Planks
By Ellis Francis How to Guides, Fitness ,

How to Do Planks to Flatten Stomach

Planks are the kind of exercise that work a lot of your body at once without being too strenuous. They are great exercise for people who don’t normally do exercise or who aren’t in great shape.

Planks can work your abdominals, arms, and legs. Because planks are so easy for most people do, a lot of people try to use them to help lose weight and flatten out their stomach. They use planks as a stepping stone to get to more intense exercises. How to do planks to flatten stomach?

Do Planks Make Your Stomach Flatter

We want to say up front that planks are not the best exercise for flattening your stomach, if you do them like most people do them. They’re certainly not a high intensity exercise, so you’re not going to burn a lot of fat by doing a few reps of planks.

They also don’t specifically target the abdominals, at least not to any appreciable degree. In other words, you’re not going to make a big impact on your stomach just by doing planks the normal way.

You will be mostly working your arms, with a little impact on your legs and very minor impact on your abdominals. Planks are a good way to start strength training and endurance training, and they are great exercise to work into a larger fitness routine to give your body some time to rest between more intense exercises.

Planks are often included in longer HIIT exercise regimens as a way to just slow down and allow muscles to recover slightly before going into a high impact exercise.

How to Flatten Your Stomach with Planks

If you want to use planks to make your stomach look flatter and to strengthen your abdominals, there are a few things you need to know about your form and method.

First of all, you want to keep a straight form. You may want to use a mirror at first or have someone check your form when you start out with planks. You’re not going to get the full benefits from planks if your form is not correct. You can also watch videos on how to do planks so that you can imitate the form of an experienced professional. If your position is off and your form isn’t right, the plank won’t help you much at all. If your position is a little up or down from where it should be, you may not be getting any abdominal benefits from exercise at all.

The next thing you need to do is to draw your stomach muscles upward and inward. If you’re not doing this, you’re not making much an impact on your ab muscles. To tell the truth, planks are not the best way to build abdominal muscles and flatten a belly, but they are a simple and easy way that a lot of people can start out with.

It’s important that you hold the plank for a period of time before releasing from it and returning to a more comfortable position. You should hold the plank for about 60 seconds, if you can. This will be a great way to burn some fat, work your muscles, and eventually flatten your belly.

For people who are new to planks and who don’t exercise often, it can be difficult to hold the plank for a full 60 seconds. You don’t have to start out at the full minute-long plank. You can work your way up to there, starting out with something easier, like 20 or 30 seconds.

Once you can get up to holding the plank for a full 60 seconds, though, you can start to make some real progress. At that point, you’re really putting effort into the plank and getting a lot of benefit out of it. It’s much better to hold it for an extended period of time like a full 60 seconds rather than for a short half a minute or less. There’s not much point in doing a plank just for the sake of doing it. You’re not getting the benefits out of it that you could.

Starting out low and slow will help you work your way up to a more effective and beneficial plank.

How Many Planks to Do to Flatten Stomach

We talked about duration, but how about the number of reps needed to make an impact on your stomach? How many planks should you be doing if you want to really make progress on a flabby tummy and you want it to look flatter and fitter?

If you’re struggling with holding the plank for 60 seconds, you should start out at just doing anywhere from one to three of these each time. Once you can hold that 60-second plank comfortably, move up from three to five times for each session.

Now, you’ll be making an impact and burning calories using the plank exercise. This is what you want to work toward as you increase the number of planks you do and how long do you hold them for.

How to Master Planking

We talked about how to do planks, including your form and how you should be contracting your muscles. All of this is kind of beginner level stuff. If you want to move up to the more advanced level and get even more out of your planks, then you need to learn the master planking maneuver.

This requires that you do the normal plank with the right form and that you take a deep breath in when you start. Next, contract your ab muscles and clench the quads and glute muscles at the same time. If you’re doing all this, you’re going to be working more of your body, burning more calories.

You will be working not just the abs, but also your lower body, and you’ll be strengthening your core muscles. The pelvis and shoulder regions will become stronger and fitter as well.

One thing it’s important for you to keep in mind is that you can’t specifically target the abdominal fat. Flattening your tummy isn’t about just doing exercises that burn fat from that area of the body. It’s impossible to pick which area of the body fat is used from. What this means is that any kind of exercise you do that burns fat will help to pull fat from anywhere in the body. The more exercise you do, the more fat will be burned up from around your belly.

If you do planking exercises like what we’ve covered in this article, including the master planking method, you can expect to lose belly fat. However, that’s not the only area the body will be losing fat from. The reason you would want to do abdominal exercises like the plank is not just to burn fat specifically in that area. You’ll be doing more than burning fat; you’ll also be developing ab muscles. So, your muscles can grow and become more defined.

Planks can help you to get the flatter belly you want, but they should not be the only exercise you do. You definitely want to try to work in some higher intensity exercises for faster results. Most people won’t get the results they are wanting in a decent amount of time by just doing planks. Working in other exercises and pushing yourself with a regular, strenuous workout routine will produce powerful results quickly. You’ll be amazed at how fast you get a flatter belly.

 

Working Out with Friend
By Ellis Francis Workouts, Fitness , ,

Benefits of Working Out with a Friend

Are you looking to get fit quickly? You might be considering what you can do to make your workouts more effective and to achieve greater gains in weight loss, muscle tone, and muscle development in a shorter amount of time.

What you may not have considered is that working out with a friend can help you achieve those gains faster. It can help you reach your goals sooner and stay motivated.

Let’s talk about some of the benefits of working out with a friend and why so many people partner up for their exercise sessions.

