Ahmedabad, India Forecast : Weather Underground

Ahmedabad, India Forecast : Weather Underground

Top 10 Cardio Exercises

Top 10 Cardio Exercises

You already know that one of the most important things you can do for your weight loss goals is regular cardio exercise. There are so many choices out there...which exercises are the most effective? Below are the best cardio activities for blasting calories and getting in great shape.

1. Running
Running is one of best activities you can do. It doesn't require special equipment (except some quality shoes) and you can do it anywhere. Best of all, you burn serious calories, especially if you add hills and sprints. A 145-lb person can burn 300 (at 5.2 mph) in 30 minutes.

2. Cross-Country Skiing
Whether you're on a gym machine or swooshing over miles of snow, cross-country skiing is an incredible cardio exercise. What makes it so great is that it involves your upper and lower body, which means it doesn't take much to get your heart rate soaring. A 145-lb person burns about 330 calories during 30 minutes of skiing. The downside is: it's HARD. Take your time and ease into it.

3. Bicycling
Outdoors or indoors, cycling gives some great cardio. Using all the power in your legs, you'll increase endurance while burning lots of calories, anywhere from 250-500 in 30 minutes, depending on how fast you go and how high your resistance is.

4. Elliptical Trainer
The elliptical trainer is a great way to build endurance while protecting your aching joints from high impact activities. Plus, if you use one with arms, it's just like using a cross-country ski machine. The elliptical trainer is also a good choice for runners looking for a break from pounding the pavement.

5. Swimming
Swimming, like cross-country skiing, is a full body exercise. The more body parts you involve in your workout, the more calories you'll burn. Spend 30 minutes doing the breastroke and you'll burn almost 400 calories. Best of all, your joints are fully supported so you don't have to worry about high-impact injuries. It's also great cross-training for other cardio activities.

6. Step Aerobics
Step aerobics has yet to lose its luster for many gym-goers and it's a good thing. Step is one tough workout that targets your legs, butt and hips while burning almost 400 calories in 30 minutes (during high intensity sessions). Though it might look complicated, step is easy to learn if you start with a beginner class or video.

7. Rowing
This is an often overlooked machine in the gym because most people are confused about how it works. Vigorous rowing can really get your heart rate up while working your arms like crazy. Plus, it's probably not something you do very often which means you'll burn even more calories. In 30 minutes, a 145-lb person can burn about 300 calories.

8. Rock Climbing
Rock climbing burns a whopping 380 calories in 30 minutes, but this isn't an activity for the faint of heart. Though you use strength and power with your arms and legs, rock climbing has a high learning curve and requires lots of special equipment and techniques so you don't hurt yourself.

9. Walking
If you put a little oomph into it, walking is a great exercise, burning about 180 calories in 30 minutes. Adding hills, sprints or even a few minutes of jogging can increase the amount of calories you burn.

10. Handball
Okay, I'm not just putting this in here because my husband plays handball (and very well, I might add). Similar to racquetball (but without the racquet), the side-to-side sprints will get your heart rate up as well as strengthen your legs. The learning curve is high, so plan on practicing a lot before you can even hit that little ball. A 145-lb person burns over 400 calories in 30 minutes.

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The world's Top 10 most popular team sports

1. Association Football: Soccer, the world’s most popular game, has the largest fan following on the planet. Its origin is Chinese, where it was discovered by the English and is now the de facto sport in 93 countries - home to two billion people. It has 208 member nations and thus is easily the world’s richest sport. It also has the largest contingent of diehard fans, players and professional leagues in the world’s largest economy, Europe. The English Premier League and the Champions League are the most popular football leagues, with the matches shown live to half a billion people in 202 countries. Manchester United is the richest club in the world with a valuation of $1.87 billion. The FIFA World Cup is the largest and most lucrative sporting event in the world. The 2006 tournament, with 64 matches featuring 32 nations and television coverage in 214 countries, had a cumulative television audience of 26 billion people. The final between defending champions Italy and France was watched by 700 million viewers.

2. Cricket: With Twenty20, the three-hour, 20-overs-a-side version, One-Day internationals and Test matches, cricket is the second most popular sport in the world. The English gentleman’s game is the most popular sport in the Indian subcontinent, which has a 1.5 billion population. It attracts crazy fans with a religion-like following in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Then there is the West Indies and the 20 million or so non-residential Indians - figures that can be matched only by the soccer buffs of Europe and South America. Cricket is among the top three most popular sports in Australia, England, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Mauritius. The ICC, its ruling body, has 10 Test playing nations and 104 member countries. The game also cherishes the ‘most popular’ tag in 20 countries. The ICC World Cup is the world’s second largest single sporting event, drawing a cumulative television audience of five billion. A final involving India could draw up to 400 million TV viewers (India has 130 million television sets). BCCI is the world’s richest sporting organisation, with a valuation in excess of $2 billion. The IPL attracts two billion and is the most popular and richest cricket league with the average attendance figure of 57,500. India are the defending Twenty20 World Cup champions and Australia the ODI champions.

