Calorie Charts and Calculators |
Exercise is a must for good long-term health. Exercise has many benefits including improving cardiovascular health, muscle tone and burning fat. One important thing to keep in mind is not to over do it. Exercise at your level of fitness. If you are just starting an exercise program or haven't exercised in longer than few days, you will need to start out slowly so you won't over stress your body. If you work out too hard, you risk injuries which will either keep you from exercising for a while or cause permanent damage. For example, say you haven't exercised in a week or more and want start exercising again. You might have jogged and walked before, but doing that now is not a good idea, what you should do is start out just walking at a pace that is not sluggish or too uncomfortable. Work up to the level of exercise you did before, this could take about a week or more. Add a little more intensity or time to your workout as your level of fitness progresses. Motivation One thing you could do that may help you get through a workout is to focus not on the process but a goal such as doing some task that involves exercise. For example if you're stretching try to touch your nose to your knee instead of focusing on the stretching itself. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to touch your nose to your knee, just try to, but not so hard you injure yourself, the idea is simply to get a good stretch indirectly by trying to do something else. You can apply this concept to many or all exercises. I've only gotten a good weight resistence workout when I wasn't really even trying to. I used to work out with my weights but I wasn't doing it good enough because I was focusing on the process and trying to do it directly which just didn't work for me. If I'm trying to do something else that makes my muscles sore I get a really good workout. Doing yoga, trying to do most of the positions in the book (which isn't recommended if you're a beginner) made me really sore for a few days, I wasn't trying to workout my muscles at all, I was trying to stretch but the next day I felt like I'd spent all day at gym working out on all those muscle machines! The best thing you can do is be creative when it comes to exercise. Make up exercises or games, activities, etc that involve exercise. Get your mind focused on something else. Weight Training The most important element of fitness and weight loss is building and maintaining lean muscle mass. Lifting weights a few days a week has many benefits. You don't necessarily have to get big and bulky, you can simply become toned. You can workout with weights regularly without looking like a big body builder. Check out this article about weight training myths. I think in a year you can build 10 pounds of muscle (I may be wrong about this), it may or may not sound like much to you, but did you know that 10 pounds of muscle will burn 500 calories a day? What is your current daily caloric intake (or do you know)? Imagine being able to add 500 calories to that! By building lean muscle mass, you increase your metabolism. We lose a pound of muscle every year after 25 and gain a pound of fat. By building and maintaing muscle you will prevent this and you will also fight against the long term effects of gravity on the body. Building muscle is the best thing you can do for yourself. Visit this site for weight lifting tips. Exercise Tips: If you want to continue making progress you must vary your workout. Do different activities throught the week rather than the same thing over and over. Don't limit yourself to just one type of workout such as cardio. You will have much better results if you do cardio, weight training and stretching, for example, walking, weight lifting and yoga. With weight training if you want to keep improving, you must increase the intensity. Push your muscles beyond their physical capacity to the point of muscle failure when you cannot lift anymore. You should give yourself 48 hours between intense weight training sessions. Workout in the morning on an empty stomach, this will force your body to burn fat stores instead of food you just ate. Or you can workout after a weight training session as your muscles will burn more fat. On resting days, do low-intensity, light activities like yoga or tai chi. How I Make Walking Fun If you have trouble getting yourself to go on that daily walk, get yourself a jog-proof diskman, it makes walking fun and time passes by so fast you wouldn't believe it. I like to imagine being on adventures, this really makes time pass by quickly. If you do this, however, you must find a very safe place to walk, a place with little or no traffic where you don't have to cross any roads. If you're close to a street you should walk against traffic. I've actually looked forward to these walks and I've done them way more often than I used to. I've also noticed that listening to music dramatically decreases the anxiety I used to always have when walking, I actually feel a little more empowered and confident, it really takes the edge off of my anxiety. I wear a fanny pack to carry my diskman in, and while it may not look very cool, it comes in very handy. I don't trust the belt clips to keep it fastened to me during exercise and because my exercise clothes aren't stout enough to hold it. I've also seen something like a fanny pack which is made for this purpose, I haven't been able to find it though, but a regular one works just fine. I use small cd packets to hold extra cds, they fit in just right. When it comes to headphones, I like to go with the most comfortable ones I have, as long as they aren't big and bulky. I've tried those real cheap earbuds but they don't fit comfortably in my ear. Take my advice, look for headphones/earbuds that are comfortable not cheap, because the 2-10 dollar savings isn't worth it if you end up not using them or suffering through their poor quality and discomfort |
Exercise |
