Posts Tagged ‘Exercise’
Your motivation for starting a weight loss or exercise program will determine the success or failure you experience. You will only stick with something if you are doing it for the right reasons. Losing weight to please someone else is a nice thought but you will not stick with it long term because it isn’t your goal. Exercising to please another is also going to end with you quitting after a period of time. Set yourself up for long term success by starting your weight loss or exercise programs for the right reasons.
- Set goals that you want to achieve.
- Write those goals down and place them where you can review them regularly.
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Make your goals clear and measurable. (I want to lose weight is not a good goal. I want to drop 2 pant sizes in 6 months is a clearly stated goal.)
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If fat (weight) loss is your goal, get a caliper so you can measure your body fat. Scales measure weight and not your body fat percentage. There are skinny people with high fat levels. You will only be able to judge your progress by measuring your fat. Measuring fat is especially important when you incorporate strength training into your exercise routine because muscle weighs more than fat. The scale might show you heavier but the caliper might show you’ve lost fat which means your diet and exercise program is working.
The caliper is especially important if you aren’t seeing any changes over a two week period. Your body works to stabilize and as you enter a routine where your diet and exercise routines become the norm your body expects, you will level of or plateau. As soon as you see a plateau developing, you can adjust your diet and exercise routines so you continue towards your goal.
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Combine strength training and cardio training on alternating days so you don’t tire your muscles or get bored. When you include walking, jogging, swimming, weight lifting and other activities you enjoy into your exercise routine; you will be less likely to lose interest.
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Get a friend or family member to work with you as your moral support, workout partner, cheerleader and coach.
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Reward yourself when you reach your short term goals.
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Build flexibility into your diet and exercise programs so you don’t get bored. Eating the same thing repeatedly gets boring and we start looking at what we think we are missing. Don’t deprive yourself anything you really crave but acknowledge there will be more work required to compensate for straying. When starting your diet or exercise program focus on 80% compliance to it rather than 100%. Everyone will stray at some point. By acknowledging that to yourself and by keeping your goals in mind and where you can see them written, you’ll feel less stress when you do stray.
Staying motivated is easier when the reasons for your actions are ones you chose. Writing down your goals makes them easier to visualize, measuring your progress helps you stay focused on your goals, eating a variety of foods you enjoy and doing a variety of exercises help you stay on track towards your goals. Getting another person to support you and keep you honest gives you a little extra incentive to make your goals your reality. Building flexibility into your diet and exercise regime and rewarding yourself when you have small successes lets you acknowledge both slips and successes so you can easily get back on track towards your long term goal.
Disclosure of Material ConnectionPresented by Natural Remedies Products Staff - Natural Remedies Products
Ask Dr. Wayne Garland a specialist in natural remedies and natural products.
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Yes! People exercise for many reasons with a few being health, weight loss, weight management and pleasure. Whatever your reason is for exercise, you want to get the maximum benefit out of the time you spend exercising. You will not get the most out of your efforts without warming up and cooling down.
The Role of the Warm Up.
The stretching and warm up exercises you do before you start your full workout let you prepare your muscles and body for the changes that take place during strenuous activity. Exercising requires more fluids, more nutrients to the cells, more oxygen, a higher heart rate and an increase in respiration.
You should drink plenty of water about 20 minutes before you plan to exercise. You’ll lose water during your exercising so proper hydration before you start will help you prevent muscle cramps due to dehydration. Proper fluid levels before during and after exercising will let your body more efficiently deliver the oxygen and nutrients it needs.
Slowly stretching the muscles you’ll be using will loosen the muscles you’ll be using, loosen up the joints involved, prepares the nervous system for exercise and heightens your mental awareness and focus. Slowly stretch and hold your position for about 20 seconds before relaxing. Do not bounce or do a quick stretch and release because these resemble muscle contractions and you can actually cause damage to muscles or joints that aren’t naturally lubricated yet.
The kind of warm up you do should be influenced by the exercises you will be doing. Runners my do twists and extensions in place. Slow riding on a stationary bicycle may be another warm up method in addition to the twisting. Martial art participants may go through the movements used in slow motion to let the body remember and get acclimated to the moves. Weight lifters may start out doing the full number of reps they intend to do during their session but at half the weight that will be used during the peak. A second set of reps may be done at 80 percent of the full workout weight but only 2-3 reps. A third set at 90 percent with 2-3 reps will complete the warm up. Rest for about 30 seconds then do your full workout with the full weight load and your body will experience less stress and you’ll get the maximum benefit out of the workout.
Warming up before you exercise helps your body function at its best which means you burn the most calories and have a reduced risk of injury.
The Role of the Cool Down.
