Rise and Exercise

People often neglect flexibility. When we go to the gym, we are worried about running or lifting weights; We never think to take time out to stretch. Flexibility is difficult to achieve. There is always room for improvement in stretching, this is why it is difficult to keep a routine of stretching. Many people do not like stretching, because it takes so long to see results in their flexibility. However, the importance of flexibility cannot be stressed enough.

As you get older, your muscles begin to lose strength and mobility. You often hear older people complaining about stiffness in their muscles and joints, and this could be a lack of stretching these muscles groups or joints. Another reason for stiffness and lack of mobility is just simply from being inactive. It is a common known fact that being physically active will prolong our life, and keep our physical body components healthier, however, people forget that stretching can be a key factor in this. The loss of flexibility can lead to permanent changes in your muscles and your posture. It is critical to not only be physically fit, but to also be flexible as well.

There are more people that struggle with flexibility than you would think. For example, if you feel any discomfort when you reach down to touch your toes, this means you need to do more flexibility stretches in your day.

Adding stretching to achieve flexibility is easy and you do not have to spend too much time on it. Even just stretching for 10-15 minutes each day will do wonders for your body. If you really want to see results in your flexibility, you really should be stretching at least once a day. The best way to stretch is to find a routine that works for your body and then practice regularly at home. However, it is actually easier, safer, and more useful to attend a class that already has a stretch routine, such as Yoga or Pilates.

You will see great improvements if you attend a yoga class regularly. If you do choose to stretch at home, you need to be extremely careful. First, do some research on certain stretches and make sure you are doing them absolutely correct. Second, when you are in the stretch make sure their is no pain AT ALL. There may be a slight discomfort, but that is all you should feel. After you have found your sweet spot in that certain posture, hold the stretch for 30 seconds. This is how you will see the most improvement in your flexibility.

If you are regularly stretching and making sure to be safe in your postures, flexibility will soon bless your life. You will see and feel the results in your body, and your body will thank you for that. I cannot stress the importance of stretching enough. If we do not maintain flexibility, our muscles and posture will dramatically change and you may feel sore and tight the rest of your life. Remember that “Objects in motion stay in motion”. Every time I make up an excuse not to stretch, I think of this saying. If I choose to sit and watch television, my muscles and joints are being neglected, therefore I am causing them to lose mobility. This is fine every once in a while, but if you choose to be sedentary often, you will see lack of mobility in your body later on, which can prevent you from attending in any physical activity.

Body weight exercises are the perfect way to build strength and lose fat. They are a great type of exercise to do in conjunction with cardio exercise. Lifting weights at the gym will isolate muscles and create a bulky shape, but they are not really functional muscles. If you are working the same muscles, with body weight exercises you will actually be working your entire body from the very core. Body weight exercises work your core muscles and affect every part of the body.

You probably already know the exercises that you can start doing, but do you really know how much of an impact these will have on your body. The push up for example, this is a very popular exercise used to build some pectoral muscle, but it also affects your abdomen, back, and does a great deal for your triceps and deltoids. You can even add to these already very beneficial exercises by doing modified push ups Each body weight exercise is going to be a compound exercises that reverberates through your entire body. So if you want functional strength and a lean and mean look, you want to do these kinds of exercises.

Squats are a good full body exercise too, effecting everything from your mid back on down. If you practice the ancient Hindu squat jump you will develop a very high vertical jump. These are easier than they sound. All you do is squat down, and once you hit the low point of your squat jump as high as you can, upon landing slowly lower yourself back into squat and repeat. This is a body weight exercise that doubles as a plyometric routine. Plyometric workouts exercise muscle control, rather than muscle strength.

So this is a very powerful exercise for all of you that want to run faster, jump higher, or even kick harder. Doing weighted squats is going to pack muscle and increase your ability to hold weight on your shoulders while you squat, but it won’t help you to run, jump or kick any better. Pull ups are basically the opposite of squats, what squats do for your lower body pull ups will do for your upper body. As long as you hold to good form you can get devastating effects from your lower abdomen all the way to your shoulders.

