News, Laughs, Bootcamp

by | Aug 31, 2009 | Articles & Newsletters, STL Personal Training | 0 comments

First off.  Starting next Monday The Lab will be offering PM Bootcamp classes on M,W,F at 6pm at The Lab Gym.  If you sign up by Friday you will get in for HALF PRICE!  Also, if you are a current member, remember you will also get half off of your membership if you refer a friend!  See more details below or go here to sign up.

Next to working out my next favorite thing to do is laugh.  Nothing beats a great workout or a big tear jerking laugh.  So what is my point?

Now, we all sort-of know that laughter is good for us, but never really know why exactly.  Well, a good laugh creates many positive chain reactions and activities to happen in our bodies, it’s quite amazing.

In fact, a hearty belly laugh is much like a workout.  So can you laugh yourself skinny?  No, but getting the giggles does burn some calories, and the more you laugh, the more you burn.  This is much like the NEAT calories.  That is, Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, you know from taping your leg or constantly fidgeting, which the Mayo clinic has found you can burn an extra 100-150 extra calories per hour!

Researchers at Vanderbilt University recruited 45 pairs of friends (we’re more likely to laugh with others in the room than when we’re alone…except for my brother Chris, he’s a little crazy.  He laughs by himself all the time!  So does his baby son Mason…wierdos.) to watch comedy video clips, including episodes of “Saturday Night Live” and the movies “There’s Something About Mary,”and “Austin Powers”.   The volunteers view the scenes in a room equipped with a device that measures the number of calories burned and each person was hooked up to a heart rate monitor.  At the end of the session, researchers determined that laughing increased heart rate by 10 to 20 percent and burned about 1.3 calories per minute.  Now, that’s only similar to the so-called workout you’d get typing, filing, or playing cards.  Jogging, on the other hand, burns about 10 calories per minute.

mybrotha

If you get a good chuckle in for 15 minutes each and every day for a year, you could drop up to four pounds-imagine that.

Not only is laughing beneficial for your waistline, but laughing also brings great benefits for the whole body.

So, next time you find yourself in a negative mood or need a ‘pick-me-up’ opt for a good joke!  And give yourself a reminder to laugh more…or at least smile.

kirk
I coudln’t find a relevant place to put it…so this will do.

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