Having A Workout Partner Is Safer

One of the best reasons to work out with a buddy is because they can look out for you if something happens to you while you are exercising. If you slip and fall, they can help you back up. If you have poor health and exercise puts a strain on your body, your friend can call for medical assistance if it’s required.

Your friend can help spot you while you do weightlifting, getting you out of a tough situation if the weights overpower you. There are so many potential risks when exercising, but don’t let those risks dissuade you.

Exercising is essential for developing muscles and staying in shape. Why not minimize risk by having a partner with you so that if something happens to you, you can get help fast?

You can do the same for your partner, looking out for their health and safety and helping them out of a tight spot. An injury can take you out of your exercise routine pretty quickly, and you may need days or even weeks to recover from an exercise injury. It makes sense then to work out with a friend.

Does Having A Workout Buddy Make You More Motivated?

Did you know that if you work out with a buddy, you’re more likely to finish your weight loss program? The benefits of working out with a friend statistics show that people who work out with a partner are 95% likely to complete their workout program or achieve their weight loss goals.

Compare that to people who are working out alone, which statistics show are only about 76% likely to complete their program.

This comes down to motivation. If someone is watching you work out and working out with you, you will feel stronger and more motivated.

That’s how it works for most people, and part of that is simply that your friend can act as an accountability partner. When you tell each other what your goals are for fitness and weight loss, and you work out together, you’re less likely to give up on those goals.

You feel accountable not just to yourself and the promises you made but also to the person who’s working out with you or who you told about your goals. It’s an extra layer of accountability that adds an extra layer of motivation.

If you find that you start but don’t finish exercise programs, you can partner up to make sure you complete this one. You’re more effective with a partner and much more likely to accomplish what you set out to do.

They may not be physically helping you work out most of the time, but the emotional support you get can be a huge boost.

Having a Workout Buddy Helps Improve Your Form

Your friend can help you in other ways. It can be difficult to tell if you’re doing exercises properly and if your form is correct. In a gym, you may have the benefit of a trainer or mirrors to tell you if your position is off.

You probably wouldn’t have that at home. Even working out in the gym, it can be helpful to have a partner to check your form and make sure you’re doing things properly. Having that second set of eyes on you can help you make better judgement calls and improve your exercise form.

The form is important, because there are a lot of exercises that if you’re not doing them with the right form, they won’t be very effective at all. This is true of planks, pushups, pull-ups, and many more.

There are also exercises that if you do them improperly with poor form, you could end up injuring yourself. Weightlifting definitely comes to mind here. If you are lying on a bench lifting weights over your head with the wrong form, you could strain yourself and suffer injury.

Your friend could help you spot your running form as well to see it is correct or not. Having the right running form helps you to run farther, feel less tired, and get more out of your run. It also helps you to have better posture.

A lot of exercises rely on proper form to help improve your posture, even the posture you have when you’re not exercising. If you have the wrong form, though, you can actually damage your posture and your ability to stand or sit straight. That’s why it’s so important to have a partner to check your form as you work out.

Workouts With Friends Are More Fun

What else can your friend do for you? You might not have considered the social benefits of working out with a friend. Exercising can be a lonely business, and you can feel like you’re doing it on your own many times, if you don’t have a partner.

You might feel bored and give up on the workouts because they’re not interesting to you and there’s nothing to do while you’re working out.

This ties into what we said earlier about getting through your workout session and your workout program by having a buddy. If you have someone to work out with, that means that you have someone to talk to.

This can make the exercise session go by so much faster. While some people prefer to listen to music or watch television while they work out, it could be much more rewarding to talk to a friend while you’re exercising.

What happens a lot of time with people who spend much of their week working out is that they can withdraw from society. They stick their headphones in and work out on their own and end up having trouble socializing after months of this alone time.

This is true even if they’re surrounded by other people at the gym or if they’re running on a track. They just cut off from the world and get into their own little zone as they exercise.

For some people, that’s not a problem, but for others it can really hurt their socialization skills, especially if they are doing this for many months or even years. There are definite social benefits to working out with a friend.

That helps to improve the bond between the two of you and it helps to improve your social skills. Your ability to interact with other people will grow as you spend time working out with a friend.

Have you considered bringing a partner to the gym or to your home to work out with you? Have you thought about getting a running buddy or a cycling buddy when you go to exercise? There are so many benefits to working out with a friend that we only had space to cover a few of them here. Once you try to get through your workout program with a friend, you’ll see even more benefits for yourself.

Not Able to Dream
By Ellis Francis Sleep, Sleep Problems ,

What Does It Mean if You Don’t Dream?

If your friends and family tell you about their exciting dreams but you have nothing to share, you may wonder if there’s something wrong with you. What does it mean if you don’t dream?

Maybe you’re dreaming and just forgetting it. Does that mean there’s something wrong with you? What about if you do you dream something but you can’t remember it? Could this indicate that there’s something wrong with your memory, your sleep, or the way you dream?

In this article, we’re going to dive into some of the science of sleep and dreaming in particular. What makes you dream and what does it mean if you don’t dream often.

Why Do We Dream?

While researchers don’t fully understand the role of dreams, they do know a lot about them. Dreams tend to come from recent events in your life, whether those are something that happened, conversations you had, or even the thoughts that have been going through your head. Dreams are typically autobiographical, but that doesn’t mean they always make sense.

Researchers believe that dreams are derived from the emotional part of our brain rather than the logical part. So, dreams can often be exciting and nonsensical, and there’s not always a lot we can understand from our dreams. Sometimes it seems that dreams are just a mishmash of everything that’s been going on in our life.

