12 Steps to improve fitness for women
We have collected some simple things and steps here to help you improve your fitness. Follow them and hopefully you will be better at working out and get maximum benefits out of working.
- The body is the king: Human body is not a democratic society, there is dictatorship and the body rules it. You can convince it to do exercise but it has it limits and you cannot expand them, all at once. You can do it, there is no denying but it takes time and effort. Devise a mechanism that you can rest between exercise routines, if you are a jogger and you want to reach 2 km in a week, start with 500 meter. Keep it slow, realize your limits. There is never any point or benefit in stretching your limits too much and too fast. Let it flow and keep practicing.
- Rest is vital: Before you start exercising you need to understand how muscles work. Muscles are elastic, they can expand and retract based on the stress that we put on them. They are like rubber bands but unlike rubber bands they have layers inside them. When you use them during exercise or daily routine, there is internal wear and tear inside them. For proper healing time and growth, you need to give them time to mend themselves. If you do not let them heal properly, the stretching ability that they have will diminish and exercise will be less productive. Give your body ample rest and see the better results.
- Calculate your proteins: We talked about muscles; muscles need proteins to grow and maintain strength. Your diet needs to contain a good amount of protein to keep functioning properly. Get a good knowledge about how much you require proteins and have a steady intake. The more you are going to be steady at protein in-take, the better your body muscles will heal.
- Talk with a dietician: We talked about proteins, but food is not just about proteins. Dieticians are helpful, we rush to doctors when we have something wrong but we pay less attention when the body is working great. It is better to safeguard yourself through a steady diet chart. These people can provide you with great charts and information about what your body needs and in what quantity. It is also great to have things written in front of you, you will have a diet chart and it will be something that you will be able to follow.
- Focus on technique: You will be amazed to know that most of the common exercises that people do are not technically right. Say for the case of swimming, a sports that most people are aware of and do, yet the technique of most people puts more stress on the body than it should. There is a great benefit to knowing the proper technique, not only it is the best way to do a thing, it also provides the most benefits out of that particular thing. If you are lifting weights or doing cardio or just plain walk, learn them with proper techniques. In some cases it is worse to exercise with a bad technique than exercise at all.
- Pre exercise routine: Pre exercise warm ups are a necessity and not some fancy mumbo jumbo. They are really important for warming the muscles and letting them know that sterner tests are coming for them. Human body works in interesting ways, it needs to be prepared to do heavy exercise. Once muscles are prepared, chances for injury lessen. In exercise you must always care about avoiding injuries, a little carelessness in some cases can result into serious life lasting injuries so you should always prepare your body for such tasks.
- Work life balance: Okay, you may say, what has this to do with my fitness. Well in many cases almost everything. If you are one of those workaholic people who want to travel the corporate ladder at all costs, you will have little time to yourself and more time for your job. These things tend to creep on you slowly. All of a sudden you are so involved in your job that you forget that your body is more important than anything else in the world. Work in the office, not at home. Keep the work out of your mind when you are not doing it. Spend some time with your body; it deserves more attention than the corporate reports on your table or in your hard disk.
- Mental Stress: It is a dangerous thing, this stress. It slowly creeps on you and makes it difficult for you to exercise. Stress is like a habit, once you get used to it, you can be stressed about almost anything. It is a bottomless pit, if you start getting stressed your whole body will suffer. You will have less time to enjoy the things you are doing resulting in your mental and physical condition to deteriorate really quickly. Avoid stress, adapt a healthy lifestyle. Enjoy with your friends, family and other people. Give yourself some time to spend with yourself, get a spa or a hot tub and relax. Remember, mind controls the body, if the mind is ailing, the body will start feeling unfit as well.
- Social groups of likeminded people: The company that you keep needs to have some similar interests to you. If you want to exercise, it is great to exercise in a group or with some people who you are really comfortable with. From my personal experiences, going to gym when you are out of shape is a scary thing to do. You feel judged and it is difficult to stand among men and women who are fit and healthy while you are carrying excess weight and much less power. It becomes intimidating and a moment reaches, when you just want to give it up. Do not let that happen in any case. Get some people who share the same love as exercise as you do or find a group of people in gym who are not all alphas and try to work with them.
- Competition is not always healthy: Competition is not always healthy, especially when it comes to exercise. It is good to think that you can be working out as much as your friend, but if you start to obsess about it, it will cause havoc for your body and mostly will result badly. There are always exceptions, some people just love competition, but not all do. Take it easy, in small steps, being fit is not a hundred meter race, it is a marathon. It will take time and it needs constant practice.
- Keep hydrating yourself: Drink ample water, minerals and salts not energy drinks. You do not need a dose of caffeine to stay hydrated, you need water and salts. Human body is mostly water, it does not look like that but it is. The more you sweat the more your body needs to replenish itself. Give it enough water, before the exercise, during the exercise and after the exercise.
- Enjoy: When you enjoy any activity, it becomes fun. For me, I would not like to run a lot but when I play basketball with my friends, I do not even realize that I am running. When you exercise, try to find ways to entertain yourself. Find music, do exercise in front of a tv screen or just have fun while looking at the scenery while you pass it. Once you start enjoying exercise, you will become better at it and will wait to run and be fit.
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