When we are young, fitness comes easily. We play sports or are active in our daily life. But sometime during middle age, our fitness tends to decline. And in our retirement years we may begin to really pay a price for letting our fitness wane. This doesn’t have to happen. Here are some tips that will help to make your story a happy one of continued fitness throughout life.
Running is a great exercise for full-body fitness. If you are new to running, you will want to start out with walking for at least 30 minutes at a time, several days a week, before starting a running program. Good shoes are especially important for runners, since they will protect your feet and prevent injuries.
Walking is a popular exercise and a great way to maintain fitness. It improves circulation, burns calories and strengthens your muscles. While walking, be sure to walk as straight up as possible without arching or leaning forward or backward. Avoid tilting the body, as this will increase your chance of straining muscles.
Stretches should be performed before you begin your exercise and afterwards to cool the muscle from intense performance. When stretching, it is best to hold a position for 15 to 30 seconds and try not to bounce during the hold. Bouncing will force the muscle to hit a tendon or body part unnecessarily and may cause injury.
Keep track of what you have been doing, and what is working for you. Evaluate what exercises you enjoy and what left you bored. A fitness plan should never be stagnant. Keep switching things up and changing things that aren’t working for you. A fitness plan that is set in stone is a fitness plan you’ll stop using.
To prevent injury when working out, you should stretch after you’ve sufficiently warmed up your muscles. Do some cardiovascular exercises (jogging, bicycling and running etc.) first and then stretch your muscles. You can leave yourself vulnerable to pulled or torn muscles if you stretch too early. Stretching after cardiovascular exercise, also helps to improve flexibility.
When strength training or working with weights, try to keep your daily workout under 60 minutes. After an hour, your body responds to strength-building exercises by producing excessive amounts of cortisol. This hormone can block the production of testosterone and may actually impair the body’s ability to build and maintain muscle.
If you are a runner, even the way you hold your head can affect the quality of your workout. For example, most people tend to hunch forward when running uphill. However, you are allowing your airways to open more fully, making breathing much easier, by keeping your head up and focusing your vision at the top of the hill.
You might consider downloading a weight loss app for your smartphone if you are planning to track your activity and consumption levels throughout the day. Some apps offer calorie counting, nutritional value, customized meal plans, and other helpful tools that help you keep up. You can find hundreds of useful weight loss apps, many of which are either free or 99 cents.
Adjust your fitness routine in the fall to take advantage of the weather. There are a lot of great exercises that you can do outside, including walking, hiking and riding a bike. Before or take your dog out on a run, Visit a park that you’ve never been to. Raking leaves can even help you burn calories! Finding creative ways to enjoy the weather will make exercising fun.
We hope these tips on fitness have given you a lot of good ideas. Applied well, this knowledge can help you avoid debilitating conditions later in life or to minimize the conditions that cannot be wholly avoided. Fitness is like holding a rope taut, not letting it go slack. Keeping fit throughout life is its own reward.