Everyone gets stressed out at some point during their lives. Whether it’s finals week at college or you’re budgeting your finances, stress comes from a variety of sources. However, stress can cause several physical problems, like headaches or back pain. These problems can interfere with your life! Learning how to cope with it can be a challenge, but it is possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that treadmills can be one of the most therapeutic machines for someone who is trying to re-gain mobility? But we aren’t talking ordinary treadmills here. We are looking at some new breakthroughs that have allowed treadmills to become such an important part of the rehabilitation process. They are starting to rival the power of Rebounders for therapy tools. Today I’ll talk about one of the neatest new inventions that I have seen in a little while.

The LightSpeed was developed to supplement your treadmill. This is really a cool thing, because no matter what type of treadmill you currently own, this contraption will make a great addition to it. You may feel a little weird stepping into the spandex shorts attached to bungees, but once you start running you will notice a major difference.

The LightSpeed reduces the weight of your body hitting the treadmill, so you are magically 20-25 lbs lighter when you use it. The benefits of this type of equipment include: less wear and tear on your joints, muscle training to increase speed which leads to a better cardio workout, and assisting in the healing process of any torn or injured muscles.

Overall the LightSpeed is a really cool addition to any home gym, and it is also one of the most affordable ways to begin rehab in your own home. It retails at under $2,000, which is quite the deal when you start looking around at similar equipment available. Now, you will have to own a treadmill to be able to use it. Unless you want to look like a baby in one of those bouncer seats, which might actually be kind of fun too.

So if you need to increase your speed, stamina, or joint health, be sure to check out the LightSpeed Website. But be careful, you may become addicted to running, if you aren’t already!

Many people hear that exercise promotes a better quality of sleep, but how many people are actually taking advantage of this? Come on, people. All you have to do is take 30 minutes out of your day and get in a little exercise. Even if you just woke up in the morning and went outside on a walk, you would increase your quality of sleep tremendously. First of all, because you are actually getting in some exercise, but secondly exposure to natural light will reinforce your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. The best time of the day to exercise is in the morning, for many reasons.

A great way to increase your quality of sleep is through exercise, but it is critical of what time of the day you choose to exercise. Many people may go on a night run, or go to the gym hours before they fall asleep, but this may actually decrease your quality of sleep. This is why so many people have a hard time believing that exercise will help you sleep! They are just choosing the wrong time to exercise. When you exercise before bed, you actually stimulate your brain, muscles, and heart, which makes it harder to fall asleep. The last thing you want is exercise screwing up your sleep patterns. The best way to achieve a good night’s sleep is to exercise in the morning or mid day.

Start Now!

You can begin your new workout routine now! Start exercising today and see if your quality of sleep increases tonight, I bet it will. If you enjoy listening to music, go on a walk or run and listen to your iPod. This website offers some great running tips. If you don’t enjoy running, try something spontaneous, such as yoga, rock climbing, biking, etc. There are many activities that are recreational that can still benefit your night’s sleep.

If you want to feel more productive throughout your day, and sleep more soundly at night, then you should really think about exercising in the morning. If you are not a morning person, I would suggest working out at least 3 hours before you go to sleep, so you do not disrupt sleep patterns. I’ve found a really great article that offers 10 Ways to Get Motivated for a Morning Workout. I would suggest reading that and take exercise one step at a time. Start slowly and workout for maybe 10-20 minutes a day, and then start increasing that time as you improve. You will feel a complete change in your mind and body, and most of all in your sleep patterns!

Michelle Jenneke is the most popular thing on the internet right now.  Not because she won the Olympics or anything like that.  She almost qualified for the Olympics; however, 5th place in her regional division wasn’t good enough.  This chick is taking the internet by storm because of her quirky yet sexy pre-race dance routine.

Why does she do this dance?  We have to assume it is because she feels great about having other chicks eat her dust.  In the popular youtube video she only breaks from her bubbly character for about a minute, and that is only so she can crush her opponents in the one hundred meter hurdle race.  After word she is back to her old happy self smiling and dancing and hugging her loser friends.

This is how everyone should be.  At least that is what we think at rise and exercise.

When I first started running I was amazed at how fast I improved.  In the first month of training it is not so much a physical battle as it is a mental battle. I was surprised at how much harder I was able to push myself. The first 10k I did was an amazing experience.  Not only did I feel the rush of endorphin flood through my head, but I was also to the point where it seemed all my internal organs were about to shut down.   However, one step at a time it is very easy to keep going.

