Features & Benefits
Linking Stress with Fitness Targets
Everyone has thoughts about upgrading themselves and improving their fitness, health and even indirectly their confidence levels. It is however far too easy to lose motivation, especially if you are expecting drastic and short term results. Its a hard truth but changing your body shape, fitness, diet and lifestyle is something that takes time. Realistically 'diets' can help you loose weight, if you start eating less but continue to be as active as before your body will loose weight and depending on the extremeness of the diet it can do so quite quickly.
Diet
BUT there are a few BIG problems with this firstly any crash diet is likely to see you losing the wrong type of weight. If you suddenly cut out all the fat from your diet your body will start burning your body fat in its place right? Well sadly NO this is not really true. If you starve your body of fat it is more likely to hold onto the body fat you already have as its supply has been cut of, put simply it rations! You may well loose weight but it is likely to be muscle wastage (this is called atrophy) and is especially true if you have quite a lot of muscle to start with.
The other big problem is even if you loose weight as soon as you stop the diet you will put it straight back on again! what you really need to do is change your lifestyle and diet (as in your life diet not a diet period) if you eat badly it is almost impossible to just change just like that, the key is to start small and make little changes that are realistic and you can stick to. For example start by cutting crisps out of your daily diet or replacing them with a baked alternative, once you have got used to this change make another one say eat 3 average sized meals + 2 - 3 snacks per day as opposed to gorging yourself on 3 massive platefuls! This will keep your metabolic rate up and means your body will be burning calories more consistently.
Other than diet the main factors which can effect you reaching your targets are lack of sleep and stress!
Stress and Worry
Stress is an unavoidable fact of life, if your lucky it will be infrequent but its likely it could be a daily inevitability if your job involved pressure and stress. When you are stressed you body releases a hormone called cortisol and reduces the amount of testosterone that your body produces which is a terrible combination which will stop you from putting on muscle or making cardiovascular fitness advancements. This is similar too, and can be linked with, lack of sleep.
TIG Welding
Any parts of this product which have required joining (particularly the stainless steel frame of the steam shower trays) have been expertly TIG welded to ensure long lasting and top quality welds leading to a top spec product.
What is TIG Welding?
Tungsten Inert Gas welding (also known as ‘Gas Tungsten Arc Welding’) is a welding technique which uses gases such as Argon and Helium, or a mixture of the two, to join two pieces of metal together. These particular gasses, with this technique, ensure a faster and deeper weld which penetrates the metal further leading to a more solid weld.
The TIG welding method became popular and useful in the early 1940s and, as a result, has greatly propelled the use of aluminium for welding and structural processes. TIG welding is commonly used for both high quality and manual welding.
During the process of TIG welding, an arc is formed between a pointed tungsten electrode and the area to be welded. As a result of the gas shield, a clean weld is formed. This prevents oxidization from occurring.
There are a number of welding joins including:
- Butt Joint -
Two pieces of metal are welded together along the seems - Lap Joint -
Two pieces of metal overlap are joined on top of one another - Corner Joint –
Two pieces of metal are held at a 90 degree angle and joined along the seem - T-Joint -
Required a filler rod, on piece of metal is placed on top of another with a 90 degree angle at either side (forming a T shape)
Why Stainless Steel?
Steel is well known for its strength and durability however, there are a number of different types of steel including crucible steel, carbon steel and of course stainless steel.
Stainless steel, also known as 'inox steel' and 'corrosion resistant steel' (CRES), consists of between 10.5% and 11% chromium by mass. Carbon steel rusts when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film (the rust) is active and accelerates corrosion by forming more iron oxide. Stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to form a passive film of chromium oxide, which prevents further surface corrosion and blocks corrosion from spreading into the metal's internal structure.
This makes stainless steel perfect for the construction of many of our bathroom appliances frames as it is just as strong as standard steel but it never corrodes, so it wont rust or oxidise meaning it will last (almost) forever.
