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WELLNESS
Returning to health and fitness
With the lazy, hazy days of summer now over, it's time to get serious about our goals and get back on track with our lives. In the arena of health and fitness, one obstacle that is quite common is that "there isn't enough time to exercise." What many people don't realize is that it's not so much the amount of time as it is the quality and intensity of exercise that matters. (Below is an excerpt from my book, Stop Aging, Start Training.)
Not Too Little - Not Too Much!!!
Oftentimes, gym acquaintances tell me they stopped training for long periods of time. When I ask them whatever for, invariably their reason is that they simply "don't have the time" to do their usual workouts of one to two hours.
There are several problems with this common misconception. For starters, working out for more than seventy-five minutes is counterproductive. There are hormonal and energy-storage considerations that cause long workouts to be less effective, not to mention the fact that there is an increased potential for injuries related to over-training.
Secondly, it is possible to have a great workout in a fraction of the time you usually do it in ... provided it is done on a temporary basis. Always remember this important tip: A brief workout is significantly better than no workout. At all costs, avoid the "all-or-nothing" approach! I, myself, suffered from this mindset eighteen years ago. If I had less than an hour to complete my workout, I would skip it that day. Consequently, I missed numerous opportunities for staying more fit. Now, I seldom miss a workout. If time is limited, then I'll work just my biceps or chest or abdominals. When all is said and done, I feel better having done something than I would have doing nothing.
If all you have is thirty, or even twenty, minutes to exercise, don't skip it because you believe it's not effective at all. Every little bit of effort adds up. With my own fitness program, I sometimes have no choice but to work out between client appointments. This ends up being within a time frame of thirty minutes or less. By the time I change into my exercise gear and do my warm-up, that leaves me with about twenty minutes to actually exercise. In that time, I usually choose one muscle group and train it intensely, resting for shorter periods between sets.
Another option is to superset between exercises for two opposing muscle groups - say, biceps and triceps. (Supersets involve working two opposing muscles by alternately performing one set for each, back-to-back, prior to resting between sets.) A word of caution: Supersets are more intense than standard routines and thus should not be applied for every workout.
Getting Started: Just Do It!
Always remember that the toughest part for beginning a workout routine - and for many individual workouts - is just getting started. It's that first step that seems to be the hardest, but I assure you that once you take one, you'll want to take another, and another and another and, well... you get the point! And it's not just physical momentum that keeps you going, but emotional, as well: As you start moving, you'll begin to feel an increase in energy and mental alertness as you have a heightened overall sense of well-being.
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