Exercise Part Three.

Last time we were talking about interval training and the benefits that can be achieved from this approach to training.

Using a moderate approach has the potential of increasing your muscle tone more quickly than if you exercise very strenuously. Muscle tone, or density, is very important in maintaining your health. Muscles help to keep our spine in proper alignment, protect our joints from injury, increase our metabolism, and help us to go about our daily lives more effectively.

When we exercise our muscles to the point of fatigue, the fibers in our muscle tissue break down and rebuild, creating denser, stronger muscles. This is also the reason our muscles get sore when we exercise strenuously. If a person exercises their muscles too strenuously, it takes longer for the body to heal and regenerate muscle tissue fibers. This is why using a moderate approach to beginning a fitness regimen is beneficial if you are just beginning, or getting back into the groove after a lengthy time-period.

One of the most important aspects of any work out is the warm up and stretch, so the following are 12 exercises that will help you stretch before beginning the workout. Remember stretching comes after the warm-up.

1. Wall Pushup #1                              

Stand about three feet from a wall, feet at shoulder width and flat on the ground. Put your hands on the wall with your arms straight for support. Lean your hips forward and bend your knees slightly to stretch your calves. 

2. Wall Pushup #2

From the previous position, bend forward to lower your body to waist height. Bring one foot forward with your knee slightly bent. Lift the toes of the front foot to stretch the muscle under the calf. Stretch both legs. 

3. Wall Pushup #3

Put your feet together, rocking back on your heels with your hands on the wall and your arms straight to form a jackknife with your body. This stretches your hips, shoulders, and lowers back. 

4. Back Scratch

Grab your elbow with the opposite hand and gently push the elbow up and across your body until your hand reaches down to "scratch" your back. Gently push on your elbow to guide your hand down your back as far as it will comfortably go, stretching your triceps and shoulders. Stretch both arms. 

5. Hamstring Stretch

Lie down with one leg straight up in the air, the other bent with foot flat on the ground. Loop a towel over the arch of the lifted foot, and gently pull on the towel as you push against it with your foot. Push only to the point where your muscles contract. Stretch both legs. 

6. Quadriceps Stretch

Kneel on your knees (without resting back on your heels). Lean back with your body erect and your arms to the side. Hold for 15 seconds. 

7. Heel To Buttock

Stand on one foot, with one hand on a wall for balance. Hold the other foot with the opposite hand and raise the heel of the lifted foot to the buttocks (or as close as comfortably possible), stretching your quadriceps. Keep your body upright throughout.

Change legs and repeat. 

8. Hip & Lower Back Stretch

Sit on the ground with your legs crossed. Lift your right leg and cross it over the left, which should remain bent. Hug the right leg to your chest and twist the trunk of your body to look over your right shoulder. Change legs and repeat (i.e. looking over your left shoulder). 

9. Iliotibial Band Stretch

Lie on your side with both legs bent in running position. Bring the bottom leg toward your chest and then bring the top one back toward your buttocks, so that the running position of your legs is exaggerated as possible. Hold for 30 seconds then flip sides and repeat. 

10. Hamstring & Back Stretch

Lie on your back with your knees bent. Hug your shins to your chest to stretch your hamstrings and lower back. 

11. Bridge

Lie on your back and, with your feet flat on the ground, lift your hips up until your body forms a flat plane. Repeat this one ten times for 30 seconds each to stretch your quads and lower back. 

12. Groin Stretch

Seated, put the soles of your feet together. With your elbows on the inside of your knees, gradually lean forward and gently press your knees toward the ground.

You don’t have to use all of them every time but use a combination each time you work out.  Make sure you are fully warmed up and stretched before you begin the main part of your work out.

Ready, on your mark, get set, go!!!!!

Exercise Part two. 06/05/2014

May 26, 2014, Jon Sutherland set an American record for running at least one mile the most consecutive days in a row, 16,438 days or 45 years 2 days. He covered more than 190,000 miles through rain, shine, healthy or sick, broken bones or fractured hip or surgeries on both knees. Now that is commitment.  If you are looking for motivation, look no further. Getting off the couch can lead to a new life and here is an easy way to start the first day of the rest of your life.

Interval training for running is a good way to start and this can be applied to many other exercise workouts. Here is how it is done. Do this for 20 minutes three days a week.

Start with:  5 minutes of warm up … easy walking to get your legs warmed up, then stretch but don’t stretch until you’ve warmed up.