Further Reading
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-tig-welding.htm
Thermostatic Mixing Valves – TMV
What is it/what does it do?
A thermostatic mixing valve is a device which blends hot and cold water sources to ensure that the distributed water is of a constant temperature. As well as having the great advantage of ensuring constant water temperature the thermostatic mixing valve (TMV) is also an important safety feature on all of our products as they are designed to automatically shut off the water flow if either the hot or cold water supply were to fail. This ensures that the user cannot be scalded by extremely hot water neither can they suffer thermal shock from extremely cold water.
Everyone will have unfortunately experienced a rapid change in shower temperature due to a drop in water pressure or temperature cause by somebody flushing a toilet or opening another tap in the house. This is a thing of the past with TMV’s as the valve automatically compensates for variations in supply pressures or temperatures so as to maintain a safe temperature.
There are three main types of TMV’s, they are:
- Heat Source – used in water based central heating systems
- Group Control – control the flow of water to different household appliances
- Point of Use – used in individual appliances
Point of use thermostatic mixing valves are the type which our products come equipped with. They are often referred to as ‘thermostatic taps’ or ‘thermostat valves’
All of our thermostatic mixers comply with BS EN 1111 or BS EN 1287 regulations and are of the highest quality.
Further Reading
Residual Current Device (RCD)
In any environment where there is a risk of improper current flow RCD’s or ‘Residual Current Devices’ should be used. This includes the garden and garage where items such as lawn mowers, trimmers, saws and drills are often used and hence heightens the risk of accidently severing electrical cables. The kitchen and bathroom are also at risk due to their damp conditions.
These are also known as ‘trip switches’ or ‘safety switches’ and their purpose is to detect when the electrical current is imbalanced and then disconnect the circuit in a matter of milliseconds before any damage can be caused to the user. The most serious example being lethal electrical shocks, thankfully the RCD can break the circuit faster than the time required for the current to cause the shock.
There are four main types of this device:
- Plug RCD’s -
These are wired directly onto the end of an appliances power cord in place of the standard fused plug. - Adapter RCD’s -
These plug directly into a wall socket, conventional plugs can then be plugged into the adapter protecting the device. These are portable and can be moved around the home - Socket RCD’s -
Instead of a conventional plug socket, this one features a test and reset button and are normally seen in shed or garages - Whole Home RCD’s -
These are wired in at the meter and will protect all the items in your house
Our products come with Plug RCD’s which are wired directly into the appliance to ensure that should anything go wrong regarding the current of the device you will remain safe and unharmed.
Further Reading
Music
This product has in-built speakers so that you can listen to your favourite songs and/or radio station whilst you relax under the water. Fully waterproof and safety checked you have no need to worry about any electrical issues.
With volume and track selection handled by the showers control panel you will be able to hear exactly what you want when and as loud as you want it.
Why Music?
The brain is a very impressive tool which can be affected in so many different ways, sometimes without us even really realising. I am sure you have previously experienced a kind of natural high or euphoric experience when you have been in a good mood and one of your favourite songs has come on the radio or your MP3 player and heightened your mood and happiness? Well music can also alter your state of mind as well as just enhancing it.
Music can be great therapy, it is great for relaxing and coming down from a busy day before you go to bed. Alternately you could help yourself to wake up and get energised in the morning by playing a more upbeat track in the shower before work. Music therapy is becoming more and more popular for treating problems such as insomnia and stress, why not couple stress reliever’s together by listening to your favourite chill out track in the shower.
How does it work?
Research has shown that your brainwaves can be affected by the tempo of music. If you are listening to an upbeat or fast paced track you will experience heightened alertness and concentration whereas if listening to slower music you will be calmed and soothed.
With these changes in brain waves comes other bodily changes such as reduced heart rate and suppression of feelings such as depression and anxiety. Finally music can be seen to lower blood pressure which eases muscle tension and helps you to relax.
Further Reading
http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-Of-Music-Therapy&id=649910
http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/music_therapy
http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/musicrelaxation.htm