse in the non-fiction for a change and pick a subject you might like to learn about. Learn another language, write a book or take a home study course. All these things will help to give your brain a good work out, and remember fish and rolled oats are an excellent brain food.

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