Is Your Workout Keeping You Fat?

This excuse is used over and over again, “Working out is boring” or “I don’t have time to workout”.  If we are in the rut of doing the same exercises and cardio program at every work out; we are not giving our body what it needs to improve, of course we will become bored.  Our goal when working out is to tear down our muscles so that the body can build them to be stronger.  Although cardio is great, we are not all training to be long distance runners in the next Olympic games. The question is: Is Your Workout Keeping You Fat?

What our bodies need is interval and strength training.  Interval training pushes our boundaries and increases metabolism for up to 36 hours.  After a good workout we should not feel depleted of energy, we should feel energized. Once we adapt to our work out, change it, keep your body guessing what is coming next.  If a work out has become comfortable then we might only be maintaining, push through a new threshold.  Now we are not saying that working out should be painful.  We must be mindful of our body, we want to challenge ourselves to improve, we do not want to injure ourselves.  If we are using the treadmill start by running for 2 minutes then walk for a one minute, increase the incline and speed settings, creating variation in the workout.  Mix up each workout and have fun with it.

Is Your Workout Keeping You Fat?

Scales are not a good measure of progress, body fat and muscle tone are.  Remember that cardio does not build bone, only strength training does.  Get a balanced program of cardio and weight training.  Ask yourself if what you are doing is giving you the results you desire.  Track workouts to see what is giving the desired results.  We want to track the type of workout, the intensity, frequency and time.  Which category that is being tracked can be adjust to get more results?

If you have knee issues, strengthen your quad and hamstring muscles.  Add more fish oils to your diet.  Do exercises like stairs which are safer then lunges or walking lunges.  You can do strength training as long as you are aware of what modifications are more gentle on your body.  The hip and ankle directs which way your knee goes and the amount of torque on the knee.  When we strengthen the hip and ankle we strengthen the knee.  We must be aware of what works for our body and be kind to injuries.

Take a look at your future self and see if you want to be there.  Look at an elderly person as they struggle to walk, do you want to be there?  It’s a choice.  Changing your belief system and thought process will do wonders for your outlook.  Start exercising because you love yourself.  Understand the benefits you get from doing it and make it your why.  Do not allow excuses to dictate your life.

Be comfortable and appreciative of where you are and be open to where you are going.  The old and the new will co-exist for awhile like a caterpillar morphing into a beautiful butterfly.  Be patient with yourself, an amazing change is taking place.

Try this easy exercise circuit.

 Finish each work out with 5 minutes of stretching.

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