Followed by:      30 seconds of increased pace

                           90 seconds of decreased pace

               30 seconds of increased pace

                           90 seconds of decreased pace

                           30 seconds of increased pace

                           90 seconds of decreased pace

                           30 seconds of increased pace

                           90 seconds of decreased pace

                           30 seconds of increased pace

                           90 seconds of decreased pace

               30 seconds of increased pace

                            90 seconds of decreased pace

Followed by:  5 minutes of easy cool down and stretching.

Now each person is at a different level so you may not be able to make it through the entire workout when you first start but do as many as you can trying to increase each day. Your 30 seconds could be jogging and your 90 seconds walking, it all depends on your level of fitness.

If you add it up you are only doing 3 minutes of increased exercise. After about 2 weeks, cut down your decrease pace time and increase your increased pace time. If you don’t have a stop watch you could use the light poles or trees in this way. The light poles are usually evenly spaced so you would do increased pace for 1 light pole and decreased pace for 3 light poles. If your street has many trees you can use them in the same manner, just improvise. Do this for two weeks then start making adjustments.

This is just a template to start so do the leg work before you begin.

On your mark, get set, go!!!!!!

EXERCISE

EXERCISE

So the big day is here and you are ready to start that new exercise program but deep in your heart you know that you are one of those people who never liked getting sweaty, going to the gym, or just working out period, what do you do? Every time you tried this in the past, something always seemed to come along to stop you before you reach your goal.

Here you are ready to give it another chance with much reservations and questions still in your mind. How do other people stay motivated day after day and year after year? What is their secret? Is there something that they know that you don’t? And then you realize what the problem really is, you really don’t like working out but at the same time you realize that you need to do something to improve your health and get in shape.

Working out is no fun when you are not in shape and most people are not born with a love for exercising but the thing that separates those that like exercising and those that don’t is fitness. When you are in shape, working out can be fun but if when you are not in shape, it is not fun. But good news for you, you don’t have to go crazy to get to that place where exercise is fun.

Like many other things in life, you just need to get to a minimum level of proficiency in fitness where exercising begins to be fun. Take for example learning to do flips at the end of a lap while doing laps in the pool, at first it is awkward deciding when to make that roll and how to do it, maybe the water gets in your nostrils, but once you get it down smoothly, it is a joy and with each turn you make it becomes easier and more fun. The only way you are going to get to that point, is by practicing. So with exercise, maybe you can think of each session a practice for something bigger.

When you begin your program, don’t do anything to strenuous or painful, just make sure that it is fun, easy, and convenient and you stick to it consistently and don’t make excuses to quit.

Make a commitment to stick with your plan, if you need to, change your goals but stick with the plan.

Ready, On your mark, Get set, Go!!!!

Making A Plan

So you have decided on a course of exercise and you are ready to begin. Here are some more thoughts on making your new venture a success.

Make a plan and put it down on paper.  This gives you something tangible to fall back to and it helps to define your goal. With a clearly defined goal, you can track your progress easily. Are you doing this for weight loss or is there another motivating factor, it helps to know the reason you are doing this. Later on it may mean the difference between continuing or giving up.

Begin slowly, go at your own pace and build up gradually. Be creative with your exercise, you may want to include different exercises instead of sticking to just one. Cross training is a good way to stay enthused about exercise. The different sports will reduce the monotony of doing just one if you are a person that likes variety or gets bored with the same thing over and over. Cross training also helps to reduce your chance of injury from over use of the same muscle group. Maybe you are challenged for time, how about exercising for 15 minutes two or three times throughout the day? No one said you had to do it all at once.

With any type of exercise that we do, we need to warm up the muscles before going full pace. This can be achieved with gentle stretching or walking for about five minutes before starting. Listen to your body, if you are not feeling well or something hurts, give yourself permission to take the day off and let it heal. It will be more beneficial to your overall progress. Come back, ready to start again, and don’t give yourself a reason to quit.

Be consistent. This is a big factor in having a successful exercise program. Make a commitment to yourself that you are going to see this through to the end which is to become physically fit. Sometimes it will have to be mind over matter to see you through but the end will justify the mean. A physically fit body brings so many other benefits that it is something to strive for. We have clearer minds, less illness, better sleep, better dispositions, better self-esteem and so much more. Above all, we are keeping in line with what our creator intended for our bodies.

Make it fun. Get a partner, join a team, buy a new exercise outfit or get a dog,

you will have to take him for a walk and that could be the start of your exercise program thanks to Fido.

On your mark, get set, go!!!!!