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Five Ways to Fit Fitness Into Your Life
By: Rick DeToma
Everyone is pressed for time these days. It does not have to mean that fitness can't be a part of your life. In as little as 10 minutes a day, you can begin to make positive changes to your body.
People often have an all or nothing idea about exercise. They feel that if they can't fit in an hour of exercise that they will do nothing instead.
Successful exercisers make fitness an important part of their lives. Try scheduling your time to exercise like you would any other appointment.
If you are struggling to fit exercise into your day, try these fitness tips:
1. Tackle one body part per day and perform as many reps as it takes to reach failure. Or set a rep goal for yourself and do as many sets as it takes to reach your goal.
2. Exercise while you watch TV. (Don't just sit there, DO something.) Why not do some crunches, or leg extensions while watching the tube? How about some lunges? Anything yo can do in a gym sitting down, you can do at home sitting down in front of the tube.
3. Superset your workouts. Put two exercises together and perform them one after another with no rest in between. You can either do a mixed superset of an upper and lower move combined, or you can choose two opposing muscle groups like chest and back.
4. Combine 2 moves into 1. Any time you perform a lower body exercise and your arms are not involved you miss out on a time-saving opportunity.
Try performing a lunge with a curl, or lateral raise. Or a squat with on overhead press.
You could create an entire workout around this concept and divide up your body parts and exercises so that you keeps things fresh.
5. Circuit training. Select a number of exercises for your entire body and perform them as a circuit with little or no rest in between. Repeat as time allows for 2-3 circuits.
People will always find excuses to not exercise. These tips show you how to fit exercise into the busiest of schedules and get the benefits of regular exercise.
It's not about finding the time to exercise, it's about MAKING the time to exercise. No matter how busy you are. It's always better to do something than nothing.
The information contained in this article is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended to provide medical advice. If you are sedentary or over 40 please get clearance from a doctor before starting an exercise program.
You have permission to publish this article electronically, without changes of any kind, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included, and remain working hyperlinks. Please send a copy of the URL where you have posted this article.
About the Author
Rick DeToma is a fitness coach, and trainer who specializes in home workouts. Contact Rick for a no obligation telephone fitness assessment at: "http://www.tailored-fitness-home-workouts.com/contact.html"
Get more tips like these by subscribing to Tailored Fitness News http://www.tailored-fitness-home-workouts.com/newsletter.html
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The Power of Stretching - Dave Snape
Your
muscles ache from a good stretch. This is quite
normal and is part of the process. Stretching has
seemingly been with us and particularly with athletes
since the beginning of time.
A very key point to good stretching is to hold the
stretch for at least seventeen seconds. This is a
pearl of wisdom gleaned from a ballet teacher a few
years back. She said that any stretch under 17
seconds was just not effective.
The 17 second rule is exceeded in the high intensity
Bikram's yoga where stretches are held for about 30
seconds. Don't forget the high level of heat that is
used in Bikram's to extract that last little bit of
stretch out of your muscles. An interesting twist
that
is not necessary to gain benefits from stretching.
But,
it can't hurt, right?
So what kind of benefits can you expect from
stretching? That's an easy one. Have you ever seen
the
movie, Blood Sport? Did you know that Frank Dux could
truly stretch his body to the extreme. The actor that
played him was quite elastic as well.
Great elasticity is also something you might see in
well trained Spetsnaz (Russian) agents. They often
work
out with Russian kettlebells too. They are for
superior
strength gains and the ability to withstand ballistic
shocks.
Why are stretching and flexibility considered
important
to these people? Stretching gives one the ability to
have explosive power available at one's fingertips
without the need to warm up. Of course most of us are
not martial artists or agents. But, you'll be happy
to
know there are plenty of other benefits.
Let me give you an example. After learning to sit in
the full lotus position for long periods of time, my
ankles became very flexible. One day I was walking
along and my left foot fell into a pothole. This
mishap
pushed my ankle sideways to about 90 degrees from
it's
normal position.
Amazingly, this didn't even hurt, not one bit. If my
ankle hadn't been so flexible, I may have suffered a
sprained ankle. At the very least, it would have hurt
for days.
Key point: stretching helps you to avoid injuries.
Not only that but if you do have a muscle, tendon or
ligament injury it should heal faster, theoretically
speaking.
Stretching actually grows the ligaments, tendons and
muscles being stretched. They really grow longer over
time.
Check with your physician before undertaking any type
of exercise, including stretching.
Here is some good
instructional material on stretching:
http://tinyurl.com/6c6kq
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Dave Snape
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