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Archive for the ‘Fitness activities’ Category

Physical fitness means different things to different people. For some, it is the ability to engage in sports activities; for others, it is more about feeling and looking good. With obesity now considered to be a pandemic in our society, more and more people are seeking out diet plans, exercise programs, and holistic approaches to improve their lifestyle. Health is on everyone’s mind today; perhaps it is time. Why is physical fitness important?

Anyone who has been sedentary for a period of time knows how difficult it is to complete even the simplest of tasks. Your doctor probably tells you to lose weight; your nutritionist mandates you maintain a proper diet regimen; your gym instructor guides you in repetitive exercise programs to achieve a pre-planned fitness level. While everyone involved is focused on you becoming more fit and healthy; what are you contributing to the equation?

Let’s face it; dieting is hard and exercise is even harder. However, in order to become physically fit, there has to be a balance of proper nutrition, dental and health care, rest, and relaxation. It all begins within you. You must have the willingness, determination and drive to endure all of the hardships necessary to enhance your overall health. Physical fitness will give you more energy than you’ve ever had before, and allow you to enjoy life to its fullest. This requires goal-setting. No one is asking you to compete for gold medals; all that is required is a safe and effective method of physical exercise to improve your heart, lungs, and muscle development. Unused muscles lead to atrophy; which is why simple aerobic exercises are a great place to begin.

When you start an aerobic exercise, you’re heart, lungs and muscles work together to improve cardiovascular function. Whether you jog in place, walk for twenty minutes a day, or run; these exercises are an important part in physical fitness training. However, you must start slowly. If you have never exercised before, it will take time for your body to acclimate. It isn’t important what you do, but how you do it. Proper physical fitness training can mean the difference between a good exercise workout, and one which may lead to injury.

Joining a gym is an appropriate place to begin. There, professionals will walk you through each piece of equipment; explain its function; and demonstrate how to use the equipment properly. Perhaps the exercise bike may be a suitable place to begin. Twenty minutes, three times a week is a good exercise workout. Eventually, you will gain the confidence you need to pursue other more strenuous exercises. Ask a friend to join the gym with you. Having someone there to partner with allows each of you to enjoy the experience of exercising while, at the same time, encouraging each other to continue particularly when it becomes hard and frustrating.

Take out the five pound weights gathering dust in your closet, and begin using them at home. It’s time to stop others from telling you what you need to do; it’s time to look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Why is physical fitness important to me?” Once you answer that question, you are ready to begin a program designed especially for you. It’s a matter of health. Don’t wait! Just look in the mirror.

As a parent you’re always looking for simplicity, and exercise is no different.

I employ for family fitness strategy, F.I.T. The “F” stands for Family and Fun. The “T” stands for Together. And pulling the whole thing together is the “I” in the middle. The “I” stands for incremental, itty bits or – if you want to jump on the trend in bookstores – “idiot” as in “The Idiot’s Guide to Family Fitness” (Please don’t take offense, I’m only tapping into the trend of tremendously popular how-to book titles). In other words, key to keeping fitness a part of your family life is keeping it simple.

There are a few ways to do this:

Keep Family Fitness Simple Rule #1: Bring it home

This makes the biggest difference. I don’t know about you but every trip away from home with kids in tow becomes an adventure. Not to mention the baggage. I remember bringing my daughter to work when she toddling and wishing I had a couple spare arms to help lug everything back and forth.

So don’t make an expedition unless you have to. For family fitness, home gym access can make or break your fitness success. In addition to activity together as a family, you can sneak in 15 extra minutes on the treadmill. Do intervals of intense sprints and you’ll get more out of this than a 40 minute slog (see below).

Now it may seem like a bit of an investment to purchase a treadmill, but compare it to the money you spend on gym membership. And even a treadmill or machine of some sort isn’t necessary to stay in shape. Some simple aerobic tapes and cheaper weights can set you up to do some serious training.

So invest a little in bringing some well-chosen equipment into the home.

And there’s another angle to this, think twice about signing your children up for kids fitness activities elsewhere like Little League or baby gym class. Again, you spend more time driving and less time moving your body. Not to mention it robs you of an opportunity to enjoy fitness together as a family. There’s time enough when your children are older and into competitive sports to play chauffeur. Delay that as long as you can and enjoy the benefits of being active together.

