Be Fit Fitness Blog

There is a tendancy for most people as they get older to be less active and exercise less or not at all. It’s important to exercise when you are young, but equally important to do it when you are older. Many studies have shown that people who continue to exercise and stay active in their golden years have healthier brains. By healthier brains I mean better memories, better cognitive skills and positive outlook on life and things.

Today I was watching the news about a study which was done on exercise and a person’s brain functions as they age. They were showing this lady who is 92 riding a seated exercise bike. From what I saw, she was riding it pretty effortlessly. In her interview she said that although she is 92, she feels like she is 25! Her hair may be grey, but she looks and feels amazing for her age.

I’m not going to go into the technical conclusions from this study, but the basic reason for a positive correlation between exercise (staying active) and a person’s brain function as they age is that exercise helps to increase blood flow to the brain and repair brain tissue and keep brain tissue healthy.

This is just another reason why you should continue to exercise as you get older and not resort to a sedentary lifestyle.

You may be thinking about joining a gym. Now is probably the best time. Towards late December and the beginning of a new year, gyms will be offering a lot of good deals and discounts. Just shop around. Ask what services they will be offering for each price plan membership. Some memberships only allow you to work out at one specific gym and not the entire chain or you can be limited to certain services at a particular gym. Also, read the fine print. Some gyms have a lot of strings attached!

What are some of the advantages of joining a gym over working out at home? Here are a few:

The Atmosphere

- By being exposed to everyone exercising, you end up being more motivated. Don’t be intimidated by others or how they look like, just do your own thing.

- It’s a great way to get away from work and your house. You get the chance to talk to people and meet new friends.

Learning Experience

- You can get the chance to see how other people work out, what they do that works for them and ask questions if you like. Most people are more than willing to share their successes and offer you tips.

Variety

- There are so many different exercise machines, barbells, free weights. This will help you vary your exercise program.
- A plethora of fitness classes ranging from Yoga, Pilates to aerobic and even strength-training classes designed specifically women.

Proximity to Work

Some gyms could be close to your work or along the way home making it convenient to stop by and do a quick or long workout.

So what exercise program is best suited for you? It all depends on what your fitness goals are. You may be interested in losing weight, toning your body, building muscle and strength or into some serious bodybuilding. Therefore, your exercise program should be tailored and customized to meet your fitness goals.

Regardless of your fitness goals, your exercise workouts should always include both weight training and cardiovascular exercise.

Let’s begin with weight training. You can create a program based on a 3 to 4 day weekly workout schedule or on a every-second-day rotating workout schedule. Your workouts should incorporate both the big major muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders) along with the smaller muscle groups (triceps, biceps, forearms). Legs can be done on a separate day or incorporated into your daily workout schedule. Abdominals can be done two to three times per week. Of course, you can create variations on my following suggestions depending on what works best for you and the time available to you.

What I like to do is focus on a major body part in each of my workouts plus a minor body part. So one day, I will work on chest plus biceps and 1 set of legs. The next day, I will work on back, triceps and abdominals and 1 set of legs. The third day, I will work on shoulder plus supersets of biceps and triceps and 2 sets of legs. If this is too much for you, you can do your legs on a fourth day. Somewhere in there, you will want to do some cardiovascular exercise. Also, such a workout can be customized to be long or short in length.

When it comes to getting the most of your workouts, I suggest that you perform your exercises slowly, vary your exercises with each workout and pay attention to your form and technique. Remember, it’s not necessarily how many exercises you perform, it’s how you do them!

All this may sound confusing to you or you may really need some help to customize your own exercise program tailored to your fitness goals. Don’t hesitate to seek professional fitness help. A lot of people do this and many have received excellent results after seeking professional fitness help.

Today I want to discuss the topics of bodybuilding, building muscle and toning certain areas of your body. Yesterday’s blog that I post discussed motivation and support with respect to fitness and exercise. It was more for the novice or someone who exercises just occasionally. Today I want to focus more on the topics for those people who exercise with weights on a regular basis and are looking for certain or specific results.

Let’s take this scenario… You’ve been working out with weights for awhile now, but you are not getting the results you are looking for. You want to build more muscle and strength or let’s say you may want the more sculpted look for your muscles, but you are not able to get these results! You are getting frustrated or bored, about to give up. What I suggest that you do is you change your workout routine. You should try new things and experiment with different ways of working out to determine what will give you your optimal results. Over a short period of time you will find what works best for you.

The same is true if you are looking to tone your body. You may want to try to change, modify your workouts with weights or even try something totally new like joining a Pilates, Yoga or fitness class.

At this stage in your workout, you may have no clue where to go. You may wish to hire a personal trainer or join an online fitness program. They can provide you with new suggestions, a new customized fitness workout plan and helpful tips and support.

These are just some of my suggestions. Sometimes you really do need to experiment or seek professional help. Professional athletes all do this to help them achieve their best in their individual sports.