What does it mean if you dream about someone you don’t know? You want to be careful about reading too much into your dreams. Just as writers can make up characters for a story, our imagination can make up characters for a dream. While many dreams are autobiographical, they can often be extrapolations of how we might feel or react in certain situations that haven’t occurred yet.

What Do Dreams about the Future Mean?

Our dreams can have meaning so far as they are based on what we’re thinking about or what is happening to us. Ascribing meaning beyond that, such as trying to figure out our future based on our dreams, has no basis in scientific fact.

What does it mean if you are told in a dream you don’t have much time? Some people will look to their dreams as a sign of future events.

To take a spiritual look at this, biblical scholars and pastors will point to proof in the scriptures that dreams no longer hold the same meaning that they used to. What they will tell you is that while dreams used to be sent from God as a way to speak to people, once the Bible was completed, that was no longer the case.

What does it mean if you dream about God but don’t remember it? Once again, spiritually minded people may ascribe meaning to their dreams in certain instances. If they dream about television shows they watched the night before, they may not put much stock into the dream.

However, if they dream about God, they may consider the dream significant. Research has typically shown that whatever you’re dreaming about is what you’re thinking about or what you have experienced recently so, people who spend time with God and think about God will often dream about God as well.

What Does It Mean When You Don’t Dream at All?

Let’s get back to the question we started with about what it means to not dream or to not remember your dreams. If you feel like you never dreamed, it could just be that you don’t remember having dreams. A lack of dreams could indicate a sleep disorder. It could mean that you’re not getting enough sleep or not experiencing deep sleep.

The most vivid dreams occur during REM sleep. This is when your body is sleeping at its deepest and getting the most rest. A lack of proper sleep can be caused by depression, anxiety or stress.

Lack of proper sleep and the subsequent dreams that come with it could be caused by side effects from medication you’re taking or from using excessive caffeine, alcohol, or tobacco.

If you feel that you’re not getting adequate sleep, it may be a good idea to talk to your doctor about it. If the problem is not serious or frequent, you can try cutting back or cutting out those things that could be contributing to your poor quality sleep.

You could be dreaming and simply not remembering it. Maybe you remember your dream just after you wake up, but a few minutes later it disappears. If that frustrates you,  you can keep a notepad or journal beside your bed and write your dreams down as soon as you wake up.

That way, you’ll be able to remember them whenever you like. You may also want to set an alarm for earlier in the morning, giving yourself more of a chance to recall the dream.

What may also help is to spend a little extra time in bed before you get up. You can think about your dreams and relive them in your mind before you get out of bed. You’re more likely to remember the dreams for longer if you don’t do any activity while you review them.

If you’re getting proper sleep, you’re more likely to remember your dreams. To ensure better sleep, try to avoid caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol for a few hours leading up to bedtime.

Try to exercise throughout the day as well so that you’ll be tired enough to sleep soundly and try to sleep and get up at the same time each day, getting on a regular sleep schedule. It also helps to relax yourself before bedtime and to turn off all screens a few hours before trying to sleep.

If you’re not dreaming, that doesn’t necessarily that mean there is an underlying health condition, but you could just be not remembering your dream. If you feel that you’re not getting adequate sleep, and you believe it is a regular, serious problem, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor. There may be underlying factors you’re not aware of that could be contributing to poor sleep and therefore lack of dreams.

What does it mean if you don’t dream or don’t remember your dreams? It may not mean anything at all or it could indicate a sleep problem or a health problem. Take an assessment how well you’re sleeping, as the dreams or lack thereof can indicate your sleep patterns.

What Does It Mean If You Don’t Dream about Your Partner?

Some people worry they dream often but never seem to dream about the people close to them, particularly their significant other. Does it mean anything that you don’t dream about your partner?

Sometimes, people will dream about things that are more in their past rather than more recent occurrences. In a lot of people’s dreams, the two will mix together, with friends and family from the past mixing together with more recent events.

It can be strange to be dreaming regularly and yet not dream about the people you are currently spending your time with or the job you’re currently at. But it’s not uncommon for these kinds of dreams to occur.

Dreaming can often be result of longing, and if you’re living with someone but not dreaming about them, that can simply mean that you’re at peace with them. There’s no longing there or apprehension.

For many people, dreams are a result of the fears they have, and if you’re not dreaming about your partner, that can simply mean you don’t have any fears associated with them.

What Does It Mean If You Dream about Someone You Don’t Like?

Some people will have dreams about people they don’t like or that they consider their rivals or enemies. They may have dreams where the two of them are romantically involved or working together, and they may find this kind of dream frightening.

Once again, it’s important not to ascribe meaning to a dream that doesn’t belong. Dreaming about someone you don’t like doesn’t mean that you have a longing for them. It can simply mean that the conflict in your relationship is affecting your thoughts, causing you some stress and anxiety. That can translate into dreams about them, as many dreams stem from the things we worry about in our underlying fears.

It can help to try to resolve the conflict there and create a positive relationship with that person. If that happens, you may notice that you dream about them less often.

Ultimately, dreams are funny things that aren’t fully understood. You shouldn’t let yours worry you too much, but it’s not a bad idea to pay attention to your dreams to better understand what your fears, worries, and conflicts may be.

