Make The Rest of Your Life – The Best of Your Life: Part 1
So why should you exercise? You’ve most likely heard it a lot before, but perhaps done nothing about it. I know that when you come home from a long, hard day at work, you probably feel like you don’t want to go down to a busy, sweaty gym. You have worked really hard all day long, and you just don’t have any more fuel in your engine. Perhaps you are quite overweight, and feel embarrassed about going to the gym where all the fancy, show off posers are. You might feel you can’t afford all the swanky gear which many people wear down the gym. But the excuses stop here today!! I’m sorry, but they are excuses. Let’s get realistic here. Human beings are phenomenal creatures. We can do just about anything if we put our minds to it. The only reason you are allowing your body to slowly fade away is because you don’t have the right motivation and information to make a step change in your life.
I have put this short post together in the hope that I can encourage some of you to bite the bullet and really make the step to lasting change in your life. This post alone obviously won’t have whole 9 yards in one post, because I know you don’t have the time to read everything you need to know right now. And my whole formula for your success is based around a ‘My Fitness Chunking System’. My system for your health and fitness is based around small weekly chunks of information and small steps which you take towards your ultimate fitness goals. So here’s goes, a little taster to get started. Let’s dive in…
Why Should I Exercise At My Age?
But, and this is a big but!! I know you have heard that you have to exercise. But why? Is it really important or is it something your parents and everyone else under the sun is telling you to do just because they are? The truth is that exercise is really important for your body in a lot of ways.
You know that pizza you had for lunch yesterday? A lot of it is used up just because your body needs energy. But what happens when you don’t use up all of that food? Where does that food go? If you don’t use it up, chances are it’s going to stay in your body and may even make you gain some weight.
That’s where exercise comes in. Exercise is what helps you burn up the calories that you take in every day. But here’s the good news. You don’t even have to spend hours walking on the treadmill to help you lose weight.
The Best Thing About Exercising
You might not have heard this before. But I’ll tell you what I really think is one of the best things about exercising. If you exercise on a regular basis, and I don’t mean just poncing around, pretending you are working hard. I mean, really hard, kick butt, hard ass working out. And yes this can be on your bedroom floor, in the hallway at home, in your back garden or in your garage. It does not have to be in the fanciest gym in town. But do something, and often. If you devote 20 minutes hard exercise, 4 times a week, you will feel absolutely awesome about yourself. Especially if you have never exercised before, or it has been years since you have done any exercising. Then you definitely CAN have a good selection of pints on a Friday night, followed by some pizza or a kebab. And why not? Work hard all week, and then enjoy a Friday night eating that pepperoni pizza.
How Long Should I Exercise For?
This is a tough question to answer, as I don’t know you, don’t know your fitness level of exercise experience. But as a benchmark, why not start out with a 20 minute workout? If you are going down to the local gym you could use up 20-30 minutes just on getting to the gym and parking. (Although you should be cycling down there). Then more time used up getting changed and perhaps a chat with a few people. But at home you should be able to start instantly.
What Exercising Should I Do?
You should always start any exercise routine with 5 minutes stretching. I’ll cover the stretching part in another blog post. You can devise a short 20 minute exercise session with very little intelligence or thought. And then bash it out, with very few breaks, perhaps 10-15 seconds breathers between exercises, and then bash out your next exercise. It doesn’t matter what exercises you choose when you first get started. Just get started. YouTube can give you a never ending bunch of ideas, which even include very little equipment.
If you are going to a gym, one of the trainers can help you out with a specific workout tailored to your age, fitness level and ability. But this workout is devoted to those of you who are working out at home, for whatever reason. So please keep reading..
The Bum Gun Workout With No Equipment
Admittedly I do prefer to workout in my local gym. But you can achieve a high-intensity circuit training routine with just a little bit of imagination and research. You don’t need an expensive multi-gym. I believe using your bodyweight in your exercises can give you simple, effective exercises to improve your balance, flexibility, and strength. You can use just your bodyweight to challenge your muscle strength and also your cardiovascular fitness. I want to give you this simple but killer, full-body workout I often do when I am on the road and have limited resources to train with.
If you can’t do the rep quantities I’ve given here, don’t worry, just do as many as you can, take a short breather, and then rep out the ones you missed, so you complete the set.
After each circuit, take a short rest of 2 minutes and then start again.
Muscles Worked Exercise Rep Count
Legs Squats 15-20
Chest/Shoulders/Triceps Press Ups 1 5-10
Back Rows 10
Abs Leg Raises 10
Legs Lunges 10 each leg
Chest/Shoulders/Triceps Press Ups 2 5-10
Back Rows 10
Abs Leg Scissors 10
Legs Goblet Squats 15-20
Chest/Shoulders/Triceps Press Ups 3 5-10
Back Rows 10
Abs Crunches 10
I have to go off for a meeting I’m afraid, but I wanted to get this out there to you. So when I get back I will explain what I mean by each exercise. Check back in on Friday and you’ll see ‘Make The Rest of Your Life – The Best of Your Life: Part 2′