Thoughts

SUVs: a guilty pleasure

I own a MINI. I am against gas-guzzlers of any size, shape or form. Yet I enjoyed driving a SUV recently. Here’s why.

I had brought my MINI Cooper S into the dealership for service. There were a few things I wanted them to look at, things that were troubling me. Because I’m fairly obsessive-compulsive, every little thing seems to bother me sometimes, although I’ve gotten better over the years.

The dealership offers free loaner cars to those folks whose repair jobs will take more than a few hours. Since I wanted them to look at several issues, I qualified. Unfortunately, they were fresh out, so they took me to their in-house Enterprise rental desk to get me into a rental car. Normally, I would get an economy or mid-size sedan since my MINI is a sub-compact, but they were out of those. I was told I’d have to wait for a bit, which I didn’t mind. They provide free snacks and beverages in the customer lounge, and they always have a good movie on a big-screen TV.

My wife and I meandered to the waiting area and watched a great movie – I think it was “The Transporter” – while the Enterprise clerks tried to find us a car. The movie was almost over when one of them told us our rental car was ready. After begging for a few more minutes so we could watch the conclusion, we stepped outside, where our view of the parking lot was obscured by some behemoth. I was about to step around the beast to look for some economy car, but the clerk stopped me. “This is your car,” she said, smiling. “You were so nice to wait, that we’re going to give you this BIG car!” She was genuinely happy that she could reward us in such a way.

I couldn’t help myself either. A broad smile started to stretch itself across my face. I thanked her politely while I examined the monster, all the while thinking: “Me, in a SUV?! If this isn’t ironic, I don’t know what else would qualify!” I looked at the make: Chevy Trailblazer. I looked at the tractor-sized exhaust pipe and winced. “My goodness,” I thought, “how much gas will this thing need?” I felt a vacuum pulling on my wallet, but I kept calm. I helped my wife into the car as I signed the final insurance forms and did the walk-around with the clerk. I waved to her as I got in and turned on the engine. Reality was starting to sink in – I had to drive THIS thing now, after driving my MINI for a year and half!

I’m not one to have problems driving any car. That was the least of my worries. It was the way this car felt and maneuvered that made me wary. It was too big to care about things like curbs or speed bumps, or even those little English cars we see happily zipping along the roads once in a while. “I have to be very careful,” I thought. “I’m not used to this thing’s dimensions, and I may bump into something.” I slowly inched out of the parking spot, and drove out of the dealership.

As soon as I was on the road, a feeling of ease came upon me. Without the fear of bumping into freshly crafted BMWs and MINIs, I could relax. Besides, this tractor was easy to handle! Even though it took up the entire lane width-wise, it was easy to keep in check. The brakes worked fairly well, and the steering wheel was surprisingly easy to turn. The steering pump would have to work pretty hard to turn those huge wheels! Sitting in the driver’s seat, one got a feeling of security, of unsurpassed safety. I felt like I could take my time driving, that nothing could hurt me. Now I was beginning to understand why people are so adamant about driving their SUVs – there is a certain unshakeable feeling of safety that one gets. Not only that, but one feels more relaxed at the wheel. I rested my left arm on the doorsill, and my right arm on the automatic transmission knob. I only had to hold the steering wheel with one hand – the car was easy to control. I could get used to this! I’ve driven big cars before, even bigger than this particular model, but the experiences had been unremarkable. I looked over at my wife, surprised. She was smiling, too. The great thing about my wife is that she always knows what I’m thinking about. I didn’t have to explain myself. She knew it, and my surprised expression made her laugh.

It didn’t take long to feel certain twangs of guilt pull at my heartstrings though. After all, I was diametrically opposed to SUVs! I wouldn’t have anything to do with those gas guzzlers! That’s why I got my MINI after all. It was small and beautiful, it was quick, and it didn’t need a lot of gas. How in the world could I enjoy driving this behemoth? I felt like I was engaging in some adulterous relationship – cheating on my MINI. How could I do that? I wondered how I’d make it up to my conscience. Grinning slyly, I wondered if I could pacify it by writing an article.

As I wrestled with these thoughts, we got on a winding road. For those of you who care, it’s Route 193, which runs parallel to the Potomac on its Southern side in Virginia. This is the kind of road that my MINI would love to run on. It would eat those curves and hills for breakfast! It would leave everything else in its dust on these roads. I had a problem though: I wasn’t in a MINI. I was in a rubber wheeled cargo train. I felt safe, but my wife and I were getting thrown left and right at every curve! I started to miss my MINI’s bucket seats quite a bit. I also slowed down, since I didn’t really enjoy being the car’s ballast.