3. Basketball: Amongst the most popular sports in the USA, China, Russia, the Philippines, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and Puerto Rico. The National Basketball Association (NBA), with 30 teams and an average attendance of 17,500, is the richest and most popular basketball league and arguably the most viewed American sporting action in the world, attracting an accumulative television audience in excess of a billion. Induction of players of different nationalities to the NBA has ignited the general population to take up and follow the sport in a big way across various nations. The FIBA world championship and Olympics are the major international events, with Spain and the United States is the respective current gold medalists.

4. Baseball: The national pastime of the United States is the most popular sport in Japan, Taiwan, Cuba, Venezuela and South Korea. It is amongst the most popular in the USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Colombia, Panama, the Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic . With 117 member nations, it has passionate fans nearing the half-a-billion mark and is arguably the richest bat-and-ball game. Major League Baseball is the premier baseball league and attracts the highest attendance (79.5 million in 2,430 matches). New York Yankees are the most valued and popular club, and after the preamble of the not-so-popular baseball World Cup, the international think-tank initiated the successful World Baseball Classic - a 16-nation tournament with MLB players, where Japan are the multiple defending champions.

5. Rugby Union: The most popular sports in New Zealand is also very popular in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Italy, Madagascar, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Romania, Samoa, Tonga and Argentina . It is also played in the USA, Japan, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, Chile, Paraguay, Malaysia, Russia, Canada and Spain. The 16-nation Rugby World Cup is the third largest single sporting event, achieving an average attendance of more than 45,000 and an estimated television audience in excess of two billion. The Six-Nations championship, British Lions tours and Tri-Nation series are the major tournaments outside the World Cup, followed by millions of passionate rugby fans. The International Rugby Board has 103 member nations spanning every continent. South Africa are the defending world champions.

6. Field Hockey: The national sport of India and Pakistan is amongst the top five sports in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Germany, Holland (the six-time world champions), Australia (three Olympics golds), South Korea, Japan, Argentina, Malaysia and England. The Olympics and the World Cup, the most prominent events, have been dominated by India, with eight Olympics golds, and Pakistan, winners of four World Cups. The Champions Trophy and the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament are other prominent events. The International Hockey Federation comprises more than 100 countries. Germany are the current World and Olympic champions.

7. Volleyball: The national sport of Sri Lanka is a very popular participant sports in almost all countries and amongst the top six in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands , Japan, China, India, Philippines and Poland. Volleyball is also a popular sport in the south of India, North America, Eastern Europe and Brazil, enjoying a surge in popularity in schools and colleges. The most important tournament is the Olympics where the USSR, Brazil and the USA are multiple gold medallists. FIVB is the international governing body with more than 150 volleyball-playing nations. The United States are the current Olympic champions and Brazil the defending world champions. Another hugely popular version is beach volleyball, which often rivals even the main sport.

8. Ice Hockey: A winter sport boosted by the advent of artificial turf, Ice Hockey enjoys popularity throughout the seasons and is amongst the top four sports in the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway , Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain and Slovakia. The National Hockey League is the most popular league and captures the lion’s share among all the hockey leagues, pulling in average crowds of 40,000 to the stadiums in the US and watched by millions on TV across Europe and America. The International Ice Hockey Federation, with 66 members, stages the World Championship where Russia are the defending champions.

9. American Football: The most popular sport in the United States has its roots in English soccer and rugby football. It is loved by more than half the nation’s population of 306 million. With more than 200 million passionate fans residing across the US, Canada, Japan, the Caribbean and Europe, it has mass appeal and glamour. The National Football League (NFL) is the richest sporting league in the world, netting $6.2 billion annually and attracting a world-record average attendance of around 67,700. IFAF, with 45 members, is the international governing body that oversees the sport’s World Cup, where the United States are the defending champions. Outside the US and Canada, American football is also played domestically in the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Austria, Mexico and Japan, the multiple world champions in 1999 and 2003.

