Spot Toning

When it comes to starting an exercise program, there are many factors that go into deciding what it is you are going to do. You need to consider if you are able to pay a monthly or yearly membership fee (if you are considering joining a gym). You have to decide if you want to buy your own exercise equipment for your home. You have to consider if you like to exercise around other people. And, most importantly, you have to find something that you like.

Regardless of all the other factors, if the exercise you pick is something you don’t like doing, you simply aren’t going to keep doing it for very long. For example, imagine you decided your exercise of choice was jogging, but you don’t actually like jogging. No matter how good your intentions, you aren’t going to keep getting up at 6 AM to go running regularly.

If you can’t find an exercise you enjoy, choose an exercise that you hate the least. In most cases, this will be walking.

There are many reasons why walking is a great exercise. It suits all levels of fitness. You can start a walking program at any time. You don’t need any special equipment to do it. And if you don’t like exercising alone, walking is a good social exercise. It usually isn’t difficult to find a friend or family member who is willing to join in with you and chat as you both exercise. Best of all, walking with a partner will make the time seem to go by much faster.

Walking is a great exercise, but it is still exercise. If you are in bad shape, you should start off slowly by walking just 10 minutes each day. As you slowly get fitter, you should increase the duration by 5 minutes every 2 weeks. And try to keep the walk more interesting by walking a different course every few days, just to give yourself a change in scenery. If you know several friends who want to get fit, you could create a changing roster between you so you’re walking with a different friend each day of the week.

Of course, walking isn’t for everyone. For a more controlled environment, you may want to try a fitness center. The are a huge range of exercise programs available, and they normally have trainers readily on hand to answer any questions you may have.

But before you join the first fitness center you find, make sure that they give good service to their members. A really simple test is to see how they treat you when you first arrive to look at their facilities - if they don’t treat you well before you join (when you’re a potential customer with money), then they certainly won’t treat you well after you join. Another thing you should check while you are looking around is to make sure the equipment they use is well maintained. This is really easy to tell - simply listen to the machines as they are being used. If they squeak a lot or they’re making a lot of noise, it’s likely that the fitness center isn’t looking after their equipment very well.

If you’re still not sure what form of exercise to do, consider golf or tennis. Tennis is great for improving your fitness, but it isn’t a sport for someone who hasn’t been doing any exercise for a long time. If you’re very unfit then golf may be the best activity for you.

In the end, no matter what exercise you decide on, to avoid the risk of injury you should start at a low level of intensity and build it up over a period of weeks. If you don’t, and start off too hard, you could end up with an injury. This will mean you need to take time off from exercising to heal, and undo all the good work you’ve already done.

The Star Tribune had an interesting story this week that has some great tips if your New Year resolution this year was to get fit and lose weight, and you were thinking about buying some fitness equipment that you saw advertised on TV. While the full article has all the details, their main points were:

• Read the fine print
• Estimate the total cost
• Don’t confuse toning with weight loss
• Consider do-it-yourself options
• Be leery of trials

Sounds like great advice to me!

If you ask someone about looking good for summer, it’s almost certain that the first thing they will mention is making their stomach flatter. Everyone wants to look their best at the time of year were it’s too hot to “hide” any imperfections, and almost everyone wants a flatter tummy. This usually leads to the question of how to obtain that flat stomach. And the obvious answer is stomach flattening exercises.

Luckily there are a large number of resources you can access that will give you the information you need on finding exercises to get rid of a large belly and flatten the stomach. The first source often used by many (and since you’re reading this, you used it too!) is the internet. Type any sort of phrase like “exercises that flatten the stomach” into your favorite search engine and you’ll find thousands of pages on this subject (including this site - be sure to check out “Stomach Exercises to Give You That Flat Stomach“).

