Shape

About 50% of the population engage in some type of physical exercise. Despite this, most people lack energy, endurance, agility, flexibility, and power. As a result, we don’t exercise regularly, because we feel we invest our time and energy into something that doesn’t pay off.

In order to achieve the maximum level of physical fitness, you need to actively undertake a variety of workouts, practice regularly, and focus completely on each part of the exercise, your posture, breathing, individual muscle groups, your strengths and weaknesses. View your workout as a skill to be learned and think only about your workout while exercising. Understand that it is a whole body experience, and this includes your brain.

Whether you wish to have more energy, loose weight, gain muscle, or get overall better results, it is crucial that you take your workout seriously. Once you’re doing it right, you will discover that when giving 100%, you’ll get 110% back. The benefits of proper exercise show in all aspects of your life, from your health and well being to emotional balance, better sexuality, increased job performance, easier coping with obstacles, and stress reduction.

Aerobic Exercise

It is anything that gets your heart pumping faster. It could be walking, jogging, riding a bike, playing ball, dancing, aerobics, skate boarding, snow boarding, skiing, hula hoop, various types of treadmills/climbers, etc. Aerobic exercise will give you energy and a relative amount of the following: strength, endurance, flexibility, agility, and power. For best results aerobic exercise must be combined with anaerobic exercise and stretching. More than anything, aerobic exercise is a form of a warm up workout.

Warm Up

This is the most important part of a workout. Your goal here is to prepare your muscles for strenuous work which causes tiny tears of the muscle fibers. These tears heal within 24-48 hours. It is the natural muscle growth/development process. By warming the muscles, you are increasing your overall circulation and preventing strain to your tendons and joints. A warm up should last 30 minutes or more. During the 30 minutes your body is using carbs and sugar for energy. Past 30 minutes, it is using fat for energy. At the end of the warm up, do some basic stretching for several minutes.

Anaerobic Exercise

This is hard exercise with lower oxygen use. It could be any type of heavy lifting, pulling, and pushing, sprint, gymnastics, high impact aerobics, martial art, etc. The most common is weight lifting. When working with weights/weight machines, you are maintaining and building connective tissue, muscle fibers, and bone. For full effect you need to concentrate (at all times) on proper posture of your spine, limbs, and neck. If you don’t, you risk injury. It is crucial that you take a moment to adjust the machine and use it adequately. If your seat is not where it should be, or you don’t perform the movement right, or you use too much weight and consequently miss the proper form, or you use too little weight, you will not benefit much from the particular exercise. It is most helpful if you stretch between machines. During the stretch concentrate mentally and physically on the muscle/muscle group trained. By stretching and squeezing the particular muscle, you complete the exercise. The result is an ever increasing physical awareness and a greater ability for isolated exercise, especially beneficial in problem areas. Effective anaerobic exercise increases your strength and energy, and to a lesser degree, endurance, agility, and power. Over time you will be able to work out longer and harder.

Stretching

This part of the workout is essential for healthy muscle development. When stretching don’t try to copy the person next to you. Each person’s anatomy is different in regards to proportions, tissue density, and physical fitness. Always focus on posture. Take your time. Stretching has no effect if done in a hurry. Stretching is a combination of squeezing certain muscles while stretching others. Stretch post workout for at least 15 minutes. The goal is alignment which can be achieved with consistent stretching over months. You can sooner grow muscle than reach alignment.

Yoga/Pilates

These two fall into a different category because they incorporate anaerobic and aerobic exercise with warm up and stretching exercise. Equally, the benefit is complete conditioning of the body, mind, and spirit. To avoid boredom stemming from routine, and maximize your shape, you can combine one or both with basic gym exercise and/or a favorite sport.

Instructors/Personal Trainers

These are people doing a job and humans making mistakes. Like doctors, different trainers will have opposing opinions and sometimes contradictory information. Use them with caution and add to your knowledge through books and DVDs on the subject. Consider that each body is different and what works for one, might not work for another. Never assume that you cannot achieve your goals, listen to your body, and use common sense.