Archive for: November 2007

If you think of getting active as one more thing on your long to-do list, you’ll never get moving.

It’s important for you to understand you don’t need to go to the gym 5 times a week to be healthy. A 45 minute walk at a brisk pace (3 to 4 miles an hour) can burn up to 300 calories? Or that simply making small changes in your daily routine — like parking further away, taking the stairs, and playing active games with your kids — will enable you to start living an active, healthy life?

Just do it. Do Something to get started. Anything. As you progress, you can begin to exercise more and get the health benefits you need.

Both low and high intensity exercises will help you to burn off body fat. The question
is which is the most effective to burn off more body fat?

Scientists discovered that during intensive exercises, your body burns glycogen,
a form of stored carbohydrates stored in your liver and muscles for energy. During low
intensity exercises, your body will burn a lot of fat.

Does it work? Well, even though lots of people are working out with low intensity routines, you can see many are not losing weight. Why not?

The scientists were right when they said the human body burns more body fat during low intensity exercises like walking or swimming. However, during a high intensity exercise such as running, the body will burn a lot more calories. Even if some of the calories burned are from glycogen, there are still many fat calories burned as well.

When your store of glycogen gets low, the carbohydrates from your food you eat will later get converted into glycogen to fill up the store and won’t be converted to body fat when they are left unused for energy.

High intensity cardio exercise will juice up your metabolism even after you have completed your workout. What this means, is that your body will continue to burn body fat hours after you have left the gym. This effect is nearly non existent in low intensity cardio or aerobic workout.

Accumulatively, your body will burn up more and more calories during and after you have finished a high intensity cardio exercise then it will with low intensity.

You can add high intensity exercises into your cardio workout by introducing some interval
training. You can walk for 5 minutes or so, then break into some jogging for another 5 minutes or so. Then, walk briskly again until you have caught your breath and then sprint for a minute before you walk again. From this point, simply alternate your running and walking for the next 15 minutes until you are finished.

One of the best things about cardio is the more you do it, the more energy you’ll have. Cardio will help you to burn calories, although its more useful for keeping your energy levels high.

Very high intensity workouts are becoming more and more the norm, but you do have to be in shape for this. Basically, you warm up, then you sprint for 10 or 15 seconds, then slow down and recover. You then do it again. You work up to about 8 of these sprints and your workouts become more effective and actually shorter.

• Once you begin your daily exercise routine, keep these points in mind to get the best results:
• Always drink water before, during and after your exercise session.
• Make exercising a part of your daily routine. You may want to set a regular time to exercise each day and invite a friend to join you.
• Start gradually, about 5 to 10 minutes at first.
• Increase the amount of exercise each day, up to about 30 to 60 minutes.
• Breathe deeply and evenly during and between exercises. Don’t hold your breath.
• Rest whenever it is necessary.
• Keep a daily written record of your progress.
• Exercise to lively music, TV, or with friends for added enjoyment.

1. You can never strength train your muscle in one day. Minimum time allocations of 24 to 36 hours must be followed. Consecutive days of doing the exercises can lead to muscle fatigue, possible injury, and over-training. Rests are required to regain lost energy.

2. You cannot lose your weight instantly. For example losing excess stomach fats cannot be achieved by doing only 100 crunches. Stomach flab doesn’t disappear that way. Overall reduction of body fats must be done combining proper rest, regular exercise, and eating well.

3. Your strength training programs should be consistent and done regularly to ensure successful results. Keep in mind that you have gained weight for years, so losing it also takes time. Your strength training requires a change in your lifestyle. Bad habits must be replaced with good ones.

4. Strength training requires changes every 4 to 6 weeks. It will prevent your body from getting bored and keep workouts more interesting. You need to change your exercise method, and intensity levels. Unchanged routines sometimes stop producing good results in the end. You need to grow from your daily workouts.

5. Your strength training programs need to be created according to your specific objectives. If you are interested in body fat loss, your strength training is different from trying to increase bulk in your muscles. You need specific goals to create the best possible strength training program.

6. Your regular routine should workout all your major muscles 2 to 3 times a week. Include the triceps, chest, shoulders, biceps, quads, calves, abs, hamstring, and gluts. It creates imbalance if you missed any one of the muscle groups.

Women who follow these guidelines can build an effective and decent strength training program. Achieving a healthy and fit body is also safe. So, be ready to achieve that beautiful body you have always dreamed of.

Seated DB Curl and Press on Ball

1. Start by sitting on a resistance ball and holding the dumbells at your sides. Hold the dumbells with your palms up.
2. Curl the dumbells up to shoulder level and then press the dumbells over your head.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat.
4. Keep your abs tight throughout the movement and avoid excessive arching of the lower back.