While there are a huge number of free sites (some good, some bad) there are also a large number of paid-sites. For a fee (sometimes a once-off fee, sometimes a monthly fee) they will offer you a detailed workout routine (and often dietry information to go along with the routine). The advantage of such sites is they usually have more details than a free site - some even have videos you can watch, and/or will tailor the information they present to you based on answers you give to a questionnaire. But a paid site is not an option for everyone, and most people can easily get by with the free information available.

But remember that the internet isn’t the only place you can get information on exercises for flattening the stomach. If you have the time and money, a gym or fitness club may be the perfect solution for you. They have experts available to show you exactly what to do and to answer any questions you may have. They also have specialized fitness equipment available for you to use that allow you to work on specific muscle groups (for example, working on the abdominal group to tone your abs). But not everyone can afford the membership fees that gyms charge, and even if you can there is often some traveling involved to get to and from the gym - traveling which may take time you don’t have. And if you have children, finding someone to care for them while you are at the gym can be an additional inconvenience.

Despite all the advances of the internet, the library is still a great place to find information. Often overlooked, these days almost all libraries keep magazines, videos and DVDs in addition to their regular book collections. Occasionally some items can only be read/viewed in the library, but most materials can usually be borrowed and taken home. Not only don’t you have to buy the books, magazines or DVDs before you look at them, but libraries have a much larger range of material than you would be able to afford yourself. Best of all, you’re not out of pocket if the book or DVD you have borrowed turns out to be unsuitable for you. And if you find something that you really like, you can then buy just that product and know you aren’t wasting your money.

These aren’t the only places you can look at when looking for information on exercises that flatten the stomach, but hopefully they will give you a start. Try several different sources, and pick the one that works best for you. But not matter which one you pick, remember that you have to keep at the exercise for it to make any difference!

In spite of the increased awareness about the myriad of complications and illnesses that are caused by poor health, people these days still don’t really know much about proper fitness training. The ironic things is if more people knew its advantages, they could use it to motivate themselves into taking health and fitness more seriously.

You make feel that regular fitness training is a bit tedious, especially if you feel you simply don’t have the time. But once it becomes a habit, and not just something “new” that you’re doing, proper fitness training could well prove to be one of the best things you have done for yourself. What do you really have to lose?

Once you begin following a regular fitness training program, you may find the results impressive:

• You’ll have better health (lower risk of actually acquiring illnesses or diseases).
• You’ll be on your way towards having a slimmer body (acquired to natural and healthy means, no less!)
• You’ll have decreased body fat (weight and fat are not actually the same thing! Excess fat has a lot to do with your weight, but not vice versa).

However in the long run, the greater and seemingly more important benefits you will get from following your fitness training program include:
Good body image (which helps to boost your self-confidence and self-esteem)

• Improved sleeping patterns (insomnia and unsightly eye bags will be a thing of your unhealthy past)
• Better posture
• A happy disposition (you’re less likely to get cranky nor be depressed)
• You’ll feel more energetic and agile, ready to face life’s every day challenges head on.

Fitness training can also help your metabolism. As you probably know, our metabolism slows down as we get older, making us more prone to unwanted weight gain (which in turn contributes towards all sorts of diseases like stoke, diabetes and cancer). But daily exercise of around 30 minutes a day (even if its just 4 days a week) can help speed up your metabolism. You should also look to cut down on foods like chocolate, fast-food takeouts and the like.

Not surprisingly, the workout you do in your fitness training will also help strengthen your body, both in its capabilities as well as its endurance.

Fitness training doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need is the right knowledge when it comes anything related to fitness, health and fitness training. Buy or borrow several books that tackle these topics, invest in a few fitness magazines, and arm yourself with even more health and fitness training information through the internet (this site is a great place to start!). The road towards proper fitness training won’t be as difficult as you may think it will be. But you will need some patience and discipline if you want to that big leap towards a healthy lifestyle change.

With some work every other day, the following exercises will begin to get you results as early as only a few weeks. Before you begin, make sure you start off with gentle stretching exercises for about 5 minutes (you don’t need to use any weights at this stage) - reaching up to the sky, pulling one arm at a time completely over to the other side,  reaching backwards behind you, bending to touch your toes, etc.

Once you have warmed up, you can begin using weights for resistance training. You don’t need to purchase any special kinds of weights - simply using cans of soda, water bottles, canned food or anything else that you can grasp comfortably but firmly will do. The weight range of whatever you use should be around 1lb-10lb. Make sure that you pick weights that are somewhat challenging but not so heavy that they force you to struggle.

With your weights, perform 10-12 repetitions (reps) of the following exercises. The overall workout should last around 8-10 minutes.

Exercise A - Chest & Shoulder Lifts

Lie on your back. With the weights in your hands facing upwards, your arms stretched out to your sides. Bend your elbows a little and lift your arms up over your chest, until hands almost come in contact with each other. Go back to the beginning position. Repeat.

Exercise B - Chest and Shoulder Half Circles

Lie on your back. With the weights in your hands facing upwards, stretch your arms up over your head. Stop & hold briefly. Then take them from above your head down to your hips in a half circle motion, going by your sides. Stop & hold briefly. Take the weights back to the beginning position. Repeat.

Exercise C - Chest and Back Support

With your legs straight out in front of you, sit with good posture, your back straight and supported against a couch, wall or chair. Start by holding the weights at your chest, elbows out parallel with the your legs. Push the weights out straight in front of you. Next, pull them back. Repeat.

Exercise D - Shoulder and Upper Arm Raises

With your feet shoulder width apart, stand. Raise your arms straight up over your head with the weights in hand, and turn your palms so they are facing behind you. Gently lower your arms forward and downward at the same time, without bending or locking at the elbows. Stop at shoulder-level. Return to the starting position. Repeat.

Exercise E - Back and Shoulders “Tensers”

With your feet shoulder width apart, stand. Lower your arms to your sides. Hold the weights with your hands facing outwards. Slowly tense your shoulder and upper back muscles (up and down motion). Repeat.

Exercise F - Arms, Back and Shoulders Chin-Ups

With feet spaced a little apart, stand up. Hold the weights with your arms straight down in front of you (the weights should just about touch). With your elbows bent, bring the weights towards your chin as your elbows go out to the sides. Take the weights back out to beginning position. Repeat.

Exercise G - Arms, Back and Shoulders Bends

With your feet a little apart, stand up. Hold the weights palm-side out, bending over like you’re touching your toes. Then without rising, bring your arms out to your sides, parallel with the floor. Remember when keeping the elbows straight not to lock them. Gently ease back into the beginning position. Repeat.

Exercise H - Arms and Chest Push-Ups

With knees and toes on the floor, place your palms on the floor, hands should-width apart. Do old-fashioned push-ups, making sure to keep your back straight and never reaching all the way down to the floor so you come in contact with it.

Exercise I - Arm Curls

Sit with your back straight and supported. With your arms hanging down by your sides, hold the weights with your palms facing out or up. Gently curl your arms up towards shoulders. Uncurl. Note: be sure to keep your back straight, and don’t move the rest of your body - just the arms. Repeat.

Exercise J - Forearm Tilts

Sit or stand. With the weights in hand, work one arm at a time: Reach out with your arm straight ahead, but not locking the elbow. When your arm is out at its farthest point, stop. Move your wrist up and down a few times while holding the weight. Stop. Switch palm side so that you work out both upward and downward (over and under) wrist motions. Return to the starting position. Work the other arm / wrist in same manner.

As with all exercise, one of the most difficult parts of this workout is a common problem many face: staying motivated. Tips that can help you to stay motivated include using different weights from time to time, varying your routine, changing the intensify of your workout, doing your workout in a different location, doing your workout to music, rewarding yourself afterwards with something healthy like your favorite beverage, and journaling to regularly monitor your progress and record how great you feel after each session.