Is Exercise A Stretch For You?

One of the biggest challenges people seem to have is finding the time to do something. More often than not, that is actually an excuse NOT to do something.

Look at your health and level of fitness. Health and fitness are important topics in the world these days. You can tell by all the fitness and exercise tips offered everywhere you turn. I think they’re more commonplace now because people are trying to stay healthy in our fast-food society and they need good information to do that.

People want to know if popular diets are viable ways to lose weight and if the latest workout craze will help or hurt their quest for good health. That’s probably because as a society we’re more sedentary than we used to be.

All that time spent watching TV has resulted in a generally lower standard of fitness. It also means that we’re not as connected to what is goodfor our bodies.

Reading about health and fitness is not a substitute for intuition but at least these days there are health articles that people can learn from. The widespread availability of these articles has helped a lot of people learn more about a wide variety of health topics.

And when people use them to learn more about fitness and its relationship to vitamins, that’s a pretty good thing.

The trend in the last 100 years has been to move away from physical activity in our jobs, so we need to look to other methods to stay fit. Just on the surface, people look better and have higher self-esteem if they’re in good shape.

But as you delve deeper, you’ll discover there are many other reasons to keep the body in tip-top shape. For one thing, people who live healthy lifestyles enjoy more of their lives and stay vibrant and disease-free so much longer.

Fitness allows them to achieve a quality of life they wouldn’t otherwise have. These are great motivation to work on your health and fitness. If you need even more incentive, consider your friends and family. I’m sure they’d like you to stay healthy so they can have you around for as long as possible!

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Perhaps you have been through this type of thing before where by you have decided to improve your health and fitness and in the beginning you felt really motivated.

Perhaps you saw an inspirational movie that caused you to take action, maybe a friend of yours you hadn’t seen for a long time showed up having lost a heap of weight or having piled on muscle mass or maybe you are just sick of feeling lethargic and overweight.

Whatever the initial stimulus was, you began exercising and then continued to exercise for a while.

However after sometime your motivation dropped off, you allowed your work to takeover, you got frustrated at your perceived lack of progress and gradually bit by bit you quit your healthy lifestyle. If that all sounds familiar then here are a few easy ways to help regain and sustain your motivation for a healthier lifestyle:

Try setting an enjoyable goal.
For example,what about planning out a mountain biking/kayaking/hiking holiday in an exotic tough part of the world such as the Himalayas,The Alps or The Candadian Rockies. You really do have an exciting motivating thing to aim for now with this trip. In order to enjoy your trip to the fullest you really need to be in good physical shape. If your trip is in 5 montsh time then you can plan a realistic schedule with your fitness goals in mind.

Join in with a local event.
I’m sure there are plenty of local events you can get involved with if you just look online. Target one of these events as a goal to aim for. Tell a close friend about your plans so they can encourage you in your training and come to watch you on the day.

Take up a sport or hobby
This doesn’t have to be an ultra serious thing just a light hearted game of soccer or hockey at the weekends but it gives you an easy and enjoyable way to monitor your fitness levels. The first week on the pitch you will likely feel the strain but after a few weeks at it you will look and feel noticeably better about your performance.

Visualise.
Ok this might sound a bit odd at first but try and find a bit of time each day to sit and visualise in your minds eye exactly how you wish to feel and look. Performing this projects strong messages to your sub conscious mind as regards what decisions you ought to be making throughout your day. Repeat this daily and continuously and your behaviour will naturally alter itself and begin to take you towards your goals automatically. Many top athletes use techniques such as this simply becuase it brings great results.

Try to involve your family, friends and pet dog too.
Getting more people involved makes it less likely for you to get bored and lose motivation. If your friends is calling you on that particular day when you really don’t feel like doing anything you are much less likely not to go and exercise.

Teach yourself more.
Be curious find out about how to build muscle up, find out how to get a 6 pack, find out how to shed pounds, find out what muscle building nutrition you need for no nonsense muscle building and so on. By increasing your knowledge you are more likely to succeed and more likely to reach your goal quicker aswell and therefore more likely to stay motivated.

Don’t compare yourself to others.
It matters little who you there is aways going to be someone fitter, sexier, more muscular or whatever than you. Accept this fact and realise that you all go through this process of life from your own differing perspectives. Pay more attention to how you feel than to anything else, if you feel good then you are likely getting healthier.

So, with those tips in mind go hit the gym and do whatever it is that you enjoy doing to keep fit, build lean muscle mass or whatever else you want to do, you can do it, just keep it fun. Burn the fat build the muscle book

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You’ve decided you want to exercise at home.

There are hundreds of pieces of home cardio equipment available. The most popular are treadmills and exercise bikes.

In deciding between the two, you should compare long-term sustainability, the effectiveness of the workouts, and safety.

Overcoming Boredom

The biggest obstacle to a home exercise routine is sticking with it. You don’t have to drive to a gym, so your home fitness equipment is more convenient.

The problem is that other distractions are just as convenient at home. The key is to make your routine fun. You want to look forward to your daily workout.

You have to be realistic. Playing with the heart rate monitor or watching the calorie counter go up will only be fun the first couple of times you exercise.

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It’s great to wake up one day and decide that you are going to start getting fit and healthy, but what happens on a cold winter’s morning when you are struggling just to get out of bed?

The biggest challenge that you can face, is not the exercising, but the reasons to keep you exercising. It’s much easier to sit on your armchair contemplating exercise, so why should you continue your fitness program?

We’ve put together a list of 50 ways / ideas / tactics to help you stay motivated ….

Create a list of reasons you want to be healthy
And read it regularly -
It may be to improve health, play with the kids, or trek through India.
Whatever the reasons write them down.

