While most overweight people need to focus on their diet to ensure natural weight loss, having access to exercise training programs can be the difference between living an energetic life deep into your later years or being stuck with debilitating diseases that cause you to live out the rest of your days in pain. Our society has forgotten about "movement" as the best way to ensure long-term health, instead of a short-term solution to their current weight challenges. Exercise training programs are all the rage nowadays, with fitness facilities offering programs that range from small group exercising to what is now being called "yoga-fusion."
IDEA's 2010 annual fitness programs and equipment trends survey reported finding an increase in exercise formats with uncomplicated or modest choreography. As I've mentioned many times to many of my clients, people generally want to do 3 things when they get the bug to start working out and/or dieting. They want to lose weight and/or they want to look and/or feel better - that's it.
The key to a healthy lifestyle includes exercise, and the key to maintaining an exercise program with a busy schedule is to make sure that the program is free of complicated scenarios or too many moving parts - simplicity always trumps complex. I believe that is why yoga has seen a decline. It has too many positions to learn and from the start people see a yogi or true yoga practitioner and become intimidated believing they could never achieve the same level of flexibility. I believe yoga is an invaluable piece of an overall workout program but with time being a key determinate in what goes into fitness programs today; it is no wonder why watered down versions of it, like Pilates and yoga-fusion, are more in demand now.
Fitness programs come in many different forms but I believe there are a few important benefits that should be provided by any program you decide to get involved with:
1) Shows you how to increase your flexibility
2) Shows you how to build up your "heart power" with endurance exercises
3) Builds up your lung power with aerobic exercises
4) Builds up your strength with resistance training
If you have those 4 elements in your fitness program, you should be just fine... as long as that program also shows you how to eat and live in a way that promotes health as well. Remember, too often people see fitness as health and this is simply not the case. Health comes before fitness, and health cannot have any sustainability without fitness - they need each other, but always in the proper ratio.
Many of my articles refer to overweight people, and that's because that is my main focus at this time in my life. I believe overweight people are so close to their true potential, they just need to be shown different avenues to get to where they want to go. Think about it, if you are 50 lbs overweight - you got there because you ate a lot of the wrong foods, probably at the wrong times and you didn't move very much.
Well, what were you doing while you were immobile? Nine times out of ten, it's probably watching TV or playing video games. Overweight people have goals, maybe not the best goals, but they have them nonetheless - to sit or lay down most of the time, eat and repeat the cycle. The same way they set their minds to reach that goal, they can just as easily set their minds to using an exercise program. People just need to understand that not all exercise programs are going to treat them like Jillian Michaels treats her clients on "The Biggest Loser."
I understand that she feels it's in their own best interests, but it really isn't. What she ends up doing is causing them to lean on her for support when they need to push through on their own. This can be one of the reasons why post-show contestants balloon back up a few months later. This is not a Jillian Michaels bash, because she really does do her part in fighting obesity. The problem is we cannot "fight" obesity, we need to educate obese people about the options they have available to them - and the right exercise program can go a long way in getting someone to willingly get their butt off the couch. It's not going to happen through intimidation or making people feel bad about themselves, if it did, we'd be a lot further along than we are now.
The word exercise, unfortunately, has developed a negative connotation and it's a word that, literally, makes people feel badly when they hear it. The key distinction that I think will allow people to see that word in a positive light is to add the benefit that they will receive when they can get their bodies into great shape. The reason we train or workout is to be able to "play" harder than everyone else, that's the main reason we train - everything else is just the fun residue. Looking great naked is a great benefit but it's a distant second when you consider being able to do all sorts of fun activities like sports or hiking, just because you're physically able to.
Getting into shape. in my opinion, should be priority one on anyone's agenda and using exercise training programs will help you get there. Take your time in selecting one and implement its' teachings right away. Remember, we only have a short amount of time here on this planet, let's not waste any of it, get moving!
To learn more about how you can create or regain health and fitness, without resorting to extreme workouts or diets, download your copy of my FREE Report, "The WHOLE truth About Health & Fitness" at [gethealthygetfit.co]
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