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If you’ve had surgery, you might be anxious to get back to daily activity — including exercise. However, the first 24 to 48 hours after you receive stitches are critical to your healing process. Your doctor will typically recommend that you rest and apply ice packs to the wound to reduce swelling. Exercise must wait an appropriate amount of time to allow the healing process to begin. When you can exercise will depend on the type of wound and how long it takes to heal....

Goal setting and choosing exercise that you enjoy may help you be more physically active when you have chronic pain. Image Credit: Hiraman/E+/GettyImages In This Article Should You Exercise? How to Work Out Safely When you're living with chronic pain, a workout may be the last thing you feel like doing. That's because exercising with pain can be tough — even more so if you experience discomfort on a regular basis....

Smoke affects your lungs; nicotine impacts your liver. Image Credit: Design Pics/Kelly Redinger/Design Pics/Getty Images Within 10 seconds of entering your body, nicotine affects your brain and causes a release of feel-good chemicals to create a buzz. As the buzz wears away, you want another and subsequently reach for a repeat hit. Your body easily builds up a resistance to nicotine, meaning you’ll need more and more to get the effects you crave....

Deep breathing can help you following surgery. Image Credit: AntonioGuillem/iStock/Getty Images Deep breathing and coughing exercises can decrease the risk of lung complications following surgery. Not only can they prevent pneumonia, deep breathing helps to get more oxygen to the body’s cells. These exercises can also be beneficial to individuals who are susceptible to pulmonary or respiratory problems. Coughing and deep breathing work to clear mucus and allow moist air to enter the airways....

Image Credit: Jacob Ammentorp Lund/iStock/GettyImages The fitness routine you choose depends on what you want to accomplish. You might want to lose body fat, while someone else wants better muscular development. Two popular approaches are either aerobic training that raises the heart rate and burns calories or gym workouts, mainly weight training, focused on muscle development. Advertisement Although both aerobics and gym workouts will improve appearance, whether the focus is on one or the other will depend on which goal is considered most important: Fat loss or better developed muscles?...

Maca is native to high elevations in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Image Credit: Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images Maca plants are native to the Andes Mountains in Peru. Maca is available in four varieties – cream, black, red or purple – with none being medicinally superior to the others, according to the University of Michigan Health System. The amount of maca powder you should consume daily depends on the reason you’re using it and in what form....

Physical activity goes a long way in helping you burn upper abdominal fat. Image Credit: Antonio_Diaz/iStock/Getty Images Your upper belly balloons when you have an abundance of visceral fat that weaves in and around your internal organs. The fat actually acts like an endocrine organ, causing inflammation and releasing compounds that contribute to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and other health concerns. Thankfully, this upper abdominal fat is quite responsive to classic weight-loss efforts including diet and exercise....

To figure out the number of calories in a homemade dish, use a nutrition label calculator to add up the calories in each of the individual ingredients. Image Credit: Elena Rui/iStock/GettyImages A homemade meal can be both comforting and delicious, but depending on the ingredients used, it may also be bloated with calories. Luckily, with some simple math and a food calorie calculator, it’s easy to determine the caloric content of your favorite recipes....

Round steak comes from the hindquarter of the steer, a part of the animal that gets a lot of use. Image Credit: Foxys_forest_manufacture/iStock/GettyImages Round steak comes from the hindquarter of the steer, a part of the animal that gets a lot of use. This makes round steak lean, with little marbling or fat to tenderize it during dry cooking — which can make it challenging to cook bottom or top round steak on the grill....

Flounder fillets are thin, making them easy to cook in just a few minutes. Image Credit: Dorling Kindersley/Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images Flounder is a saltwater fish with a very delicate flavor. Because the taste is not strong, flounder is not often seasoned very much, in order to avoid overpowering the fish. It is often paired with other seafood, such as crab and lobster meat, because the flavors of each complement one another....

Focus on lifting weights when trying to gain muscle mass. Image Credit: Hero Images/Hero Images/GettyImages When it comes to finding a workout to gain muscle and not lose weight, you don’t have to look far. A solid strength training program that focuses on hypertrophy will encourage you to lift moderate to heavy weights and eat plenty of calories. And if you follow the plan, you shouldn’t lose weight. Advertisement Strength Training to Gain Muscle Gaining muscle mass is no easy feat....