We drove a little more, and were lulled into feeling safe once again, until – out of nowhere – a mean curve peeked its puckish face around the corner. This was a mean left curve, and there was nothing but a thin rail separating us from a downward ride into the tree-ridden valley below. From the little experience I had driving the car, I knew it couldn’t handle this curve although we were only going about 30-40 mph. I pressed gently on the brake pedal as I turned the steering wheel. I felt the tires starting to lose their grip on the pavement. Instinct kicked in, and I slammed on the brakes while continuing to turn the wheel. The anti-lock braking system began to work, and I could feel the hydraulic pumping vibrate the frame of the car. Unfortunately, we were still sliding toward the rail! There’s no worse feeling than impending doom, and we were in the thick of it! I could do nothing but sit there and wait for the car to stop moving. I looked at my wife out of the corner of my eye, and she was frozen in her seat. “Oh boy, this could be it!” I thought, as I braced myself for the impact… which didn’t come.

The car somehow stopped short of the rail. For a brief second, I looked around to check my surroundings, and then I looked at my wife. She looked at me. We both let out a sigh of relief as I pressed on the gas pedal and moved on. My body now had to cope with the stress. My heart started to beat faster, and my legs started to shake a bit. I had to slow down in order to keep good control of the car. What had just happened?

We had been lured into falsely believing that this car was safe. That’s what had happened! We realized that the car’s install appeal – safety on wheels – was also its downside – cargo train on wheels. When you pack that much steel into a car, when you make it that big, it’s going to be heavy. Heavy objects cannot be stopped or maneuvered quickly. There is a limit to the amount of grip that a tire can have on the road. The brakes can be the best in the world. They can be anti-lock brakes. The car can have a dynamic control system, or differential traction, or whatever other names these features are called. There is still going to be one limiting factor: the grip of the tires on the pavement. It is through the friction of the tires that all of the car’s power can be expressed, either to start or stop it. In the case of a heavy car, its weight works against the friction of the tires and overcomes it. This car will keep on going when you don’t want it to go. It cannot be stopped! I shudder when I think what would have happened if the pavement had been wet that day!

Yes, SUVs can feel very safe. They can lull you into thinking that you can’t get hurt very badly if you get into an accident. Yes, you may not be hurt very badly. But, if you would compare, side by side, the outcomes of SUVs and smaller, more maneuverable cars when placed in accident-prone situations, all other factors being equal (driver experience, alertness, etc.,) the SUVs would not be able to avoid any of those accidents if the outcome depended on maneuverability. By this, I mean things such as stopping distance, ability to veer away from or between other cars, etc. Sure, the drivers of the SUVs probably wouldn’t get hurt too badly (unless the SUVs rolled over, which is another story altogether,) but they would incur significant damage to their cars, cause serious damage to the other cars involved, and more importantly, to the drivers of the other cars. What I want you, the reader, to ask yourself is this: do you want to be responsible for the death of another human being simply because you wanted to drive an SUV? Try to talk to anyone who’s got to live with that guilt and see how they cope with that event.

Moralizing aside, here’s how the rest of my SUV experience went… After the accident, I learned to drive the thing much more cautiously, and I found its reactions around curves predictable if one went through them very slowly. I even got accustomed to the commanding view of the road, and I liked sitting in the chair, uncomfortable as it was. There a certain satisfaction one gets from operating a beast like this. One’s ego is awed by the ability to control it. Furthermore, that same ego has room to spread through that enormous cabin. It starts to feel very comfortable, and then a certain feeling sinks in. It’s called ENTITLEMENT.

Yes, on the second day of driving this thing, I started to feel entitled to drive it. Think on this, please. I care deeply about recyling and conserving the environment. I lobby my congressmen to pass laws that protect the environment, including restrictions on the emissions of SUVs. And yet here I was, driving my rental SUV, and feeling like I owned it – what’s worse, feeling like I ought to own something like it! I was shocked at myself! On one hand, I was dismayed at my lack of respect for all I stood for, and on the other hand, I really enjoyed sitting at the helm of that tractor-trailer. I couldn’t believe myself! I talked to my wife, and she had the same problem. She liked our MINI, but she also liked the size and the relative safety conveyed by the size of the Trailblazer.

