You should have your blood pressure checked at least once every two years. It only takes a few minutes and can be done very easily.

High blood pressure can be very dangerous and if you don’t know your pressure is high, you won’t be doing anything about reducing it.

Here are some ways to lower your blood pressure:

• Stop smoking, if you smoke it is essential to your health to stop.
• Lose weight, if you lose weight this will almost automatically lower your blood pressure and will make you feel better in general.
• Limit your alcohol intake, this is important to help maintaining your blood pressure, you should only have a couple drinks a week.
• Avoid excessive amounts of sodium. This raises the blood pressure in most everyone and should be limited.
• Lower stress levels. Be sure to lower the stress in your life, this is key to maintaining low pressure.
• Exercise more. The more you exercise the greater it improves your heart and lungs and will lower your blood pressure.

The Geek-a-Cycle is too cool not to post. It lets you exercise while in front of your computer. And at $349 for desk and recumbent bike, surprisingly affordable.

Dave Klecha at Featherish talks about working out on a budget:

There’s a couple of common issues that most beginners in exercise face. One is the expense. As I mentioned before, my future sister-in-law recently dropped $1800 on a bike, which she only uses to train for and race in triathalons. Gym memberships can cost anywhere from $50 and up per month, and most of the equipment you can buy for use at home is also a significant expense. And, for instance, if you find your body can’t handle weight training, or your schedule doesn’t allow for an hour of road biking per day, you might dump a lot of money into something that will only get used a couple times then, if you’re lucky, sold on E-bay for half what you paid for it.

Geek fitness has a guide to finding the right gym for a geek:

First of all you need to to choose a gym that you are going to feel comfortable going to. Most fitness health oriented gyms are going to fit this bill. There are also gyms that cater to body builders, I would stay away from these.

This grandmother, at 54, is a champion water-skier and in great shape:

She saw water skiing as a way to stay physically fit. And she loves the feeling of slicing through the water on the edge of her ski.

In trick skiing, some of the tricks are done while holding the tow handle with the hands; other tricks are done with one foot attached to the tow rope by a collar, or “bear trap.” Someone in the boat operates a safety pin that is released when the skier falls. It takes a lot of trust; if the pin isn’t released quickly, the skier could be dragged through the water by her foot.

By the way, she’s recovering from cancer. It makes those of us sitting on our duffs look severely unmotivated and missing out on life.

[via Get Fit Source]

Rumor has it that Nintendo is working on a fun diet game for its Wii mobile platform. Nintendo still has it together as far as making fun games for its platform, sometimes even ones that are educational as well.

Am I the only one that hates the Wii brand name?

If you’re getting ready to purchase a treadmill, Thor Bodybuilding has a guide to purchasing treadmills:

A treadmill is a very good investment. People cannot always
exercise outdoors daily due to varying weather conditions.
Treadmills are a great option to work out when the weather is
bad outside. Some people do not like to workout outdoors and
hence opt for a treadmill. There are lots of treadmills
available in the market and it is very difficult to choose the
best one. You need to keep the following points in mind while
buying a treadmill:

Diet Blog talks about how much more often she’s seeing motorized scooters being used and wonders if they’re being adopted by more than just the disabled. Just in the small mid-west town I live in I’ve seen a number of kids buying electric bikes, forgoing the health and benefits of a regular bike. Seems a shame…

iHealthBlog has a number of tips for how to set up a home gym. A home gym is a great idea, as it puts excuses about not having the time to rest, or time to run out somewhere to a gym to work out.

The Incredible Shrinking Ladies take a look at the numbers and tools when taking look at weightloss and calories:

Let’s face it, to loose weight we have to know how many calories our bodies need and then eat less. To loose 1 lb. a week, eat 500 calories less a day that you use.

Studies have shown time and time again that the majority of people UNDER estimate their calorie intake and OVER estimate the amount of actual movement\exercise they get each day. Our sense of portion size, determining calories and nutrition are often way off. It doesn’t matter what type of diet we choose, we still need to be aware of calories, as