Strengthen Your Core: 3 Easy Bodyweight Exercises

Strength training exercise is a very significant part of a weight loss program because it is very effective in building muscles to help increase your metabolism. Toning your muscles, especially the core, aids in improving your overall health and rev up your weight loss development.

Using weights and other heavy equipment are commonly associated in strength training exercises, but there are also a few strength training routines that only require your own bodyweight and a floor. These bodyweight exercises can be very effective in building your core muscles.

Bodyweight exercise is best for people who do not have all necessary equipments for strength training exercises, such as weights to increase the intensity, but want to incorporate muscle strengthening workouts into their routine. In order to toughen your core and tone your body, here are 3 easy bodyweight exercises to work on. 

1) One of the most effective abdominal exercises is the Side Planks. The first step in performing a side plank exercise is to lay down on your side with your body straight. With your elbow and forearm for support, slowly lift your hips up off the ground until your body forms a straight line. Repeat holding this position for 30 seconds. Side planks are well known to be the key to achieve a tighter waist because it targets the abdominal muscles such as the transverse abdominal muscle as well as the oblique.

2) An effective strengthening exercise to attain ripped abs is called the Bicycle because its main focus is on the oblique. In order to execute this exercise you have to lay your body on the floor with your face staring the ceiling. With both your hands placed in the back of your head, slightly lift your head and bring your left elbow to your right knee, and then bring your right elbow over to your left knee in a twisting, imaginary bicycle pedal movement. Keep pedaling for 3 sets, 18 times.

3) The Flutter Kick exercise works on the lower core and leg muscles to develop a fit figure. This flutter kick routine is performed by resting your back on the floor, arms straight to the side or just below your buttocks, and slightly bend your knees as you extend your legs. Then, move your legs up and down alternatively, contracting your abs while trying to keep your legs at a 45 degree angle.

~~ 3 Health Benefits of Adding More Fiber In Your Diet ~~

The simplicity of these exercises can provide major progress in your weight loss and well-being. Its convenience may lessen your fitness regimen, but the benefits of each exercise aim to target many parts of the body for a better results.

Weight Loss Benefits from Team Sports

For people who aim to lose weight, gaining athletic abilities such as physical agility, stamina, and strength (Oh, and don't forget the ripped body) are factors that motivate them to keep working hard to get in the best physical shape of their life. Recreational sports help improve a person’s fitness level and as a result they acquire a healthy mind and body. No wonder athletes, amateur or professional, are all in great physical shape because they are constantly exercising and burning calories during their games.

Recreational sports have been taught to children as young as six years of age at school during their PE class. Being part of a team not only develops and strengthens your social skills; it also teaches you to build up persistence, self-discipline, and learn to deal with failure and disappointments. Apart from social and psychological benefits, recreational sports greatly play a big role in teaching you to give importance to you physical health by watching what you eat and knowing the difference between nutritious foods versus junk.

Although participating in a team sport may seem intimidating at firs due to the other individuals whom you will encounter, but after a few games, you will gradually get the hang of it as the adrenaline starts kicking in; your heart starts pumping and you will be on your way to getting one great workout.

A few examples of recreational team sports that you can participate in to enjoy and assist in your weight loss journey are:

●     Volleyball

●     Basketball

●     Soccer

●     Football

●     Water Polo

These team sports require constant motion and boost aerobic capacity and improve cardiovascular health. They are considered to be high intensity workouts that will enable you to burn a whole lot of calories and build more muscle mass in a shorter period of time. The more you participate in these sports, the more pounds you will shed and you will start seeing positive results in your body.

The best part about team sports is unlike exercising at the gym; you will not become bored and have to keep pressuring yourself to keep working out because the game itself will keep you entertained. Time is not measured once you are taking pleasure in your favorite sport and at the same time building strength and stamina and most importantly, burning calories and excess fats.

Even though sports are generally intended to be leisure activities, you can turn any sport that you enjoy and include it in your exercise repertoire because it can help you burn more calories than any other activities. Team sports are an enjoyable way to make friends, have fun, and further increase your weight loss and get in the best shape of your life.

3 Health Benefits of Adding More Fiber In Your Diet

“Eat your veggies." is a common and most overused phrase that our parents would often tell us while eating our meal. As a young adolescent, we would often get annoyed of that constant reminder. We would complain and nod in agreement even though we had no idea why eating fruits and vegetables were that important, but little did we know that our parents were right.

Increasing your intake of fiber daily, this includes: fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grain, are very beneficial and highly recommended, according to health experts. They say that fiber not only helps in weightmanagement and weight loss, but it also improves a normal bowel movement, and lowers your risk of developing certain diseases.

Weight Management

If you are trying to lose weight and eat more healthy, gradually adding high-fiber foods in your snacks and meals will help you to eat less and give you the feeling of being full for a longer period of time, thus decreasing overeating. Foods rich in fiber such as fruits and vegetables provide fewer calories and at the same time satisfy one’s hunger. Fitness and health experts always include fiber-rich foods when creating a nutritional guideline for their clients and patients because they know that these foods are the key elements to the bettering of one’s health.