Keep Family Fitness Simple Rule #2: Break it up

Who says you have to do all your exercise at once!? I didn’t and it has certainly helped me keep fit. I do some yoga stretches in the morning, fit in a few calisthenics or weights a couple times a day and maybe spend 10-15 minutes on the treadmill before lunch doing interval sprints.

Later on, when the kids get home from school and my husband back from work, we may go out on a bike ride or play some soccer.

Add it up. That’s the key. Do a few crunches with your giggling baby. Run outside if you have little ones at home and play a quick game of tag. Do a few push ups or butt crunches watching tv at night.

In fact, short intervals have been shown to do better in helping people lose weight, tone up and regulate their blood sugar.

Keep Family Fitness Simple Rule #3: No need for fancy stuff

I’ll admit I like my treadmill. And the free weights bench we recently purchased has been great for my legs. But for years we did with much less. I hooked my bike up to a special stand that transformed it into an exercise bike. When my kids are doing something like soccer camp or swimming, I do curls with water bottles or do some squat jumps or calf raises. And I have a neighbor who has stayed trim through 7 children with the help of some good aerobic videos.

Not to mention, the good old army-style calisthenics are tried and true. Situps, jumping jacks, pushups, squats. Your body weight is great resistance for weight training.

Essentially, while some nice equipment can bring a new angle to your fitness, don’t use it’s absence as an excuse. You don’t need the equipment to get moving. Have some doubts? Watch Rocky beat up some beef and lift some chains. (We’ll leave the egg-swilling part out).

o to keep fitness in your family life, keep fitness simple. Bring it home. Break it up. And no fancy stuff. As Nike says, “Just Do It!”

Are you finding it difficult to incorporate regular fitness activities into your routine? Do you find it difficult to take an hour out for visiting the gym or jogging in the park? In such a scenario, the smartest option is to make the changes to your daily routine in such a manner that your daily quota of exercises is completed even without taking any time out of your schedule.

How fast do you walk? The pace will have a significant impact on your health. There are many persons who like to study or read while walking. They are so immersed in their work that they walk very fast without knowing it. The end result is that they lose weight despite not doing anything towards this goal.

Another way you can reduce your weight and become fit without allotting time for these tasks is to practice breathing exercises. There are various resources from where you can know more about importance and benefits of breathing exercises. Oxygen is very essential for metabolism. Metabolism is nothing but burning of food and conversion of the same into energy. If you breathe properly and if you make sure your body receives its regular required oxygen, then you will definitely find your energy levels very high.

Once your work schedule eases out, you can always allot lot time for the gym or physical exercises that will help you become fit and healthy faster. Until then, you can follow this approach and improve your health with minimum fuss.

How many people do you know swear by crossword puzzles and word games? They spend hours a day doing it? Maybe you love crosswords so much you have even advanced to online versions.

The newspaper today told about Anna Sinclair who keeps up to 28 different games of Scrabulous going with friends world wide at the same time. These people think they are doing their brains a great service. They believe they are building a hedge against dementia!

Well, I don’t mean to shock you…but not only are long hours of word games detrimental to great brain function, doing hours of word puzzles sets your brain up for failure.

“But come on! If I remember those words to fill in the spaces each day, won’t that be good for my memory?” Yes, you will get good at remembering those words. However, the brain has thousands of functions.

First, the problem arises when word games is ALL you do. If you believe that word games is ALL you need to keep your brain fit, you are short changing yourself. There is a huge potential that you are not even considering.

And second, when you spend all your time at word games, you have no time to spend on the hundreds of other activities that are EVEN BETTER for your brain fitness.

And here’s the shock…the better you get at word games, the worse you get at other brain functions like, intuition, creativity, coordination, reaction time, and balance.

After talking with Dr. Norman Doidge, author of best selling book, “The Brain That Changes Itself”, I understand why VARIETY is one of the big keys to brain fitness. A VARIETY of brain fitness activities can bring you more success than you can imagine! In fact, I have found 17 key actions that accelerate brain fitness. Word puzzles only utilize about a third of the potential you have at your fingertips to improve your brain function and build a hedge against dementia.

Look…I’m all for word puzzles. I think they’re great! Challenging! Uplifting! But I also know from hard experience, if I simply ignore the possible pitfalls of overdoing one activity like crosswords, I am actually inviting in the very catastrophe I want my word games to prevent.

By taking just a few moments and considering the unthinkable, you will gladly embark on a variety filled brain fitness program in a much more confident way. You will accelerate your brain fitness program, create more success than word games alone can produce, and have much more fun doing it!