 

Pimple on Lip
By Jennifer Whyte Skincare, Beauty ,

How to Get Rid of Pimple on Lip

A pimple on your lip can be very frustrating to deal with. First of all, it’s located in an obvious place and everyone can see it. Secondly, you’ll be able to feel this pimple every time you speak or move your mouth. It’ll be tough to forget that it’s there when you can feel it all day long. Thirdly, since it is placed on a part of your body that you are liable to touch or that touches other parts, like when your lips touch each other, the pimple is likely to get bigger faster.

It’s going to be very tough to let the pimple on your lip disappear on its own when it’s so easy for it get to get bigger without you having to do much at all. There are a few natural remedies you can use if you’re looking for how to get rid of pimple on lip.

Compresses

You can treat a pimple on your lip using hot or cold compresses. Apply a cold compress and place it onto the affected area for a simple method we recommend for how to get rid of a pimple on your lip. What this does is reduce the swelling on the lip and make the pimple start to disappear.

You can use a hot compress as well. Apply it twice a day to the pimple and watch it work its magic. What the hot compress does is draw out the pus and oil from the pimple, deflating it in a safe and clean manner.

Using the compress is a lot more effective than trying to deflate the pimple yourself. If you try to manually deflate the pimple, you can spread oils around your face and cause more pimples. That’s a surefire way to get an acne breakout.

Cleanse and Exfoliate

How to get rid of pimple on upper lip? You can treat it the same way you would any pimple. We definitely recommend using facial cleansers and exfoliators on that persistent pimple.

These treatments are effective for getting rid of the oils and cleansing the surface on and around the pimple. They can make it easier for the pimple to disappear on its own, starving it of oils and pore-clogging debris that could make the pimple bigger or allow it to spread.

Just use exfoliation and cleansing creams as you normally would on any other kind of pimple. Using them during your morning routine or right before bed can help to keep your face free of oil and dirt. They can make your skin cleaner and clearer, preventing further acne growth and allowing the pimple on your lip to disappear on its own faster than it would normally.

What keeps that pimple around and even makes it grow bigger? That would be excess oils, dirt, and dead skin cells on your face. If you can get rid of these, using OTC treatments and creams like exfoliators and cleansers, your pimple will disappear quickly. This works quite well for pimples on the lip as well as it does anywhere else on your face.

It’s best to look for mild cleansers and exfoliators. These will tend to irritate your skin less and will be gentle on your skin. The milder ones are ideal for persistent acne like a lip pimple.

Lemon Juice

You can use lemon juice as well if you’re looking for how to get rid of pimple on lip line. This is one of those natural home remedies that’s a great cleanser for your skin. Lemons are rich in antioxidants as well as Vitamin C, and they contain ascorbic acid which cleanses your skin and treats a variety of ailments. You can use them for any kind of acne, including a lip pimple.

The Vitamin C in lemon juice is really good for treating your skin. It helps to nourish your skin to make it healthier. However, you should know that there isn’t any solid evidence to say that lemon juice is good for treating acne specifically. You should know that the citrus juice in lemon can cause skin irritation and can also dry out your skin. If it gets into your eye, it can irritate the eye as well. It is a good idea to be very gentle when you apply lemon juice to your face. Use a precise applicator like a cotton swab to ensure it goes only where it ought to.

Honey

If you are interested in another home remedy for how to get rid of a pimple on lip, then honey might be worth a try. You can apply honey a couple times a day simply by placing a little bit onto your lip. Allow it to dry off on its own.

What the honey does this treat your skin in the acne with its antimicrobial properties. In other words, it can kill microorganisms and bacteria that can cause acne and can empower acne to spread and grow. So, you’ll be stifling acne growth with this natural home remedy, and you may be able to say goodbye to that lip pimple quickly.

Tea Tree Oil

How to get rid of a pimple on your lip in hours? You have to fight it at the source, and one of the best ways to do that is by treating inflammation and bacteria. Tea tree oil is a great antimicrobial treatment, and people use it to help them with any number of skin conditions. Its effectiveness has been scientifically proven, and it is also safe to use and free from side effects, when used properly.

Some people may have an adverse reaction to tea tree oil being applied to their skin, and you can test it out first before you apply it as a treatment. Just place a little bit on a part of your skin that is not visible to everyone, like somewhere under your clothes. See if there is any kind of negative rection, like redness or irritation. Watch the spot for a few minutes and pay attention to sensations like itchiness. If you don’t notice anything after a few minutes, then it should be safe to use to treat the pimple on your lip.

Treat It Medically

If a pimple is bad enough or keeps coming back or you can’t seem to get rid of it through more conventional treatments, it may be time to step things up. You might have to seek out medical device to treat your lip pimple. In some cases, the acne is bad enough to warrant a doctor’s prescription to treat the acne.

Check with your doctor if you think that is the case with you.

Your doctor may recommend a topical treatment, like a cream, exfoliator, or an oil. Or the doctor may prescribe an oral treatment, such as a pill you can swallow. There are other medical options available as well, like chemical peels and laser treatments. These may sound extreme, but they can be very effective and very safe when administered by a trained medical professional.

If you want a method for how to get rid of a pimple on your lip fast, then there is no faster method than treating it with a potent medical solution. This will be more effective than a natural home remedy and quicker than just keeping the skin clean and clear and letting the pimple clear up on its own.

Get Rid of Pimple Scab
By Jennifer Whyte Skincare, Beauty ,

How to Get Rid of a Pimple Scab Overnight

When you get acne on your face, do you try to pick at it? This is pretty common behavior, and it is understandable too. Acne can be itchy, and as it sticks out on a person’s face, they may feel like simply scratching at it can get rid of it.