Improvement of Normal Bowel Movement

Constipation is the infrequent or painful releasing of bodily wastes. This health condition can be prevented by eating more fruits and vegetables and other foods rich in fiber. Fiber absorbs large amounts of water; which increases the size and weight of a stool and makes it easier to pass through the bowels. When you don’t consume high-fiber foods, your chances of constipation will increase, which could progress into bowel obstruction and cause further health problems. 

Lower Your Risk of Developing Certain Diseases

Health diseases are the results of an unhealthy lifestyle and a diet rich in saturated fat and cholesterol. More and more people are at high risk for diseases because of their lack of exercise and the lack of fiber in their diet. A few of the health problems that people are developing include: diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. A proper diet and an addition of fiber in every meal of the day can lower your risk in attaining these life threatening diseases.

Including the required amount of fiber in your diet can really benefit your health in the long run. This should become a daily habit for the purpose of conditioning one’s body to start enjoying foods that are healthy, full of nutrients, and full of fiber. Although shifting to eating whole grain foods may take some getting used to, but it is better to prioritize your health and wellness rather than put it at risk. 

Pre-Workout Must-Dos for a Fitness Newbie

Deciding to finally jump up off the couch is a big leap for anyone with a sedentary lifestyle. A person who lives a sedentary life spends most of their free time in front of the television or computer and not has a care in the world about their health and fitness. This lifestyle has become an epidemic, but for the past few years there has been an increase in people practicing a healthier lifestyle due to the rising number of deaths caused by diseases, which has been linked to a person’s poor fitness and diet. Making a life changing decision such as working out and looking after ones wellness may seem impossible, but with determination and a good foundation for a workout program, the impossible can be done.

There are a few fitness must-dos to keep in mind before starting a beginner’s workout regime. A novice should at first consult a doctor to see if their body is ready for strenuous activities. Like they say, prevention is better than cure, so its advisable to seek professional help first rather than having to schedule a doctor’s appointment due to an injury.

How does an individual who has little or no knowledge about Calisthenics exercises
start? Well it all begins with a warm-up. Warm-up exercises slightly get the heart pumping just enough to warm up the body thus increasing blood circulation. It is very essential to all professional and even beginners’ workout routine. Exercises such as jumping jacks, lunges, and jump rope are a few examples of warm-up exercises that condition the body for the stress that it will undergo in the next 30-45 minutes.

Once the body is warmed up and fit for condition, mild stretching is then performed to help muscles become more flexible. Stretching is beneficial to the body when it is done right after warming up. When done properly, stretching can contribute to an effective and safe exercise session. Another set of stretching exercises are also executed right after the actual workout to relax the overworked muscles. Some people enjoy this part of the session because it calms them down, physically and mentally.  

For someone who has never worked out in their entire life, the first few days or even weeks are going to be quite difficult, but it should not be an obstacle to keep an individual from giving up, it will get easier along the way. A beginner’s workout should progress gradually, not abruptly so that the body will have time to adapt to its new lifestyle. An individual should choose a physical activity that is enjoyable so that they won’t have to force themselves to workout, instead it will become a daily habit which their body will get used to and sooner or later crave thus increasing wonderful life-long results.

Push Ups

Push-ups, a simple workout that most people have been doing since our teens.  Push-ups have been around for ages because it’s simple and very effective.  This is the reason why push-ups have been used on most if not all workout guides that have been released till this day.  Push-ups workout your chest, triceps, and your shoulders.  But not only just these muscles but push-ups also work your abs and lower back muscle but not as effective as your chest, triceps, and your shoulders.

When you exercise with push-ups biggest changes you could implement is how wide you keep your hands open.  Wider you keep your hands apart more of you outer chest and shoulders you use and closer you keep more of your inner chest and triceps you use.  Another form you could use is keeping your elbow tucked in to your side.  This forces you to use more of your triceps than any other muscles.

Another way you could change up your push-up form is by increasing and decreasing the high of your feet.  To increase the difficulty, you could place your feet on the chair or any steady object and begin the workout where your feet is leveled higher than your body.  This also could be done in was it makes your push-ups easier.  When you bend your knees and begin the work out by balancing your-self on your knees instead of your feet, push-up will be a lot easier because less force is on your arms.  Some calls this form “girl’s push-ups” but it just simply makes your push-ups a lot easier and when you first start off, everyone has to begin somewhere so I really don’t see why this is sex thing and maybe people might use this just for cardio for weight loss. Anyways I'll just leave that at that.

If you want something more intense, you don’t have to think push-up as only body weight workout.  You could intensify you work-out by putting weight on your back.  This could by anything from a person to something that would not fall off like weight plate.  But if you go with the something like weight plate I suggest you have someone hold it so it does not fall off just in case you hurt yourself or others somehow.

There are many fitness workouts that I think are great but push-ups have been around since the beginning and will continue to stay and that says a lot.  Moving forward I’ll be posting more about different workouts and how they work but, I wanted to start off with push-ups because I think this is one of the greatest workout so far.  Some may disagree but that’s just my opinion.  I hope you enjoyed this read so far so until next time. Cheers~