Getting A Good Workout At Home

No matter what any pill-marketing advertisements may tell you, the heart of weight loss is getting regular exercise. While some people don't like to go to the gym, either due to embarrassment or the effort involved in driving elsewhere just to exercise, there are plenty of exercises that you can do in your own house to help you keep fit and in shape. With that in mind, here are some exercises that you can perform in the comforts of your own home.

Jumping rope - while most of us forgot about jumping rope the second that we got out of grade school, it is truly a great workout. Studies have shown that a mere five minutes of jumping rope is equivalent, calorie-burning-wise, to jogging for a full mile! What's more is that you can jump rope in your house and it costs very little to get your own rope. Just be sure that when you are jumping rope that you keep it high-intensity, spinning the rope quick enough to generate some real movement of the body.

\"Exercise Workouts\"

Climbing stairs - do you have a stairway in your house, or do you live in an apartment building? If so, congratulations - you've got your own stairmaster! Few people realize the merits of simply walking up and down a flight of stairs when it comes to fitness. While plenty go on stairclimbers with reckless abandon, roughly the same workout can be attained by just walking up and down flights of stairs. Once you feel that the benefits of stair climbing aren't enough for your workout, try carrying weights, or even soup cans, as you climb the stairs. This added weight, although small, helps your body to get more in shape.

Getting A Good Workout At Home

Sit-ups and push-ups - these two exercises help you to tone the muscles in your chest and abs while burning calories. They don't require any equipment, and you can even do them while you're watching TV! If you're watching television and a commercial break happens, take the opportunity to do a set of push-ups and a set of sit-ups. In no time, you'll notice a lot more tone to the muscles in your body.

Cleaning - cleaning around the house is actually quite the aerobic activity. In addition to burning calories, you're also performing some house work that can really pay off. Be sure to keep a steady pace while cleaning, ensuring that the exercise that you get from the process is intense enough to make a difference.

Getting A Good Workout At Home

Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Weight Loss [http://letsdropsomeweight.com/], Food [http://foodandourlives.com/], and Health [http://allaboutourhealth.net/].

The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) - The 1st Foundation of Every Effective Exercise Program

There are numerous reasons to exercise and more different workout types than I can count, but regardless of your goals and your preferred method of working out, there are two things that must be incorporated into your program if you want it to be effective. These two foundations are not specific exercises or even types of workouts, but rather general scientific theories.

Many people don't consider scientific theories to be flashy or interesting, but they are important for increasing our knowledge and understanding. These two theories in particular are very helpful for understanding exercise program design and explaining why some workout programs work, some fail, and some result in improvements, but not necessarily the ones we hoped to achieve.

\"Exercise Workouts\"

The field of health and fitness is continually evolving and many things we believed 10 - 20 years ago are now thought to be outdated or inaccurate, but these 2 theories show no signs of being replaced anytime soon. The longevity of the first theory, the General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS, is particularly impressive, because it has been around for over 70 years.

The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) - The 1st Foundation of Every Effective Exercise Program

The General Adaptation Syndrome was not originally designed with exercise in mind and it is really a model for the body's reaction to stress. You may be surprised by this, but exercise is actually considered a form of stress, which is why GAS can be applied to workout routines. This theory does such a good job explaining the body's reaction to training that it is still frequently used, possibly because it succinctly and accurately sums up the basic progression of every exercise program.

The General Adaptation Syndrome has 3 separate parts, each corresponding to a different stage in your body's stress response. The 3 stages are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion and I will discuss each stage as it relates specifically to exercise and program design. By examining this theory, you will learn some basics of program design and develop an understanding of why some exercise routines lead to long-term success, while others are doomed to fail.

Stage 1: Alarm - This phase, which can also be called the shock stage, occurs at the beginning of an exercise program or after a significant change in training. This is what happens when your body is exposed to a new stimulus, such as exercise. Exercise is initially alarming to your body and does cause a shock to your system, but some amount of unfamiliar stimulus or shock is necessary for improvement to occur.

During this time, you will likely have increased levels of stiffness and soreness and you may experience short-term decreases in physical performance. The amount of the negative response is determined by your body's natural ability to handle stress, as well as the intensity of the stimulus. In other words, the more you push your body out of its comfort zone, the more negative effects you will experience. Eventually your body will begin to recover and you will get to the second phase.

Stage 2: Resistance - The second phase represents the time when your body adapts to the training stimulus that was previously a shock to your system. In order to get past the alarm stage, your body must make physiological changes or improvements until the stimulus is no longer considered a shock to your system. Building up a resistance to a previously alarming stimulus is really the foundation of any type of improvement, regardless of the goal of your exercise program.

Without adapting and overcoming a new stimulus, you can maintain your current fitness level, but you will not actually improve without applying some shock to your system. During the resistance stage, your body not only recovers from the negative effects in the alarm stage, but you will typically have a rebound effect where your performance actually improves for a brief period of time. This is known as supercompensation, because your body improves by a larger amount than is needed to overcome the previous stimulus.

