Category: Health & Exercise

If you have just moved to live in Cairo and you have recently read about practicing gym exercises or following a diet in order to keep up you fit and slim or even to loose excess weight. And you are thinking seriously about choosing Gym. So here are all you need to know about choosing a ladies gym in Cairo.

The parking lot

It can’t be denied that Cairo is one of the most traffic crowded cities. In fact, most women are not skilled in street parking, so the best gym should have a parking lot to save time.

Members and staff

It is very important to feel that you’re welcomed by the staff, moreover; to provide you by the needed support.

Getting acknowledged to members and creating friendships with them is very important to be aware of exercises system on one hand, and also to see flaws and advantages of the gym on the other hand.

Hygiene

Gym lounges should be clean 100%, you should take a look at the changing rooms and shower rooms as well, is it quite clean? Are tubs filled with hair and dirt? If you found the gym lounge is not quite clean you shouldn’t join it then.

Dedicated spaces for children

Are there dedicated spaces in the gym hall to take care of your children? As you may accompany your children during the training time, thus; if the hall was well equipped with the presence of dedicated spaces for your children, it will make you feel more comfort.

Working hours

You must be aware by the gym working hours and getting sure if it will suit you or not.

Training equipment

All appliances and equipment must be modern and are subjected to maintenance constantly.

Aerobics courses

Some gyms offer aerobics courses as a part of the membership cost, while some other gyms don’t include the aerobics courses among the subscription cost. It must be taken into consideration that yoga and breathing exercises are very important. As you are in need to be aware of gym working system in order to be able to choose the best gym for women.

Payment plan

Getting acknowledged by payment methods, generally the full year subscription is cheaper than a monthly subscription, therefore; you should have monthly subscription for the first time.

If you found everything is fine, it is better then to acquire the advantage of the annual subscription.

Also you should inquire about the cancellation or postponement of training schedules due to travel or illness, as there are some gyms give you the right for a partial refund of your money, while other gyms extend your membership until the end of the holiday.

Regardless to mention that, there are several gyms in Egypt which are divided into three levels (popular – mid-level – elegant), regarding to popular gym, they are found with plenty in slums, using outdated devices and no experienced fitness trainers, furthermore; it offers its services to men only , with very cheap prices.

While mid-level gym are found in popular areas also, and public places. It provides good services at a reasonable price, it owns modern gym devices besides experienced fitness coaches, however; it is overcrowded and lacks to hygiene, likewise; occasionally it doesn’t provide its services for ladies or women and limits its services to men only.

On the other hand; elegant gym is found with plenty in classy areas and neighborhoods in Egypt, it provides whole gym services in a scientific and integrated manner, meanwhile; it is distinct by an outstanding management, correspondingly; it separates ladies gym from men gym, which gives them the opportunity to take the magnificent advantage of the gym from one side, and on the other side it prevents chaos and crowed in appointments.

The question that is aroused now is: how can I find a good level gym with reasonable price that suits my personal budget?
The matter is actually simple, despite the presence of many gyms in Egypt; the choice of a good gym is not as much difficult. These are some tips that will lead you to a gym of good affordable prices.

1- Determining the goal of practicing gym
Each woman must determine the goal of practicing gym, as goal varies from a woman to another. For example; there are those who exercise for overweight and excess fat loss, while there are those who want to maintain and fix their weight to keep slim. On the other hand there are those who exercise gym to strengthen the backbone muscles in order to prevent osteoporosis and backbone pain, as each one of those pays different subscription fees according to the training program assigned for her.

2- Finding the nearest gym near to your home or your work:
It is very simple, you just have to search on google maps for gyms and the nearest gyms to your home or work will appear at once. The second step is to access these gyms website for checking price rates and noting them down, it is preferable that the gym be very close to you, as this will save time and suffer in transportations, specially that it is well known that egypt suffers badly from terrible traffic problems.

3- Setting a monthly budget
After determining the goal from joining the gym and acquiring a list of websites for the nearest gyms to your home or work in addition to finding out their prices by visiting these sites, the next step begins by allocating a portion of your salary or your personal pocket money to the gym.

4- Fitness trainers
The most important thing in the gym is the fitness trainer because he is responsible for developing training and exercising programs moreover; determining weight loss and stabilization programs, in addition to strengthening the body and backbone muscles to prevent osteoporosis, as he is the first person who meets you inside the hall for setting a training program that fits your goals and age as well, furthermore; determining services that you will acquire from the gym therefore; determining the price.

5- Hygiene
One of the most important things is the cleanliness of the gym, because the gym is a fertile environment for the growth of bacteria and germs which are found as a result of sweat during exercise, the superior was the level of hygiene in the gym, the better it was. And hygiene will be accomplished through a constant cleaning of floors, dressing rooms and rinse pools, all of them must be always clean and does not have any dirt or stuck hair. By taking into consideration that shower rooms also should be clean and have specific cupboards for personal belongings.

6- Visiting targeted gyms
It is well known that gyms in Egypt give a free experimenting period consists of a session or two in order to exercise inside the hall and judge before subscription, so in order to judge properly, you should keep going at intervals to take general idea about the gym, experimenting devices and know about the work system inside the gym besides talking with fitness trainers and watching the cleanliness of the lounge as well.

