Stamina Pilates
One of the most vital activities you can do for your health is to exercise. But, as with your diet, variety is the key. It is very important to vary your exercise routine to get the best results.
Your muscles get used to the same activity and adjust to it, reducing the fat-burning activity. They require a level of exercise variety and changes of exercise intensity if they are to continue to improve and grow stronger – therefore increasing metabolism.
By just changing your routine often, you will challenge your body in different ways. This will stimulate different groups of muscle and get the best overall fat-burning results. Your fitness will also improve much more with this method.
Ideally, it is recommended that you engage a personal trainer to help you reach your fitness goals. However, if your budget does not stretch to this or if you do not have access to one in your area, you can still expect accelerated results if you focus on creating variety in your routine.
An exercise programme should consist of these four key principles
Your body is very clever – it will recognise that if you do the same type of exercise day after day, you will become quite good at it. Your body becomes more and more efficient and will need less fat-burning capability to cope with this regular activity. So, when exercise becomes easy to complete, it is a sign you need to work harder to give your body a new challenge.
When you are planning an exercise routine, ensure that you incorporate the following exercise groups:
1. Aerobic: Walking briskly, jogging and using gym equipment such as elliptical machines, treadmills, and cross trainers are all examples of aerobic exercise. As your heart starts pumping more and the amount of oxygen in your blood increases. This in turn activates endorphins which act as natural painkillers and mood elevators. Aerobic exercise stimulates your immune system, gets your heart pumping blood more efficiently and increases stamina.
2. Strength Training: Including strength training into your exercise routine will ensure that you are optimising the health benefits of your regular exercise program.
You will need enough repetitions to really tire your muscles. The weights should be heavy enough so that this can be done 12-15 repetitions or less, yet light enough for you to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important not to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.
3. Core Strengthening Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater stability and balance.
Exercise programs like yoga or pilates are great for strengthening your core muscles. You can also consult a personal trainer or physiotherapist for more specific exercises to suit your situation.
4. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is the most important key to increasing your fitness and boosting your metabolism. Extensive research has shown that the best way to condition your heart and burn fat is NOT to jog or walk steadily for an hour. Rather, you must alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
This interval training will dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and your body’s fat-burning capabilities.
A big plus with this approach is that it radically decreases the amount of time you need to spend exercising – at the same time it is giving you even more benefits. For example, intermittent sprinting produces high levels of chemical compounds that allow more fat to be burned from under your skin within the exercising muscles. The resulting increase in fat oxidation increases weight loss. So, short bursts of activity done at a very high intensity can help you reach your optimal weight and level of fitness — all in a shorter amount of time.
Summary
Exercise has so many benefits – consider some of these if you begin to lack motivation:
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