Exercise Can Save Your Life.
For many people, exercise motivation is all about looking good in a smaller size. But to us, fitness is about health. Slimming down is a byproduct of that. Every year, 250,000 people die from one of the 33 diseases that make up sedentary death syndrome. You can diminish your chances of succumbming to Sedentary Death Syndrome by doing one simple thing: Exercise 30 minutes a day.
What Type of Exercise is Right for You?
With all of the exercise trends out there, it can be difficult to know what form of exercise will give you maximum health benefits. It seems like everyone is an expert and offering exercise tips. You want to focus on exercises that maximize performance but minimize injury. You want exercises that are designed to work your muscles in coordination with one another. In other words, you want a total body workout. While exercise can be hard work, you want it to be fun. No matter how many exercise tips you receive, if your workout isn’t fun, you won’t stick with it. Remember that you don’t need to join an expensive gym to get fit. You can exercise in your living room without any heavy equipment. Here are important exercise tips to help you thrive.
Exercise Tips to Help You Thrive.
• Engage your Core.
You’re used to hearing this exercise tip. The term “core” is used often in fitness. Your core muscles are right in the middle of your body. There are three sheets of muscles that wrap like a belt around your middle and connect your spine to your belly. These muscles allow you to bend, twist, pull and push. To engage your core, place both hand on the sides of your body at the level of your navel and bear down like someone is about to punch you in the stomach. You should feel your muscles tighten. If you don’t feel this tightness when you are exercising, then you are not engaging these all important muscles.
• Breathe.
Breathing is automatic, yet when we exercise, many of us often breathe incorrectly. Some people even hold their breath during a workout! This reduces your stamina and can even make you dizzy. You should breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth in a long, controlled flow. Breathe out when you exert and in when you relax. Remember to engage your diaphragm when you breath. Don’t take shallow breaths. Breathe deep to oxygenate your system fully.
• Shoulders Over Elbows.
Shoulders are designed for motion, even in multiple directions. Shoulders were not designed to bear weight. to allow extreme motion in multiple directions, but not for bearing weight. The placement of our shoulders during exercise can result in strain and even injury, especially during exercises that require floor work, like yoga postures.
This is an extremely important exercise tip:To prevent injury, keep your shoulders lined up directly over your elbows and your hands. Working with an exercise buddy comes in helpful here. You can check each other’s postures to make sure you aren’t doing anything that would cause injury.
• Knees Over Ankles.
Knee injuries are all too common, but that does not mean that knee pain is a necessary consequence of working out.
Just like you should keep your shoulders over your elbows, you need to keep your knees directly over your ankles when exercising. This lessens the stress placed across the front of your kneecap and puts your leg in a more stable position.
If you don’t have a workout buddy, check your exercise stance in a mirror.
One Final Exercise Tip.
Fitness is not only about what you do with your body, it’s also about what you put into your body.
You must burn 3500 calories in order to lose one pound. If you want to lose 1 pound in one week, then you need to burn 500 calories more than you consume each day. After 7 days, you will have lost 1 pound.
By decreasing your food intake and increasing your energy output (exercise) your body becomes a fat-burning machine!
Remember, you can save your own life through fitness. For more exercise tips and detailed workouts to help your body thrive, check out Dr. Vonda Wright’s Guide to Thrive and Fitness AFTER 40: Your STRONG Body at 40, 50, 60 and Beyond!
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