It can be difficult to resist the urge to scratch it, because of how uncomfortable acne can feel. But what happens when you start to scratch and pick at the pimples? You can tear them open after enough picking. Then, it starts to bleed and to leak pus. It looks and feels disgusting, and you may panic that you’ve made it worse.

The open and bleeding sore can quickly start to scab over. If you pick it that scab, it can start to bleed again, and the acne will simply scab over again and again. If you continue to pick at the scab, you can end up with an acne scar.

These scars can last for months, and in some instances, you may be stuck with them for life. Obviously, you don’t want that, so how to get rid of a pimple scab?

Should You Keep a Pimple Scab Moist?

If you want to get rid of a pimple scab very quickly, the best thing you can do is to keep it from drying out. There are plenty of different methods to do that, but how to get rid of a pimple scab overnight? Not all methods you use to moisten the scab will help to heal it. Some of them will be less effective than others at treating the scab and getting it to go away quickly.

There’s all sorts of ways to keep it wet, like applying a warm compress or a hot, damp cloth to the affected area. These are really good methods to use to prevent the scab from drying out. But how to get rid of a scab quickly? You need something that can heal and soothe.

The recommended method for how to get rid of a cold sore scab overnight is to use aloe vera. This is a substance that is soothing and is used to help your cuts bruises and sunburns. It can be very helpful for getting rid of scabs, cold sores, and even acne scabs. It helps to decrease the itchiness, so you’re less likely to scratch at the pimple scab, and it works to soothe the area so you feel less discomfort.

Aloe vera is great for preventing scars from forming. It has healing and soothing properties that are excellent for sealing up acne scabs. Aloe vera can also help to lighten your skin, decreasing the appearance of scars, scabs and other imperfections.

Scabbing and scarring can leave dark spots behind on your face, and using something like aloe vera or Vaseline can help to seal these sores and ensure that they heal quickly.

The Warm Compress Method

If you’re looking for an effective way how to get rid of a cold sore scab, a warm compress can be very helpful. Applying a warm compress to the area helps to moisten the scab and keep it from the drying out and from scarring.

This can be a great way to remove a scab quickly, as warm compresses can help you get rid of scabs in a few hours or overnight. The compress’ moisture will make the skin softer and loosen up the scab.

Warm compresses also help to improve circulation throughout the affected area, ensuring that nutrients can reach the sore quickly and provide fast healing. To use a warm compress on your acne scalp, start with a clean washcloth and soak it in warm water. You don’t want hot water, though, as that can damage and burn your skin.

How to get rid of a cold sore scab fast with a warm compress? Apply that warm water compress to the scabbed area to help loosen the scab and the crust. It also relieves itchiness, so you’re less likely to scratch the affected area.

You should do this for about five minutes two times a day. This will help to get rid of pimple scabs very quickly. Some scabs will be larger and more severe than others and will take longer to heal using this method.

Warm compresses are effective at healing, because of how they improve blood supply to the surface of the skin close to the acne. They improve the speed of the healing process and are a great home remedy to keep scabs from swelling up. This is a great way how to get rid of a scab on your face if you don’t have any aloe vera.

Using Baking Soda to Get Rid of Pimple Scabs

Another method you can use to get rid of pimple scabs is to apply baking soda to the affected area. It’s an often used home remedy for lots of different skin problems. You can make a paste from baking soda that treats the scab with antiseptic properties. It also doubles as a fungicide to help reduce the risk of infection.

Baking soda tightens up the scabs, which helps to make them lose and pull from the wound. This actually causes the pimple scab to fall off at it as it is drawn off from the wound.

How to get rid of a scab on your lip using baking soda? Start with just a little bit of baking soda and mix it into a small bowl with some water. You want to stir these two ingredients together until you make a thick paste.

Apply the paste onto the scabbed area and make sure the scab is covered totally. Do this every day until the scab falls off. For some pimples, this can happen overnight, which is why baking soda is often considered as one of the best ways for how to get rid of a scab fast.

How to Treat Infected Pimple Scabs

Some pimple scabs will be very infected and will need special treatment. The treatments listed so far might not be enough, and you may need something to deal with the infection.

What helps is treating the affected area with polysporin or neosporin. These are antibiotics that can help to heal infected scabs. If you’re using one of these treatments, make sure you keep the scab dry, as opposed to keeping it moist like you would with a warm compress or aloe vera.

When using an antibiotic treatment like neosporin, you want to ensure that the pimple stays dry to quicken the healing process.

How can you tell if your scab is infected? Look for severe discoloration like redness and swelling around the scab. If this increases within 48 hours following the formation of the scab, or it is hot or it bleeds when you touch it, this could indicate that it is infected as well. Another sign the scab may be infected is that it smells badly or it isn’t healing after about a week and a half.

If you notice any of these signs, it’s best to use in antibiotic treatment rather than one of the other methods listed above. If the infected scab is not treated properly, the infection can spread.

Nobody likes having to look at acne, but scratching away can be the wrong way to deal with it. If you do scratch the acne and a scab forms, now you know how to treat it so that it doesn’t stick around for long. You don’t have to be stuck with acne scabs or end up with acne scars, if you use the right treatment for this skin problem.

Ear Blackheads
By Jennifer Whyte Skincare, Beauty ,

How to Get Blackheads out of Your Ears

Blackheads are caused by obstructions in the pores. While blackheads are dark and they look like they’re composed of dirt, they usually contain a few different components.

Blackheads tend to be a mixture of dead skin cells, oil, and dirt. Those don’t become dark on their own. What darkens them is when they oxidize as they come into contact with air.

