Category Archives: exercise

Don’t Skip the Warm Up

When you have to fit an exercise routine into your very busy schedule, you might be tempted to simply skip the warm up routine. Don’t skip the warm up! Without it you could getting injured while working out. Three words: don’t do that.

When you skip your warm up, you are not only putting your body at risk for personal injury, but you are also making the workout more difficult and less effective. For the best results, it is important to warm up every time you work out.

Warming up doesn’t have to take up the time you allowed for exercise for that day. In fact, a good workout only has to be 5 minutes long to do its job. It doesn’t have to be boring either; you can mix up a number of great moves to make your warm up as fun as the rest of your exercising.

Remember that a good warm up gets all of your muscles moving, even if you don’t think that you’ll be intensely working out a set of muscles on any particular day. Warming up is also important regardless of if you’re doing cardiovascular exercises or lifting weights.

The moves you do for a warm up should not be difficult or make you break a sweat. The main goal of the warm up isn’t to become a part of your workout, but simply to slowly move muscles that you haven’t really thought about all day to wake them up. Good moves, therefore, include things like jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, and jumping rope.

A good warm-up can also including slowly stretching your muscles in a variety of ways, although this is usually more effective for a cool-down. Also consider exercises that work on balance and form in order to prepare you for the exercises you will be doing in the workout.

If you’re really short on time, why not try warming up before you even get to the gym. Slowly jog or power walk to the gym, park as far away as possible and lunge to the door, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. That way, when you get to the gym to workout your warm up routine is half way done.

A good workout always builds in intensity. This is the best way to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Weight loss workouts are only risky if you don’t warm up, because otherwise your body will respond to prevent injuries. Although you may be tempted to skip this step, it is never a good idea.

Add comment | May 16, 2009 - 7:08 pm | admin

Exercise to Lose Weight

There are many great reasons why you should be exercising if you aren’t doing so already. I know better than anyone that it can be hard to find time during the day to get some exercise worked in.  Sometimes the will to move is just not there.

If you really think about all the benefits that exercise can provide you, you will soon find yourself motivated to get started. Some like to exercise to lose weight, and that is probably one of the biggest reasons why people get start, and should be a good reason to continue.

When you have an exercise program and you are maintaining your current weight, you can ramp it up a bit when you decide to exercise to lose weight. That means just adding an extra thirty minutes a week to what you are doing to see if it makes a difference. If what you are doing is working to keep your weight level, it stands to reason that adding more can burn off more calories, and that means you can lose. You may also want to change your type of workout when you want to exercise to lose weight to get a more intense calorie burn from your activities.

If you don’t do any type of exercise to lose weight just yet, getting started does not have to be complicated or overly exhausting. You can start out with a simple walk each day, making sure you walk fast enough where you are not just going for a stroll. Walk a little faster than normal when you want to exercise to lose weight. You may be surprised how just adding a little bit of a walk three or four times a week can really help when you step on the scales. As you go, you want to add more time, but walking might be all you need to get started.

Those who feel lost, and don’t think walking is for them, can do something else when they want to exercise to lose weight. Sometimes, joining a gym is the best answer since the gyms have specially trained personal to help in your training. These trainers can help you figure out a good beginners work out regime to help you get moving in the right direction.

Even though working out in a gym costs more than walking around the block a few times, it can be more motivating when you want to exercise to lose weight. You may show up more often when you are paying for your membership. Having others around you while you are exercising can inspire you to work harder.

Whatever you decide, brisk walking or exercising at the gym, the important thing to realize is exercise of any type is good for you. So do yourself a favor and get started on an exercise program today.

Add comment | April 15, 2009 - 6:09 pm | admin

Beginner Workout

A lot of us are trying to find convenient ways to get in enough exercise. There are many reasons for wanting to get going. Whether you want to drop a few pounds or just feel better all the way around, an exercise program is your best bet. However, it is important to start with a beginner workout when you take on this project.

While many of us are pretty active anyway, it is still very important to start things at the, well, beginning.  A beginner workout may seem a little behind your ability but it is crucial to start slowly, no matter how active you already are. You may be surprised to find how challenging a beginner workout really is.

The exercise for beginners isn’t necessarily a breeze. There are many things that factor into a successful beginner workout program. First of all, you are more likely to drop out of a regimen that is too strict, too long and just too inconvenient for you to follow. A good beginner workout will start out slow.

Exercise program for novices should also be time efficient. If you are spending too much time doing a beginner workout, you may find that you can’t fit the program into your busy schedule. You may also discover that you are not seeing the results that you should in enough time.

The ideal is a balance. The beginner workout needs to be short, challenging but not overly demanding. This is a delicate balance that is difficult to achieve. This is why I always recommend starting off with a simple stretching and walking routine. The whole approach is easy and you can fit your routine into any schedule.