Here was the curse of the SUV! This is why all of the people refuse to give them up! How could they give up something that makes them feel so good? It’s one more pleasure that they have to forgo, and in a society that’s so strongly oriented toward the attainment of pleasure, this is very hard to do! So what if it takes $50 to fill up the tank? It’s a small price to pay for feeling like you own the road! It’s a small price to pay indeed for such an ego-boosting experience. If I myself wasn’t immune to this – and I should have been – why should others feel any obligation to give up their SUVs? No, we haven’t reached that point yet, and I doubt that we will. There will need to be a stronger motivation. The price of gasoline will need to go much higher, and the smaller cars in general will have to be made much more attractive before that will happen.

As for me, how did I fare? I have to confess that I looked up the prices for a Chevrolet Trailblazer and a GMC Envoy the following day. Unfortunately, I also looked up the gas mileage. When I put the two together, I couldn’t justify owning the cars. Even if I could afford the price of the car, the price of the gas and the pollution created by the car couldn’t be ethically justified to a very loud voice: my conscience. The gas for the rental cost me about $20 by the way, for two days of driving – about 120 miles overall. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of money to spend on gas in two days. I happily gave the car back, although I had feelings of regret. Not to worry though! After I got into my MINI, all that regret melted away and I felt right at home!

There’s nothing like the feeling of being able to maneuver your car. There’s real safety in knowing that you’ll be able to stop or veer away from an accident. My MINI saved me from about three accidents so far – simply because the car can stop on a dime and turn better than a Porsche. Had I been in a SUV, I don’t know what would have happened to me. Yes, I feel a little threatened when I pull up to the exhaust pipe of behemoth at some stoplight, but I also can’t help smiling. I’ve got a car that can handle the meanest curves. I’ve got a car that can get me out of an accident. My ego may feel a little squeezed inside the cabin, but I can sleep well knowing I’m not part of the problem – I’m part of the solution. In the end, it all boils down to assuming responsibility or giving into entitlement. Which road will you take?

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Exercise, How To

Starting a vegan diet

First, if you are indeed motivated to go vegan, I want to congratulate you, and to let you know that the advantages are incredible. But… going on a vegan diet could be a very drastic step for anybody, especially if they’re eating the usual American fare: red meat, fries, cola and coffee. You will experience significant withdrawal symptoms, even if you are now a vegetarian. You will definitely crave all of your old favorites, and there will be plenty of times when you’ll ask yourself why. It’ll be up to you to let your mind overcome your senses, and to choose health over appetites.

No matter what we think of food, it is a drug. Although it may not come in test tubes, it is made up chemicals which trigger certain reactions in our body. Some of these chemicals are addictive. Sugar for example, is an addictive chemical. We humans will crave sugar if we get our body used to a certain quantity of it on a daily basis. Similarly, certain chemicals in red meat are also addictive. When the animals are killed, they release certain “fight or flight” hormones in their bloodstream, which quickly travel to the muscle cells that make up the meat. These chemicals remain there through the cooking process until those of us who still eat meat consume it. Once in our body, these hormones, which are still active, trigger certain sensations of well-being and raised awareness, which are then associated with meat-eating. And we probably all know about the addictive qualities of coffee…

In a similar manner, although not as obtrusively, all of the food we eat either gets associated with positive or negative feelings. That is why we like certain foods. And we don’t even have to like them to experience withdrawal symptoms, we just have to be used to eating them. Their absence in our diet will make us miss them.

It is for these reasons that a great many people fail in their resolution to stay vegan, and revert to much less healthful lifestyles. Of course, there are other, secondary reasons, such as convenience (you can get a burger and a cola pretty much anywhere, but it’s much harder to find good vegan food) or health problems caused by a lack of planning in their diets.

Being a vegan by definition means eating a variety of vegan foods: vegetables, fruits and legumes. There are certain vitamins or minerals that only certain foods can provide, and if one sticks to the obvious lettuce and tomatoes and the hardy beans and potatoes and perhaps a few apples and bananas here and there, they’re going to run into serious health problems. While proper planning in a vegan diet will be treated in another article (and I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to write it,) here I simply want to introduce the concept of dietary planning and make you aware of the dangers inherent in a lack of planning.