Blackheads can appear in various parts of face and are most common in people who are suffering from acne. A lot of acne products will treat blackheads, and there are also specific blackhead treatments that you will usually find right next to the acne medication at your pharmacy.

Did you know that blackheads can manifest in your ears? Usually, blackheads will appear on your nose, cheeks, or chin, but they can definitely appear in your ears as well.

How to get blackheads out of your ears? We will show you how with some proven blackhead removal methods that work well for those blackheads you may find in your ears.

This handy guide can show you how to deal with blackheads, even if they are hiding in your ears.

Why Do You Get Blackheads in Your Ears?

In order to prevent blackheads from popping up in your ears next time and making sure they don’t keep causing your problems, you ought to know how they ended up in your ears.

Keep in mind that blackheads are caused by oil and dead skin cells that are blocking up your pores. They keep your pores from secreting like they should, and that causes a buildup of pus, creating acne or blackheads.

Ears are prone to blackheads because there are lots of glands in there that are producing ear wax and oil, plus there’s lots of little hair follicles in there too.

In fact, you have hundreds of tiny hairs inside your ears, and if the pores around where the hairs grow are blocked up, you may end up with acne or blackhead.

If the glands in your ears start making too much oil, your skin can get irritated and break out with acne.

Here’s what could be happening that can cause your wax and oil to build up and dead skin cells to accumulate and block pores in your ears.

You might have dead skin cells and bacteria sticking to your cell phone. Your cell phone is placed next to your ear, of course, and it can be a very unsanitary device. Most people carry their cell phone with them everywhere and use it hundreds of times a day.

That means the cell phone can be incredibly filthy, and placing it next to your ear can invite oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria inside your ear. Your pores can get blocked and the glands that produce oil and start producing too much oil, resulting in a blackhead.

If you touch your ears, that can transfer bacteria from your hands and oils from your fingers into the pores of your ears.

You can also get bacteria into your ears from your pillowcase, as well as dandruff, hair follicles, dead skin cells, and other things that can block up your pores. Another way debris gets into your ears and causes blackheads is from your headphones.

They can be caked with earwax, dirt, and oil, and it’s a good idea to clean your headphones off regularly, particularly before you put them into your ears.

How Do You Get Rid Of Blackheads In Your Ears?

You’ve identified the blackheads and seen that they’re hanging out in your ears, so, what can you do about it? How to get rid of blackheads out of the inside of your ears?

The first most important step is to keep your ears clean. That means you need to take the following preventative measures to keep your ears from getting any dirtier:

  • use a clean pillowcase each night
  • wipe down your phone with antibacterial wipes
  • clean your headphones before you put them in your ear every time
  • try to avoid touching your ears with your fingers

Then, you can clean your ears a few different ways. You can use a gentle cleanser that is good for fighting acne and for exfoliating your skin, like salicylic acid. You can buy this generically, and it is also an ingredient in many acne treatments.

You can douse a cotton ball in this cleanser and rub it gently on the affected areas. Then, rinse off the cleanser using a clean cotton ball that is doused with water. Warm water is the best kind of water to use for gently and effectively cleaning your ears.

You can use the same treatment to clean skin anywhere on your face that has a blackhead or an acne breakout. This is a cheap, safe, and effective way to deal with acne and blackheads.

It’s important to clean your skin every day, and the best time to clean it is first thing in the morning when you wake up and right before you go to sleep.

What this does in the morning is clean up the dead cells and any oil that may have accumulated during the night. What it does before bed is cleanse your skin before you lay down on your pillow so that dead skin cells and oil are not trapped between your pillow and your face.

How Do You Prevent Blackheads In Your Ears

Okay, so we’ve talked about keeping your skin clean so that blackheads don’t get worse and don’t start in the first place. How to get blackheads out of your ears using house utensils?

There are some tools you can use to remove blackheads.

You want to be careful about using bobby pins, safety pins, or your fingernails to scratch off or extract the blackhead. It’s better to use in extractor tool that is made specifically for this job.

Make sure the extractor is sterilized before you try to use it. Also make sure the area on and around the blackhead is cleansed before trying to extract.

You don’t want to press the extractor directly onto the blackhead as this can rip your skin. Instead, sweep the metal loop of the extractor across the blackhead to pull it out.

Make sure you clean off the extractor and your year once you’re done extracting. This way, you prevent the spread of oils and acne around the ear.

You might have some trouble pulling out a blackhead from the ear all by yourself. If you can’t quite reach it or you can’t see exactly where it is, it’s a good idea to get someone to help you.

Blackhead removal can be quick and painless and easy in most cases. It’s not always going to be easy, and sometimes the method used for blackhead removal simply won’t work.

If you have blackheads that spread across your face and ears or blackheads that come back persistently in your ears, then it’s time to visit a dermatologist.

Dermatologists may be able to treat blackheads in a few different ways using more effective treatments than what you have available to you at home or over the counter. Dermatologists will use professional extraction tools to get rid of blackheads or even provide an oral medication to help with the problem.

One thing to note about acne medication is that it can make you sun sensitive, so it’s a good idea to wear plenty of sunscreen and to make sure you dress properly when you go outside, if you are taking acne medication.

Crunches
By Ellis Francis How to Guides, Fitness , ,

How Many Crunches Should I Do a Day?

Crunches are an excellent way to get in shape and particularly to target your abdominal muscles. By doing crunches regularly as part of your workout routine, you can burn away fat and get fit quickly.

Crunches are usually included in most fitness workout sessions, as they are a great exercise to do at home without the need for any equipment.

