Fitness Reboot
Now that 2010 is more than halfway over, it may be time for a health and wellness reboot. Perhaps you've been faithful all year to maintain your fitness regimen, but you're bored with the same trek on the treadmill, day after day. Maybe you feel like you're in a workout slump, performing exercises with little enthusiasm and even smaller results. Or perhaps you fell off the fitness bandwagon many moons ago, and you just need a kick-start to get moving again.
Surprising Benefits of Exercise
Healthy heart. Stronger bones. Leaner muscle mass. Faster metabolism. The benefits of exercise are far-reaching, and most of us are familiar with the advantages of working up a sweat. We know that exercise helps trim the waistline, tone the biceps, and build cardiovascular fitness. But, there are other benefits to exercise that may surprise you. According to recent research studies, exercise has been linked to increased mental capacity, better moods, and even decreased likelihood for developing cancer.
Burn Calories at Home
Need a little extra motivation to do household chores? Feeling too lazy to trim the rose bushes or vacuum the spare bedroom? Perhaps this statistic will give your motivation a boost. Performing your regular household chores can actually burn more than 50,000 calories in one year. That’s right! Housework burns calories. There’s a reason why it’s called work, after all. In one British study, researchers concluded that the average person walks 22 miles each year by simply cleaning the house. These extra steps translate to calories burned.
Steps to Perfect Posture
A poor posture is not only unattractive, but also causes needless suffering in your muscles and joints. Good posture, on the other hand, decreases the wear and tear on your joints as well as the stress on ligaments that hold your joints together. Utilizing good posture can also ward-off fatigue, since your muscles work more efficiently when your body is properly aligned.
Strength Train to Slim Down
Many women fear that strength training will make them “bulk up.” But, the fear of building more muscle is entirely misguided.
In reality, most people don’t have enough muscle. Adults who don’t strength train lose about one-half pound of lean muscle tissue every year. The loss of this muscle tissue, known as sarcopenia, can begin as early as age 25, then increases around age 40, and increases drastically after age 70.
Why is it such a big deal to lose muscle mass? First off, losing muscle means sacrificing your strength and postural support. If that’s not enough to convince you that muscle mass is important, then consider this fact: Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue. The more muscle that you have, the higher your metabolism. If you lose muscle with age, then your metabolism slows down, and you inevitably gain weight.
Coach Potato Kids – A Global Crisis
The World Health Organization (WHO) concluded a study of 70,000 teens in 34 separate nations around the globe. The results are clear. One-third of children worldwide spend at least three hours per day in sedentary activities, such as watching TV or playing on computers. In the United States, First Lady Michelle Obama has launched the Let’s Move organization, seeking to end the childhood obesity epidemic. New food labels, healthier school lunches, and additional opportunities for exercise are all part of the action plan to promote health and wellness among our nation’s youth.
Treating a Fitness Injury
Ouch! You’ve performed this fitness move hundreds of times, but this time, something doesn’t feel right. You feel a twinge at first, then a sharp pain, and slowly you begin to realize that you may have an exercise induced injury.
Train Like an Olympian
Most of us can only dream about achieving the levels of strength and endurance showcased by extraordinary Olympic athletes. And yet, we just may be able to learn something from the Olympians. There are many Olympic-style training methods that can be adapted into an everyday workout regimen.
Got Results?
Intensity is basically a measure of how hard you are working. Keeping tabs on your intensity is imperative if you want to gain the best fitness results. If you waltz leisurely through your workout, it will only frustrate you in the end, when you see a lack of results. At the same time, pushing yourself beyond your safe intensity limits is a recipe for injury and burnout. The three most common methods for measuring workout intensity are target heart rate, the talk test, and rate of perceived exertion.
Kick-start a New Workout
Jazzercise Founder and CEO Judi Sheppard Missett has helped countless women embark on new workout plans every year. To help you kick-start your new workout and actually stick with your New Year’s resolution, Missett suggests following six steps. |
