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How a Bowflex saved a Marriage
By: Dan Goggins
I am a recent newlywed, still dumbfounded by the collosal change that becoming married has brought upon myself. While I am thrilled to have such a loving wife, I must admit that one of the first crusades that my wife embarked upon was to establish a fitness regime in her household. I dont need to tell you that this computer programmer wasn't in the best of shape, as you can imagine, but I dont think that even I knew of the trials and tribulations that were to await me.
The first battle that I had with personal fitness was the gym at the university. Its dank, no windowed, basement gym was needlessly to say, un-motivational. Every time that I walked into that room a wave of sweat and year old air swept over me, as well as any delusions that I had of becoming fit. I rapidly sought a different solution to appease my wife.
The second attempt was at a Gold's Gym. When I first visited the gym I was amazed at the televisions, windows, fresh air, and glistening fitness equipment. I thought that it looked like a little piece of heaven. I surely thought that this type of gym could even motivate a computer nerd such as myself. Sadly, I was mistaken. The people that I saw there slowly de-motivated me. These were serious fitness experts, where most of the females looked like they could rip my arms out of their sockets. It was embarrassing to start working out at the gym, because I was so scrawny. I quit after a two weeks and hoped that my wife had stopped her crusade.
Unfortunately, that was also wrong. I told my wife of the experiences that I had at the two gyms and she thought of a wonderful suggestion for me - I could work out at the house. My uncle had a used bowflex in his garage that he couldnt use anymore, and he decided to let us newlyweds have it as a wedding gift. We set the bowflex in the garage and had a ton of bowflex equipment as well. I also looked online for some workouts to use with the bowflex. For once in my life, I wasn't embarrassed to do a workout. The bowflex was my outlet to working out, and I was surprised at the quick results that I was having. My wife got off my back about exercising too, which was wonderful thing too.
So, my advice for anyone that is like me and feels embarrassed to go the gym because of their current condition, is to get some home exercise equipment that they can use in their garage or spare room, and set aside 30 minutes a day to do a workout. You'll feel better, not only physically but from receiving less nagging from your spouse.
Dan Goggins is an entrepreneur and computer programmer, who also likes to share his advice on life. You can read about his exploits and family at GogginsFamily.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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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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