Exercise for Busy People

Being so busy the last couple weeks at work made me realize how much value I place on running my business. Things got really busy and I felt it was my responsibility to my clients and others to work for them for them starting at 6:00 a.m.

f you are a parent, you may want to argue and say, no my kids come first.

If you are an adult child taking care of a parent, you may say, your parent comes first because they are old and can’t take care of themselves so you need to already divide your time between them and your family.

If you work for an employer, you may say, your job comes first because you need to make an income for your family.

If you are a student, you may say, your studies come first so you can get a good grade.

Ok, so all of these things It also made me realize that we cannot allow anything to come before our health.  Is there anything so important in the world that you should let your own health go?

The answer to this question is always, always, ALWAYS … NO .. and here’s why… It doesn’t matter if you are in business, an employee, a parent, a caregiver, or a student, if you don’t take responsibility for your own health first, you will feel terrible and when, NOT IF, you get really sick yourself, then what? Who will take care of everything then? The very best thing you can do for others is to take care of yourself so you can be there for them. It doesn’t take much time to exercise and there are creative ways you can workout without actually getting down and dirty.

Here’s some great resource tips for busy people that also want to be healthy and feel good!
Exercise for Busy People
Exercise for Energy Get More out of Your Day
10 Minute Timesaver Workouts
10 Minute Strength Training Workouts
Fitness Routines and Exercises for People Who have No Time
Weight Loss for People too Busy to Diet

Shoulder and Back Strength

Remember your mom always telling you not to slouch when you were a teenager growing up? Mom was a smart lady.Good posture is important and helps to keep us aligned properly. Many people have weak shoulder and back muscles and let’s face it, we need strong muscles to protect our bones. So yup, you guessed it, this is where I tell you that you need to eat nutrient rich foods, drink plenty of water and exercise. Just no getting around it is there?

Interestingly enough I was just reading an e-book this morning that had an interesting spin on the way we eat.. STOP dieting! I know, you love this already.. instead, strive to eat the most nutrient rich foods you can and eat them up to six times per day. It’s a mindset.

Balance your food, eat your veggies, eat fruit, eat some whole grain bread, eat some protein, eat some dairy and drink, drink, drink your water. Stay away or eat minimal from foods with no nutritional value, high fat, sugars, (anything ending with ose, like fructose etc) and white flour. So that simplifies things doesn’t it!

Don’t diet, just decide to make healthier choices and eat something every 3 hours to keep your body working at digesting. The old rule that you have heard so many times before.. if you eat little and often, you will lose weight and never be hungry. If you do feel hungry, reach for a large glass of cold water or even low fat or skim milk to keep your body working.

Ok, so back to your shoulders and back strength.. Weights or exercises that use your own body for resistance are the key to building strong shoulder and back muscles.. your abdominal muscles have a very big impact on your back muscles too so remember that this is all part of the routine.

Of course, if you have pain in your shoulders or back or are not in shape, always check with your doctor before engaging in any exercise routine.

Here are some great resource links:
Exercises for your shoulders
Exercises for shoulder and back
How to fix your neck, shoulder and upper back pain
Video: Back and Shoulders

Hips and Knees

As we get older we start to notice those little twinges in body parts that we never even thought of before.  For those that have done repetitive work, heaving lifting or standing for long periods on jobs over the years, joints like shoulders, neck, hips and knees suddenly start aching and causing much discomfort.. today I am focusing on hips and knees.

How many older people simply fall down and break a hip or have serious issues with arthritis in their knees etc. Diet and Exercise is the best way to keep the muscles and bones strong. A good healthy diet plays a huge role as well in maintaining strong bones as we get older.

Now I am not saying that nutrition and exercise is a cure , but it will improve how you look and feel, give you better mobility and reduce pain. If you do have issues with your hips and knees, consult a health professional before starting any program to make sure your pain isn’t a medical issue that needs attention.

Here are some excellent resource links for you to refer to:
Aerobic Walking or Strengthening Exercises for Osteoarthritis of the knee?
Hip and Leg Exercises
Hip Strengthening Exercises (you need to scroll down past the ads to read)
Hip and Knee Strengthening for Arthritis pain reliefs
Exercises to Strengthen Hips of Seniors

Lazycise

One of our members, Kathy from Body n Soul wrote a blog recently about Lazycise. At first I got real excited thinking that I could be lazy and get exercise.. but Kathy explained that

Lazycise is a great way to compliment your workout routine. She called it Lazycise because we all do have those moments when we feel lazy about doing our workout and how to use those moments to their full potential thereby reversing the act of being lazy? Doing this changes your perspective from ‘I’m being lazy’…to one of self empowerment and control.

You can read this full article here:
http://picfit.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lazycise-1?xg_source=activity

There is a second excellent blog by Kathy:  Lazycise and Inverse Wave
Are you aware of any false beliefs about yourself? Are you aware of any behaviours that are ‘responsible’ for the lack of success in meeting health and fitness goals.
Weight gain/loss and lack of good health (physical/mental/emotional) can all be ‘symptoms’ or physical manifestations to help us learn our life lesson. Is your lack of good health or weight issue a symptom of depression, disease or injury? These too can be ‘symptoms’ of the life lesson-learning process. And yes, sometimes ‘a cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee’.

