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Top 10 Reasons To Exercise In The Morning
By: Greg Landry, M.S.
If I had to pick a single factor that I thought
was most important in a successful exercise or
weight loss program, it would be to exercise first
thing in the morning - every morning! Some mornings,
you may just be able to fit in a 10 minute walk,
but it's important to try to do something every
morning.
So why mornings?...
1. Over 90% of people who exercise *consistently*,
exercisein the morning. If you want to exercise
consistently, odds are in your favor if you exercise
first thing in the morning.
2. When you exercise early in the morning, it
"jump starts" your metabolism and keeps it elevated
for hours, sometimes up to 24 hours! That means
you're burning more calories all day long just
because you exercised in the morning!
3. When you exercise in the morning you'll be
*energized* for the day! Personally, I feel
dramatically different on days when I have and
haven't exercised in the morning.
4. Many people find that morning exercise
"regulates" their appetite for the day - that they
aren't as hungry and that they make better food
choices. Several people have told me that it puts
them in a "healthy mindset."
5. If you exercise at about the same time every
morning, and ideally wake-up at about the same
time on a regular basis, your body's endocrine
system and circadian rhythms adjust to that.
Physiologically, some wonderful things begin to
happen; A couple of hours *before* you awaken,
your body begins to prepare for waking and exercise
because it "knows" it's about to happen. Why?
Because it "knows" you do the same thing just about
everyday. You benefit from that in several ways..
a) It's MUCH easier to wake-up. When you wake-up
at different times everyday, it confuses your
body and thus it's never really "prepared"
to awaken.
b) Your metabolism and all the hormones involved
in activity and exercise begin to elevate
while you're sleeping. Thus, you feel more
alert, energized, and ready to exercise when
you do wake-up.
c) Hormones prepare your body for exercise by
regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood
flow to muscles, etc.
6. For many people, that appointed time every
morning becomes something they look forward to.
It's time they've set aside to do something
good for themselves - to take care of their body,
mind, and soul. Many find that it's a great time
to think clearly, pray, plan their day, or just
relax mentally.
7. Research has demonstrated that exercise
increases mental acuity. On average it lasts
four to ten hours after exercise! No sense in
wasting that brain power while you're sleeping. :)
8. Exercise first thing in the morning is really
the only way to assure that something else won't
crowd exercise out of your schedule. When your days
get hectic, exercise usually takes a back seat!
9. If finding time to exercise is difficult,
anyone can get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier to
exercise (if it's a priority in your life). If
necessary, you can go to sleep a little earlier.
Also, research has demonstrated that people who
exercise on a regular basis have a higher quality
of sleep and thus require less sleep!
10. You'll feel GREAT! DO IT! :)
copyright 2004 by Greg Landry, M.S.
Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry,
offers free weight loss and fitness success stories
and targeted, highly affective weight loss programs
for women, men, type 2 diabetics, and people with
slow metabolisms and hypothyroidism..
http://www.Landry.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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