The Lean, Mean Guide to Buying Fitness Equipment

How do you maintain fitness and stay healthy? A balanced diet of nutritious fruits and vegetables is the key as is regular exercise.

The best exercise is one that you really want to do, be it push-ups, stretches, jumping jacks, Zumba or running.  However, some people prefer to work out using fitness equipment in their own homes.

Here are some tips for buying exercise equipment.

Do not believe everything you are told, at least not everything
You should assess all those claims about exercise equipment that manufacturers make in their advertisements. Some of the statements are for example nigh on unbelievable when they guarantee that you will lose several pounds in as little as seven days or that your dress size will drecrease in a month. Even with the assistance of dietary supplements, it is not possible to accomplish changes as major as these in just a few weeks, much less days.

Spot burner lies
Always remain skeptical about claims that you will be able to burn a lot of fat in a very specific part of your body, such as the thighs or tummy by just applying ointment or lotion, etc, or using a particular piece of exercise equipment. The only sure way to burn fat way is by looking at your diet. And even then, you will burn fat all over rather than in just one place.

Testimonial untruths
Those before and after pictures of people who claim that they had lost weight thanks to a particular piece of equipment, lotion or diet are often lies. The manufacturer will take photos of people who have lost weight through sensible means and make wild claims to get you to part with your money. And if they did actually manage to do it using the equipment or pill being sold, there is definitely no guarantee that it will work for you.

Read the fine print
Always read the fine print. You might believe that the fitness equipment you are planning to purchase is going to help you achieve your goals but if you read the fine print it may say that you also have to decrease your calorie intake and cannot just rely on the machine!

Do the maths!
The adverts might state how the product can be purchased in a number of easy payments but they often omit the delivery/shipping costs plus any taxes or third-party handling fees.

Check the warranty details
The 30 day money back guarantee may sound amazing on paper but some companies require you to pay for the shipping costs and if the equipment weighs a lot, the shipping costs will be high meaning that it is not financially viable to bother sending the broken piece of equipment back.

Check customer service
Give them a call and make sure they are responsive should you have a problem that they need to rectify. Make sure it's a toll-free number in case they make you hold for ages.

How to Choose the Right Gym

You really do not have to spend a lot of money on expensive health club or gym memberships, treadmills, or the latest fitness gadget to get fit.

However, some people find that if they make a monetary investment, they are more likely to achieve their fitness goals.

Gyms are, basically, designed to provide people with the proper fitness equipment and facilities needed to keep an individual physically fit.

However, not all gyms are created equal. Some gyms require their members to sign contracts which are not easy to cancel. Hence, it is important to know the characteristics of a gym that will work best for you.

1. Make your mind up on things that you need
Before you choose a gym, you should first know what your needs are as far as physical fitness is concerned. This will determine the kind of gym that you should check out.

For example, if you are more into playing sports such as squash than typical gym activities such as aerobics classes, then it would be better to choose a gym that has sports facilities and not just treadmills and classes.

2. Do not forget to shop around
It may sound so clichéd but it really pays to shop around before deciding on a gym. Hence, it is best to do some window shopping first and compare the prices, charges, and the facilities available in a gym.

In this way, you get to choose the best gym for your budget.

3. Consider your budget
It does not necessarily mean that just because you have plenty of money, you will choose the first gym you visit.

It is best that you have a budget to follow so that you will know where to focus your finances before you decide on signing up for a gym.

Just remember, you want to work out your body and not working out the finances means you will soon be in debt just because you forgot to stick to your budget!

4. Know where your money goes
If it makes you sweat and burn fat then great! Just be sure that whatever kind of gym that you have chosen, it is important to know that you get what you have paid for.

5. Be wary of the physical attributes and characteristics of the gym that you wish to sign up to
Make sure that the gym that you have chosen is clean, properly ventilated, and complete with all the amenities that you need.

Also check that the equipment are all in good working condition. Never use fitness equipment that appear to be worn out. This can result in injury.

In conclusion, a gym does not have to be perfect. What matters most is that the gym that you have chosen is good enough to enable you to get the results you want.

Fitness Tips for Women

Exercise is essential, most people will certainly agree. Exercise is not only perfect for losing weight, it is also good for keeping a reasonable body weight, for giving a boost to your metabolism and also for burning those unwanted excess calories. Exercise also revs up the heart and the lungs making them more efficient.

Aside from these benefits, exercise also strengthens the bones and keeps people looking good and feeling good about themselves. Exercise also gives people the stamina to enable them to keep up with the pace of their modern lifestyles.

Unfortunately, not many people chose to do what is good for them. Most people can't even decide what to do when waking up in the morning - exercise or press the snooze button one more time!

You will find the following tips helpful in reaching and maintaining the ideal body weight. Simply incorporate one or two of these tips at a time to more easily update your exercise routine.

Do not worry whether the exercise routine is perfect - just stay committed. Ideally, you want to exercise three to five times a week for 20-60 minutes. However, this is not required in the real world. Don't get frustrated by aiming for the ideal when you know that it is utterly impossible. If you manage to train two times a week for twenty minutes per session, that will be fine.

It is best to focus on doing what you knows you can do than to reproach yourself for having not done enough. Start from this point and then progress over time. You will feel a level of success for having stayed committed.

Prioritise weight lifting - many women do cardio exercises before weight lifting. The problem with this is that it is possible to miss a critical component of the routine having spent all your energy on cardio training. If you do this, you may not enjoy the results you hoped for even after devoting long hours to the gym. This can be avoided by reversing the order and will guarantee a visible positive outcome.

Remember to monitor your heart rate. It is recommended that you should exercise at 75-85% of your maximum heart rate. Many people stick with just aiming for only 50% of their maximum heart rate. To ensure that one is working out at the prescribed target heart rate, use a heart rate monitor or any exercise equipment with this feature.

To avoid dreading having to go to the gym, work out for only an hour or less. Focusing on the exercise and the overall goal will make each work out session more and more efficient.

Have some sort of social aspect to your fitness. Being in a fitness community may be the important element lacking in your training program. Friendly support can do amazing wonders and should not be underestimated. It could be useful to train in a gym once in while if one tends to workout at home. One can also try classes that you may have always found interesting such as yoga, pilates or Zumba! You could also join clubs such as a walking club or a running club.

Pep talk yourself. One should not pressure yourself too much; rather, it is best to congratulate yourself and give yourself words of encouragement in between exercises. One should never forget to give yourself positive feedback!

How to achieve a great physique with bodyweight training

Many people think building muscles is about abandoning life outside the gym and devoting hours to training like a monk in a monastery, and that the only way to chisel the body into a desirable physique is by toiling hour after hour lifting rusty iron day in, day out and year in, year out.

This need not be so. Although hard work is truly required, does a great physique really demand one be a slave of iron weights? Full-body work outs enable one to progress and it easily fits in one's schedule. This is much more convenient if one is looking forward to achieving a great physique but finds it hard to stick to a single work out routine.

Genuine full-body work outs done by athletes with an aim in mind means challenging training, makes room for full recovery so one can actually grow and continue to train hard plus it also prevents burnout which is inevitable due to excessive training.

So if one is ready to develop a great physique, here is all there is to know about full body workouts:

A full-body work out is a time saver. The biggest plus about having the whole body trained all at once is probably having to go to the gym less frequently; perhaps around two to three times a week would be enough.

Another advantage of working out the entire body all at once is that one need not spend two or more hours of strenuous exercise in the gym every session; you only need to spend one hour in the gym per session. So that's just three to four hours per week in the gym right? With full-body workouts, it is all about the quality of exercise and not the quantity, nor even the amount of time you allot per session.

Full-body workouts boosts the cardiovascular system - by allotting two to four sets for every body part into the one hour session. Jam packed with exercise, each one hour session then gets the cardiovasular system pumping in a flash.

Now we will look at the rules one has to follow when engaging in full-body workouts:

Training commences only once every two to three days. This is so easy isn't it? What is great about this is that there is time spared during rest days so that one can indulge in a few cardio sessions instead of depending on cardio execises one normally does at the end of each work out session (which inevitably are not at all very effective).

Heavy lifting is strongly advised. Do not stick to training lightly with the aim of conserving energy for the other body parts that will be used later in the routine. Instead, focus on training heavy, no matter which program you are following.

One exercise only per muscle group. This is very easy to follow and is also important. Doing basic exercises which are also intense means you do not have to do another different exercise for that body part.

Keep the workout short. Resistance training affects the natural homones of the body connected to muscle building. Intense exercising boosts the testosterone levels and long workouts increase those of catabolic cortisol. Sixty minutes of exercise allows you to get the best of both worlds.

Now with this convenient and powerful training regimen, one can now truly achieve a great physique.