The body is made to run.  Our ancestors have been running from wild beasts, natural disasters and even each other for a long time.  The body has physiologically adapted in such a way to make running and walking something easy for us to do.  The simple act of taking a step uses more than 200 muscles.  This is to prevent over exertion of any one specific muscle.  That means you won’t collapse on yourself after running for an hour, like you would if you attempted to do push-ups for an hour.

When taking it one step at a time you will find that you can actually continue on for a long while.  So here is my challenge to you.  Do not worry about speed, rather keep in mind time.  Try to run for at least thirty minutes. If you can do that, then try to run for an hour.  Push yourself as far as you can.

This is not a spiritual talk pleading that you go repent and become saved.  Of course, it is very beneficial to your soul if you do that sort of thing, but let’s focus more on what has matter rather than what really matters. I am talking about your body, that carbon based outline that encapsulates your soul. Lets talk about how to get this body of matter to be the shape you want.    Now more of this round stuff. Lets become thin and trim like a line, not like a stick but like a healthy line.  The way to do this, to reshape that tangible matter that contains your soul, is by starting with your heart.

Every morning when you wake up start your day with a bowl of plain oatmeal flavored with almond milk. Oatmeal has been shown to lower cholesterol which will protect your from coronary heart disease, diabetes, and other cardio-related issues.   The almond milk is much more nutritious than other milks. It is packed with vitamin E, which is going to do wonders for your circulatory system and heart. Don’t worry this isn’t breakfast. This is just the pre-workout snack. You do not want to get too weighted down before you even start exercising.  A small amount of food in your stomach will provide a good amount of energy throughout the routine.

After the snack start doing  a routine that you can really push yourself at.  Some people can’t run outside, but they run just fine on a treadmill.  If you are one of those people I would suggest that you look at some treadmills for yourself.  Check out a good friend of mines website treadmillreviewguru.com .

It doesn’t have to be running. Though running is Mother Natures number one workout, you can also try interval training and other aerobic routines.  Just do whatever you can to really get the burn.  If you do not feel it while you are exercising, then it is likely that you are not exercising hard enough.

The reason you want to work your heart is because it is the center of your body.  Having a strong heart increases your basal energy.  That means the stronger your heart the more energy you will have, no more groggy 2 pm feeling.  Having more energy will make future exercises easier, thus leading to long term fitness success.

Reshape your life, become a better person and do this by starting with your heart.

One of the most important habits that can be developed in the process of true self-mastery and success is the habit of waking up early in the morning.  Of all the many factors that can be controlled and changed, the time that a person wakes up can be modified, although not without a little struggle.

It appears that some people have the capacity for waking up early in the morning; this could be in part to a particular preference that bodies have developed called circadian rhythms.  Circadian rhythms determine whether or not someone is a night person or a morning person, or somewhere in between.

Thus waking up early comes more naturally to some people, and why it is more difficult for others.  However, it is possible to challenge this disposition, and gain control over that aspect of life, although it may be difficult and feel unnatural at first.

This is the first step to self-mastery mind over mattress, the ability to control the time of sleep and the time of waking up.  Learning to do this will require discipline and also an iron will to overcome whatever genetic hand has been dealt to the table.

That being said, as mentioned, the changing of sleep times will definitely not come overnight (no pun intended), but will come after the diligent struggle to change a habit.  The rule of thumb is that in order to change a habit, twenty-one days is needed.

Those twenty-one days may be characterized by drowsiness and a lack of concentration, but will result in a life-changing habit.  That is, it has the potential to change a life if the time is used effectively and productively.

It is true that waking up in the morning gives the illusion of having more time to accomplish all those necessary tasks that are placed before any person.  Unless the actual number of hours of sleep is changed, amount of waking hours remains the same.

However, with a clearer mind and a focused resolve, those crucial morning hours could make all the difference in reaching the standard and raising the bar.  This is what may make the difference between simply completing tasks performing with excellence.

Waking up early, while it may come off as some type of success-book rite of passage, is truly a great way to overcome the problem of low self-mastery.  It certainly will test desire and will.  Waking up early is the first step in a changed life.