Your Health and Fitness (part 2)

Body Fitness And Its Effect

On Your Life

Remember how we referred to your body as a machine? Well, the
time has come to improve the way that machine is working. This
means physically. Your body is a well designed machine, actually.

Each part of your body functions well because of the support that
other parts play.

Your heart pumps oxygen rich blood to each cell in your body,
delivering fuel to is so that it can perform its duty. Your lungs supply
your heart with that necessary oxygen. Your brain keeps everything
working, even those things that you don’t think about doing like your
heart beating and your lungs breathing.

Your job is to give your body what it needs to continue to perform
correctly. While your diet is something for the next chapter, we need
to address your body’s ability to do what it needs to through being
physically capable.

What some people don’t realize is why their body has developed as it
has. Well back in the time of the cave man, the body had to do what
it needed to so that you could stay alive. It would store food in fat so
that when there wasn’t enough food available, these fat reserves could
be used.

Your muscles are necessary for functioning but they have been built to
be used, not to sit ideally. Your body is used to providing your
muscles with the fuel that they need to work hard. If you don’t work

hard, your body can’t maintain a healthy muscle mass.

What’s Healthy?

As we mentioned early, to know what level of fitness your body is in,
you need to take into consideration the vast number of measurements
that we’ve already taken. Your weight, your blood pressure and your
body mass index are good indications of your overall health.

Yet, it goes further than this, too. You should understand how well
your body is working, too. Do you have any physical limitations? If
you physically can’t lift things for fear of hurting your back, this could
be a potential problem that needs to be considered.

If you have problems with your legs, your neck, your arms or anything
else, you should address these specific concerns. The best place to
start is to work with your doctor to determine why you aren’t
physically fit in those areas. That way, you can improve your overall
health and then improve upon your situation by knowing how to.

Where Are You?

As we’ve mentioned, it’s important for you to know where you stand
health wise. That means taking the measurements that we’ve listed.

You should weekly weigh yourself, the same day at the same time
each week. Keep a log of this information so that you can see your

progression.

Talking to your doctor is a great place to start when it comes to

determining your overall health. You shouldn’t skip this step. If you

are overweight, chances are good that your heart has been affected by

it. You may not physically be able to exercise to a certain level. We

won’t even include that level of exercise here because your doctor

must tell you what’s okay and what is too much.

If you aren’t having any physical limitations, pains or weight problems,

that’s a great sign. Now, look at your body in other manners to

determine what you can improve on. Even an overall fit person can

often improve their body’s fitness through improving their body’s

makeup.

Understanding where you are is difficult for many at first. It’s a hard

realization. But, it’s not the permanent solution, its going to improve,

one step at a time.

How Can You Improve

Improving your body means improving your body’s ability to move and

function. Its not easy thing to do at first, but it will get easier. Our

overall plan to improving your body’s fitness level is through exercise,

coupled with the other fitness elements later throughout this book.

Exercise is something that people hate, but remember your body is

built to be used, not to sit in a chair at a desk all day. It is estimated

that most people don’t get the exercise that they need and that leads

to all types of health problems.

Again, even if you aren’t overweight, chances are good that you aren’t

getting enough exercise and fitness into your life anyway. Using your

muscles and strengthening them are vital to improving health and

fitness.

Aerobic Training

Movement is important for your body. Exercise is the best route to

take to gain that health. Aerobic training is the best way to improve

your overall exercise tolerance and therefore to improve your muscles.

Aerobic training helps to increase your heart’s ability to pump and

therefore to get oxygen throughout your body faster. In this type of

training, your body will work to improve its function by improving how

much work your heart can do.

To find out if you have any limitations, talk to your doctor. If not, then

start with a basic program. Here are some tips for you to get in

aerobic training.

•Start with basic aerobics and work up as your tolerance

increases. Walking is a great place to start.

•Increase your resistance by taking trails that offer hills or

speeding up your walk as you improve.

•Move on to more aerobic style exercises. Swimming, bike riding,

playing your favorite sport, running, elliptical machines, and other

physical activities are perfect for aerobics.

Your goal is to start with 10 minutes of continuous aerobics three

times a week. You should try to increase this to 30 minutes three

times per week, though, as soon as your body allows for it. The

guidelines of your doctor are a must to follow!

Strength Training

Along with aerobic training, you also need to consider adding strength

training to your workout. Now, you don’t have to be a body builder

here. You don’t have to have bulging muscles. But, you do want to

develop lean muscles that are strong and therefore healthy.

If you need to lose some weight, strength training is a very essential

aspect of making sure that happens. With strength training, you will

be able to move flabby muscles and fat into lean muscles. Muscle

burns through fat faster, allowing you to lose weight faster.

Strength training is essential because it allows you to improve the way

that your body works, too. Muscles that are strong are less likely to

become injured. They are able to be used easier, with less likelihood

of being strained or hurt through your daily exercises, movements or

even in accidents.

Here are some tips for exercising through strength training.

•Work with a low amount of weight first. Never increase the

weight you are doing unless you are okayed to do so by your doctor.

•Consider working with a physical trainer. This small investment

of time and money will allow you to improve your overall muscle mass

faster, and more effectively.

•Change up the exercises that you do so that the process is easy

and fun. You’ll enjoy it and you’ll see improvement in the tone of your

body quickly.

With strength training, you should add in ten minutes per day three

times per week at least. Again, you’ll want to increase this number

over time to at least 30 minutes per day three times per week.

Remember to include ten minutes before and after your workouts for

warm up and cool downs!

Your Overall Body Fitness Plan

To improve the physical fitness of your body, you need to give it the

physical movement that it needs. This means feeding it the right

regimen of movements.

Start by working in exercise through aerobics and strength training

into your day. Visit your local recreational center or community

center. You can even start doing these things at home, too, which will

make the process easier and even more enjoyable.

To make it even better, consider these easy and fun ways to get in the

exercise that you need.

•Do it with a pattern. You are 80 percent more likely to be

successful if you don’t try to do it alone! Recruit someone to work

with you!

•After dinner, head out for a walk with your spouse for a few

minutes. If you can’t leave the kids, take them with you. This is a

great way to get in some quality time away from the television.

•If you can’t leave the television, use a stationary bike. During

your favorite show, ride the bike. You get the exercise you need

without missing your television program and time will fly by.

•Do sports and other physical activities that you enjoy.

Swimming, playing a game with the kids and even joining a sports

team is a great way to get in exercise without it feeling like exercise.

Your overall body fitness means exercise and movement. When you

begin to add these into your day, you’ll probably find every excuse not

to do them. Yet, you will come to enjoy exercising. For many it’s a

great stress relief and it can be a lot of fun. Make it your goal to

actually put together a workout that you enjoy. It will make all of the

difference in how effective it is for you.