The walker’s beginner workout consists of five to ten minutes of stretching. Then the person walks briskly for about 30 minutes. A brisk walk will be challenging but you should be able to hold a conversation while in motion. If you can’t talk, slow down your walk. After the 30 minutes is up, all you need to do is stretch for five or ten minutes.

Once you get more comfortable with the routine you can begin making this beginner workout a little more challenging. Just add some intervals of intense exercise into the mix. I like to sprint for 30 seconds every five minutes during my 30 minute beginner workout routine.

This homemade exercise routine is just a personal preference. There are plenty of wonderful beginner workout DVDs on the market that offer the same benefits at a comfortable pace. There is a web based customized workouts called BodyBot.  You should check this out.

Add comment | November 15, 2008 - 12:29 am | admin

Beginning Exercise

Designing a beginner workout really has more to do with psychology than with personal training. I am not saying that beginning exercises don’t require the special knowledge that only a personal trainer has. If a beginners exercise program goes to far, does not put enough emphasis on stretching or safety, or does not have enough instruction, it is worthless at best and dangerous at worst. Nonetheless, the main thing when beginning a workout is figuring out what they want out of their exercise workout routine.

A lot of people first start going to the gym because they want to look good. In many ways, these are the hardest people to train. You see, with a beginners exercise program, you have to make sure to get your heart working and your body strong and limber before you begin to build muscle mass. It is not healthy for someone to be huge and bulky but have a weak cardiovascular system and a stiff body. This can increase the chance of injury and lead to long term health problems. When you are working with a body image fanatic, you have to do what you can to teach him that being healthy is at the very least as important as looking healthy. Make sure that his beginners exercise program has a lot of cardio!

Coming up with beginners exercise routines for couch potatoes can also be pretty tough. A lot of these people come into the gym after trying a lot of different quick fixes. They have tried dietary supplements, diets, and other so-called miracle cures, but they are still overweight and out of shape. They are gung-ho to get started, but they burn out too easily. With these kinds of folks, you have to provide a lot of encouragement as they do their routines, but make sure not to push them too hard. If they start with unrealistic expectations about how quickly the exercises will work, they will also burn out easily.

Basically, the thing I always tell exercise beginners is that persistence is the key. I would rather see them jogging at the gym for five or ten minutes three days a week than for an hour or two once a week. If you can make sure to exercise every other day, it won’t be long before you are losing weight and feeling better about yourself. It is a simple matter of being dedicated to putting in the time.

Add comment | August 18, 2008 - 5:48 pm | admin

Beginner’s Exercise

Getting started with an exercise program can be confusing, especially if you have never exercised on a regular basis before. Whatever your goal is, just remember to start out at a comfortable pace and increase your amount of beginners exercise as tolerated to increase strength and endurance. You will be fit in no time if you stick to your guns and stay motivated.

If it his been a long time since you have exercised regularly, if you’ve been sedentary for over a year, if you’re pregnant, have diabetes, if you have any type of chronic health condition, like heart problems or high blood pressure, if you’re over the age of sixty-five and don’t currently exercise, if you’ve ever experienced chest pains, dizziness, or fainting spells, or if you’re recovering from an illness or injury, or if you’ve been diagnosed with any other medical condition or even if you haven’t, you should get a full check up from your health care provider and get a medical release before staring any type of beginners exercise program.

Before you start your beginner’s workout, get some good fitting shoes that are designed for whatever type of beginners exercise you’ll be doing, whether it is walking, weight lifting, cross training, or playing basketball. Choose comfortable workout attire too, remember, think comfort, and wear whatever feels good to you. If you are exercising outdoors, do not forget to wear a hat and light colored clothing, in addition to sunscreen and sunglasses.

Now you are ready to set your weight loss and fitness goals. Make sure that your goals are realistic and attainable, and reward yourself when you reach your goal. It is reasonable to lose one to two pounds per week, and you should not get discouraged if you hit a plateau. The less the body weighs, the fewer the amount of calories burned just moving around, so the more weight you lose the harder it will be to continue losing more.

Remember that the scale is not the only way to track the progress from your beginner’s workout. It can be quite discouraging to exercise for a long time and still weigh the same, when in fact; the body is gaining muscle and losing fat. To stay focused and motivated, track body fat percentage in addition to weighing on the scale to get a better idea of how much weight you really need to lose. And do not be obsessed with either one. Check out your clothes fit and feel too; how you look is also a good indicator of how your beginners exercise program is working. Take measurements also to reassure you that you really are getting into shape, even if you can not yet see it everywhere.

Make a plan and stick to it to get the best results. Your progress will be slow but steady, and you’re apt to keep the weight off if you take it off slow. Good Luck!

Add comment | June 13, 2008 - 7:17 pm | admin