If you already have the will to lose weight, it is helpful to consider these 30 tips:

1.  Drinking water whenever you feel hungry between the main courses, that should prevent indulging in eating high calorie foods that would be unnecessarily added to your body.
2. Walking daily for not less than half an hour, since it helps losing weight, and boosts your personal morale to keep up the dietary program.
3. Do not skip breakfast as it makes you less hungry in the following meals
4. Start by eating a green salad in the beginning of the lunch and dinner meals as they fill the stomach and makes you feel full more quickly and also reduces the amount of foods you eat later.
5. Exchanging full cream milk and dairy products with their equivalent with low fats and calories.
6. Stop eating once you feel full as it’s not important to finish your whole portion preferably if you eat in small plates because that would determine the amount of food you eat since there were studies around this same case where it was proven that using small dishes leads to consuming less amounts of food.
7. Replacing the white bread that is quickly absorbed by the brown bread that is absorbed much slower because the later stays roaming in the digestive tube for a relatively longer time than its white peer which prolongs the time till you next feel hungry. In addition to that brown bread contains nutritional elements that the white one doesn’t have and which were proven to be crucially important in preventing heart and vascular diseases.
8. Don’t use sugar, in coffee, tea, chocolate, and don’t use artificial sweeteners. It is true that table sugar is important for the body condition of consumption within the framework of reasonable and acceptable, over-eating leads to oxidation of other substances such as proteins that produce wastes destructive to cells, and lipids that lead to limit the ability of the body to get rid of the bad cholesterol, and collagen, which deprives the skin of its flexibility and its usual tenderness.
9. Beware of soft drinks, which contain a high amount of sugar food, one of them is the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar, which gives calories surplus, in addition to that these drinks are rich in gas emissions that hamper the process of digestion, and organic acids that damage tooth enamel.
10. Adoption of whole foods as much as possible, stay away from refined foods, which lacks many of the nutrients as a result of transactions emergency and non-emergency spill.
11. The abandonment of fried foods for the benefit of boiled or grilled foods, because the former are full of fat, making it full of high energy contributing in excess inventory fat in the body. In addition to this, fried foods are usually unhealthy foods, due to the problems they cause in the digestive tube, weight and arteries.
12. Use spices to perfume the food on behalf of the sauces (mayonnaise, ketchup, etc.), which are oozing with fats and additions. The spices gives low energy, except that it has a serious medical and health benefits because they contain a natural ingredient beneficial microbe to destruct fungi and toxins, and is useful in the treatment of many diseases.
13. Stay away from the ready-made and canned foods; because they contain compounds not in the interest of the person who wants to lose weight, such foods are often oozing with triptych health devastating: sugar, fat and salt.
14. Do not eat in front of the TV as this behavior usually drives you unconsciously eat more.
15. Chew very carefully before swallowing irrational eating and drinking leads to munching more foods because the brain centers requires some time to be informed by messages from the digestive system to say that it’s full in addition to that eating too fast usually leads to mal-digestion and what tags along like burping alongside bloating and stomach acids ending with an abdominal pain.
16. Beware of the carbs as some of them may contain some fatty substances (butter, cream, oil) which doesn’t help the weight loss program.
17. Eat chicken without skin as it contains a lot of fats.
18. Do not exaggerate when it comes to adding salt because the overuse of salt contributes to the retention of fluids inside the body which leads to gaining more weight.
19. When you feel hungry between meals you can chew some celery or drink some green tea as they help in burning calories.
20. Order healthy foods when you are eating in restaurants preferably if you ask about the courses on the menu to make sure you pick the most suitable and the exclusion of what is damaging to the weight loss process.
21. Do not fill the kitchen cabinets with food specially nuts, sweets, biscuits, and chocolates… etc. So as to cut off the temptations and the possibility of eating them between meals
22. Doing house chores that would take your mind off eating and consequently motivates you to lose weight.
23. Replacing meat with fish as it contains a much less amount of calories.
24. It’s recommended to have a piece of fruit, rather than juice, because it is the richest in vitamins and the poorest in calories.
25. Go food shopping smartly without exaggerating specially if you write down a list so as to avoid buying any food items excess than your needs.
26. Go shopping with a full stomach this limits the surrender to the temptation and giving in to un-necessary crackers.
27. Don’t rush to lose weight, because this method will accelerate the recovery of the lost kilos faster than lightning.
28. Use the stairs instead of the elevator whenever you get the chance to do so, it is useful in burning a number of calories.
29. Not to use the car in short distances, but preferably in this case, cut these distances on foot or seek the help of your bike.
30. Get rid of the remote control while turning on the TV or changing channels it would do you more good if you exert a little bit more effort and as the saying goes “movement is a blessing”.

3 Important Notes

First: some resort to laxative tea, which is sold widely in stores and the funny thing is that those who drink it keep eating and drinking non-stop without keeping count, and their argument for this is that this tea pushes the food out of the body without making use of it yet the truth about it is that using this kind of tea on the long run will inflict a real disaster to those who drink it, because it affects the balance of salts and fluids in the body and besides the grave damage it’s causing the internal membrane lining of the intestines.

Second: there are those who use the mixture of herbs to reduce their weight without any medical advice, but for them to bear in mind that blending several herbs with each other may leave toxic effects cause the most damage to the body, especially the liver and kidneys.

Third: others are lured by the propaganda advocating topical slimming creams, and it says that it burns fat, but what fats that any of these creams burn? This is false propaganda, and all what it does is emptying the pockets of its buyers out of the money!