The Benefit Of Exercise

Stretching:

Concentrates on improving flexibility. Stretching requires no fitness equipment. Types of stretching include Yoga and Pilates. Whether you decide to stretch before, after or during your exercise routine, there is no doubt that stretching should be included every time you exercise. It keeps your body agile while engaging in any type of resistance or cardio training routine.

Benefits of stretching:

1. improves flexibility
2. increases range of motion
3. promotes relaxation
4. improves performance and posture
5. reduces stress on your body and reduces risk of injury for any resistance training routines or athletic performance

Strength Training, Weight Training or Resistance Training:

Concentrates on improving muscles. Strength training or weight training may require you to lift free weights or use equipment that makes you lift weight. It may also be called resistance training because you are putting resistance on your muscles to improve them. In resistance training you may use tools like rings and tubes rather than weights. Some exercises also allow you to use your own body as resistance. For instance, abdominal crunches can be part of a strength or resistance training routine. Strength training should be included in an exercise routine.

The benefits of resistance and strength training:

1. helps you lose weight in two ways: improves your muscle
   mass and increases your energy expenditure, both make you to
   burn more calories.
2. helps you tone and look better even if you are not overweight.
3. gives you more strength and endurance
4. increases bone density
5. has cardiovascular benefits
6. may help reduce risks of injury in athletes

Cardiovascular or Aerobic Training:

Aimed at improving your heart muscle and cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular training or aerobic training may be accomplished in several ways and you don't need to spend any money. Walking, jogging, skipping rope, boxing, dancing, riding a bike - any of these qualify as aerobic exercise. Cardiovascular training should be an essential element of your
fitness routine.

Benefits of cardiovascular training:

1. strengthens your heart
2. helps you lose weight and reduce fat
3. increases your endurance

Interval Training or Anaerobic Training:

Aimed at improving aerobic endurance for athletes. Interval training is characterized by repetitions of heavy exercise with a recovery period following each repetition. For instance, you might sprint for 10 seconds and then follow that sprint with a two minute recovery jog. Then you repeat the sprint/jog routine for about 20 minutes. During the sprinting you are producing a state of oxygen debt. This can also be called anaerobic training because you are out of oxygen. Circuit training is also a form of interval training.

Benefits of Interval Training:

1. improves athletic endurance
2. strengthens the heart muscle
3. improves the lungs or the ability to take in oxygen

Cross Training:

Aimed at improving aerobic endurance, strength and flexibility in athletes. Can also help fight boredom for anyone who exercises. Type of training that requires you to do two or more types of exercise either within the same routine or in successive routines. For example, you may stretch every day for flexibility, lift weights two days a week for strength training, and ride a bike once a week
for aerobic endurance.

Circuit Training:

Type of interval training aimed at losing weight and inches. Circuit training has been made popular by places like Curves and Ladies Workout Express. In circuit training you have several pieces of strength training equipment interspersed with aerobic equipment like steps or jogging pads. It has all the benefits of both cardiovascular and strength training workouts.

Exercise Nutrition

Food and exercise go hand in hand. If you are on an exercise program, you must ensure that you are getting enough energy to fuel your exercise, as well as all the right nutrients. If you are exercising to bulk up, or exercising to lose weight, there are also many other things to consider.

Before Exercise

One of the most important meals for any athlete is the one before training or competition. Never compete without eating something beforehand, even if your event is first thing in the morning. In general, the pre-exercise meal that is taken a couple of hours before the training session should be based on carbohydrate-rich foods. Closer to the event, carbohydrate rich snacks can be consumed, while high-fat or high-protein foods should be avoided.

During Exercise

It is very important to make sure where appropriate, that food and fluid is ingested during exercise, in both training and competition. Generally, the longer the event, the greater the amount of carbohydrate that is utilized. As a rule of thumb, if your sport or training is longer than an hour, you may benefit from consuming some carbohydrates during sport in addition to fluid.

After Exercise

Recovering well after an exercise session may be a challenge. Recovery will be most effective during the first few hours after the exercise. The aims are to replace muscle and liver glycogen stores, replace fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat and repair the damage caused by the exercise. The best fuel to use is carbohydrate foods, as these foods will replace the glycogen stores depleted during the activity.

Tips On Working Out Utilizing Your Bodyweight That Can Save You Money

You do not need to have a full gym of expensive exercise equipment to have an effective training program.

Benefits of Bodyweight Workouts

• Save money – you don't need to spend money on buying weights and equipment.

• Workout Anywhere - with body weight exercises you can workout everywhere.

• Reduce Injuries - the probability for injuries is lower using bodyweight exercises.

Some Bodyweight Exercises

Here are some simple bodyweight exercises that anyone can do, with a list if the major muscle groups that they target.

Exercise	Muscles Worked
push ups	chest, arms and core muscles
dips	triceps, chest
chin ups	lats, arms
body weight squats	quads, hamstrings, buttocks and posture
sit ups	abdominals
supine bridge	core muscles
side lying bridge	down phasing obliques
horizontal pull ups	upper back, arms
step ups	quads, hammies and buttocks
lunges	quads, hammies and buttocks
crunches	abdominals