How many crunches should I do a day? It really depends on how much weight you want to lose and how fit you would like to get. You want to be careful about overdoing it, though.

Some people simply focus on the crunches because they’re not happy with how their belly looks. They want to get incredible looking abs in short order, and so they target exercises that they think will help them build abdominal muscles and thin their belly fat.

That can be a problem, because they may overdo one kind of exercise and not balance out their routine.

What happens when you do too many of a single exercise that you can wear out that part of your body? Rather than getting rid of fat and building muscle, you may actually damage your muscles, strain your body, and make it harder to keep working out.

How many crunches a day should I do? Let’s discuss the optimal number of crunches in order to get fit, to lose belly fat, and to get great looking abs.

What Will Different Amounts of Crunches Help Me Achieve?

Getting fit is all about building a diet and exercise routine around your specific needs. A routine that works toward those goals will help you achieve your goals faster.

At the same time, it is important to take into consideration your health and diet needs. A specially tailored diet and exercise routine can really help you to achieve your goals quickly.

The wrong kind of diet and exercise routine can be harmful for you. It can deprive you of necessary nutrients, and it can lead to muscle wasting rather than toning and muscle building.

The wrong kind of diet can also give you more calories than what you’re burning, and you wouldn’t actually be losing the fat you want to get rid of.

The wrong kind of exercise routine could be harmful for you. It might not take into consideration your health needs and medical conditions. It might not consider your age and what your physical limits are.

It’s great to shoot for the stars and make lofty goals, but you have to factor in what your ability is and what is safe for you and where you are at in life.

On average, 25 to 30 crunches a day for a workout routine is plenty for most purposes. It’s not necessary to do 100 in a single session. That can be overdoing it.

If you do too many crunches in a single session, you can get really burned out and you can even damage your abdomen. You can make it hard to do crunches the next day, which is why it’s so important not to overdo it.

You also want to be careful about underdoing it. You need to incorporate and ab routine into your exercise regimen, and it needs to be enough to actually make a difference.

If you’re just doing 5 or 10 crunches for each session, there’s not going to be a lot of benefit to that. You might as well just leave them out at that point.

If you struggle to do even a few crunches, it may be better for you to pick a different exercise that works the abdominal core. Crunches aren’t for everyone, and you can find some crunch-less workouts that may work quite well for you.

How Many Crunches Should I Do a Day to Get Abs?

If you’re looking to get visible ab muscles, and you’re aiming for a four pack or a six pack, then you need to consider how many crunches you’re doing. Your core abdominal workout will make a difference in how quickly you achieve those goals.

What you need to know about how to get great looking abs is that your abs are already there. If you’re wondering, “How many crunches should I do a day to see results?” you need to realize that diet and exercise will work together to reveal the abs you already have.

It’s not a matter of getting abs, because they’re already there on your belly. It’s a matter of removing fat to expose the abs underneath.

The more fat you chip away at, the more visible your abs will become. As you get your body fat down lower and lower, you’ll start to see your abs appear. What that means is that any kind of exercise can help to reveal your abs.

Simply doing crunches or any other kind of ab exercise may not be as effective as you think it is. What helps more than anything is to fix your diet and make sure you’re exercising regularly and vigorously.

What some people will do when they’re trying to get impressive looking abs is 50 to 70 crunches a day.

That’s pretty common for people who are trying to define their abs. Others take it more of an extreme and do 100 crunches a day, and this really isn’t necessary.

How many crunches should I do with day to get ripped? If you want to get that ripped look, it’s really not about how many crunches you do. You can do 30 to 50 crunches a day and get great looking abs, but that’s not the only thing you need to consider. You also have to pay attention to your diet and the other exercises you are doing.

You can overwork your abdominals and wear them out, making some exercises difficult to do. That way, you may have to stop doing certain exercises, and this may slow down your progress.

How Many Crunches Should I Do a Day to Get a Flat Stomach?

If you want to get a flat belly, you need to be burning fat. How many ab crunches should I do a day to get a flat stomach in a month? It’s honestly not the crunches that are important. There’s no exercise you can do that will make you lose belly fat specifically.

You can’t target specific fat effectively despite what anecdotal evidence will say. The scientific evidence points to the fact that no exercise is really working in a particular part of the body where fat is drained from that part.

If you are curious as to how many ab crunches should I do a day, the answer lies more in nutrition. Cutting out greasy, sugary, and generally unhealthy food will help get rid of the fat, while getting plenty of protein will help develop your ab muscles.

How many crunches should I do in a day? The question is so commonly asked when it comes to getting a flat stomach, developing abs, and looking physically fit.

Crunches can help, and they’re a great way to work your abs, so they are an excellent addition to any workout regimen. 30 to 50 crunches a day is an excellent number to shoot for, especially if you’re doing three to five exercise sessions a day.

You should probably stick to three sessions if they are high intensity and five sessions for medium intensity workouts.

How many crunches should I do a day to lose weight? Crunches do help burn fat quickly, and if you want to increase to 60 or 70 crunches a day, then go for it.

As long as your body can handle it and you don’t feel excessive strain or a lot of pain the next day, you can aim for these higher numbers. That will help you burn fat faster and get the look you’re wanting. The more fat you burn, the quicker your belly will flatten out and look defined.

 

dark-eyelids
By Ellis Francis Skincare, Beauty ,

How to Get Rid of Dark Eyelids

When a person’s eyelids look dark, they may wonder if it is being caused by a health issue. They may be concerned that their dark eyelids make them look unhealthy or overtired.

They may also be worried about how it affects their appearance and what people may think of them when they see their dark eyelids.

