Exercise Motivation
What makes people join a gym class? What makes them start a fitness program? Answers would vary. Maybe they just want to have more energy. Perhaps they’re looking forward to the day when they can look in the mirror and actually like the image looking back at them. Or it can be as simple as just shedding a few pounds. Unfortunately, fitness is not a one time deal. It’s not like you can just pull out your motivation to work out just this one time and then you will be rewarded with your desired results right there and then. One thing is certain, though, it’s hard to sustain motivation. When starting a fitness program, you should have a game plan to combat demotivation later on.
It is hard to stay motivated if you get frustrated. So try to be realistic when setting fitness goals. So, if you exercise for an hour six times a week, it would be fair to expect a one pound weight loss per week if you follow a low fat diet too. But if you put in just 30 minutes twice a week, maybe one pound is a bit too much to ask. Also, don’t compare your progress with your friends or your body with the perfect specimens they call models. That’s a surefire way to feel unsure about your progress and will make you feel like what you are aiming for is unreachable.
Also, you can prevent boredom with your routine by varying exercise moves every 8-12 weeks. This will also ensure that your muscles will not get used to your old, stale moves. Make it fun and fresh enough to challenge yourself. And don’t give yourself a chance to skip the gym because you don’t have anything to wear either.
Make working out convenient as a way to increase your motivation. If necessary, vary your workout activities from day to day. You need not be confined to a regular gym to reap the benefits of exercise. If the four walls of the gym make you feel confined, you can stay at home and groove to your favorite dance music, or run in the park. The point is, enjoy your exercise time, all the time.
And don’t be too hard on yourself. If for some reason you missed a day or two of exercise, then by all means, just get back to it as soon as you can. During the course of your quest for fitness, you’re bound to get sick, have to get a tooth pulled, have car trouble and dozens of other real-life reasons. You might even get injured while exercising. All these will require rest. The important thing is to allow yourself to take time off and just get back to the program when you are ready and able to do so. Congratulate yourself that you got back on track. Reward yourself for small victories. Keep a log of your achievements and keep a list of what makes you stick with your fitness plan along with the reasons why you exercise. All these will help you stay on track at times when you feel demotivated.
For more health and fitness tips and insider advice on selecting home gym fitness equipment, visit FitnessArmory.com where we review all the latest products, like the Bowflex Treadclimber TC5000 and the Total Gym 1100. We invite you to stop by and drop us a line if you have any questions.
Mark Warrington
Categories: Exercise Tags: Exercise, Motivation
Exercise The Brain
The brain is a muscle which needs to be nourished just like the rest of the body. The brain needs nutrition and oxygen just like the rest of the human body. If the cells are not fed they will atrophy and die. When we exercise the rest of the body the heart pumps blood to the entire body including the brain. The blood flowing to the brain feeds the brain with oxygen and nutrients while it removes waste products. This is vitally important to brain function and is an overlooked aspect of brain condition.
I believe that the athlete has the mental advantage because of this. There is no way that regular exercise can be anything but beneficial to the human brain. Muscle cells will atrophy without exercise and brain cells need to be exercised also. I am from the school which believes that there is really no way to overload the brain. I just believe that we have not unlocked the true potential of the human mind and there really is no way that we can stretch our minds enough to reach our true potential.
I like to stretch the minds of the children in my life. Most parents will use the, dont touch mantra over and over again. I believe that children are curious by nature and should be allowed some kind of freedom to explore their environment. I believe that we should make the children understand the parameters under which they can operate. The brain has an amazing capacity to grasp new concepts and childhood is the time to begin to teach children how to utilize their minds.
One way to exercise the brain is to multitask. There is a saying that if you really want something done give it to a busy man. The person who uses more of their brain power develops the capacity to use even more. We develop abilities as we operate in different areas. The brain like regular muscle develops and stretches in the areas in which it is put to use.
The high paid executive is efficient at problem solving not only because he utilizes his problem solving abilities everyday. Now I know that there are some who are naturally good at problem solving but exercising your capabilities certainly helps. The batter with the high batting average has some natural ability but he also has to put in many hours of practice in order to hone that skill
I like to give children mental problems to solve which will force them to utilize their minds to think and solve problems. Jigsaw and word puzzles are good in this respect and chess is the perfect activity to teach young people to utilize their minds.
We can all help ourselves by broadening our interests and activities in life. You are never too old to learn and the wise person understands this. When I read the proverbs which were written by King Solomon I noticed that he even wrote about the behavior of ants and grasshoppers. This indicates that the wisest man who ever lived spent much of his time studying even the insects. This indicates to me that this wise king was mentally active and involved in every aspect of life.
One of my favorite sayings is that the wise man is a man who understands that he can learn from anyone and anything regardless of their social standing in life or their social status. Lets take a lesson from the wisest man who ever lived. Riceland Enterprises
Riceland Enterprises
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Exercise While Pregnant
Mounting research from the previous decade have highlighted exercise or more appropriately termed, physical activity, as being extremely important for the mother and the child during pregnancy. The new research has recently been consolidated into clinical guidelines for physicians and published by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The report highlights that for newly expecting mothers if they have been physically active, staying active is important. For new mothers that have not been as active as they have wanted, starting to become more physically active is a smart choice. The report highlights that being physically active through pregnancy will help to prevent too much weight gain and tremendously reduce the risk of developing gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that can form due to pregnancy.
The report highlights that many expecting mothers find a reason to become more physically active due to the fact that they are soon to be mothers, and that this realization, according to the research can be a very powerful motivator for lifestyle change. Accordingly, doing pregnancy safe exercises such as walking, water aerobics, or riding a stationary bike are the preferred exercise types for expecting mothers.
Just as there are preferred methods of exercising while pregnant, there are some that are not as preferred. High impact sports are an obvious no-no, but new research shows that expecting mothers actually have less coordination in their movements and are more prone to injuring themselves with fast, jerky, or high impact movements. Due to a pregnancy hormone called relaxin that assists in giving birth, as the hormone levels rise throughout pregnancy they can make injury a more common occurrence, so researchers are recommending to clinicians that high-intensity, high-speed sports such as downhill skiing, basketball, or soccer may be best left until later.
Overall, the report stresses that physical activity is extremely helpful in having a healthy baby and healthy mother during and after the pregnancy. Additionally the women that previously were not physically active and become so during pregnancy have almost double (42%) higher rate of success when it comes to maintaining the lifestyle change for over one year. All of these reasons, says Mary Collins MD, make staying or becoming physically active throughout pregnancy a wonderful choice for the mother.
To learn more about subjects like this and to start changing your body, please visit us atNew Lifestyle Diet
Hamilton Erridge is a weight loss professional. New Lifestyle Diet helps people lose weight and stay healthy by providing information and resources that help people make a lifestyle change so that the extra pounds shed are never put back on.
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