Beebleblog

 Part 5 of 6

(Check with your doctor before you take on a training regime, especially if you suffer from any illness or are recovering from an injury.  All the tips and advice, unless otherwise stated, presume that you are in good health).  Well, from one large topic straight into another. Exercise for health is a relatively new concept if you look at our time on this planet. In its earliest form exercise was a way of life, it was literally survival of the fittest. There were no stores to buy food they had to chase and catch their food. Through time exercise has developed from a way of life to games, sports and finally gymnasiums. Now our daily lives involve very little exercise. Even some of the most active of us drive to most places and sit in an office for 8 hours a day only to go home to sit down to relax for the rest of the evening. With more of us leading this sort of lifestyle, often under pressure, we need to give greater priority to our health and fitness. Here are a few tips that will help you with your exercise plans.

Training Routines

Ideally you should be training 3 times a week at about an hour a time. This however becomes pointless if you are not making the most of you time in the gym. I truly believe that you can still have a very effective workout in half an hour 3 times per week. The trick is to push yourself, this way you will see your body develop in response to the pressures you put on it. The way I test my own effort and the effort of my clients is to use the scale of perceived effort. It is a 1-10 scale, 1 being it is no more effort than it is to sit and watch television through to 10 which you should never aim to achieve as it would involve vomiting and passing out. Hmmm nice! If you are healthy you will want to push yourself to a 7-8 out of 10. This should be the equivalent of training at 70 to 80% of your maximum heart rate. ( To work out your maximum heart rate take 220 minus your age).To give you an idea what a 7 out of 10 should feel like it should cause some sweating, it will feel like hard work, but will still be achievable. If you were to talk during the exercise you should be able to get 3-4 words out at a time. You should not be able to hold a full conversation. If you can then you need to increase either your speed (if on a cardiovascular piece of equipment) or resistance/level.

Variety

Another tactic you can add to your exercise repertoire is variety. If you stick to the same routine over and over again for a period of time you will find that your health improvements will slow down. You need to change your exercise routine about every 2 months to maintain a good level of improvement and keep your body on its toes.

Change Your Attitude

Finally if you hate to use a particular piece of equipment in the gym or detest doing a type of exercise and avoid it at all costs (for me it’s the stepper) then you should re-think your attitude. The hate we have for these exercises is usually caused by the fact that we find them hard to do. In turn if we find it hard mentally then so do our bodies and if our bodies find it hard to do then the benefits to our health from  these exercises are much more than our favourite exercises. After a time of forcing yourself to carry out these exercises you will begin to find them easier and when you do -  well, it will be time to find another one you detest. Isn’t exercise fun?!

Hard Work, But Worth it!

In summary the truth is that an effective training routine will be hard work and you may not always enjoy doing it.   But the benefits will come much more quickly and you can begin to spend less time in the gym.read part 6    

One Response to “Exercise”

1. beebleblog » Blog Archive » Diet Says:
   January 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 am

   [...] read part 5 « Goals Exercise » [...]

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