As our average life span increases, we are becoming aware of the need to preserve our health through wise choices made throughout our lives. What is the point of long life if we are not fit to enjoy it? No matter what your age, considering this article can help you to begin to make choices which will have a positive impact on your health, fitness, and overall well-being for the rest of you life.
Even though it is vital, sleep is often overlooked when one plans a fitness regimen. The modern world tends to encourage one to sleep less and less. This is a mistake if one wants to get fit. Sleep is crucial in restoring the body and maintaining energy levels. Get at least seven hours of sleep every night to stay fit and healthy.
Try to work out in the morning. Why? Anything can happen to you during the day that makes you tired, stressed and flat out reluctant to exercise. By starting your day with exercise, you get it out of the way and it’s done. You can go on with the rest of your day knowing you’ve already done something good for your body.
After a particularly strenuous workout of a muscle group, you can help your body to recover from the stress by performing a lightly targeted workout of the affected muscles one day after. By gently engaging the muscle, you are helping it to repair itself faster by enabling your body to more efficiently deliver nutrients and blood to the area.
If you are about to start a new fitness regime and have not exercised before or in a long time, or have a medical condition of some sort that might be exacerbated by exercise, it is a good idea to see your doctor before you begin a program. Getting a medical check up will help ensure that you choose the most beneficial exercise program for yourself.
To get better in tennis, try teaching your eyes how to focus on moving objects quicker. You need to learn to able to quickly change focus from far away to close up without hesitation so that you can effectively hit a tennis ball. You can practice while riding in a car; try focusing on something about a tennis court away and then quickly change your focus to something closer.
When you are trying to work on your handling skills for basketball, try using some kind of work glove of leather glove. While you have them on, it will be harder to handle the ball and dribble. When you take them off your fingertips will become more sensitive and you will have better control.
Exercise during commercials. Long periods of television watching has been shown to encourage obesity. If you’re going to watch television, you can at least get moving during the commercial breaks. Do some light jogging up and down your stairs or skip rope for a few minutes until your program comes back on. This will help you to burn calories, even while doing something potentially unhealthy.
If you want to improve your balance, follow these steps. First, stand with one leg on a sofa cushion. Then, move a medicine ball around your body. Once you’ve become an expert at this move, try it with your eyes shut. This will improve your balance, coordination, and body control.
Count down instead of up. Instead of counting upwards from zero, try counting down from your chosen number of reps. It actually makes your exercise sessions appear to be less hard or long, since you are giving yourself the luxury of smaller increments of time. If you count down you will be more motivated.
Don’t anchor your feet when doing situps. Anchoring your feet can cause you to “cheat” on your situps by using your legs instead of your abdominal muscles, limiting the effectiveness of your workout. Anchoring your feet can also cause injury to your back. Instead, try doing situps on a medicine ball.
If you are a runner, log the mileage on your running shoes. Shoes get worn out and when they do they can cause pain and injuries if they are still used. A good rule is to replace your running shoes every five hundred miles, even if they feel like they still have some miles in them.
When you get a painful blister leave it in tact for as long as possible. If it does pop, that is fine just make sure the area is given extra care so it does not get infected. Leaving the flap of the blistered skin over the blister helps speed healing, so do not rip that flap of skin off!
Increase your physical activity by making good use of your time on the telephone. Every time you make or receive a phone call, get up and move around instead of remaining seated. Wash some dishes, do some leg lifts or just walk around the whole time you are talking. All those minutes of mini exercise sessions will really add up over time.
Running is an excellent way to keep fitness in your life. Start slow, such as around your block or even half way down it a day. Eventually you’ll be able to run many blocks. Running will boost your stamina and it will also help you keep a healthy heart and circulatory system.
Many people avoid the standard “get a check-up before starting a fitness program” advice, but you should not. A medical review before you kick off your fitness efforts not only protects you from injuring yourself, it can also help you plan a better program. A quick physical can teach you exactly which areas you should focus your initial efforts on.
Remember, there is no need to hurry. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Pick a suggestion and give yourself a week or even a month to incorporate it as a habit. Then add another. Before you know it, these small changes will add up and you will be living a healthier, more productive life. Make the most of it!