Archive for: July 2009

The fastest way to improve your fitness is to challenge yourself daily to make improvements no matter how small they might be.

These small improvements not only help your fitness but they also help you to develop a winning mindset where you know that every day you are getting better in some way.

Even if, in the course of a whole resistance training workout you only manage to do a few more repetitions in one exercise or lift a few pounds more weight in one exercise you have made an improvement that is another step up the ladder of fitness success.

Naturally there will be days when you are low on energy, or are feeling lethargic for one reason or another.
On days like that, just accept that simply going to the gym or exercising is a bonus in itself and sometimes it is wise to have a workout on a day like that without recording the details.

We all have ‘off’ days and that is something that we need to accept.

If we get these days more often that not then it is time to look at other aspects of your lifestyle and ask what is lacking that makes this happen.

It could be something as simple as not having enough water during the day or possibly not getting enough sleep at night.
It could also be from over training where the body isn’t getting enough time to recuperate between exercise days.

If you can’t make some small improvements to your fitness on a weekly basis then it is time to start looking at your training program to determine whether it needs changing.

Small changes that seem minor at the time can produce outstanding results over the period of a few months or more.
These same small changes can add years to your life so they are well worth aiming for.

Good nutrition is as important as the exercises we perform.
By eating wisely we are assisting our body to perform better in our chosen fitness program or sport.

The food we choose needs to be of high nutritional value to supply us with the necessary building blocks, in the form of vitamins and minerals to aid in recovery after strenuous workouts and to give us the energy to perform better during our exercise time.

Not only do we need to be supplying our body with the right vitamins and minerals but they also need to be in the correct balance.
When any one of these are out of balance and we are getting more or less than we should be, there will be an imbalance that will affect our progress.
This imbalance can even lead to illness, so buying good quality supplements is essential and knowing how much to take is also vitally important.

Another thing that needs to be addressed is your calorie intake as this will determine whether you are getting enough fuel to benefit your workouts or whether you are getting too much and adding fat to your body.

Foods high in refined sugar or animal fat should be avoided where possible, as they will be detrimental to your health.

If you are on a bodybuilding or resistance training program then you will need additional protein, as this is the muscle building food.
These foods, such as red meat will also supply you with the necessary B vitamins and Iron that are essential for strength training.
Other quality protein foods such as cheese, eggs, fish, poultry and milk should be included in your diet so you are getting variety in your diet.

These foods contain the essential amino acids, which are the building blocks of the body.

Vegetables are also another good source of amino acids however they generally have certain aminos missing and that is why the base protein foods listed above need to be included in your diet for complete nutrition.

A mix of foods is required as relying solely on meats for your protein can lead to other problems such as high levels of cholesterol.
Meat also is relatively high in fat, which is linked to the hardening of the arteries and heart disease.

It is all about getting the correct balance with both your food and exercise.

Circuit training is a fun way to get fit.
It is also an excellent form of training to help people to stay motivated as you get a variety of exercises to perform in the course of a training session.

A well-designed fitness-training program will also target all the muscles of the body so you will be getting a full body workout at each session.

Combined with upbeat music that many gyms have on with circuit training, the time tends to pass a lot faster and the fun aspect ensures people are happy to return to the gym and that can only be good for their health.

If you are not a member of a gym it is possible to design your own circuit-training program for home.
The equipment you have will determine much of the program but it is possible to design a circuit-training program based around exercises that only use your own body weight.

It can also include indoor or outdoor activity and include walking and running as part of the training program.

A stereo at home or an ipod for outside training can add to the fun just as you would get as a member of a gym.

You can design the program to target any areas of your body that you desire and it can be fun creating your own training program and making changes to your training as you progress.

As will all forms of training it is good to keep a record of your results and always challenge yourself to do better.

Carrying a note book and pen might seem like a bit of a hassle but the record of your progress can be inspiring and there will be sufficient time in between the exercises to jot down these notes.

It can be quite surprising sometimes how we forget how much we have progressed over the course of a few weeks or months.

Using a combination of weights and machines for training will give you the best of both worlds, with the ability of machines allowing you to use more weight under a controlled environment, and the free weights helping to stimulate the synergistic muscles for balance and control.

Add to this some cardio work for aerobic fitness and you are getting all that anyone could hope for in a fitness program.

These types of programs can be developed for the gym, and with the abundance of good home gym equipment, they can also be used at home.

Many times you can get a better workout from home as you won’t need to wait on other people to finish their exercises before you can use the equipment.

Machines also allow you to use heavy weights in complete safety where you will need to be a little more cautious with free weights if you don’t have someone to assist with your training.

Age can determine which is the best for you to use, with the safety factor very important for children and elderly people.

There are many types of machines available and they all have their benefits over one another.
There are machines that have weight stacks, which can be quite heavy, and then there are machines that use cables and rods to offer resistance.

Some are portable and able to be moved and folded away whereas some of the big weight stack machines are too heavy to move easily.

These are factors that need to be considered when buying machines whereas free weights can be used almost anywhere, from inside the house to the back yard.

With free weights you will need to consider a weight bench to ensure you can perform sufficient exercises to build most muscles of your body.

There is no real maintenance required with free weights, as they will still perform well even if you were to leave them to rust.

Eating well is as important as the exercises you do each day.
It is not going to be very beneficial to your health if you have a diet of foods high in sugar and fat.

While the exercise will help you to achieve better health, the food you eat can do more harm than many people realize.

It is the fuel for your body and to eat the wrong food is like filling a petrol car with diesel.

You need energy to do your workouts and you need food to help your body to recover from those workouts.

Along with a fitness program it is wise to include good eating into your lifestyle.
This doesn’t mean that you need to give up all the foods that you love to eat, but it does mean that you should be eating the correct foods most of the time.

We all have times when we feel like eating some fast foods or something that isn’t high on the nutritional ladder but the basic foundation of our diet needs to be good food that can add to the quality of our health.

If most of your exercise is cardio work then you will need more carbohydrates to give you the energy to get through the workouts.

If on the other hand you are doing a lot of resistance training and trying to build muscle then you will eat more protein foods as these are the building blocks that help your muscles to build bigger and stronger after they have been broken down by strenuous weight training.

The food you eat before and after your exercise can have a huge effect on the benefits that you will get from your training.

You can’t expect to perform well at the gym if you have just finished a three-course meal, just as it would be difficult to go for a run after having too much to drink.

Doing so could actually endanger you where the body could become overloaded and stressed by having to deal with digestion and exercise.