Fitness Programs
If you want to improve your health and lose weight, there are two key ingredients: Diet and exercise. There is no way around it. To do it right, you need both ingredients. In this article we will focus on the ideal fitness program.
The first step anyone should take before jumping into a new fitness regimen is to see their doctor. It is extremely important to understand your overall health. Talk to your doctor about what your plans are and work with her to create a fitness routine. This is especially important if you have not exercised for some time. And the older you get, the more important your doctors input is.
As with most things, the results you get are in direct proportion to the effort you put fourth. To get into shape you don't need to work out for hours, however. In fact, working out too much can be counterproductive if you don't know what you're doing and could lead to injury.
Walking is a fantastic exercise. It is the easiest exercise and it's free. You can do it almost anywhere. You can burn more calories than you might think by simply walking.
Walking is considered an 'aerobic' form of exercise. Aerobic means 'with oxygen'. Aerobic exercises, often referred to as 'cardio' are activities like walking, jogging and swimming that are done for a longer duration and require the use of oxygen. In other words, oxygen is necessary to do the exercise.
Aerobic exercise is what will burn calories. The basic equation is that you will begin to lose weight when you burn more calories than you take in. Aerobic exercise is what burns those excess calories.
It is important to understand that our bodies burn calories no matter what we do. Even if we stayed in bed all day, we would still burn calories. Our bodies literally burn calories while we sleep. Adding exercise is the only way to burn more calories.
It is also important to note, you cannot just stop taking in calories and hope to lose weight either. Your body must take in a minimum amount of calories per day. This will range depending upon a number of factors but it should never dip below 1200 calories per day.
Interval training is where you vary the pace during your workout. Interval training will improve your overall endurance. This in turn will improve your body's aerobic system. The more power the aerobic system has, the more calories you will burn.
Walking at a static pace can be turned into interval training simply by speeding your pace for a few moments. Then back it down for several minutes. If you have a treadmill, stair master or elliptical either at home or at a gym, it should have an interval setting.
Another form of exercise is strength training and it is extremely important because the more muscular fitness you have the better your body will burn calories. It is really important to note that strength training alone is not going to help you drop weight over the long term. But strength training can turn your body into a calorie burning machine.
This type of training is considered anaerobic. Anaerobic means 'without oxygen'. You can't run for more than 30 seconds without breathing. However, strength training exercises do not rely on oxygen to be performed.
Unfortunately, many people avoid strength training because they don't realize it will help them lose weight. They think it will just bulk them up. This is not true.
Since the anaerobic weight training will build muscle that will help the body burn calories quicker and aerobic exercise burns the calories, common sense tells you that you will get more bang for the buck by combining. The best fitness routine will combine aerobic, interval and anaerobic weight training exercises.
But there's one more piece of the puzzle that many people skip: stretching. A big reason for flexibility training is to help avoid injury. But it also improves range of motion in your joints, circulation and can even relieve stress.
A common myth is that stretching is good for warming up. It actually is not. In fact, stretching cold muscles can lead to injury. Best way to warm up is with very light aerobic (cardio) movements like walking. Once you're warmed up, then you can safely begin light stretches. Light cardio gets the blood moving which readies the body for safe activity.
In summary, the best fitness program will combine aerobic activity to burn calories. It will also include interval training to help boost the bodies aerobic system so it will work better thus burn more calories. And weight training to add the all important muscle mass that will improve the body's capacity to burn calories. And the final component is stretching to prevent injury. All of these combined will maximize your results and put you onto the quickest path to fat loss, weight control and overall improved health.
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق