Taking Small Steps on the Road to Health

A walk along the beach or a walk through the park can be a fun and relaxing way to work on your physical Boxing Fitness. For dog owners, walking your pooch can be as beneficial for you as it is for your pet as well! Another easy way to work exercise into your schedule is to take the stairs instead of taking the elevator when you can. If you live in a high-rise condo, climbing the emergency stairs can provide you with some good aerobic exercise. Even at the office, try to use the stairs instead of using the elevator when on your lunch break. Speaking of lunch breaks, if you’re pressed for time try something fast and healthy like a fruit smoothie.

Physical Fitness and You

Also, if you hit the vending machine while on a break, try to get something that’s good for you like an apple if at all possible. Avoid the Snickers bars and potato chips! You can also work out at the office with the right boxing equipment, and anything you can manage to do will help increase your physical fitness level. The Sharper Image actually does have a small, portable hand-bike that you might want to try using at your desk when you have a break. If you’re not into working out at a gym but aren’t afraid of exercise equipment, you might want to try an elliptical machine or stationary exercise bike.

That way you can watch TV and work out at the same time. Take things one day at a time, and try to make gradual changes. Once your physical fitness improves to a decent level, who knows, one day you might be in good enough shape to run a marathon. Making small changes will make you feel great.

Sometimes it’s about weight training, sometimes it’s about cardio, and other times it’s about a balance of both. Consider the current shape you’re in. If you’re looking to loose weight, but have no desire to increase muscle mass, then you’ll probably want to begin with a cardio workout routine. Start with your diet. It’s high time to focus on healthy foods like fish, poultry, vegetables, fruits and water. You may be used to fatty carbs, but it’s time to ditch those and pick up whole grains, oatmeal, rice and beans. These are healthy carbs that supply your body with sustained energy for great cardio workouts. Okay, back to the fitness aspect. If you don’t have any exercise equipment, look to the closest gym. Get a membership and begin going an hour each day, five days a week. Spend your time on the elliptical machines, treadmills, recumbent bikes, and pumping out crunches galore. This is how calories are burnt. If you’re sticking to a low-fat diet, you’ll see progress in no time.

For most men, a decent workout routine consists of weight training. You’ll probably want some cardio mixed in there as well, especially if you’re overweight, but most men love the benches and dumbbells. We want lean muscle mass. Try two days of heavy cardio and three days of weight training each week. With weights, you should focus on doing sets with 75 percent of your max. It’s great if you can bench 200 pounds once, but that’s not the way to build mass. An effective workout routine with weights should consist of 4 sets per exercise with 8-12 reps per set. So get to that gym and get started today!

The first resistence band exercise is the chest press.  To do this, wrap your resistence band around a pole, rail, or some such like object.  Make sure that the resistence band is positioned so that it is just about at chest level.  Next, step far enough away from the door that there is constant tension in the band and keep your elbows parallel to the floor throughout the exercise.  You should be facing away from the door, of course.

The next exercise you can do with resistence bands is the seated row.  For this exercise, the band can stay where you positioned it for the chest press.  All you need to do is turn around so that you are facing the door.  Now, when you back away from the door, make certain that you are squeezing your back without arching your spine and that you are not pulling your elbows back too far.

Next up are biceps curls.  For this exercise, you can either stand on your resistence band with one or both feet.  The exercise is easier if you stand on the band with just one foot, so if you are looking for more tension and resistence, definitely stand on it with both feet.  Hold the resistence band’s handles in both of your hands and curl your arm up in a typical biceps curl – just like you would with free weights.  If you want to make this exercise even harder, you can stand with your feet wide apart.

Lastly, squats are a great exercise with resistence bands.  You stand on the band for this exercise as well, and hold the handles up near your shoulders, with your elbows bent – this creates more tension, and more tension is good.  Then, proceed as you usually do with squats: knees bent, up and down.

Resistence bands are a great exercise tool, because not only do they travel well, but they can increase your coordination more than you might imagine.  This is because of how much more tension they offer your body during exercise.  Also, they add a great deal of variety to any exercise regime, which is always good, because it is when we find exercise boring that we are most in danger of slacking off in a work out.  Furthermore, they are fantastic for all fitness levels – even if you start out as a beginning, resistence bands will evolve with you.