Exercise is a must for good long-term health. Exercise has many benefits including improving cardiovascular health, muscle tone and burning fat. One important thing to keep in mind is not to over do it. Exercise at your level of fitness. If you are just starting an exercise program or haven't exercised in longer than few days, you will need to start out slowly so you won't over stress your body. If you work out too hard, you risk injuries which will either keep you from exercising for a while or cause permanent damage. For example, say you haven't exercised in a week or more and want start exercising again. You might have jogged and walked before, but doing that now is not a good idea, what you should do is start out just walking at a pace that is not sluggish or too uncomfortable. Work up to the level of exercise you did before, this could take about a week or more. Add a little more intensity or time to your workout as your level of fitness progresses. Motivation One thing you could do that may help you get through a workout is to focus not on the process but a goal such as doing some task that involves exercise. For example if you're stretching try to touch your nose to your knee instead of focusing on the stretching itself. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to touch your nose to your knee, just try to, but not so hard you injure yourself, the idea is simply to get a good stretch indirectly by trying to do something else. You can apply this concept to many or all exercises. I've only gotten a good weight resistence workout when I wasn't really even trying to. I used to work out with my weights but I wasn't doing it good enough because I was focusing on the process and trying to do it directly which just didn't work for me. If I'm trying to do something else that makes my muscles sore I get a really good workout. Doing yoga, trying to do most of the positions in the book (which isn't recommended if you're a beginner) made me really sore for a few days, I wasn't trying to workout my muscles at all, I was trying to stretch but the next day I felt like I'd spent all day at gym working out on all those muscle machines! The best thing you can do is be creative when it comes to exercise. Make up exercises or games, activities, etc that involve exercise. Get your mind focused on something else. Weight Training The most important element of fitness and weight loss is building and maintaining lean muscle mass. Lifting weights a few days a week has many benefits. You don't necessarily have to get big and bulky, you can simply become toned. You can workout with weights regularly without looking like a big body builder. Check out this article about weight training myths. I think in a year you can build 10 pounds of muscle (I may be wrong about this), it may or may not sound like much to you, but did you know that 10 pounds of muscle will burn 500 calories a day? What is your current daily caloric intake (or do you know)? Imagine being able to add 500 calories to that! By building lean muscle mass, you increase your metabolism. We lose a pound of muscle every year after 25 and gain a pound of fat. By building and maintaing muscle you will prevent this and you will also fight against the long term effects of gravity on the body. Building muscle is the best thing you can do for yourself. Visit this site for weight lifting tips. Exercise Tips: If you want to continue making progress you must vary your workout. Do different activities throught the week rather than the same thing over and over. Don't limit yourself to just one type of workout such as cardio. You will have much better results if you do cardio, weight training and stretching, for example, walking, weight lifting and yoga. With weight training if you want to keep improving, you must increase the intensity. Push your muscles beyond their physical capacity to the point of muscle failure when you cannot lift anymore. You should give yourself 48 hours between intense weight training sessions. Workout in the morning on an empty stomach, this will force your body to burn fat stores instead of food you just ate. Or you can workout after a weight training session as your muscles will burn more fat. On resting days, do low-intensity, light activities like yoga or tai chi. How I Make Walking Fun If you have trouble getting yourself to go on that daily walk, get yourself a jog-proof diskman, it makes walking fun and time passes by so fast you wouldn't believe it. I like to imagine being on adventures, this really makes time pass by quickly. If you do this, however, you must find a very safe place to walk, a place with little or no traffic where you don't have to cross any roads. If you're close to a street you should walk against traffic. I've actually looked forward to these walks and I've done them way more often than I used to. I've also noticed that listening to music dramatically decreases the anxiety I used to always have when walking, I actually feel a little more empowered and confident, it really takes the edge off of my anxiety. I wear a fanny pack to carry my diskman in, and while it may not look very cool, it comes in very handy. I don't trust the belt clips to keep it fastened to me during exercise and because my exercise clothes aren't stout enough to hold it. I've also seen something like a fanny pack which is made for this purpose, I haven't been able to find it though, but a regular one works just fine. I use small cd packets to hold extra cds, they fit in just right. When it comes to headphones, I like to go with the most comfortable ones I have, as long as they aren't big and bulky. I've tried those real cheap earbuds but they don't fit comfortably in my ear. Take my advice, look for headphones/earbuds that are comfortable not cheap, because the 2-10 dollar savings isn't worth it if you end up not using them or suffering through their poor quality and discomfort |
">
">
">
">
Calorie Charts and Calculators |