Inverse Wave Therapy is not a bandaid for symptoms. It gets to the core belief, the thoughts we have about ourselves that create a vibrational wave pattern that precedes us in the timeline. The core wave is a compilation of life experiences, the way we are ‘wired’, belief systems and adopted ideas, our heart image etc. The PREMISE OF INVERSE WAVE is to introduce an opposite wave to cancel out parts of the core wave that is no longer needed.

I highly recommend you read this full blog post on this topic and find out if Inverse Wave is for you!
http://picfit.ning.com/profiles/blogs/lazycise-and-inverse-wave?xg_source=activity

Core Exercises

Over the years I have learned that core exercises are essential for strong muscles around your torso skeleton. Having a tight core gives definition to your shape (once I find my shape, I’ll let you know) and makes it easier to do everything else. A strong core helps keep everything lined up. If your core is weak it cannot support your spine properly.

Core exercises should be worked into your weekly routine, probably about 3 times a week. If you dislike doing core exercises (like me) because they seem so hard, it’s a good sign that you should be doing them. I just started on these exercises this week myself and was shocked at how difficult they seemed, even after doing other workout routines for almost 3 weeks.

Start slow and work your way up. I do a series of core exercises for about 20-30 minutes and only 15 repetitions of each. Remember.. muscle eats fat .. so if you have a strong core, it will enhance your weight loss efforts, and will help you feel stronger to do your other workouts. (that’s what I keep telling myself)

Here’s some resources to check out:

Best Core Exercises – Excellent photo of where your core muscles are located.
Good Core Training takes more than Ab Exercises
Hard Core – Exercises to Strengthen your Abs
Strengthen Your Core

Toning the Inner Thighs

I have always had large thighs, even when I was light, I felt the top of my legs were flabby on the inside. Of course it is the same old story about watching fat intake and exercising and that you really can’t control where your body takes the fat from no matter what area you focus on but there are muscles in there, so toning them as part of your workout at least definitely is still a good idea I think!

So today just a few quick links to some information about the inner thigh.

Best Inner Thigh Exercise – Video
Inner Thighs
Cellulite - Everything You WAnt to Know and More – Excellent article that gets to the point about what works and what doesn’t work.
Best Butt Exercises for Men and Women
What’s a Good Cellulite Workout?
20 Leg Workouts for Cellulite Control

Belly Flab

Having a round belly is not only something most of us want to get rid of, (unless you are practicing to be Santa Clause) it is extremely unhealthy for you.  Many have found, even after dieting to lose weight, that they still have belly flab that they don’t like. Professionals have spent much time devising ways for you to exercise those muscles or creating diets they specifically say are for belly fat.

Now I think the two main keywords here are EXERCISE and DIET. They do go hand in hand and together, they will help you lose that middle.

Exercise creates muscle and muscles need calories to live.. so if you do exercises as a part of your routine specifically for your belly, those muscles will work harder and you will lose fat if you are on an eating plan that is designed to help you lose weight. Let’s face it, if you are still eating more calories than your body can use, you won’t lose the weight you are hoping. One of the resources below also says that stress it is quite possibly a factor in some cases. 
Here are some resources for flat belly exercises.

You should also refer back to one of the past tips on the PICFIT.ca site for the calorie counters so you know how many calories the food you eat actually do have.

Belly Exercise – Lots of links from this page and a video even!
Exercise to Lose Belly Fat Tone Your Abdominals & Tighten Your Stomach
Lose that belly fat! You exercise, you eat right, but you still have a pooch. Here’s the surprising reason why and how to fix it

Your Target Heartrate

Exercise is what your body needs to work well but you also don’t want to exert yourself so much that you cause yourself bodily harm either while doing your workout, so today is a simple tip. Workout within your peak heart rate without going over and endangering your health.

OF COURSE YOU WANT TO CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE HEART HEALTHY BEFORE STARTING ANY FORM OF EXERCISE THAT GETS YOUR HEART PUMPING HARD.

Typically, a quick simply way for a healthy person to determine their target heart rate when working out is to start with the number 220 minus your age and then estimate 80% of that total. So if you are 50 years old, your target would be 136 bpm. If you are 25, your target would be 156. So it is good to watch and be careful. Now, the other question is how long to workout at that peak.

Well, I think any exercise is great but here’s some great resources for you that will tell you more about this topic, how to check your pulse etc. 
Your Pulse Rate – Your Pulse and Target Heart Rate
Pulse – Wikipedia
Making Your Heart Rate Count

High Intensity Strength Training

I have started using my weights again and have been doing some reading on what is the most effective way to use them to:
a. Build muscle
b. Lose weight 
c. Build endurance
d. Do this all in as little time as possible.

I found tons of information online but the information on high intensity training caught my eye.. basically you only do one set of each exercise but you use as much weight as you can manage to do one set for each exercise.. you do each repitition very slowly and hold it for a couple secconds when you get to the stress point.  Evidently one set of 8-10 will do it for each exercise but your muscles should be quivering tired by the end of each set. This makes your body work much harder.. long after you are done your body is using calories without you even knowing it.. cool. I am not sure this is the right thing for endurance.. my belief has always been that you need to do many sets with lighter weights to build the endurance.. but hey what do I know.. I’ll save that question for another day. 

Here are some of the links to resources that may help you to get started to to rethink your own workout:
High Intensity Strength Training: More aerobic than “aerobics”
How to do dumbell Exercises
Why Weight Loss needs Strength Training