5 Myths About Fitness

1. Sport is for professionals. This idea applies only in the case of performance sports. The native qualities required for professional sportsmen (speed, skills, specific height, etc.) can only be developed, they can’t be formed by training. As long as the aim of a regular person is not performance, almost all sports can be practiced for keeping the body in a good shape. It’s all about dosing the training you chose, so that the benefits are bigger than wear and tear. Even the sports considered tough can be practiced in a ‘soft’ way (tae-bo, mini-triathlon, jogging, etc.).

2. Training is tiring. This idea is true as long as it refers to consuming all your energy (muscular and hepatic glycogen), but it doesn’t mean that training gets you into that state of exhaustion which would slow down the process of recovery of the body. Even in performance sports, the purpose is to have rather effective than exhausting training, so that the body can get the stimulation necessary to qualitative progress from one training to the next.

Even more than in other sports, in fitness the sportsman is spared overexerting. However, the training must not become ineffective. People can come to the gym tired after a work day and leave relaxed (physically and psychologically) and not more tired. This is extremely useful for people with sedentary jobs, but also for those who make physical effort at work. They could use the training by choosing a type of effort meant to compensate the one involved in their job.

3. Training takes too long. Again, this idea is true if applied to performance, which can only be obtained by working a lot. But also in this case short and very intense training or training for relaxation and recovery are often performed. In fitness, you can get to 20-minute training, working only super-series of fast exercises, which could involve, directly or indirectly, all the muscles. Anyway, regular training shouldn’t take longer than an hour and a half. Otherwise, the body will get into the catabolic faze, when the cortisone secretions ‘cannibalize’ the muscles.

4. Any type of exercise is good for solving your problems. What’s true in this refers to some particular cases like excess of adipose tissue. This tissue can be ‘melted’ by any kind of aerobic exercise (running, cycling, swimming) if this is continued long enough. Even in these cases it was clear that some exercises are more effective than others. There are situations when only a combination of exercises with a certain amount of each, can provide you with the results you expect. More than that, repeating the same exercise all the time can have as a consequence not only losing balance in the antagonist muscles and in the joints involved in training, but also stopping progress or even regressing.

5. You’re older? No more exercises! This is true only if we refer to extremely demanding efforts (really heavy weights, fast running, jumping, etc.). There are lots of exercises adapted to different ages. Their purpose is to keep and improve health and also to improve physical shape. The development of movement parameters for older people refers especially to muscular and cardio-vascular resistance as well as mobility of the joints. Because the final purpose of training is not preparing for a competition, the exercises can be organized gradually according to their difficulty, eliminating the risk of accidents. Because it’s based on perseverance, fitness can be adapted without problems for older people and even for people suffering from different affections specific to old age.


Cheap Home Gym Setup

Training at home could prove as a good solution for the ones interested. The effectiveness of this type of training could compare to the one of working out in the gym, as long as some factors are considered.

The first, and at the same time the most important of these, is owning the necessary equipment. If, besides this, you also have a partner who trains with you, the exercises can be as effective as the ones performed in the gym. Of course, we are talking now about the ideal situation of affording a gym in your own house.

Even with these conditions fulfilled, some practitioners, especially the more extrovert ones, might lack the stimulating atmosphere, the sharing of experience, the communication that they can find in the gym.

In most of the cases, what you can do at home is improvise a room or just a corner of a room, for fitness. Besides, most of the times you have to train by yourself. As these are the most frequent situations, we’ll deal with them now. Anyway, it is preferable to have constant training at home, rather than interrupt it a lot because the gym is too busy, too far, too expensive, etc.

The minimum of equipment necessary for training at home includes: an adjustable bench, a set of two dumbbells, with increasing weights, a barbell, with free weights and a fix bar for pull ups. This equipment will enable both executing basic exercises (squats, bench presses, pull-ups, sit-ups, etc.) and diversity of exercises, necessary for avoiding routine.