Train for an event!
It could be a corporate sports day, fun run, or family activity. It could even be as simple as joining the 7.5 km walk on the Gold Coast Marathon – why not enter some friends / work colleagues as a team for next year’s event?
This will give you something to think of other than the time exercising.

Just start!
You will always be able to find excUses not to train so don’t think about it, just walk out the door.

Don’t complicate things, make it simple!
You don’t have to find a fitness centre or join a Tai Chi group. Just find a nice park and go for a walk or run.

Read about the benefits of exercise!
We all know that exercise is good for us but do you know why it is? Reading a reputable publication on exercise can inform you of the great ways exercise can improve your life. It’s more than just being able to walk up those stairs!

Read something inspiring!
It could be a biography, quote, poem, or song.

Use other peoples experiences to give you that lift.
It’s more social and you all get to feed off themotivation of each other.

Think of exercise as a menu rather than a diet!
Make a list of activities and choose 1 each day.

Use a training journal!
By keeping track of your activities you can see the improvements in your fitness week to week.

Start an interest or hobby that requires physical fitness!
It could be bushwalking, rock-climbing, tennis, golf, or scuba-diving. If you require physical fitness to enjoy the activity you will be more inclined to train for it.

Increase your incidental activity!
This is the amount of activity you do in your normal course of your day, the activity not generally classed as exercise. You could:

• walk to work
• take the stairs instead of the elevator
• never Use the remote to the TV, or
• play with the kids for 15 minutes per day.

Try cross-training!
If your exercise program is always the same then break it up with one session per week of swimming, bike riding, jogging, sprints, or circuits. You could even play a different sport and use it as a training session.

Use a Personal Trainer!
Personal trainers can provide motivation as well as training variety.

Use an exercise video!
If exercising in public places is not for you, then try training at home. There are many forms of training available on video now including:

• boxing,
• aerobics,
• pilates, and
• yoga.

Listen to music!
Put on the stereo or use an MP3 player. Music certainly helps the time go faster.

Watch TV!
Most fitness centres now have a cardio theatre where you watch your favourite shows whilst you work out.

Exercise first thing in the morning!
Get it out of the way early and you will be less likely to find excuses not to do it.

Compare yourself to others!
Find yourself someone that you know that has problems related to health that you just don’t want. It may be death, illness, or the fact that they have let themselves go so far that they have very restricted movement.

Shop for new training gear!
You will feel a lot more comfortable exercising if you look great.

Write down the compliments you receive on your improved health!
You can then read them when whenever you need to refocus on your goals.

Shorten your workouts!
Anything is better than nothing so rather than quitting exercise altogether, just shorten your workouts until you feel motivated again.

Compete with yourself!
Set small goals within each session. Decrease your time for a set distance or increase the total distance covered. Small increases lead to big gains.

Read whilst you exercise!
Get a magazine or book and pass the time you spend on the stationary bike. You may not exercise as hard but you will still exercise.

Monitor your heart rate!
Checking your heart rate during a session not only takes your mind off what you are doing, it also allows you to compare sessions and monitor improvements in fitness.

Set a plan!
Fail to plan, Plan to fail! Write down what you want to achieve, then how you will achieve it. Ensure that it is realistic and attainable.

Re-assess your goals!
If you are losing motivation, maybe your goals were too easy or too hard. It may even be that you have changed what it is you now want to achieve.

List your obstacles to exercise and design a plan to overcome them!
Be thorough, think of every reason you can find not to exercise, then write down a reason that you should.

Don’t do anything that you don’t like!
You will have a greater chance of continuing to exercise if you find it enjoyable so if you don’t like to run, do sit-ups, or swim, then don’t do it.

Find the right location!
It is always more enjoyable to exercise in a nice environment so take a visit to a local lake or park.

Reflect on your exercise history!
When you last enjoyed exercise, how did it feel? What is different now?

Don’t watch the clock!
If you continually watch the time, then don’t wear a watch. If you are at a fitness centre, cover the display on the machine.

Spend the time with your best friend!
Take your dog with you. S/He will always be keen and it will help to keep him/her healthy as well.

Eat well!
Improving your diet can give you more energy and increase your motivation to exercise.

Use intervals!
Break your training up over the day. Do half in the morning and half in the evening.

Mix up the cardiovascular and weights!
Do 5-10 minutes of cardio, then 5 minutes of weights, then repeat.

Train with someone different each day!
Time will go faster as you catch up.

Try a new form of training!
The methods of exercising are endless. Try something that you think might be interesting (eg, Pump, Boot Camp, Pilates, Surfing, Rollerblading, etc)

Exercise with your kids!
Spend time with the family as you all get healthy.

Invest in your future!
View your workouts as an important part of your lifestyle and as an investment in your health instead of a daily chore.

Use exercise as a trade off!
You must exercise “X” times per week if you want to do/have “Y”.

Surround yourself with positive people!
You will be surprised at how positive your attitude will be if you spend time with people who really enjoy their life.

Use your workouts as “zone-out” time!
Don’t be contactable and don’t think about work/family.

Use positive mental imagery!
Each night as you go to bed spend time imagining what it would be like to be fit and healthy. How would your life be? How would you feel? It will be more attainable if you can imagine yourself reaching your goals.

One step at a time!
Think of every rep, set, metre, or workout you do as being one step closer to your goals.

Change your surroundings!
If you always train indoors, then start exercising 1 day per week outside.

Start a team sport!
You will get to meet new people and its always very social.

Challenge yourself!
Move out of your comfort zone. Do something that will challenge you physically and mentally.

Variety is the spice of life!
Change your training regime every session.

Be accountable!
Organise for someone to re-assess your fitness every month. This way you will be less likely to take time off.

Compete with a friend!
See which one of you can attend the most sessions, run the fastest lap, or reach their goals the fastest. The competition will keep you both focussed.

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