This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Quite a strong statement but I am sure you wouldn’t expect anything less from me these days. You see I have recent first hand experience. Of course in my past I have played a lot of sport and thoroughly enjoyed it. However after leaving college I just eventually stopped playing and focused all my exercise into gym routines. Gym sessions are great and I am not saying that sport should replace them but it should definitely be a part of your fitness schedule.
Go to your local sports centre
Not all of us had the best experiences of sport at school and afterwards have been glad not to have to participate any longer. However your experiences at school or college should not put you off trying any number of sports in adult life. You see it is quite possible for you to take part in lessons now under expert instruction without being bullied or feeling less of a person than any one should have to feel. Grab a friend and go to your local gym or sport centre and find out what sports classes they do. The kind of sports you should be looking at are aerobic classes (not a sport but uses similar principles), swimming, tennis, badminton, martial arts, boxing, soccer, basketball and of course squash.
I’ve taken up Squash
I am picking on this subject today because I have just taken up squash. After years of exercise I thought that it would come naturally and would be somewhat of a breeze. (Oh dear – Beeble). For those of you who do play squash I am sure you will remember the first time you played especially if like in my case you started in your adult years. I swear I could not walk properly for a week. It looked as if I had been riding a horse for days on end with no rest, it felt like it too. Don’t let this put you off though, the second time was much better and now I have played a total of 4 times and it is no problem now leg-wise. Still, it’s an exhausting game to learn.
Why did it affect me so much?
Well, I have been exercising in the gym and all gym work is supposed to be slow and controlled and linear in direction. This means that suddenly having to play a sport that requires quick foot work I found my legs very slow to respond. I have just not trained myself to react quickly, nor are my feet used to moving so quickly. Sport however requires that you move and respond to what the opposition throws at you. The quicker you can react the better you will become. So suddenly I am asking my body to react in a way that it hasn’t for over 10 years. The big shock affected all the muscles that move me from side to side as well as all the small supporting muscles that had to come into play to hold me in some very odd positions! As most sports require you to use many more muscles than any single piece of gym equipment, you will see better results in your figure from playing a sport and on the upside it is also fun, much more fun than the gym.
The improvements come because firstly the mind is kept active and has to concentrate on the task at hand meaning that you will put in much more effort and time without realising (with gym equipment it is too easy to clock watch). Secondly you will be using many more muscles than you would in the gym. As we know increasing muscle size and using muscles consumes energy which it will partly get from your body fat. So the more muscles you are using the more energy you are burning and in turn reducing your body fat % and increasing your muscle tone more.
Finally because it will be a new sport to you and you will constantly learning new moves it will test your body that much more. It has been proven that the weight loss affects from a sporting activity that you are no good at, hate and find difficult are much more than the affects from an activity you are good at. This is because your muscles have to work that much harder than they do with movement your body knows, so it will burn more energy.
If you go to the gym 3 times per week then I suggest you exchange one for a sport I promise you that you will see the results far more quickly and learn a new skill at the same time. Let me know how it goes!
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