Monday, October 28, 2013

To Succeed In Your Fitness Program



In your quest for fitness, strive for progress, not perfection.


 To Succeed In Your Fitness ProgramYou need to Motivate Yourself


 1. Set your goals
With paper in hand, write down reasonable goals to follow and date each goal in the future.  Example: Lose 10 lbs by (date), reduce waste measurement by 1 inch by (date).
2. This is your time - no interruptions by cell phone, conversations,  too little time.
Plan your workouts as time allows, but try so save one full hour for yourself.  If you're really serious about fitness, leave the cell phone in the locker with you being in the gym.  Concentrate  on what you're doing.  It's not the time that counts but rather what you do with it.  
3.  Have fun during your workout.
No matter what form of exercise you do, what do you like to do for the long run?  Perhaps you may consider one type of exercising along with another.  Example:  Jog three times a week and strength train for three alternate days.  Variety improves the attitude and interest in exercising.
4.  Consistency is the name of the game.
Plan your routine for long term practice.  If you stop or interrupt your fitness plan, how will you make up for the time you lost doing other things?  
5. Intensity training.
After a period of conditioning you should start increasing the work load you place on yourself to reach a higher level of development.  Let's say you are a beginner, deconditioned and somewhat of a couch potato.  If you are basically in good health and get check ups by your medical doctor as required, what was a little difficult to do as a beginner, became easier as you progressed in your fitness routine. All forms of physical exercise requires an increasing intensity to progress.  If you do the same type of exercise without pushing yourself, you remain in a static physical condition.  If you want to reach your goals, increased energy and effort is required.
6. Attitude.
Like everything we do in life, our attitude influences our happiness, smile (or lack of it), stress, work, workouts, and many other conditions. Strive to have a positive attitude.  If something bothers you, and you have no control to influence it's outcome, practice ignoring it.  Negative attitudes case stress without a payoff!
7. Keep an open mind and fill it with good information.
If you plan a fitness routine consider a variety of different exercises, working on the whole body and not only a selected area (abs as an example).  Look at fitness and exercise books, talk to trainers, and look in the mirror to see how you are progressing.  Check for flabby areas, pot belly's, weak muscles, poor balance.  Obtain and keep copies of your medical records and read them!  Check your blood counts and see if they are within normal limits.  Before visiting your doctor, make a list of questions you would like him to answer.  Bring in an updated list and amounts of all medications you take.
8. Year in - year out.
Please remember that you, and only you, live in your body.  Keep it healthy by good nutrition, exercise, adequate sleep and enjoyment in each and every day.  It will reduce your aches and pains, chronic disease, and medical bills.  Your fitness routine should be planned for day to day and year to year practice.  Enroll in Your College of Fitness.









"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life.  There are no limits. There are only plateaus; and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."
- Bruce Lee


A Cavity From A Dentist!


About a month ago I awoke in the early morning and it was very quiet.  No one was moving, not even a mouse.  It was dark and a good time to think.  What could I give to readers of this blog to help them to remember the essentials in a fitness program?  Here's what the final result was:
  • Attitude.  A positive attitude is an absolute necessity in any venture one enters.  If you don't enjoy what your doing the chances of continuing on diminishes and interest is lost.
  • Consistency.  A fitness program, to be effective, must be practiced daily.  Attention to diet, exercise, adequate sleep, should become second nature for you.
  • Variation.  Who wants the same routine day after day without some variation of the exercises, diet, and, perhaps, location?
  • Tempo.  Do slow movements while exercising and concentrate on form. Use less work load (weights) and speed up the exercising. Vary the tempo to increase your strength and endurance.
  • Intensity.  As you progress in exercising you have to increase the intensity of the various movements.  If you don't increase the intensity you enter the plateau zone.  Muscles respond to working harder and that's how the body becomes firmer, with less fat, stronger, and more youthful.
  • Year To Year.  If you are serious about your fitness program, plan on following it as if it was eating and sleeping . ...............for the rest of your life!
Take the first letter of the six "essentials", change their order, and you can get a 
Cavity



Monday, October 14, 2013

Movement vs. Exercise




UA-47062478-1

The secret of getting ahead is getting started

Movement vs. Exercise

For anyone that exercises or teaches exercise either as a trainer in a gym or as an instructor in a school, one has to know the difference between movement and exercise.  Unfortunately, too many who "exercise" do movements and think they are benefiting from it.  

It is not easy to find a definition of exercise and it usually is defined by its goals; provide increasing strength, endurance, flexibility, etc.  Exercise is really movement of one's whole body (as in running or swimming) or parts of the body (as in a bicep curl or as in a deep knee bend).  It starts with low effort and progresses to increased intensity and fatigue of the muscles being utilized.  The difference between movement and exercise is the extent of exertion and intensity that is involved.  Also exercise is performed with critical care in execution and form.  Movement is much less concerned in form, time, intensity, and concern about body changes over a period of time.
  • Exercise is movement - plus.  It involves the coordination of nerves, muscles, resistance, time, endurance, intensity and effort.  It starts with low effort and progresses to increased effort, intensity, and fatigue of the muscles being utilized.
  • Exercised can be characterized by an increase in breathing rate, heart rate, perspiration, energy expenditure (calories), and increased intensity of movement to the extent of failure to  perform more repetitions.  There are also internal changes within the body involving the nervous system, hormonal changes, chemical changes from the period food is eaten and all the way through the digestive track.  To get an idea of whats involved go to you browser, (google search, bing,) and post: Kreb's cycle with equations.  It will blow your mind!
  • An example is a walk around the block.  It is definitely movement of the total body but not necessarily to the extent of it being an exercise.  Realize that productive exercise is intensified movement characterized by what is mentioned above.
A beginner should learn what and how to do the movements to make them into an exercising procedure.  Like most everything else in life that is of value, one has to pay the price to advance to a goal.  In a workout, the results you get are totally dependent and propotional to the amount of effort you expend, but more about that in an upcoming posting.

How do you know if you are exercising enough or too much?  How do you feel when your workout period is over? How about the next day? If you feel like you put in a good effort, with increasing intensity, and follow through each exercise to fatigue and your last repetition is really your last repetition that you can possible do, you've done enough!  The next day you probably will feel stiff, have some muscle tenderness, may not be quit as limber, and may be sensitive to pressure on some spots around your body.  Good for you! You did it right the last time you worked out.  Give yourself a day's rest or work on different set of muscles in you exercise daily.

Too much exercise will reduce your progress and slow the attainment of your exercising goals.  If you exercise properly, eat intelligently with the consumption of a well-rounded diet, and get enough sleep and rest, you shouldn't run into any trouble.