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Can Exercise Directly Help Advance the Goals of Your Life?
So far, the evolution of our exercise and fitness techniques has done wonders to improve our muscular strength, balance and flexibility, increase our cardiovascular efficiency and reduce our body fat. However, the problem is that many of the...
Exercise Bikes – No Excuses, 30 Minutes A Day On A Bike Will Change Your Life
Exercise bikes are the ideal home exercise equipment. We are all advised to exercise for 30 minutes per day to stay healthy combined with a good balanced food intake. Most people complain of not having the time to go to the gym or prepare to out...
Is A Treadmill The Best Exercise Equipment For You?
The #1 fear people have when buying a treadmill is that they won't use it. (That's the #1 fear when buying any piece of exercise equipment).
They know that a treadmill can help them lose weight, get fit, burn extra calories and reach their...
"Why Exercise Equipment Can Be A Boon For The Working
Exercise equipment manufacturing companies have researched that maintaining health is the one of the foremost goals of every workingman or woman. They feel that without fitness it would be difficult for them to enjoy the life or become successful. ...
Winsor Pilates, a Great Addition to Your Exercise Routine
If you turn on the television after midnight you’ll notice that the infomercials for diets, fitness equipment and exercise tapes are becoming more and more popular. Do any of these systems really deliver what they promise?
Winsor Pilates is...
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Does Your Current Exercise Practice Increase Or Decrease Your Stress?
At this point, we all know the purpose of exercise is to improve our physical health through activities that strengthens our bodies. As time has passed, our ability to exercise with greater efficiency has been enhanced as our understanding of how and why exercise produces health in our bodies has expanded. This enhancement has produced our current exercise procedures that are designed to help maximize our efforts and therefore hasten our results.
As a fitness professional with over ten years in the health field, I believe the “science” of exercise has created another worrisome (and unnecessary) “checklist” to add to our already overly burdened lives.
Now, the average health enthusiast spends a great deal of their energy and time concerned with: counting calories, whether this exercise is the “best” exercise, what is the “right” number of reps and sets and how can I get the “maximum exercise benefits” in the least amount of time.
Of course, lets not forget that a great many of us are motivated to not only exercise for health reasons but also because of: the fear of being overweight, the fear of not fitting in and the fear of not looking good.
Additionally, exercise itself is a physical stress. The traditional “no pain, no gain” philosophy is based upon pushing ourselves past our physical comfort zones in order to decrease body fat while increasing lean muscle mass. The very nature of this philosophy produces more physical discomfort than it does physical pleasure.
A simple health rule is that painful experiences cause our bodies to close down (leading to aches, pains and eventually dis-ease) while pleasurable experiences helps the body to open improving balance and health.
With all this stress associated with exercise I believe our focus has shifted from improving the way we use and live in our bodies to worrying if we are exercising “correctly”. This has left us little room to enjoy this process of getting to know our bodies better.
However, this philosophy may not be healthy for you if:
1.Each day your body is under significant amounts of mental and physical stress. This unreleased stress eventually evolves into physical discomforts, aches and pains. This can prevent you from moving freely and thinking clearly.
2.You find the process of exercise to be painful or boring. If during exercise you find your body tightens even more, then all you are doing is deepening a negative or unpleasant association between your body, exercise and stress.
Body and mind associations are very powerful and long lasting. How you have digested past body experiences dictates your current body image. Positive life experiences created positive body images while negative
life experiences created negative body images.
My solution is to begin consciously practicing moving your body in ways that produce more freedom. Freedom feels good and causes us to open to ourselves. It will deepen the connection between your body and mind. This creates a positive pleasurable mental association between your physicality and your body.
The more you reinforce this association will eventually deepen the amount of balance, health and peace you have in your life.
I believe the key to this situation is adding two elements to your exercise routine.
1)Practice Releasing The Day’s Tension Before You Exercise.
When your body is free to move your experiences of exercise becomes more fulfilling and personalized. Apply your creativity to your movements and exercises. How can you make exercise more enjoyable?
Here is a progression:
a.Starting with easy and slow movements with little to no weight or resistance, learn to enjoy the freedom of just moving and flowing with your body.
b.Pick movements that challenge your mind. There are so many toys in our modern gym that you can play with. Check them out and get some help if you are unsure. I.e. add core training to every exercise you do.
c.Learn to express yourself through your body. Personal physical expression is a great way to relieve stress and open your body. As your body opens your ability to exercise with greater intensity builds. The more pleasure you receive the more you will want to move and push your limits. Eventually, believe it or not “no pain, no gain” feels good!
2)Change Your Personal Definition Of Exercise.