How does one become a vegan? Well, as you’ve already seen, one has to be fairly motivated, and the strongest motivator that one can have is the desire to stay healthy and live a long life. And given all of the health problems caused by meat and dairy-based diets, going and staying vegan is the only way to ensure that your body can function at its best.

What’s next after motivation? Putting your beliefs into practice. My advice is to take it slowly. It’s not going to be good for you to go vegan cold turkey, because you’ll quickly get discouraged and might revert back to your old lifestyle. Vegan food tastes very bland to a person who’s been eating meat. You’ll need to get your taste buds and mind accustomed to the taste of vegan food, and after a few months of eating it, you’ll finally discover the finer flavors and textures of it. You may even begin to like it. Please don’t think this sounds dreary. I don’t look forward to my meals as a bland experience, but you may. Just realize that your attitude will change, but it may take months.

So how do you do it? If you’re now eating meat, calculate how many times a week you eat it, and reduce the number of meat-containing meals, replacing those meals with either chicken or fish, or vegetarian meals. You may be inclined to drop meat completely out of your diet. Good for you! Do it, but stick in there. If you’ve switched to chicken or fish, continue on this diet for about 1-2 months, all the while reducing the number of times you eat chicken or fish per week and replacing those meals with vegetarian meals. After 2-3 months at the most, you should be a vegetarian. Sounds easy? It is, if you stick to my plan.

Now that you’re a full fledged vegetarian, start planning your diet. Make sure you include all of the veggies and fruits that you need in your diet. And if you’re still consuming milk and cheese and eggs, drop the American-made cheese as fast as you can. I’m referring to the non-organic American cheeses. They are one of the least healthy foods on this planet. They are made from the milk of cows treated with all sorts of hormones that will wreak havoc in your body. Also, as a rule, dry cheese is not very healthy. Wet cheese (feta cheese, cottage cheese, etc.) is okay. But be sure to get only organic cheeses.

Next, drop the eggs. If you like them, you may want to read about their high fat and cholesterol content, and about the hormones they use to grow the chickens. You may also want to think about the fact that eggs are really the placenta and embryo of the chicken. If you must have eggs, get the organic kind. Next, drop the milk. The non-organic milk is loaded with unhealthy hormones, and it actually causes cancer cells in your body to grow and develop into tumors, because the cows here in the States are treated with growth factors (certain chemicals which cause cellular growth). These chemicals accumulate in the milk, and they’re not destroyed by pasteurization. If you must have milk, get the organic kind.

You shouldn’t stay in the vegetarian phase too long, or you’ll get stuck there, midway. Make the move fast, within 1-2 months of becoming vegetarian. Start reading about the vegan diet, and start planning your move. Make sure you know where to buy all of the vegetables and fruits that you need at reasonable prices. Have everything ready, learn a few good dishes to get you through the first vegan week, and then take the plunge. Throw away any vestige of your old lifestyle: any stale meat in the freezer, any cheese or eggs that you might have around the house, any candy bars, any cookies or potato chips. Clean out your house, so nothing tempts you, then start being a vegan.

Now you’ll be in for a few rough weeks, or even months, as your mouth will water at the sight of old foods. Stay in there, and read about the dangers of eating the old foods. It’ll keep you motivated. Believe me, you will begin to love vegan food, and you will also feel disgust at the sight or smell of old food, because now you’ll know exactly what’s in it and why it smells and looks the way it does.

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Exercise

Finding the right resolve for exercise

Exercise today is in bad shape. This is not because people are exercising too little, or because the general public’s perception of exercise is disdainful. We are being inundated with reasons to exercise these days. Virtually all magazines are full of large-type promises: a leaner waist, tighter abs, bigger arms, etc. The list goes on and on.

People’s approach to exercise today is very piecemeal. They focus on the trees instead of looking at the forest. Most every fitness article that I read mentions nothing about whole body workouts or gymnastics. Instead, they all give the “perfect” prescription for getting rid of fat in problem areas, or tightening/enlarging a specific muscle. Your body is not a machine. You cannot replace the spare tire around your waist by just working your abs. You cannot work on just specific parts and ignore the rest. You can focus on specific body parts, but you need to work your entire body.

What’s worse, the wrong reasons are offered for exercising. Have you looked at the headlines lately? “Have better sex”, “Have better orgasms”, “Impress the girls”, “Get the biceps that will turn eyes”, “Girls, get a tighter butt”, etc. Are those really the reasons that people should exercise? No!