The cool down helps your body return to its normal blood flow, oxygen levels and heart rate to reduce the risk of muscle cramps or a heart attack.
Drink more water after you exercise. Water will help the body cool itself and help eliminate toxins.
Stretch your core muscles plus the muscle groups used during your exercise and hold each position for at least 60 seconds during your cool down. This stretching session while your muscles are heated helps cool them and increases your flexibility. Do not forget to stretch you neck while doing your warm up and cool down. You may not realize it but these muscles will be tensed during your exercise and they deserve the same stretching attention as every other muscle group.
Your cool down stretches also give your mind and body a chance to relax from their focused and stressed states to their normal working levels. You may find these cool down stretches as a way to relieve your tired mind and body so you can more fully enjoy the workout you just completed.
Getting the most that you can out of your exercise program you’ve chosen is your goal and warming up before exercising and cooling down after that exercise will help you get the most benefit for the time spent which should be the most rewarding and pleasurable.
If you really want to take control of your exercise program to burn fat and gain muscle, I recommend the book Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle written by Tom Venuto who is a natural body builder, certified personal trainer, certified strength and conditioning specialist and nutritionist.
Disclosure of Material ConnectionPresented by Natural Remedies Products Staff - Natural Remedies Products
Ask Dr. Wayne Garland a specialist in natural remedies and natural products.
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Diets do not work BUT many people think a change of life style equals you on a diet. This article discusses how you can turn that belief into success.
I’m betting you’ve tried one or more diets in your life and as soon as you quit the diet you gained back what you’d lost and more. There is a very good reason for this.
Your diet probably reduced your caloric intake by 50 percent or more. Your body saw this drastic food intake reduction as starvation and stored part of everything you ate as fat and burned the lean muscle tissue in your body for energy.
As soon as you started eating at your previous levels, you started rebuilding your muscle mass and that plus the increased fat you gained during your diet pushed your weight higher.
This means fat loss cannot equal you on a diet.
The correct path would have been to reduce your calorie intake by no more than 20 percent and to increase your level of exercise. (I heard that groan.)
What you may not know is even minimal exercise, when done properly and consistently, helps increase your metabolism and active muscles burn fat when the calorie intake has been even slightly lowered.
Modestly reducing the calorie intake plus increased exercise is a double whammy that forces your body to burn fat. Fat loss is your undeclared goal anyway.
Ignore your scale while eating less and exercising more because lean muscle weighs more than the fat you are losing.
An additional benefit to those that choose an aggressive resistance training program is your muscles become healthier and their cellular age may more closely resemble the muscle health of a young adult.
Good nutrition through diet, vitamin and mineral supplements, increased water consumption, cardio workouts and resistance (strength) training will equal the fat loss you are seeking.
Most of us don’t understand good nutrition, portion control, eating 5-6 meals a day, what exercises to do, when to exercise and where all of this information can be found. I recommend you check out the NutriSystems Advanced program because they offer not only the foods in the right portions but counseling, support, a DVD on exercising and more so you on a diet can equal a successful lifestyle change.
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Ask Dr. Wayne Garland a specialist in natural remedies and natural products.
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Lowering blood pressure without drugs is possible if you know how and are willing to take action.
High blood pressure is called ‘The Silent Killer‘ for a very good reason. Most people do not feel any symptoms with high blood pressure. Unless it is discovered during a physical. Most people learn about the problem when they have a stroke, another medical problem associated with high blood pressure or they die from the medical problem their high blood pressure caused.
The series of articles on minerals talked about the role the different minerals play in your nutrition and health. Several of the minerals either directly or indirectly play a role in raising our lowering blood pressure. The right minerals in the right form are acquired through the right supplements and a good diet. The role these minerals and water play in maintaining your overall health cannot be stressed enough.
Yoga and other cardio workouts help reduce your stress which also helps in lowering blood pressure when performed properly and consistently.
Your doctor can write you a prescription for expensive drugs to control your high blood pressure and these drugs often come with side effects as bad as if not worse than your hypertension. Most doctors cannot teach you enough natural methods for lowering blood pressure because the traditional medical training does not include enough classes on nutrition if they include any at all. Put bluntly, your doctor does not know how to naturally lower blood pressure.
You can find out about minerals and some information on nutrition on this site but we do not have a complete and easy to system on how to naturally lower blood pressure that is free.
When we encounter quality and well researched products like the Silent Killer Exposed ebook we recommend it rather than taking the time to duplicate something that has been done well. Lowering blood pressure without drugs and their side effects and the quality of the product or service should be your primary focus.
Disclosure of Material ConnectionPresented by Natural Remedies Products Staff - Natural Remedies Products
Ask Dr. Wayne Garland a specialist in natural remedies and natural products.
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