Archive for the ‘Fitness for Beginners’ Category

Better Living Through Technology – Better Health Too.

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

You can do a lot to improve your physical fitness in your living room, your garden or even sitting at the dinner table, if you have the time and inclination and the needs that can be served by such a regime. But depending on the levels of fitness you may be trying to attain, there are certainly ways and means to ramp up how much you can improve on different aspects of your fitness – not least of which are technologically advanced solutions that boost the efficiency of your regime by a power that cannot be estimated. If you are training in order to be able to get up a flight of stairs without losing breath, a few jogs a week and a bit of light cardio exercise will be fine. But if you are trying to gain some athletic chops, your answers may lie in technology.

The latest development to allow athletes to optimise their performance is a GPS watch. By using one of these you can track just about every different measure of your performance that has any relevance. Calories burned – so training to get into shape is catered for – but also the technical measures that athletes need to track to know how well they are doing. You can track lap times – so you know how much you are improving and where you still need to improve. You can track your top speed and average speed, so you know how to pace yourself so as not to throw everything away in the early stages of your run.

All of the technological advances that have been brought to bear on the athletics track in recent years are designed to push the level up by another notch. This is high-intensity training that we are talking about. The benefits of which are to make you that little bit more ready to face whatever it is that you need to face. If you just want a better all round level of wellness, there are plenty of machines that affect that too. Whatever your end goal, there will be a machine that gets you there – and beyond. Just remember that all the technology in the world will be useless unless you put the effort in yourself.

Kick, Punch, Chop, Get in Shape

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

While some people will inevitably look at martial arts as pertaining purely to fighting and strength, the fact is that more and more people are looking to the immense range of martial arts as a method of keeping fit. And they aren’t stupid, because it really does work. Take a master of karate and put them up against the toughest street brawler you can find, and the martial artist will win with such ease as to embarrass their opponent. The reasons for this are numerous. Not only is the karate expert fighting “smarter”, but the principles they have learned in order to get to that level are ones which tilt the balance firmly in their favor.

By learning a martial art, you learn a lot more than just how to hit someone in a way that really hurts (although if it is required, experts still have that in their locker). It teaches you about breath control, clearing the mind and focusing on the self in such a way that you are always ready to stand and fight. This requires both physical and mental exercise, and when the body and mind work together as martial arts teach, there is a devastating combination. To reach such a level takes discipline, and if you have discipline you are already well on the way to your ideal physical condition. Plus you are versed in self-defence, which is never a bad thing.

You don’t need to have a full understanding of the mystic background to how a martial arts black belt works in order to use it as a keep-fit regimen. As long as you enrol in a class with a good teacher (or sensei) and pay attention to what is taught, you will pick up what you need in order to really up your levels of physical fitness to a point where you can stand and fight someone if needs be – but more importantly you will have upped your levels of physical and mental discipline in a way that can improve every aspect of your life. Look for a class today – karate, judo, tae kwon do or any other – all have valuable lessons to impart.

Pilates – Try It, You’ll Have a Ball

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

One of the most popular methods for keeping fit in today’s society is Pilates. Developed in the late 20th century, it is a method of exercise that is designed to work on the flexibility of the human body – a major point of difficulty for many, who through jobs which involve being in a fixed position for much of the day lose a lot of their body’s suppleness and can find themselves with back and neck problems. Something which any sufferer can tell you really infringes your quality of life. If you can’t move quickly, you lose out on a lot of fun and in the meantime you will have trouble with even the most basic motor functions.

At its most basic level, Pilates is lying on a big beach ball doing exercises. To its adherents it is a lot more than that. Its inventor, Joseph Pilates designed it with the principle of mind over matter at its core, allowing the body and the mind to fuse, and letting the body move with grace and balance in a way that other exercise regimes did not address. Along with breathing exercises, Pilates encourages the body to flush away waste toxins that are linked with fatigue. The overall effect of the exercise regime that is involved in Pilates is to improve the individual on a number of levels.

It certainly seems to work. Pilates is growing in popularity all the time, and there are few gyms or leisure centers in the world that do not have a Pilates group operating at least once a week. At its best when associated with other exercise regimes, Pilates is something that has really taken off, and with a lot of satisfied customers, it would appear that Joseph Pilates was on to something when he designed it. Born in 1880, and plagued by illness and poor fitness as a child, by the age of 14 Pilates was posing for anatomical charts as an example of what the body could look like with the right exercise regime, and when he died he was 87 years of age. So he was doing something right.

Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

When sports players are recovering from injuries, they are often put through training that involves spending time in the swimming pool. There are a few good reasons behind this – first of all, it provides support and soothing for recovering muscles. But just as importantly the water provides them with resistance, which is excellent for building up muscles and making the sportsman (or woman) more ready to return to the competition field. If you have ever broken a major bone, you will have had to wear a plaster cast. When that cast comes off, the muscles in the area appear wasted and dead – without a lot of exercise they just will not be the same as they were.

Even if you have not had a major injury – and even if you have been injury free all your life, swimming is an excellent way of getting into shape. If you go for regular runs, you need to make sure that so many factors are right – pace, surface, footwear and running style. If they are not in tune you can pull muscles, damage ligaments or tendons and several other potential nasty injuries. While it is worth getting a running regime going for cardio-vascular exercise, swimming is one way to get fit where all you need is a swimming costume and access to a pool. Once those are in place, you’re away.

In comparison to running, swimming is a very safe way to get in shape. You have the low impact of water rather than hard, concrete surfaces that exist in most towns, or the treadmills in the gym. In the early days of your training regime, swimming is an excellent way to build towards the right shape, strength and fitness levels. You may well find that you really enjoy it too. There is something incredibly soothing about moving about underwater and letting it wash over you. It’s like a giant bath, only you are not going to accidentally pull the plug.

You Are What You Eat

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

There are many drawbacks to having a poor diet. Not only will constant takeaways and microwave meals cause you to put on weight, they will have an effect on so many other parts of your make-up that you will suffer more than you can possibly believe. The effects on the waistline are the first that people will notice, but you will also have less energy, your skin will suffer and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that your mental well-being will be affected as well. Your body needs the nutrients that fresh food provides, otherwise it will suffer. You would not buy a new sports car and then put gravy in the petrol tank, would you? You have to make sure that you give your body the fuel it needs too.

Fresh fruit and veg are vitally important. The range of vitamins and minerals that they provide will allow you to function at a greatly increased level, having an effect on all sorts of things from bones to eyes – for example, if you eat bananas regularly you will find that they allow you to function at a higher level for a prolonged period. This is because they contain lots of potassium, which is good for slow-release energy. If you ever watch Championship tennis matches, you will see players eating bananas between games. This is because over the course of a match, a declining energy level can see a player lose performance and be at risk from injury. Keeping the energy coming prevents this.

For your body to function well, you also need to get lots of fiber. Fresh fruit and veg are a good source for this too, while brown and wholemeal bread are also packed with fiber, as are cereals and baked goods with a lot of bran in them. But whatever the issue that you are seeking to address via your diet, make sure that you don’t concentrate on it to the detriment of other areas. This will just move your problems to another area – and after some time you’ll be looking for a way to fix that, too.