Exercising simply to obtain those benefits is a short-sighted, egotistical approach that will only make it harder for you to have a positive body image. Exercising for these reasons will definitely enforce negative habits and cause you to obsess unnecessarily about things that are out of your control.

Imagine your kids are walking through the supermarket, and they stumble upon these magazines. Do you really want their impressionable minds to be stamped with these ideas?! You work hard enough trying to keep them on a good path in life, do you really want some profit-minded magazine editor making your life harder? Are these the goals that you would like them to strive for when they are exercising?

Here are the reasons for exercising on a regular basis:

  • Better health, even perfect health. Yes, this is an attainable goal! Good exercise coupled with a healthy diet and sleeping habits is the winning combination for perfect health. Without good health, we cannot lead normal lives. Our intellect is impaired and we cannot work and create at our best, our day to day activities have to be reduced, life is not enjoyed as much, personal relationships suffer enormously… I’m sure we can all think of many more problems that arise when we are not healthy.
  • A longer life. Yup, you’ll live much longer if you exercise on a regular basis. The statistics are all fairly conservative on the issue, but I can tell you that you’ll probably add 10 or more years to your life if you keep exercising till the day you die. Just think of all the people that have died in the prime of their life because they were overweight or simply did not exercise.
  • A faster, more powerful brain. Many research studies have talked about this lately. Exercise makes your mind work better. It’s a given. If you don’t believe me, try it out for yourself. Start an exercise program, and even after just one week, you’ll see a marked difference in the way you think and solve problems.
  • More physical strength. A balanced exercise program will increase your physical strength over time. Your strength can double, or even triple or quadruple depending on your current state.
  • A better posture. Exercise will make you stand up straighter, and will even help correct curvature issues of the spinal column such as scoliosis. Once the muscles in your back get stronger, and if you maintain good body posture at all times while exercising, mild to moderate scoliosis can be corrected largely or entirely. In addition to these benefits, people will give you more respect once you keep a straight body posture. It’s all in the body language. A person with slumped shoulders and a downturned head simply does not get as much respect as a person with correct body posture.
  • Increased flexibility. A good exercise program should make all of your muscles more flexible. Flexibility is the key to staying injury-free when we get older. It is because muscles aren’t flexible and don’t answer as fast that older people lose their balance and fall, breaking hips, legs and hands, sometimes even their necks.
  • Denser bone. Why should you care about this one? Because bones that are less dense are more likely to break. Older people get a disease called osteoporosis, where bones get less dense and as a result are brittle and break very easily. This disease is caused by age-related hormonal imbalances, but exercise can make their and your bones denser, because the effort of the movement not only stimulates your body to make the hormones necessary for bone health, but it also works the bones themselves, literally rejuvenating them. Blood once more circulates through them, and as they twist and turn with your muscles, they start once again to acquire the flexibility and density they possessed in your youth.

Now what do you think of exercise? I could come up with many more reasons, but these are the most important ones. And you will not get these benefits unless your exercise program is put together with them in mind. You will most certainly not get these if your workouts are motivated by a desire to turn heads or have better sex. Why? Because attitude is so important in any activity that we do. And when our attitude is selfish or it focuses on one shortsighted aspect instead of embracing the entire picture, our results suffer.

How then should we structure our exercise programs? Here are a few important guidelines:

  • You should take your entire body into consideration. I’m at the gym about 4-5 times a week, and I see people go there on a regular basis just to work on their abs, or just to work on their arms. I see people that just go there to run on the treadmills or just to use the stairmasters. That’s not the way to do it. An asymmetric approach will produce asymmetric results. People that run all the time may find that they still can’t get rid of the fat around their waists even though they run miles and miles every day. I see people who have indeed developed certain body parts very well, but others lag far behind. For example, their arms, especially their biceps, may be big, but their chest is small, and their legs are pencil thin. They not only put themselves in jeopardy because any one overdeveloped body part will cause imbalances in the rest of your body, but they also proliferate negative weightlifter stereotypes.
  • You should include a lot of stretching exercises in your workouts. As a rule, you should stretch before exercising, during your exercises, and after you are finished with your workout. Read these articles for some great stretching exercises.
  • You should not push your body too hard all the time. Don’t expect to set new personal records with every workout that you do. You will burn out, and that’s guaranteed. Instead, focus your efforts on maintaining good form in all your exercises, and on finishing all the sets that you planned to do. Personal records will come of themselves.
  • You should balance out your exercises. If you are a weightlifter, make sure your have days when you just stretch, run or swim. Plan ahead. Don’t do just one type of exercise all of the time. It may make your ego feel better, but your body will feel worse.

