There are many great reasons to develop a lifestyle of fitness and well-being. The typical reasons you hear are that you will look better and you will feel better. Those of us who have devoted our lives to fitness know that those 2 reasons open the door to many other “sub-reasons”, but as I sat here yesterday reading the above mentioned reasons over and over, I realized that many people don’t hear much about many other fitness benefits. Today we will focus on 5 benefits of exercise that are never talked about.
1. Better Sleep – This is probably the biggest transformation I have personally noticed since I made a change in my life to be more healthy. Exercise during the day can help you fall asleep quicker, and deeper than before. I use to know that if I didn’t get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, I was a wreck the next day. since I have started and maintained a vigorous exercise schedule (also coincided with getting married and having 2 kids), I can get 6-7 hours of sleep a night and still feel great and have energy the next day. The reason, I fall asleep fast and I sleep hard. If someone tells me they have a hard time sleeping, I don’t recommend they take a Tylenol PM, I tell them to exercise during the day and stretch before they go to bed.
2. Your Back Feels Better – Unless your workout involves some intense Dead-lifts, your back pain typically can decrease (or go away completely) with exercise. When you are active and utilizing your back, nutrients are delivered in the soft tissues and disc space in your back which keep the discs, muscles, ligaments, and joints healthy. When people begin to adhere to an exercise routine, less pain in their back is almost always a comment that’s made. As I mentioned before, when someone says they have back pain, I always recommend weight training (light to heavy) to help reduce it.
3. Better Sex Drive – This reason alone might send droves of middle-aged men and women to the gym. Exercise increases endurance, flexibility, and strength…..need I say more? But seriously, research shows that exercise increases blood flow to the buttocks, groin area, and pelvis and as a result can rekindle sexual arousal and orgasmic function. From a psychological standpoint, as you begin to look better, you feel better about yourself. This helps your confidence and can increase your libido. Additionally, your spouse or significant other may find your new physique very appealing, also helping your odds of making it to the bedroom. A great suggestion for couples who are struggling with their sex life…..start an exercise routine together! (Starting to see a pattern here?)
4. Confidence and Directed Motivation – I truly believe that if you can find success with your health and fitness, there is literally nothing in this world you can’t accomplish. Reaching a fitness goal can be difficult, and the attributes necessary to do this (dedication, mental toughness, focus, drive, passion) can be correlated to any area of your life. If you’re an aspiring business owner and you are incredibly fit, it’s easy to make the connection between the habits you have in the gym and the habits necessary to become a successful business man. The point I’m trying to reach here is that exercise will motivate you to accomplish other goals you have in life. If you ever follow stories of people who lose large amounts of weight and change their lives, you will notice they go on to do other things they never would have accomplished. The reason? They now have a road map for success, and know how to follow it.
5. Better at your job – Think about what your life at work would be like with more energy, no early afternoon crash and better cognitive ability (concentration, thought processing, idea generation). My guess is that you would probably be twice the worker you currently are. This is what happens when you adhere to exercise. It no longer takes 3 cups of coffee to get going, and you no longer have to spend longer nights and weekends at work to get your job done. You work faster, and you might just find that you enjoy your job a heck of a lot more.
If you’re someone who’s still looking for some motivating reasons to get fit, I hope one of these benefits will help your cause. In the end I can promise you one thing, if you can get yourself in better shape than you’ve ever been in your life, your life will get infinitely better. There’s a hell of a reason right there.
How Can You Not Go to a Gym and Still Get Fit?
If you do not have enough time to visit a gym then working out at home is bound to be a welcomed option. Even without the equipments of a gym, there are many ways of building your abs at home. Some examples include:
The Bicycle Ab Workout: One of the most effective home ab workout routines is the bicycle workout. An obvious advantage of this exercise is that it does not require any extra equipment. Because all the major stomach muscles are used during the bicycle workout, people are able to address the complete development of their abs.
In order to begin, you will need to be lying on the floor with your back to the ground. Your hands should be placed next to your ears or behind your head. Your legs should be closed and straight. The bicycle sequence begins with you raising a knee (say the right knee) towards your chest while leaving your other leg in its resting position. You should also at the same time rise with your torso such that you are able to touch your right knee with your left elbow. Do this for the different sides of your body. (i.e. Lift your left knee and touch it with your right elbow).
Continue this sequence with your knees and elbows (the motion of your legs will be similar to those of person riding a bicycle). Do this until you are tired.
Vertical crunches (Also known as Leg raises): Another ab workout routine which can be done at home is the Vertical Crunch. Like the Bicycle workout, they also do not require any equipment and are effective in building the upper ab muscles. This exercise can be done in almost any location.
In order to perform a vertical crunch you will need to be lying down on your back with your hands straightened behind on the ground as well. Gently raise your feet a few feet from the ground. (Advanced users might wish to cross their knees).
With your legs in this position, lift your trunk as high as you can with only the use of your stomach muscles. Drop to the ground and then repeat for a fixed number of reps.