10. Rugby League: The other version of rugby football is played extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, France, England and Papua New Guinea, where it is considered a national sport. It is played in more the 30 nations, growing in popularity particularly in Europe and in New Zealand, after being crowned world champions in 2007. Passionate rugby league fans dwell mainly in northern parts of England, Australia and New Zealand. National Rugby League, with 16 teams, is the most prominent domestic league and probably the most popular rugby football club competition in the world. It draws huge crowds across the grounds of Australia and New Zealand.

India What a nation

We live in a Nation...

Where Pizza reaches home faster than Ambulance, police and firetruck.

Where you get car loan @ 5% and education loan @ 12%

Where rice is Rs 40/- per kg but sim card is free

Where a millionaire can buy a cricket team but don't donate any money to charity

Where the foot wears and inner wears, we wear, are sold in AC showrooms, but vegetables and fruits, that we eat, are sold at footpath

Where everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to follow the path to be famous

Where we make lemon juices with artificial flavors and dish wash liquids with real lemon

Where people standing at tea stall reading an article about child labour from a newspaper and say, "yaar bachhon se kaam karvane wale ko to phansi par chadha dena chahiye" and then they shout "Oye chhotu 2 chaii laa..."

Do think about it! Try to change yourself!!

Dogs are more loving than humans say celeb dog lovers

Mumbai: Many dog lovers say that their dogs can help them relax by simply being around them. So in a busy city like Mumbai where everything is quite commercialized, how does a dog help to soothe those stressed nerves? Though dogs do not communicate like humans through the medium of language or facial expressions, yet, just the wagging of the tail does the trick that a thousand words can’t. We ask a few celeb dog lovers howtheir pet (read: dog) helps them de-stress.



Purab Kohli
Actor Purab Kohli who has two dogs says, “They are clear about their wants unlike we humans, and are easy and playful. When you walk into the house and see them running around makes you forget almost half your worries. They surely help me break away from tension. Their innocence and selfless attitude, which is rare in humans makes me adore them.”

Arti Surendranath another happy pet lover says, “They know what frame of mind I am in. They try to cheer me up if I am upset, in their little capacity which is awe-inspiring. They simply know what time we get home usually and if we are late, they get restless and keep gazing at the door. And the moment we return they shower lots of love which is a great feeling. They are simply pure and altruistic.

They seek in their owners the family they are separated from. They tap their paws promptly if you are sad, if you are happy they play with you. They are there for you always, without expecting much from you. And this feeling makes one feel happy.”

The Dog Affair (dog fair) organiser and an avid dog lover, Farzana Contractor recommends that parents should get a pup for their kids when the children turn 8-9 years old. A pup teaches them to love, care and to be compassionate. She says, “I got my first pup six years ago after my husband’s (Behram Contractor) death. It had been just days after I had got the pup home that I had a reason to go back home early as someone was waiting for me. It helped me rise from the lows I was going through.”

Dogs really can understand human emotions

Melbourne: Dogs can tell the difference between a happy and an angry person and a laugh from a cry, a New Zealand study claims.


To reach the conclusion, researchers at the University of Otago, in the South Island, put 90 Dunedin dogs through their paces - showing some recorded images of babies laughing, crying and babbling and giving others verbal instructions from human's displaying happy or stern expressions.

Associate Professor Ted Ruffman said the dogs' responses indicated that they could understand emotions, reports The Australian.

"We know dogs are very good at picking up human gestures," Prof Ruffman told the Otago Daily Times.

"And it seems they are very good at picking up on human emotions, too.

Why isn't Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation using nets to catch dogs?

Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) does not seem to have learnt a lesson even after being warned by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). Despite having been trained in the past to use nets to catch dogs, they continue to use inhuman iron tongs for the job.



A city-based NGO, Animal Health Foundation (AHF) has been using the net to catch dogs for the dog sterilisation program they initiated with the AMC in 2006. Manjula Chaudhary from AHF says the net is a much more secure way of catching a dog as it doesn't harm it in any way. Moreover, the equipment which comprises a ring, a rod and some net is not even expensive, and costs between Rs750 to Rs800.

One wonders then, if the equipment is readily available, harmless and inexpensive, why is the AMC still so keen on continuing with iron tongs? "In the past, we have used the net to catch dogs. One needs special training to operate it and the staff we had trained for the same has already retired. So, if we want to start catching dogs with the net, we need to train our staff all over again," said deputy municipal commissioner of cattle nuisance control department, Dilip Mahajan.

"We have been using the net to catch dogs and it is easy to operate. However, the staff at AMC needs a bit of training to operate it. If the AMC wants, we can help them train their staff in using the net," said Chaudhary at AHF.