Fitness refers to a state of good health that is usually the result of exercise and proper nutrition. But to make the word “fitness” more meaningful, you need to see it as a way of life. Fitness should be everyone’s goal, and a quick look at the enormous benefits it provides should give you the motivation to achieve this healthy condition.
The Benefits
Do you want a healthy heart, a clear mind, strong bones and an efficient digestive system? Would you like to look younger and sleep better? Most of us want these things, and yet, this is only a small sampling of the many benefits of achieving a state of fitness. There have been numerous studies done on the effects of fitness on the body and all of the medical researchers agree that engaging in regular exercise, combined with a sensible eating plan will improve most bodily functions.
Blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels will be lowered; in fact, the entire circulatory system will run more efficiently. This results in more energy and clearer thinking. Another amazing benefit of fitness is a decreased risk of many major illnesses, like Alzheimer’s, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Being physically fit also provides a financial gain because you won’t need to take a host of prescription drugs to regulate certain body functions. Cosmetically, both women and men will enjoy skin that has less wrinkles, giving an appearance of youth. And if you combine all of these benefits, fitness has been shown to improve your immediate health, while drastically slowing down the effects of aging. Fitness can add years to your life, and those years will be filled with health.
How to Get Started
Achieving a state of fitness doesn’t happen overnight, and medical professionals as well as trainers urge a slower approach. There are several areas of the body to target with a fitness program and the first one is the heart. Begin with a simple aerobic exercise like walking, biking or swimming. These types of activities benefit the heart by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, which are the leading causes of heart disease. It’s estimated that people who exercise regularly decrease their chances of developing heart disease and add an average of four years to their lives. To get the maximum advantage of aerobic exercise, seek to engage in one of these activities for at least 30 minutes, five days a week. But start slowly. Don’t believe the old adage: “No pain, no gain”. If you have pain or discomfort, stop, and consult with your doctor. Pain is the body’s way of telling us that something is wrong, and this sign should not be ignored.
Another area to target in your fitness program is weight training. Start with lighter weights and gradually increase. This type of activity strengthens your bones and muscles. You’ll notice that you will stand up straighter and feel less muscle discomfort after doing physical activity. A good fitness program also seeks to minimize the effects of stress on the body. Engaging in yoga or Tai Chi promotes a healthy state of relaxation. The wrinkle lines will soften and you will get a more restful night’s sleep.
HGH has been the talk of bodybuilding and muscle building circles for a number of years now. Studies confirm that when you get older having high level of hgh can be beneficial if you are working to build muscle. However, the use of human growth hormone without a prescription is a debatable issue as there are a number of negative side effects connected to injections of human growth hormone.
We all produce growth hormone. It is most prevalent when we are children as it is required for the rapid tissue growth that occurs at this stage in life. HGH serves an important role in maintaining our body’s metabolic cycles. Hormone production begins to drop and continues to drop as we age. This is why body builders see growth hormone injectables as a method to develop greater muscle mass because their own natural production has decreased. Natural ways of increasing somatotropin can be just as beneficial and are safer.
The most effective is to get an early night and get into a strict sleep routine. The human growth hormone is released naturally in your body in the first part of your sleep. So by ensuring you get a good night sleep you’ll optimize the release of HGH and increase tissue growth and repair. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you are prohibiting the release of somatotropin and therefore the development of lean muscle mass.
Hgh is a natural substance that your system uses to stimulate greater fatloss.You have probably seen many ads for hgh pills that will help increase your natural levels of HGH. High levels in your body are a quickest route to burning body fat! Low intensity cardio activities won’t do much if anything to stimulate hgh production. High intensity cardio for 60 seconds followed by a minute of low intensity cardio is one of the leading means of increasing hgh. This is known as High Metabolic Training.
This kind of intense metabolic workout will increase the release of this master hormone while rapidly burning calories.Wind sprints are a fabulous way of doing this. Try alternating days with stair climbing or jumping rope for extra diversity. You can be real hard core and jump rope on a mini-tramp.
Another good alternative are high weight, low rep, muscle building exercises such as squats. You need to be lifting at least 80% of your maximum. Five reps done ten times is better than 10 reps done 5 times. Rest between sets for 30 to 45 seconds.If you want to burn more fat, take a break for only thirty seconds.
Nutrition also plays an important role in natural hormone increase. A high protein diet is an important aid. Perhaps purchase one of the better growth hormone supplements sold online.
All in all, natural increase of your hormone levels is much healthier for you. You get the additional advantage of missing all the negative hgh side effects that can result from injectables.
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Since you are not a professional runner you have doubtless been told over and over again that you should run against yourself and do the best you can without worrying about how other runners are doing. That’s fair enough because as an amateur runner your main interest is normally in keeping fit and the enjoyment you derive from running. But lets face it, man is a competitive animal and we all want to outshine others when we can. This is never more true that in a race when the race results are a generally accepted measure of success or the lack of it. You may be a weekend or occasional jogger who decides to enter a 5K Training just to see how your performance level compares with others of your age group. Your satisifaction should come from the fact that you are doing well against your age group. The problem lies in the fact that while its nice to know that you are as good as your peers, you can’t help wishing that you could outperform them and rather than finishing the race in the midst of 50 year olds you could do it among the 40 year olds. The thoughts that go through your mind are about how great you would feel in that good of shape at that age?
Pushing yourself and your body too hard is not just foolish but also dangerous and you could do yourself serious harm. But having said that, there are some things you can do, within reasonable limits, to improve your 5k timings.
The most common method of improving your timing is to practice tempo running. This simply means maintaining an even pace (or tempo) throughout your run. Start with 1k and run it at a pace that brings you to the threshold of exhaustion at the end of it. Knowing when you have reached your threshold is important – overdo it and you could hurt yourself. When you muscles ache and your breathing becomes labored, you have passed your threshold. Once your have established a maximum pace for 1k, start gradually extending the distance (without letting your pace drop) – remembering again not to cross the threshold. Keep doing this until you are running the full 5K Training as fast as you can. What this really is is your maximum pace and you will find that you will get the best 5k results at this pace without injuring yourself.
The important thing to remember is that running should be fun. If you push yourself to the point where running is a task that has to be performed only to feed your ego by getting better results than would normally be expected of you, you are doing yourself a disservice. Really if you like running you need to think about how long you think it will last? Is it worth it to take the pleasure out of running just to get great 5K Training results that, in the final analysis, do not improve the quality of your life? Keep striving for improvement, but know when to stop. The best advice is to always consult your doctor before you start to train for something that will require over exerting yourself or pushing yourself too hard.
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