Exercise

Getting Started

The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a “dyed-in-the-wool” couch potato, is to consult with your health care provider. If you have cardiac factors, your doctor may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

Certain complications of some diseases will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging or high-impact aerobics can pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy, due to the risk for further blood vessel damage and possible “retinal detachment.”

Health experts also contend that patients with severe peripheral neuropathy or PN should avoid foot-intensive, weight-bearing exercises, such as long-distance walking, jogging or step aerobics and opt instead for low-impact activities like swimming, biking, and rowing.

If you have conditions that make exercise and physical fitness a challenge, your provider may refer you to an exercise physiologist who can design a fitness program for your specific needs.

If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor.

The best exercise plan should include both cardiovascular and weight training exercises. This helps burn calories and increase the muscle to fat ratio that will increase your metabolism and make it easier for you to either gain or lose weight.

If you have never worked out before you should build your exercise program gradually. Doing it too much for the first time can strain your muscles or worse yet, cause an injury. Endurance isn’t built in a day – it takes repetition over time.

The bottom line is that physical fitness and exercise should not have to be a rigid activity and need not feel like a ‘work out.’ Yes, you can join a gym and have a regular work out routine. But, if that isn’t to your liking your exercise can be as simple as a brisk nightly or morning neighborhood walk, walking the dog, playing basketball with your kids or simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The important thing is that you keep moving. Every little bit really helps.

Lifetime Fitness: On Your Way to a Healthier You

Many people end up abandoning perfectly good fitness programs and weight-loss regimens before they even lace up their sneakers.

Why? Because in a world filled with fast food, instant messaging, and five-second disease-tracking devices, anything without a quick payoff goes against the grain of the typical American instant gratification ethic. While it would be nice to actually drop inches in just a few days like what most miracle ads proclaim, managing weight and losing weight through physical fitness is a slow and steady process that takes time and commitment.

Setting weight management goals for yourself can be a good motivator. Gradual weight loss, for those people who wish to shed some extra pounds, is usually the safest way.
This is why health and fitness experts have come up with the idea of lifetime fitness in order to teach people to set realistic goals. These lifetime fitness programs generate dietary regimens that cut your normal calorie consumption for your weight by 500 to 1,000 per day, so you will be burning the same amount with exercise. This will definitely encourage steady and healthy weight loss.

Lifetime fitness teaches you how to maintain a physically fit body and at the same time enjoy and live a happy, contented life. It gives you the chance to strike a balance between the two (exercise and diet), and make exercise, be it team sports, cycling or walking, something you will truly enjoy.

Lifetime fitness embodies the concept that making a long-term healthy lifestyle change is essential to keeping the pounds off once they are gone. To know more of the advantages and benefits that lifetime fitness can bring, here are some facts that you need to know:

1. Lifetime fitness programs offers you the most comprehensive and wide-ranging fitness and health services; programs that provide you the right methods in maintaining your health, building up and encouraging your fitness competence, as well as taking care of your family’s physical fitness.

2. Because the goal of lifetime fitness is to provide you with long-term achievements as far as physical fitness is concerned, these programs utilize numerous fitness equipments that will tone and manage your health and the different parts of your body. They offer cardiovascular exercise equipment as well as full featured sports facilities.

3. Lifetime fitness programs and centers also provide nutritional products, such as food supplements that will aid in the formation of good blood cells and tissues thereby making your body at its pink of health.

4. Lifetime fitness centers and programs also provide you with up-to-date fitness magazines that do not only give substantial information about fitness and health but inspirational stories as well. These articles will give you an insight on how to make you life balance and how to live a life that is healthy and fit.

Indeed, staying fit and healthy can be a long and winding road and there will be times when you may find your enthusiasm waning. Nevertheless, with the comprehensive programs provided by lifetime fitness plans, you will be able to stay focused and keep on track going in the right direction for a healthier you.

Top 5 Fitness Myths

You’ve heard the stories: weight training makes women look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, exercising on an empty stomach burns more calories, and more. While some fitness myths make sense on the surface, deeper examination proves these stories are simply made up and have little or no basis in reality. Let’s tackle five of the most common myths and check out the real story behind them.

1. No pain, no gain – Perhaps the most common myth out there is this one that says if you don’t feel pain when you exercise, you’re not doing it right. The truth is absolutely opposite: exercise done right should never be painful and professional trainers recommend that you stop your workout at the first sign of pain. The logic behind “no pain, no gain” says that you can’t expect good results without sacrificing something – twisted at best, downright sadistic at worst. Exercise should be something you enjoy or else you very quickly become disillusioned and drop it entirely. While an intense workout may create slight discomfort, it should never get to the point where you are in actual pain.

2. Training with weights bulks women up – Few women want to look like professional bodybuilders, so this myth scares thousands of female exercisers away from weights every day despite scientific evidence to the contrary. The physiological differences between male and female bodies decree that men have a higher percentage of muscle throughout the body; thus men tend to increase bulk with weight lifting. On the other hand, female bodies have a higher percentage of fat to assist with childbearing and have less muscle to build and bulk up. Weight training for women is aimed at producing stronger muscles that can take more stress and bounce back better than ever.

3. Exercising on an empty stomach burns more calories – This one seems like it should make sense since exercise burns calories and an empty stomach has no calories to burn. It seems like you would be ahead of the game! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Your body needs energy to run, so when you exercise on an empty stomach the body has to find fuel somewhere else. The body tries to provide energy while looking for it at the same time and can get overwhelmed, resulting in the risk of dizziness or even fainting in extreme situations. The smartest choice is to have a small snack about ten to fifteen minutes before working out. Carbohydrates are the best source of energy, so have a small slice of toast or a banana.

4. Crunches are the best way of firming up the stomach – Too many videos and articles send the message that hundreds of crunches are the best way to correct a jelly belly but fail to take into account that most saggy abs are because of excess fat, not weak muscles. Simply doing crunches alone strengthens the abdominal muscles but doesn’t address the layer of fat over the muscles. You may see your stomach appear to grow larger since the muscles are gaining strength underneath the fat layer. The best strategy for getting firm abs is simple: burn fat and strengthen abdominal muscles at the same time. By using a two-pronged approach, fat that covers muscles is burned and the muscles are firmed at the same time, accomplishing your goal and giving you strong, sleek abdominal muscles.

5. Protein will help build muscles – Protein can do great things for your health but it won’t help you increase your muscle strength. Too much protein in your diet can lead to unintended health risks such as kidney strain or dehydration. Extra protein also packs extra calories into your diet that can result in extra pounds – definitely not what you want. The best source of fuel for weight lifting is carbohydrates – easily digestible by the body, carbs provide fast, consistent energy for the body and allow you to continue lifting weights longer. That alone is what builds strength, not the specific kind of food you eat. Provide your body with the right kind of energy to use and you’ll be able to build muscle better.

There are many more myths about health and fitness, but the best defense against false information is education. When you are confident that you know the right plan for your body, spotting myths become easy.