If you put the advice in this article into practice, I guarantee you that you will be pleasantly surprised. You will eventually receive all of the benefits mentioned here, and many more to boot. You may find that you have gotten rid of that spare fat around your waist, that you are indeed turning heads, and that your intimate relationships have improved, but these will be side effects. They should always be considered just side effects!

The main focus of all your exercises should be to maintain and increase your health. If you do this, all the other benefits will come as a nice bonus, as the icing on the cake. But your health should always come first. That should be your motivation, and that should be your goal.

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Exercise

Low impact abdominal exercises

A quick list of low impact abdominal exercises.

  1. Lying Bicycle: Sit on the floor, and prop your back at a 45 degree angle with the floor by using your hands. Bend your back so your abs can tighten better. Hold your legs up off the floor, and start bicycling on an imaginary bike. Repeat until exhaustion.
  2. Ab Crunches: Sit down on the floor, and prop yourself up with your hands. Keep your knees bent at 45 degree angles and your feet planted on the floor. Tighten your abdominal muscles, and lower your upper body toward the floor while keeping your hands in the air next to your body. Use your abdominal muscles to lower your body, but do not allow your upper back and shoulders to touch the floor. Hold for 1-3 seconds, then bring your body back up until your hands can touch your legs. Do not rest in this position. Once your body is up, begin to lower it again. Repeat until exhaustion.
  3. Lying Leg Raises: Lie down on the floor, and rest your hands palms down next to your hips. Using your abdominal muscles, start to raise up both your legs off the floor. Keep the feet together, heel to heel. Raise them up until they make a 60 degree angle with the floor, or just before the point where you can hold them in the air without straining your abdominal muscles. Hold them there for 1-3 seconds, then lower them back down, but don’t let them hit the floor. Let them touch the floor ever so slightly, and lift them back up once again. Repeat until exhaustion.
  4. Twisting Ab Crunches: These are fun to do and they work your obliques, which are the muscles underneath your “love handles”. Use the same movement as for the Ab Crunches (described above), but with the following changes: (1) Instead of keeping your hands in the air, cross them on your chest, and (2) Instead of raising your trunk up in a straight curve, twist your trunk in alternate movements so one of your elbows is in line with the opposite knee. In other words, as you come up, twist your body to the left so your right elbow (your arms are cross, remember?) can almost touch your left knee. Lower your body and straighten it at the same time, then come back up and twist it to the right so your left elbow can almost touch your right knee. Repeat until exhaustion.
  5. Twisting Lying Bicycle: If you’re ready for a high intensity ab exercise, this is it. Combine the movements of the Twisting Ab Crunches and Lying Bicycle crunches into one. As you bicycle your legs, lift your trunk up and twist it so opposite elbows and knees touch. You can either cross your arms on your chest, or cross your fingers behind your head (but make sure you don’t pull on your neck!), and do this until exhaustion. When you’re done with this, you’ll be done with abs for the day, because you’ll be too tired to do any other exercises.
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Exercise

Low impact calf exercises

  1. Lying Calf Pumps: Sit on the floor, and stretch your legs, but keep them parallel. Tighten your right leg’s calf muscle and push your toes forward as if you are pushing a heavy weight away from your feet. Push your toes until your calf muscle contracts tightly and hold for 3-5 seconds. Then, while keeping it contracted, bring your toes toward your body. Repeat this motion without relaxing the calf muscle for 10-30 times. Repeat for other leg.
  2. Standing Calf Raises: Stand up straight, and raise yourself up on your toes as high as you can. Hold for 3-5 seconds and then go back down slowly. Without pausing to rest your heels on the floor, go back up again. Repeat this motion for 10-30 times or more as desired.
  3. Donkey Calf Raises: Standing up, bend down at the waist until your palms touch the floor. Keep a wide distance between your hands and your legs so you can keep your back straight. Also keep your legs straight, but not completely extended, as this may cause knee problems. If you’re in doubt, just keep your knees slightly bent. You should keep the pose of a cat perched up on all fours. Now, using your hands to support your body weight, push your hips up with your calves, as high up as you can go. Hold for 3-5 seconds, and repeat for 10-30 times or more as desired.
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