You may need to eat several meals a day to fit in enough calories. Image Credit: fcafotodigital/E+/GettyImages Plant-based diets are good for you, for animals and for the environment. But the strictest of them, veganism, can be challenging to follow, especially when you need to meet a higher calorie goal. While it’s true that animal-based foods typically contain more calories than plant foods, there are plenty of options for vegans looking to gain weight or build muscle....

Orange juice can make your stomach hurt due to its high levels of acid, which can irritate your stomach lining or trigger acid reflux. Image Credit: Goran13/iStock/GettyImages Orange juice is a great source of essential nutrients like potassium and vitamin C. But in certain cases, sipping orange juice can hurt your stomach. Advertisement Here are four possible reasons OJ makes your stomach hurt, plus what you can do about it. Video of the Day 1....

Push yourself too hard during workouts, and it could hamper your weight-loss efforts. Image Credit: Nadasaki/iStock/GettyImages Frustrated you’re not shedding pounds? Even with a workout program and diet plan, it’s still possible for various factors to hold you back from achieving your weight-loss goals. Advertisement Here are six things that are potentially keeping you from losing weight, plus ways to address them and give you a starting point for new progress....

Strengthening your core with exercises like bird dog can help ease back pain. Image Credit: Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com Much of our everyday back pain comes from what happens outside the gym. When you sit for too long at work or in the car, your abdominal muscles aren’t engaged as much as when you’re standing or on the move. Advertisement "If your core is weak, your back muscles take on more of the workload in keeping you upright and moving about your day," says Peter Donohoe, CSCS, two-time Olympian and Hydrow coach....

Aloe vera juice has many healthy benefits. Image Credit: yotrak/iStock/GettyImages Aloe vera, known for its topical healing qualities, has also been lauded as a health aid. But a number of these claims have not been medically proven. Because aloe’s active ingredients degrade quickly once processed, properly storing aloe vera juice is essential to retaining any benefits. Advertisement What Is Aloe Vera Juice? Aloe vera juice is made from the gel contained within the leaves of the aloe vera plant....

Steamed brocoli florets. Image Credit: Christina Norwood/iStock/Getty Images The idea behind the Anti-Estrogenic diet is that high levels of estrogen increase your risk for hormone-related conditions, such as fibroids, menopausal symptoms, premenstrual syndrome, endometriosis and cancer. Changing your diet to include fewer foods that increase estrogen levels in your body and more foods that decrease estrogen is meant to minimize symptoms of estrogen imbalance, including chronic fatigue, inability to tolerate stress and reduced libido....

Swimming is a great way to burn calories. Image Credit: microgen/iStock/GettyImages Swimming is a low-impact way to exercise, making it ideal for those with challenges for weight-bearing forms of movement. The calories burned in swimming pools are similar to the caloric burn from running. However, how many calories you’ll burn depends on the stroke you swim, the amount of exertion and even how much you weigh. Advertisement ​Read more:​ 162 Swimming Statistics You Should Know Video of the Day Why Meters Matter Pools in the U....

Most studies conducted on apple cider vinegar and its lipid-lowering properties are small and require further investigation. Image Credit: Natalia Klenova / EyeEm/EyeEm/GettyImages Along with cholesterol, triglyceride levels are an indicator of cardiovascular health. While there seems to be a connection between apple cider vinegar and triglycerides, more research is needed in this area. This home remedy appears to have beneficial effects on blood lipids and body weight. Advertisement Tip Most studies conducted on apple cider vinegar and its lipid-lowering properties are small and require further investigation....

"Fat burner" supplements may not be safe if you're trying to conceive. Image Credit: Piotr Marcinski/iStock/Getty Images If you’re trying to get pregnant, you’ll likely want to make sure you’re not doing anything that could negatively impact your fertility or harm your embryo if you conceive. “Fat burners” are a broad category of substances that occur in foods or that you take as supplements. Not only is there no evidence that they are effective as a diet strategy, they could impact your fertility....