Being active
Being active offers so many health benefits such as preventing diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Unfortunately most of us are not as active as we should be. Therefore, we are at risk of developing these conditions later on in life. However, there is also a growing number of children that have adult illnesses due to inactivity.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 50% of Americans are not physically active which is concerning because engaging in physical activity on a regular basis can drastically improve our health.
If you are ready to get healthy, the importance of exercise cannot be overstated. Exercise so important for your health that the American Heart Association recommends 30 mins of moderate intensity exercise five times a week.
Most people dread exercising, citing inconvenience and time as the reason for being inactive. Some just hate it altogether. However, you might fall in one of the groups of inactive people for whatever reason, but you are now ready to get started. You do not have to step foot in a gym to get active nor does physical activity only mean exercise.
If you are going to engage in an exercise routine or a fitness program, you must be certain that you get the best results from your time, money, and effort as much as possible. Choosing the right fitness exercise program is the key to success. But this depends on your goals as well.
Before you get started with some random exercise, you must first consider if it incorporates all or most elements of fitness. A good program should contain routines that improve your cardio. There should also be a weight training routine, and other components should include mobility, stability, and flexibility training. Do not forget to look for and factor in warm and cool down.
The cardio part of your fitness exercise program should include a range of exercises that require considerable effort to get your heart up from baseline. Exercises such as walking, running, skipping, jogging, biking, swimming, skiing, dancing and other sporting activities are all types of cardio to consider. Cardio improves your cardiac and resp function and also burns fat. To achieve some results, cardio should be done at least fives times a week for optimal fitness.
Weight training should be done twice a week. You should target your major muscle groups and take a rest day in between. The amount of muscle group your target in a day depends on your weekly workout schedule. If you plan to workout two days per week, then you will be covering half your body one-day ad the other half of your body on the next day. Stretching should be included in your workout, or you can allocate an entire workout session to stretching alone such as yoga. To get the most of your work out and avoid injury make sure your body is primed and warm before stretching. You can create your own workout routine by following proper workout technique and principles. The muscles listed below should be the main focus of your strength training.
• Chest. Pectorals Major/minor.
• Legs & Calves. Quadriceps / Hamstrings / Gastrocnemius.
• Back. Latissimus Dori / Trapezius.
• Stomach. Abdominal
Besides how often your train your muscles, how you train them will also determine your results. If you want to gain strength and power your training protocol will be different than if you want to build muscle. The exercise movements will be the same, however, the repitiion of each exercise, the weight, set and rest between each will be different. Therefore when you are looking for exercises or workout make sure you are selecting one that is based on your goals. One exercise plan does not fit all workout goals.
Choose the exercises that you like to do this way you will stick to. After about 3 months of consistently working the same program you can then switch to a new program.
If you dread exercising that much, consider buying a treadmill or a stationary bicycle and positioning it right in front of your television set. If you are a reader, listening to music and books can be beneficial.
Choosing the right fitness exercise routine should be a process that should enable you to grow and love the whole idea of keeping fit. An exercise, or a combination of activities, can be considered good for weight loss, or keeping fit but it also depends on your body composition and your level of fitness.
A workout session that could be termed as a good fitness exercise routine for one person might just be pre-workout for another. If you are overweight then any physical movement will burn calories, even climbing the stairs repeatedly will make burn extra calories. Just don’t eat the extra calories you burn. Many people notice an increase in their appetite when they start exercising. It is very easy to regain the extra calories you burn by eating a slice of pizza.
Where it begins to get tricky is when you have lost a certain amount of weight, and your fitness level has increased, simple physical movements as climbing the staircase will not suffice. Your body adapts, and you will have to exert additional effort by increasing the intensity of the exercises and intervals in which you do them.
CONCLUSION
If you cannot afford a trainer or dont like the workouts available then you can create your won. You can pick and choose from the various free ones on the web. Be creative when planning a fitness exercise routine and remember to make it more fun at the beginning so you can stick to it. . Understand your body and set challenging but reasonable goals.