Category Archives: Exercise

How To Easily Stay Committed To An Exercise Plan

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If I sat down with you and asked you about exercise, you could probably tell me how its good for you and a lot of the benefits associated with it. If you are like most people though, you do not exercise regularly. I don’t say this for you to feel bad, because that is true for most people. I’m sure you want a more active lifestyle. I’m sure you want to be outdoors more often, and feel fitter and more healthy. The only problem is that you are so busy. There’s work, looking after your family and then fitting in a social life. It feels as if there just is no time for anything else.

How can anyone reasonably expect to squeeze in time for exercising on a regular basis?

A lot of people would say ‘will power’. That you’ve got to want it bad enough. And they’ll bring out the old saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” No matter how pumped up you get over something because of somebody else, we both know that the motivation is going to dry up because you are trying to get fit, or get healthier for someone else. It just doesn’t work. And the worse thing is that we really beat each other up for not following through.

In a lot of ways, it’s a very similar syndrome to the so-called ‘yo-yo’ dieter.

So, if getting all pumped-up initially about a program is not going to last, what can you do?

Well, I believe that you can still use that motto: “where there’s a will, there’ s a way,” but with a twist.

Rather than starting an exercise regime because its meant to be great for you, find an exercise activity that naturally is a good fit with your interest and hobbies, or with other parts of your life. What I mean is that, step back a bit, and don’t start exercising for exercising sakes.

If you work in sales, it is commonly taught that ‘people buy for emotional reasons, not for logical ones’, and the same thing applies here. Instead of trying to sell yourself on an exercise program because it will give this advantage and that advantage, step back, and think about what automatically motivates you.

If there was a sport you used to love to play, but don’t really play it much anymore, there’s an obvious opportunity. Maybe its time to dust off your old playing gear, join up a local club and sign up for the next season. Sure you might feel you are not fit enough, but you aren’t going to get fit by sitting at home.

I had a friend who loved to play soccer but didn’t join a club for a couple of years because he thought he carried too much weight. He thought he’d wait until he lost some weight before he signed up, but of course he never lost that weight – well not until he actually did sign up and was exercising regularly. That’s because he didn’t need to be motivated to go jogging anymore, or to make training. He loved it, so he was there exercising away, keener than ever. He had sold himself on why he should do it. If you had asked him to come jogging with you when he wasn’t playing soccer, there’s no way he’d come, but it all changed when he took the extra step.

So what if you are someone who doesn’t really care about any particular sport, or activity that requires exercise?

How about engaging into the influence your social network has over you. If you are about to embark on an exercise program, try and get a friend to pick one out with you. You’ll motivate each other, have some friendly competition to keep each other at your best and encourage each other when you need it. If you don’t think you have a friend that might be interested, there’s options for you too. You can join your local jogging club for instance. It’s a great way to meet new people and enjoy the exercise, without having to toil through it yourself.

The basic idea is that you want to create an environment for yourself where you actually look forward to exercising. If you can find an activity that you love doing, especially with other people, then you’ll find that it is much easier to stick to an exercise program than you ever thought before. That’s the easy way to make this a habit.

The Right Abs Exercise

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Developing the abdominal muscles is one of the most common goals of fitness enthusiasts, bodybuilders, and people who are simply interested in having a fit body. This may seem easy with proper diet and abs exercise. Still, unknown to many, without the proper guidance and exercise routines, anyone’s effort to develop that much desired six pack abs will be in vain. For example, one can do several sit ups a day but will still not see any results.

Another common misconception is about using weights when working out. Weights, when not addressing the right muscle groups, cannot help in the development of one’s abdominal muscles. Unfortunately, more than half of those who work on their abs are not working out properly. This is not to say that getting well toned abs is impossible-in fact, it is possible even with minimum time and effort. However, developing the abdominal muscles is only possible given that one is doing the proper exercise.

But what is a proper exercise for your abs? In order to understand this, one has to know how an exercise should work-and how it affects the muscles. Like any other muscle group in the body, the abdominal muscle has many regions. Since one’s abs is composed of many other muscle groups, an abs exercise should target a specific area. This is why just any exercise patterns and methods would not work-one has to work their abs out depending on their desired results. There is such a thing as overtraining. And even if one does a specific exercise, while it may work for a specific part of the abdominal region, it does not mean it will work for the others. All regions and muscle groups of the abdominal region should be worked out equally using the right exercise.

Exercises such as squats, leg raise, and bicycle twist are perfect for abdominal development. These exercises work on specific abdominal regions. For example, the bicycle twist can develop one’s lower abdomen. With the bicycle twist, one has to kneel (with his butt touching the heels) and bend forward while stretching his arms. With straight arms, he should hold the exercise ball and rotate it to his left then to his right. The squat and reach abs exercise is a common exercise which-unknown to many fitness enthusiasts-can develop the side abdominal muscles. With further research, one can find out about the major abdominal regions of the body.

Obviously, these exercises are ordinary. This goes to show that abs exercise need not be elaborate; they should simply be done correctly. One should remember that these exercises would not work if he or she would not let his body heal or recover from the workout first. These exercises can be strenuous and should be done in moderation. The squat, for example, should not exceed 10 repetitions for beginners. Too much exercise can do more harm than good. Abs exercises will be very effective and will produce fast and positive results if one does not abuse his or her body’s limitations and capabilities. One cannot develop the abdominal muscles overnight, but one can develop it quickly and properly with the right abs exercise.