Friday, March 29, 2013

Tips To Help You Accomplish Your Fitness Goals

By Cythia Seppala


Do you make plans to exercise and then never follow through? Do you always take the easy way to get somewhere?

Never lift weights for more than an hour. If you continue lifting for any longer than that, your body will automatically activate a natural defense mechanism, which causes muscle-wasting and fatigue. Keep yourself on a strict time limit to prevent losing what muscle mass you have worked so hard to gain.

There are alternative methods to being physically fit besides the standard of weight lifting and cardiovascular work. Sports such as swimming and basketball can give your body a good workout by exercising all of your body parts, and you can have fun while doing it.

Be sure to give yourself enough playtime to stay fit and healthy in body, mind and spirit. Spend time with your friends or just go out among people to exchange greetings and smiles. A little running, walking or biking in a park or any other busy, active place is great for lifting spirits and inspiring your workout as well as your life.

Exhale when you're at the top of your sit-up. By controlling your breathing while you perform crunches you can help to both regulate how hard you are working out the muscles and work out your muscles in total. If you don't breathe enough while you're performing crunches you may over-extend; breathe too much and you'll easily become winded and won't reach your maximum potential.

Use your smart phone to set alarms that remind you to get up from the desk and climb a set of stairs. Even a little bit of exercise is better than no exercise. In our harried day to day lives, however, it is sometimes difficult to remind ourselves to do it. Exercise during the work day will benefit you both physically and mentally. Your work will likely benefit as well.

Exercise is also a great workout for the brain. Your brain stays active during exercise which benefits regular brain functions. Keeping an active brain helps to prevent cognitive decline, dementia and memory loss. It's also proven that exercise can help slow the progression of brain disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

To get immediate results from your workout routine, try doing circuit training. This technique involves a series of rapid moves between different exercises with no rest break in between. You might go from squats to pushups to jumping jacks. Circuit training lets you burn fat while strengthening your muscles, so you get faster results.

When you are trying to reach your fitness goals, it can be very useful to have an exercise buddy. Each one of you can spur the other on to stick with your scheduled program of exercise. On a day when you might otherwise skip your workout, you may find yourself more motivated to exercise if you know someone else is counting on you.

Fall is a great time to go shopping for novel fitness routines through your gym. Fitness classes tend to follow a schedule similar to schools, and the new classes usually begin at the end of summer. Getting involved in a class can be a great way to add some variety to your fitness regimen.

It may sound strange, but pushing yourself literally until you are about to fall down from exhaustion can help build your stamina and willpower. The easier you give up, the sooner your body will fatigue. Instead, push yourself to do more and go farther before taking a break and you'll start feeling less and less fatigue. You'll be surprised at how much effort your body is capable of.

Keep track of your walking throughout the day. You would be surprised at how many steps you take or don't take. Set a daily goal, and stick to it. Ideally, you should take about 10,000 steps each day. At the end of the day, write down the number of steps you took. If you didn't achieve your goal, write down why.

Varying your exercise routine can help keep you engaged and give you better results. It's easy to become bored when you're doing the same workout every single day, and that means you won't see the results you want. Mix up your exercises and do something a little different each day to keep yourself focused.

Water is the best liquid that you can drink before, during and after your workouts. Instead of consuming a protein drink, which is packed with calories and sugar, drink water instead. Water will help to flush the toxins out of your body so that you can feel great during your workout.

Jumping jacks can be a great way of getting your aerobic heart rate up. They get the blood rushing through kinetic movement and help to stretch your body minutely when you go up and down. It's not just an exercise for kids; there are major benefits to any kinetic exercise that is easy, safe to do and gets your heart racing.

Many people think that by only dieting they will be able to get the body that they want. Other people think that this can be done purely through exercise. The truth is that exercise will help to tone your body, but only a good diet can help to lose the pounds.

A counter intuitive tip when it comes to fitness is to not overdo it. Perhaps you don't have the same problem as most people and you are super motivated and you go to the gym nearly every day. This is great, except sometimes you may push hard, end up injured, and not getting in any sort of fitness related activity.

Consistency, consistency, consistency! These are the hallmarks of ANY fitness routine. If you can maintain your plan you will succeed. Use these tips to find new ways to work out or new reasons to keep up your motivation. Remember, we only get one body; let's treat it right.




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