10 Ways to Help Preschool Children Learn Healthy Lifestyle Habits

Children as young as age two are already being affected by adult illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, obesity and stress disorders. Give them an early boost at developing healthy habits with these 10 tips.

1. Choose activities that come naturally. Abilities that come easy to your child will offer many rewards. Stay away from skills that are frustrating or that your child dislikes.

2. Make sure activities always have an element of “fun”. Whether you structure the activity or a teacher, it should always leave your child wanting more. Preschoolers love acting silly and animated. If it isn’t fun, they won’t want to do it.

3. Make it a habit. Strive to make exercise another healthy habit practiced daily. Just like brushing teeth, combing hair and bathing, doing something physically demanding everyday helps make exercise a routine part of life.

4. Rewards and Incentives. Offer a reward chart for a special treat (other than food) when your child exercises each day for the entire month. On a daily basis, give an occasional unexpected sticker, hand stamp or hug.

5. De-emphasize weight loss benefits. Accentuate how good exercise feels and how good it is in keeping us healthy. Preschool children do not need to be reminded that it will help them lose weight and it should never be used as a way to make them lose weight. Once exercise becomes work, it stops being fun and children will not want to do it.

6. Include a healthy diet. Eating healthy foods provides energy to fuel activity. When preschoolers eat too much fat, sugar and salt, they won’t feel as good. Endurance, strength, and motivation will all be affected. Don’t let a poor diet sabotage a good exercise routine.

7. Try new things. Experiment with different sports, games, activities and other forms of movement. No doubt your child will find other activities he/she enjoys. Having the courage to try new things also builds confidence and self-esteem.

8. Rest is important. Your preschool child needs at least 8 hours of sound rest each night. Lack of sleep can affect energy, levels, coordination, concentration, learning and the immune system. Keep track of sleep time and make bedtime fun.

9. Include variety. Sports skills, dancing, hiking or running. Encourage movement that can be done alone as well as in a group. Balance team activities with solo ones.

10. Be active with your preschool child several times each week. Nothing speaks louder than your actions or implies value more than your personal habits. Exercise daily, with and without your child.

The importance of exercising regularly cannot be understated. It is necessary in order to improve one’s overall health and to avoid many unnecessary and debilitating illnesses. Exercising within a fitness regime can bring on many health benefits in people that are healthy, as well as those with suffering from chronic medical conditions. Physical activity can benefit anyone and affects various health conditions, but the specific benefits of each type of condition will vary dependent on the individual. While there is no exact minimum of amount of exercise that you should do each week, it is widely recommended that you participate in at least 30 minutes of somewhat intense aerobic activity. By this we mean, light jogging, and moderate cardiovascular exercise or brisk walking.

There are many health benefits from actively engaging in sports health and fitness routines. First of all, they reduce the risk of negative health outcomes. As the amount of physical activity increases, due to greater frequency, longer duration or higher intensity activity, so do the health benefits gained. An aerobic routine is wonderful for increasing your body’s endurance. If you want to build resistance, then exercises that work on strengthening the muscles are what you need to do. Health benefits from sports health and fitness exercises are not only beneficial for older adults, but occur in children, adolescents, and young adults. Physical activity has been shown to benefit every racial and ethnic group as well.

If your purpose in sports health and fitness exercises is to increase your endurance that can be best achieved from participation in cardio activity (also known as endurance activity). The purpose of cardio activity is to cause the person’s heart to beat much faster than normal. With muscle building activity, often referred to as resistance exercises, the focus is to build up your resistance by lifting weights or other resistance training. The other type of activity often discussed when talking about health benefits exercises is bone strengthening activities. These kinds of activities involve pushing force on the bones in order to promote growth and strength.

Besides the physical benefits associated with sports health and fitness activities, there are also proven mental benefits to be gained. A decline in depressive symptoms has been shown in numerous studies to be a direct result of an increase in physical activity. These benefits do not take months to notice, but can be felt within weeks or months of the start of a sports health and fitness regimen.

Even the risk of premature death has been proven to decrease as physical activity increases. Just small amounts of physical activity have been shown to contribute to a longer life span. You owe it to yourself, so you may live a stronger, longer and healthier life, to exercise on a regular basis. Just a 30 minutes fast-paced walk can have enormous health benefits. Obtain information from credible sources of sports health and fitness issues so you may start reaping the health benefits associated with increased physical activity levels.