For the best results in your home abs workout, you should always try and ensure that the bulk of your motion comes from your stomach muscles. Refrain from supporting your motions with the use of your arms or thighs. You should however avoid straining yourself unduly. Your muscles will need time to develop before you can attempt harder or longer sequences. Pending the occurrence of this, you should ensure that you do not hurt yourself. If your muscles begin to hurt during your exercise routine, it is best that you take a break immediately. You should also not forget to stay well hydrated during your workout.
Four Benefits of an Adult Fitness Boot Camp
An Adult Fitness Boot Camp is specifically designed to get you back in shape in a group setting along with other adults with the same goal and fitness level.
Our jobs and lifestyle can play a primary reason for us getting out of shape as our activities tend to focus more on sitting in front of a computer or driving around in a car, rather than performing physically demanding activities. Our sedentary lifestyle is not the best state for a human body which needs to be moving around and pushing its limits to achieve fitness.
At best adults experience minor health related problems such as extended recovery times after an illness to ongoing issues such as hypertension or high blood pressure. Many of these issues can be side-stepped if you include an appropriate fitness bootcamp into your lifestyle.
Here are some benefits of adult fitness boot camps to consider:
1. Proper Fitness Related Guidance: Adult fitness boot camps held at a recognized training facility are led by qualified expert trainers who have experience in helping others achieve fitness level for their individual capabilities. This means if you join such a group you’ll get professional advice, irrespective of whether your goal is to lose weight or become fitter.
2. Access to High Quality Equipment: Joining an adult class at a local gym provides access to all the equipment you’ll need and you can rest assured it is well-maintained and supervised. Safety and proper use of the equipment to avoid injuries, and provide you the results you seek is paramount in the session leader’s aim. Exercising alone at home usually means limited equipment diversity and no expert advice on proper use of the equipment.
3. Multi-Pronged Exercise Regime: Different adult boot camps have different themes and/or exercise focus which appeals to personal preferences. For example, themes such as weight loss, muscle tone, lung and heart capacity can advocate specific equipment and exercises or a combination if overall fitness is the target. Make sure you understand the curriculum and aims of the boot camp before signing up.
4. Group Motivation: The concept of a boot camp is to get you back on track in short time. They are fun but can be intensive. It’s a widely known fact that exercises and similar activities become much more fun in the company of other people. The reason for this is that a group of people can share a common goal that breeds camaraderie and support. Adult fitness boot camps depend upon this aspect of human nature. When you join one of these camps you’ll be surrounded with like-minded people who want to achieve the same result as you. Your group will support you in achieving your goals, just like you’ll support them in theirs. While there are never any guarantees it is more likely to be easier for you to achieve fitness while exercising as a part of a group.
Adult Fitness Bootcamps have become extremely popular as a way for people to recover shape and fitness they experienced in earlier years. The boot camp concept appeals to our natural tendency to do activities with other people and put ourselves under the guidance of a trained expert to achieve our desired goals.
Slow, Slow, Slow Movements
Many people believe that if they want to learn how to run faster and longer, they must simply do so. They must go out and run as fast as they can in hopes of attaining speed and increasing speed. People will do things such as weighted sprints, but unfortunately these types of sprint make you slower because you are not running as fast as possible. People will run up hills because they feel they are getting a good workout and the actually running is more difficult than usual, but again those people are running slower than the maximum thus making them slower in the long run. I am here to tell you that there are only two ways to get faster.
One of them is with very, very slow movements. I’m talking, for example, like moving the bicep in a bicep curl from flexed to lockout in three minutes. What happens in this case is the muscles are contracting as rapidly and as fast as possible hundreds of times per seconds. Let’s do a test. Stand up and stretch your right arm in front of you, palms up. Without moving your arm, flex the bicep as hard as possible. What you are feeling is almost a vibration feeling in the bicep. This feeling is the type of contraction that cannot be felt during regular weight training or running, but can be felt during very very slow movements. The contractions that you felt during the bicep example are the highest velocity contractions humanly possible, so why not always do that?
In order to run faster, we need to do this for the lower body. Let’s take the lunge. In the lunge we are going to get into the typical lunge stance, front leg out in front and back leg behind us. From there we are going to keep the body stable by contracting out abs as hard as possible, squeeze the glute of the back leg to lengthen the hip flexor, and pull our hips/body down by contracting the hamstring of the strong leg. Remember, we are going to do this as slow as possible while always moving down. If we do this properly, we will go down once and maybe twice in the 3 minutes time. In that time, we will be getting muscle contractions that we want in a very short amount of time. Doing the lunge properly would literally be like doing out fastest sprint over and over again for 3 minutes!
This may be difficult to believe, but it is true that this is one of the only two ways to get faster. All you have to do is give it a try and see for yourself!
Bob B. Brooks
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Liane Blyn is the co-owner of Athletic Based Training in the Metro-West Boston area and helps athletes of all levels and ages optimize their athletic performance. Liane runs programs for Strength and Conditioning in Holliston and Milford Massachusetts locations and you can get more details on about her programs at her website here: http://www.athelticbasedtraining.com
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There are plenty of home ab workouts you can try,if you really would like to find out how to get six pack abs please check our web site.
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Thank you for reading my article. If you would like to learn more about fitness motivation, please visit my blog at yourfitnessmotivation.com
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Now that you have taken the time to read this post, take the time and read my many other posts, am sure you will find what you need.