I believe that exercise is a means to learn how to improve the way you use your body. This improvement can be done through any activity that you like. In fact, I suggest finding an activity that you like and make that your major mode of exercise. Performing activities that you hate only increases the amount of stress you are under. If you enjoy moving your body the results you want will come quicker. Have the major focus be on the moment-to-moment process of exercise and begin to view the results as the “gravy”.
Sheldon Gerard Ginsberg is the President of FitPath Health Services, a Florida based fitness and health program. To learn more you can visit www.thefitpath.com or call 786-276-6143.
About the Author
Mr. Sheldon Ginsberg President of FitPath Health Services holds a BS in Exercise Science from SUNY at Buffalo. In addition, he has obtained advanced certification as a Strength and Conditioning Coach from the National Strength and Conditioning Association and he is also a 12th level Reiki Master Teacher. To learn more go to www.thefitpath.com.
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| Exercise at About.com |
| Offers fitness and exercise related links, articles, information, and discussions. |
| exercise.about.com |
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| American Council On Exercise |
| Fitness Certification and Education: The American Council on Exercise (ACE), a non-profit organization, promotes active lifestyles by setting certification ... |
| www.acefitness.org |
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| Physical exercise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Physical exercise is the performance of some activity in order to develop or ... Frequent and regular physical exercise is an important component in the ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Why Exercise Is Cool |
| Tells why exercise is important and explores the many benefits of physical activity. |
| www.kidshealth.org |
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| Kids and Exercise |
| When most adults think about exercise, they imagine working out in the gym on a treadmill or lifting weights. But for children, exercise means playing and ... |
| www.kidshealth.org |
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| Fitness Fundamentals |
| It is influenced by age, sex, heredity, personal habits, exercise and eating practices. ... How often, how long and how hard you exercise, and what kinds of ... |
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| MedlinePlus: Exercise and Physical Fitness |
| National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases The primary NIH organization for research on Exercise and Physical Fitness is the ... |
| www.nlm.nih.gov |
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| MedlinePlus: Exercise for Seniors |
| Pictures/Diagrams; Slide Show: Balance Exercises Improve Stability, Help Prevent Falls (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) ... |
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| Exercise: A Healthy Habit to Start and Keep -- familydoctor.org |
| Information about exercise from the American Academy of Family Physicians. |
| familydoctor.org |
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| Welcome to ::-:: Exercise, Fitness and Leisure |
| Information on various aspects of exercise and fitness and providers of sporting, exercise and leisure equipment. |
| www.exercise.co.uk |
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| ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Net |
| Fitness and exercise information including diet, nutrition, exercise, sports and weight training. Includes a muscle directory. |
| www.exrx.net |
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| Weight Training, Exercise Instruction & Kinesiology |
| Weight training and kinesiology reference with many animated weight training exercises, stretches, plyometric movements, and illustrated muscles. |
| www.exrx.net |
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| Exercise & Fitness |
| Swimming, cycling, jogging, skiing, aerobic dancing, walking or any of dozens of other activities can help your heart. Whether it is a structured exercise ... |
| www.americanheart.org |
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| Howstuffworks "How Exercise Works" |
| Exercise creates a set of responses in your body, whether you work out regularly or not. Find out how these responses can be enhanced by training. |
| www.howstuffworks.com |
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| Exercise and Diabetes - American Diabetes Association |
| The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Exercise works the same way. Taking that first step can be hard, especially if you've been ... |
| www.diabetes.org |
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| NIHSeniorHealth: Exercise for Older Adults - Table of contents |
| See the Exercise Stories. Exercise for Older Adults Table of Contents. Benefits of Exercise · Safety First · Exercises to Try · Charting Progress ... |
| nihseniorhealth.gov |
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| Exercise to Improve Your Body and Your Brain |
| My comprehensive exercise guide. ... The key to obtaining the benefits of exercise is to find a program and stick to it. Of course, it is useful to have a ... |
| www.mercola.com |
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| FitnessOnline.com - Exercise Health Nutrition Advice Weight Loss |
| FitnessOnline.com - expert advice on exercise programs, diets, weight loss, muscle gain, vitamins, supplements & strength training. |
| www.fitnessonline.com |
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| Table of Contents |
| Exercise: A Guide from the National Institute on Aging ... Chapter 2: Is It Safe for Me to Exercise? ... Chapter 4: Examples of Exercises to Do at Home ... |
| weboflife.nasa.gov |
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| Exercise Physiology Page for the MAPP |
| Aging, Exercise and Short Term Power · Principles of Training- Revisited · The Time Course of Training Adaptations · Understanding Interval Training ... |
| home.hia.no |
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