How to get rid of dark eyelids? If you want to make your eyelids look naturally lighter again, you should know what’s causing the problem first of all.

Why Do You Have Dark Eyelids?

Knowing the cause of why your eyelids are looking darker will help you to treat it effectively. Not everybody’s eyelids get darker for the same reason, and there are a lot of different reasons why someone may suffer from this problem.

There’s usually not any risk to having dark eyelids, but they can be an indication that there is an underlying problem. Having dark eyelids won’t hurt your vision or cause you to have headaches, but if there’s a health problem that is making your eyes look that way, you should know about it.

Here are a few reasons why your eyelids may look dark:

  • Pregnancy
  • Lack of sleep
  • Inflammation leading to hyperpigmentation
  • A genetic condition
  • Melanocytosis
  • Drug use
  • Old age
  • Increasing blood vessels
  • Eye swelling
  • Stress

Simple and Natural Treatments

Now that you have some idea of what may be causing your eyelids to look dark, you may have a better idea of how to get rid of dark eyelids naturally. If you are simply overtired or stressed, getting sleep can help.

You might have an inclination is to what is causing your dark eyelids after you’ve read through the list above. You can test out your theory by checking to see if natural solutions will work.

Before medicating or talking to your doctor, if you don’t know for sure that you have a serious medical problem, it’s okay to simply try sleeping it off or reducing stress. For some people, though, natural remedies of simply sleeping or destressing might not be enough.

If those methods are not working for you, then you can look into some other options for treatment. You probably don’t want to be stuck with dark eyelids and may be looking for how to get rid of dark circles on eyelids that are affecting the way you look and how you feel about yourself.

The Next Step in Treatment

There is no recommended medical treatment for dark eyelids, as they are usually an indication of a different condition. Dark eyelids are typically a symptom of something else, so you wouldn’t usually treat them directly.

If you do want to know how to get rid of dark eyelids fast, there are a few treatment methods that doctors recommend beyond just getting some extra sleep.

If extra sleep doesn’t seem to be doing it and you still have dark eyelids, you can try reducing your salt intake. How much salt you take in can affect your water retention and puffiness, which can make your eyelids and the tissue around the eyes look unhealthy.

The dark pigmentation in your eyelids could be caused by excessive sun exposure. If that’s the case, you can apply sunscreen to help treat the problem.

It won’t make the eyelids lighten quickly, but it will keep them from getting darker and will help them to heal, since they will be under less stress and less risk for darkening.

How to get rid of dark circles on the eyelids and under eyes? Doctors also recommend that you try elevating your head during sleep and apply cold compresses to your eyes.

This can help to drain out excessive fluid around the eyes and eyelids and can improve blood flow and circulation to the area. Using a cold compress is great for inflammation as well, which could be a cause of eyelid darkening.

These are the same methods you can use for how to get rid of red eyelids, puffy eyes, and dark circles under eyes. That puffiness can be caused by excessive fluid buildup, stress, skin damage, and poor circulation. Trying these at-home treatments can make a big difference and keep you from having to make a trip to the doctor.

Making Lifestyle Changes

If you look at the list we gave you earlier at what may be causing dark eyelids, you can see a few things that could be affected by simply changing your lifestyle in small but important ways.

One of the more significant ones that’s going to help you in a lot of ways is dealing with substance abuse. This may not be a small change for some people, but it can make a big difference.

If harmful substances are what is affecting your health and causing dark eyelids, getting them out of your life can significantly improve your overall health.

It could be smoking, including marijuana use. It could be alcohol or one of the harder drugs. All of these can affect your circulation, your overall health, and your stress levels. You may have trouble getting adequate sleep if you use and abuse any of these kinds of substances.

By eliminating them from your life, you can make a big difference in your overall appearance. You can look healthier, more vibrant, and more well rested. This can definitely affect how dark your eyelids look, as their appearance can be affected by what the drugs are doing to you.

If it’s a lack of sleep or excessive stress that is causing dark eyelids, then you may need to make some changes to your sleep schedule.

Having a set time to go to bed and to wake up can make a big difference in how tired you feel and how much energy you have throughout the day. This can affect the way your eyes look and the amount of stress you have to deal with.

Simply by getting on a regular sleep schedule that gives you 6-8 hours of sleep every night can have a huge impact on how you look and how you feel. Having dark eyelids can just be the tip of the iceberg and indicate a bigger problem that may just require some extra sleep to fix.

Medical Treatments

How to get rid of dark circles on and around your eyelids if these other methods don’t work? You could have a medical condition that needs to be treated by a professional doctor. At-home treatments and simple lifestyle changes may not be enough to fix the underlying problem.

If you don’t know whether the problem is caused by a serious health issue and you’ve tried simple at-home treatments, you should definitely consider talking to your doctor about the problem. Your doctor may be able to detect health issues that you did not know of and prescribe medication and treatments that can help treat the root cause of the issue.

Some people will use bleaching agents to treat dark eyelids, but these can be very dangerous, particularly to the sensitive tissue of the eyes. It’s not a good idea to self-medicate or treat your dark eyelids with bleaching agents without seeking medical advice first. Your doctor may recommend that you simply take a vitamin or change your diet to ensure proper nutrition.

Changes in your melanin and skin health can affect how dark your eyelids look, and your doctor will be more effectively able to determine if that is the case.

Your doctor may also suggest chemical peels or other treatments that can help to lighten and brighten dark eyelids. Some people seek the advice of a cosmetic surgeon if there does not seem to be an easily treatable reason for dark eyelids.