Supercompensation the true goal of any workout designed to improve your body and long-term progress depends on maximizing your supercompensation response. This can be tricky, because supercompensation is temporary and if you wait too long between workouts (new stimuli), your improvements will disappear and return to their previous levels. On the other hand, if your next workout is too soon or the stimulus is too much, then your body will go into the next stage of stress response: exhaustion.

Stage 3: Exhaustion - This is the final phase of stress response and unlike the other two, this one you want to avoid whenever possible. The exhaustion phase, which may also be referred to as the Maladaptation phase, occurs when the stress level is too much for your body to handle. In terms of exercise, it means your workouts are too hard for your body to recover from.

Transition from the resistance stage to the exhaustion stage can happen for a number of reasons, but some of the most common are: staleness or a lack of variety in your workouts, excessive amounts of exercise, workouts that are too challenging, poor nutrition, and too much overall stress in your life. Typically it is a combination of factors that leads to exhaustion, but the end result is a lack of further progress and eventually a decrease in performance and/or loss of previous gains.

If you are performing your typically challenging workouts and start feeling burnt out or stop experiencing positive results, then you are likely in the exhaustion phase. At this point, your main priority should be to change your program and get out of the exhaustion stage as quickly as possible. Nothing good comes from experiencing the exhaustion stress response and further increases in stress will just result in further deterioration of your body.

From the General Adaptation Syndrome, we can see that trying to push through exhaustion stress is not a good idea. Pushing your body more will just lead to overtraining, which may take weeks or months to fully recover from. When severe overtraining occurs, you have to drastically reduce your exercise or stop training altogether, until your body has a chance to recover.

The GAS theory also shows the importance of having the right amount of exercise stimulus. You need enough of a training stimulus to reach the alarm stage and trigger the resistance stage, but not so much that you go into the exhaustion stage. On the other hand, if your workouts do not cause an exercise stimulus high enough to reach the alarm stage, then your body will not have a reaction or enter the resistance stage and you will not experience positive changes.

The General Adaptation Syndrome obviously does not explain specific aspects of program design, but it does provide the basic foundation for any successful workout routine. You can approach exercising from many different ways, but if the intensity of your program doesn't result in your body fluctuating between the alarm stage and the resistance stage, then your program will be ineffective.

The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) - The 1st Foundation of Every Effective Exercise Program

Ross Harrison, CSCS, NSCA-CPT is a certified personal trainer, strength and conditioning specialist, nutritional consultant, and has a BA in psychology from Grinnell College. He takes a holistic approach to health and fitness and teaches people how to lose weight, get in shape, and improve their quality of life with exercise and nutrition. If you want to find out more about his services or contact him for any reason, please visit http://precisionhealth-fitness.com/.

How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Month? Metabolism, Diet & Exercise Can Help You Lose 5 to 20 Lbs

In order to lose weight in a steady pace one needs to adopt a healthy program that contains healthy diets and workouts. Healthy diets can enhance the metabolic rate of the body whereas cardio workouts can burn fats quite easily. Moreover weight loss in such a natural manner would help you to get permanent results without any doubt. In fact, with the support of natural methods you can lose up to 5 to 20 pounds within a month.

Check out the top methods that would help you lose 5 to 20 pounds within a month:

\"Exercise Workouts\"

* Acai Berry: The acai berry is the most touted and preferred diet which can help anybody to lose tons of fats at ease. Quite interestingly, one can experience weight loss in a very steady pace. This diet actually works by reducing your appetite level. However, the metabolic rate of your body would get enhanced with this diet and its herbal mood enhancer would keep you motivated throughout the dieting session. Further, this diet is very rich in antioxidants, fibers, vitamins, proteins and plant sterols and as such apart from weight loss benefits you would even experience numerous health benefits.

How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Month? Metabolism, Diet & Exercise Can Help You Lose 5 to 20 Lbs

* Colon Cleansing: When colon cleansing is taken along with the acai berry diet then the combination is termed as dynamic duo. It can also play a very important role in shedding those extra pounds from your body. Actually, colon cleaning works by eliminating all the unwanted toxins from your body and reduces the blood pressure as well as the cholesterol level of the body.

* Exercise: Workouts are also very helpful to maintain a healthy body. In fact, you must develop the habit of doing simple exercises such as swimming, jumping, brisk walking etc., to burn the extra calories at a very steady pace.

How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Month? Metabolism, Diet & Exercise Can Help You Lose 5 to 20 Lbs

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Physical Fitness For Basketball

Everybody very well know that basketball is game which requires high degree of movement, and the players should be physically fit to have a control over the game. Most of us like to be a professional basketball player, but we drop the idea when we think about the fitness which is required for playing the game. But that is not a good thing to drop your dreams. Getting physically fit is easily achievable by anyone as explained below.

There are two types of modes in which the fitness is measured for a basketball player.