A Guide to Moderate Exercise to Improve Your Life

Have you ever felt tired and stressed from work and when you get home you saw your children running towards you asking you to play football with them? You refused and promised them that you will after you have a rest?

Instead of disappointing your children, why not say, "yes"? You will be surprised by the amount of energy you will have after that 30-minute activity.

Did you know that by exercising at a moderate pace for only 30 minutes, you will feel a lot better, mentally? It has been proven that this improves your appetite and sharpens your cognitive reasoning. Additionally, you will also feel that it is easier to sleep at night if you do moderate exercises even for only 30 minutes every day.

What are the benefits of regular exercise? It promotes self-discipline and has a positive impact on how you perceive life. Exercise helps in lifting your spirits and getting you out of any depression. For beginners, it can be done for 15 minutes for 2 to 3 days a week. You can increase the time you spend once your body gets used to it.

There is no need to force your body! If you feel pain, then stop. You can take a break from exercising for a few days and then you can start again.

Here are some moderate exercises you can do and enjoy:

1. Walking. Make use of your surroundings. You can walk your dog, or walk with your partner or children. Encourage your family to walk daily and you will find yourself burning calories while enjoying the surroundings and spending quality time with your family.

2. Discover the wonders of Yoga. Yoga is an effective exercise that energises not only your body but also your soul. Even basic yoga positions are proven to be effective. A five-minute yoga exercise can perk you up and recharge your body with the energy you lost during the day. You relax while you stretch!

3. Play a sport. Play basketball, football, baseball, tennis or badminton. Many doctors have recommended sports as an effective way to stay fit and healthy. Sports can also be done in moderation. Do not take it seriously. Shooting basketball with a friend is one moderate exercise that is also considered a sport.

4. Join exercise programmes at work. If there are no exercises programmes at work, then why not start one? You can talk to your boss about it and start with your colleagues. You do not only lose calories but it is also a good way to bond with them. This can be done as little as 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

5. Exercise while doing household chores. Gardening, raking leaves, lawn mowing, doing the laundry, vacuuming and washing the car are effective moderate exercises at home. Make use of these chores to sweat and burn calories. Instead of using machines and gadgets to perform these chores, why not do it with your hands and lose some weight?

Making exercise a part of your daily routine will surprise you about how many calories you can lose. Doing these moderate exercises every day can burn from 150 calories to 1,000 calories a day!

Dieting For Success Making It Happen

We must all be accountable for our successes and failures in life. It is no different when it comes to dieting. There are few better feelings in the world than for someone to notice and compliment your efforts. If you are very obese unfortunately, it may take a little more time for people to actually notice the weight you’ve lost. Too many men and women give up simply because no one noticed and that is an incredible shame. Give your dieting practices an opportunity to work before you decide they are a failure and you just might surprise yourself with a roaring success.

Dieting is far too often approached from the mindset of impending failure. Too many people have tried and failed so many diets in their past that they try the next new diet with the absolute knowledge that they will fail in this attempt as well. Guess what? They will.

Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can or think you can’t you will always be right.” If you think you are going to fail at this diet you are dooming yourself to failure before you even deprive yourself of the first bite. Think about that before you begin because only a true masochist could find pleasure in perpetuating this vicious cycle without ever stopping to wonder why none of the other diets have worked for you. Henry Ford also said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently”. In case you were wondering I would say his words are quite profound. Seriously though, if you do not examine the reasons for your failures you are certainly dooming yourself to repeat them and if you are already planning to fail why on earth would you even try?

You are the only person who can take control of your need to eat. You are the only one who can pay attention and notice when you are eating for emotional fulfillment and when you are eating from necessity. You and you alone can get yourself out of your chair and on your feet. You are the only one that can take the responsibility for the condition in which you find yourself. There are medical exceptions but even in these situations if you are trying diet after diet and failing over and over again then you must at some point in time realize that it is quite likely not the diets that aren’t working.

The truth is far too few people hold themselves accountable to their dieting and weight loss goals. This means that far too many people are giving up without really ever bothering to give it an effort. If you have an issue holding yourself accountable to your dieting plans, perhaps you would do well to diet with a partner. This helps you not only set goals but also to meet and exceed challenges along the way. A partner can also benefit from the partnership as he or she will be challenged and feel the need to perform better than if he or she were dieting alone.

You must hold yourself accountable to your stated dieting and weight loss goals in order to achieve any lasting results. If you have not had dieting success in the past, then perhaps it is time to bring some degree of accountability into the picture and make it happen.

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