Your Fitness

If you are busy, not able to get up early morning or have no time for gym just follow this 20 minute home work out to stay healthy and fit.

1) Jog in place for 3 minutes

2) Do 25 Jumping Jacks
When landing, bend your knees slightly to reduce the wear and tear on your knees.

3) Do 15 Crunches
Lie flat on your back with your knees bent. Place your hands behind your head with elbows pointing outwards. Support your neck with your hands. Keep your neck in a straight line with your spine. Flex your waist to raise the upper torso from the mat. Lower yourself until the back of your shoulders touches the mat.

4) Do 10 Hip Bridges
Lie on your back. With your hands at a 90 degree angle to the floor, lift your body off the floor to form a straight line, a sort of a bridge, from the shoulders to the knee. The position should resemble a table … your hands and legs as the legs of the table and your upper body to your knees as the surface. Hold this position for two seconds. Squeeze your gluteus (butt muscles) and then lower yourself.

5) Perform step ups for 1 minute
You will need a stepper for this.

6) Do 15 Reverse crunches
Lie on your back with your hands on your sides. Keep you knees bent. Bring your knees towards your head, till your hips come slightly off the floor. Hold this position for a second, and then lower your knees.

7) Do mountain climbers for 1 minute
This is one of my favorite exercises.  Get your hands and knees and raise your knees like a starting block sprinter. Run in that position, supporting your upper body with the palms of your hands. Keep your back straight.

Do 15 Push-ups

9) Perform squat thrusts for 1 minute.
Stand straight. Now, drop to a crouch position. Immediately thrust your legs out straight behind on your toes, in push up position, now jump to pull legs  back to the chest, in crouching position , then  stand up straight,

Cool down by walking around, till your heart rate starts getting back to normal, stretch.

A minutes rest is needed in between exercise. Proper form is important. Do not hold breath. Sip water during the workout. This workout targets the whole body, improves cardiovascular efficiency and tones and strengthens the body.  You can repeat the cycle if you have time.

What is the minimum amount of exercise needed for health and fitness? Although it depends on the person, lifestyle, and goals, the wisdom is that 20-60 minutes per day of cardio, weight lifting, or muscle stretching is necessary.

While no one can deny that these numbers produce optimal results, it is possible to achieve great things in less time.

The truth is that most terribly out of shape individuals have lost crucial “body-mind” link, a connection that helps them to feel the hunger for natural health movement. They hate sweating, do not like to walk, and often confuse thirst or emotional pain with actual hunger.

For those of us who have to pave the way for a new exercise routine, even five minutes a day can be a door to save lives in a healthier world.

Here are the rules:

1) To get the most out of this routine, which should extend throughout the day.   I recommend sixty seconds of work at 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm and 9 pm. This approach is called “Grease the Groove” and has an unusually powerful effect.

2) Focus on the abdominal muscles. They are the largest group of voluntary muscles of the body. They help posture, digestion and sexual function. They are critical to athletic performance, the energy transfer from the bottom of the upper body. When it comes to appearance, the abdominals are called “the window of health”-that is judged most often by our belt lines than any other physical factor.

3) It is virtually impossible to to tone up the stomach muscles without benefiting the other muscle groups throughout the body.

What exercises are best? I would suggest a three-pronged approach: a difficult exercise, a light exercise, and one that can be done in public while walking or driving.

1) A roller wheel. These are available at any sporting goods store about five U.S. dollars and are the only ab exercise develop their money worth. Start rolling from your knees.  In time you will be able to perform the exercise from a standing position.

2) Hip lifts. Lie on your back, brace your hands at your sides, cross your feet and lift your knees and feet off of the ground. Now contract the abdominal muscles and lift the hips from the floor. Relax and repeat the hip lift for sixty seconds.

3) Power breathing. Contract your stomach muscles hard while walking or driving. Combined with proper breathing techniques, this may be the perfect ab exercise. There are many yoga, Tai Chi, and martial arts teachers who can teach you the correct technique of breathing, if you have not had this training then I would suggest you find a teacher!

While the “Grease the Groove” technique is powerful (and can be used to develop strength, flexibility, or coordination) is not a substitute for your normal cardiovascular workouts. Is offered as a complement to your normal exercise session or for those days you just can not find the time to get to the gym.  It will hopefully provide you with yet another avenue to lead you to greater fitness.

One of the ongoing debates in the fitness world today is which burns more calories: cardio or weight training?

You will find those on both sides of the argument offering data to support their position. As much as I would like to say that you can dispense with one or the other the truth of the matter is that you need both of them. I know, that is not what you wanted to hear but let’s be honest deep down inside you knew this was the case.

Trust me there is nothing that I would love more than to never have to due another minute of cardio training for the rest of my life. I despise treadmills, ellipticals and the like. However, I faithfully do them everyday that I go to the health club.

I know that there are other people who probably fell the same way about weight lifting. Much of it has to do with (in my humble opinion) the type of muscle fibers our bodies are composed of. My theory is that the more fast twitch muscle fiber you have the more you enjoy weight lifting. The more slow twitch muscle fiber you have the more you enjoy cardio. In other words, it boils down to personal preference since one form of exercise is easier for us since our bodies are better equipped to handle one or the other.

But the truth of the matter is that we need both. Cardio is essential for burning calories. I have tried to burn calories thru weight training programs but ultimately I fail to keep up the pace of the workout. If I workout at a pace that keeps my heart rate where I want it I do not have enough rest in between sets and my weight lifting performance and progress falters. If I give myself the rest in between sets that I require then my heart rate is too low to burn calories as I should.

Therefore, cardio becomes a necessity for me in order to burn the calories that I need to throughout the day.

Conversely, weight training is essential as well since the more muscle that you have the more calories that your body will burn in order to maintain this muscle. It takes more energy for you body to maintain muscle than it does to maintain the same weight in fat. The more muscle you have the higher your metabolism will be as well. This will benefit you in your overall weight loss and fitness program.

When you combine the two forms of exercise you have a powerful duo that provides you will a tremendous level of fitness and keeps your body weight exactly where you want. So do yourself a favor and spend time each week performing both cardio and weight training. You will be better off for it.