\"Exercise Workouts\"

  1. Cardio respiratory
  2. Anaerobic/Interval

Physical Fitness For Basketball

  • Most of the experts wish that anyone who wishes to play this game should possess a fairly high level of aerobic fitness before they begin.
  • Whenever the players get trained, the important part they look into is strength conditioning and plyometric training.
  • We should be fit to consistently show improvement on both strength and power during the game. Normally players undergo the strength and power training to keep them physically fit during the course of the game.
  • Normally a basketball player should possess excellent endurance. These players are normally expected to repeat multi high intensity and that too with very minimal rest periods.
  • For Aerobic fitness, we can jog or run for a long distance at a slower speed without getting too tired. This fitness is completely for going longer at higher intensities before your legs and body slowdown. This is more important when you play the entire game. Finally, drinking water makes you more fit by overcoming dehydration problems. It is always good to have 1 liter of water in a empty stomach once you get up.

So it is always going to be the regular and routine exercises along with the good habits can make you the fittest to play this game. All the best.

Physical Fitness For Basketball

If you like to be really fit to be basketball player, learn more on fitness of basketball. Good luck.

An Effective Exercise Routine for Beginners

Let's start with this very important rule: NEVER OVERDO THE FIRST FEW SESSIONS. Many beginners to exercising fall for this trap, especially when they do not have qualified trainers with them. They get overly excited and lose patience. They try to produce in two weeks what often takes years to accomplish.

They begin by going all out right from the start doing as much as they can. The next day, their joints and muscles lock up in pain. Then, they get discouraged, stop exercising for a while and give it up altogether. Workouts should start out smooth and easy.

\"Exercise Workouts\"

Here is a warm-up routine to do 1 set of before every workout, but doing 3 sets of these alone can be a pretty good workout; particularly if you are a beginner.

An Effective Exercise Routine for Beginners

LEG STRETCH

Lean over deeply on your left foot while your right leg is stretched out to your right side. Maintain balance.
Slowly, raise yourself with your left leg to a standing position.
As you stand, spread your feet wide apart.
Repeat this for ten counts.
Do steps 1 to 4 again; this time, alternate the legs' position (left becomes right, and vice-versa).
This exercise warms up your legs, calves, and abdomen.

LEG SQUAT

Stand erect, chest out, with your buttocks protruding and your stomach in. Put your hands straight out in front of you. Relax.
Do squats by bending your legs to lower your body. Bend your legs until your upper legs (thighs) are parallel to the ground and you are in a squatting position. Keep your body erect as you squat.
Then raise yourself as you straighten your legs back to a standing position.
Do around 5 to 10 squats. Inhale deeply as you go down. Exhale as you stand up.
This exercise warms up your leg muscles, calves, and the muscles in your abdomen.

TRUNK TWIST

Stand with your feet about 3 feet apart. Relax.
Place your hands behind your head with your elbows out to the sides.
Very slowly, twist your body to your right without moving your legs or feet. Try to twist to your right as far as possible. Your face and body should be facing your right side while your legs remain steady. Then hold on to this position for 10 seconds.
Do the same to your left side.
This exercise warms up your legs, back muscles, and abdomen.

ARM ROTATION

Stretch out your arms to your sides. Keep them level with your shoulders.
Simultaneously rotate both arms to the front. Do this 20 times each rotation.
This exercises your shoulders, arms, and back muscles.

ARMS PRESS

Bring your right and left palms together. Have all fingers and palms pressing each other in front of you while pointing the fingers upwards.
Simultaneously push one palm against the other as hard as you can. Keep pushing for 5 seconds. Relax. Then push again for 5 seconds.
Do this ten times. Exhale as you push, and inhale as you relax.
Then press both palms in front of you while having their fingers pointing in different directions one set of fingers pointing to your left, the other set to your right. If your left fingers point to the right, your left hand should be under your right hand.
Push both palms against each other, the left palm pushing upwards, the right palm pushing downwards.
Exhale as you push, and inhale as you relax. Do this ten times. Then change the positions of your palms (left over right) and do the same procedures.
This exercises your forearms, arms, shoulders, and latissimus muscles (the muscles at the sides that give your body a V shape).

NECK PUSH

Gently move your head to your right side while your right hand gently pushes back against it. Do this once.
Gently move your head to your left side as your left hand gently pushes back against it. Do this once.
Gently move your head backwards as your left or right hand gently pushes back against it. Do this once.
Gently bow your head to the front as your right or left hand gently pushes against your forehead. Do this once.
This exercise strengthens your neck muscles. Never do neck rotations.

PUSH-UP

Do slow push-ups from 10 to 15 counts.
This exercises your arms, chest, shoulders, part of your abdomen, and part of your back muscles.

JOGGING

Jog in place for 3 minutes.
Then jog in place a lot faster for 2 minutes.
Then jog in place with a normal pace for another 3 minutes.
This exercise gives you a good leg and calf warm-up. This also serves as aerobics for your lungs and heart.

There! That ought to do it. After doing the above warm up exercises for some time, you should be ready start doing regular weight training and cardio workouts. Then just do 1 set of these exercises to properly warm up before you start each workout.

An Effective Exercise Routine for Beginners

Jim O'Neill gives you tons of valuable information on the subjects of weight loss, fitness, and nutrition to make it easy for you to live a healthy lifestyle. Sign up now for his free 7 part mini e-course at: [http://www.mrgymfitness.com/minicourse.php]