The main disadvantage of not having a partner to train with is reflected in the amount of loading in some exercises, which cannot reach its maximum. There are many exercises which can be loaded to maximum without any risk, even if there is no partner to assist you (pull-ups, dips, shoulder presses, barbell curs, dumbbell curls, etc.).

An advantage which comes from training at home is that you can choose the training time without any restraint. Moreover, the speed of exercising can be increased a lot if the practitioner chooses to execute supersets, tri sets or giant sets. You can also save time, as you are not distracted by casual conversation, by waiting for the machines to be available, by having to change the weights for every personal series of exercises, etc.

In the extreme case when we can only afford as equipment a mattress, chairs and a towel, we can focus on exercises using the weight of the body (push-ups, reverse push-ups, between chairs push-ups, squats, sit-ups, crunches, hyperextensions, lunges, plyometrics, plunks, etc.).

All the exercises involving the body weight are considered as really demanding, because they mobilize more stabilizing muscles that ensure coordination and balance. The body-weight exercises are often introduced in the programs at the gym due to their proven effectiveness. They are also used in training and testing people in special troops, as these need a lot of force and discipline in their training.


25 ways to get a 10min workout part 2

Around the House

1. When you go outside to pick up your morning newspaper, take a brisk 5-minute walk up the street in one direction and back in the other.

2. If you’re housebound caring for a sick child or grandchild, hop on an exercise bike or treadmill while your ailing loved one naps.

3. Try 5 to 10 minutes of jumping jacks. (A 150-pound woman can burn 90 calories in one 10-minute session.)

4. Cooking dinner? Do standing push-ups while you wait for a pot to boil. Stand about an arm’s length from the kitchen counter, and push your arms against the counter. Push in and out to work your arms and shoulders.

5. After dinner, go outside and play tag or shoot baskets with your kids and their friends.

6. Just before bed or while you’re giving yourself a facial at night, do a few repetitions of some dumbbell exercises, suggests exercise instructor Sheila Cluff, owner and founder of The Oaks at Ojai and The Palms, in Palm Springs, CA, who keeps a set of free weights on a shelf in front of her bathroom sink.

While Waiting

7. Walk around the block several times while you wait for your child to take a music lesson. As your fitness level improves, add 1-minute bursts of jogging to your walks.

8. Walk around medical buildings if you have a long wait for a doctor’s appointment. “I always ask the receptionist to give me an idea of how long I have left to wait,” Cluff says. “Most are usually very willing to tell you.”

9. While your son or daughter plays a soccer game, walk around the field.

10. Turn a trip to a park with your child into a mini-workout for you. Throw a ball back and forth and run for fly balls.


Benefits of Home Gym Equipment

Nearly everyone today has been educated on the benefits of getting regular exercise. Yet still there are an average of sixty percent of American adults not getting enough exercise, while twenty-five percent of the population isn’t active at all. Whether this comes in the form of housecleaning for an hour or strength training at the gym–exercise keeps your muscles strong, your heart strong, and your body in shape. You may find that having home gym equipment to exercise on is a great way of staying active so that you can stay healthy.

Doctors have found that the more active you are the healthier you are in many studies. There is a direct correlation between physical activity on that home gym equipment and a lowered risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, colon cancer, and muscle, bone and joint problems. Also if this wasn’t all ready enough to have you looking up home gym equipment reviews on the internet, exercise can literally make you feel better mentally and emotionally.

Plus you don’t have to exercise for hours a day every day of the week to receive these benefits. Most doctors suggest that you exercise three to five times a week for about a half an hour each time to remain happy and healthy. On a piece of your home gym equipment that’s only one and a half to two and a half hours of exercise each week. More than likely you’ll get addicted to the exercise once you get into a routine and end up exercising more than that on a weekly basis.

Anyone can benefit from the exercise that they get from using home gym equipment. As mentioned previously there are many home gym equipment reviews available online for you to look at in order to get an understanding of the wide variety and availability of home gym equipment on the market.