It is inevitable to despise exercise though there are few who like to sweat and to workout a lot. The idea of exercising seems to be an obligation and a task which we oftentimes try to resist.

We continue to cultivate this notion in our mind. Perhaps one of the reason to blame is we are doing exercises which make us unhappy. Hence, exercising becomes a daunting task to perform.

If you are starting your journey towards fitness, it is recommended to read the article in BBC Health entitled “Finding the right exercise”. Find exercise activities that make you happy because this will help you to continue exercising with gusto.

Check the list of activities and sports mentioned in the article, to find exciting and encouraging workout activities.

There are occasions in which you feel that you are no longer losing any weight despite of rigid workouts and strict diet. Perhaps you already reach the stage of diet plateau. It means your body doesn’t effectively respond to your diet or exercise routines.

Tina Haupert in Health.com has some recommendations on how to break this not-so encouraging stage. In her article “How Weight-Lifting Classes Help Beat a Diet Plateau”, she narrates how the strength training helped her break the plateau phase of her diet.

She also mentioned four reasons as why strength training is beneficial to you. So before you lose hope for not losing any weight, maybe you want to read first the “How Weight-Lifting Classes Help Beat a Diet Plateau”.

Let’s face it. Staying fit and on track with our exercise routines is really a challenge. Oftentimes we are confronted with excuses not to workout. If you are trapped in the same predicament, then the  article of  Sara Eckel in New York Times entitled “A Good Excuse to Stay Home From the Gym” can be a heaven-sent solution to you.

Now there is a growing trend of contracting a personal trainer who comes to your home.  It is seen as one of the best option to keep up with your fitness goal. There is no need for you to carry your gym bag and drive to the fitness gym. With these arrangement, you have no option but to workout because the personal trainer visits you at home as per the agreed schedule. If you have an inclination to junk your exercise routines, then this is an ideal choice for you. Read more…

Who doesn’t know hula-hoop? Lately this classic child’s play is earning its popularity in the arena of fitness. In the article of Sean d. Hamill in New York Times “Hooping Already Has Its Own Jane Fonda”, it brings hula-hoop to light as a tool which can be used as a workout routine.

This is a perfect alternative to add fun to your fitness routine. Running in the treadmill or working out in the gym can be really boring but hula-hoop can bring out your child’s fun memories.

More so, it is easy and can be done anywhere and anytime. It is also great activity to do with your children.

Sometimes you need to find a kind of workout that is entertaining to help you keep going. So in this matter, you can start hula-hooping. What a fun way to lose weight!

Read the full article ‘Hooping Already Has Its Own Jane Fonda’ from NYTimes.com

There is an interesting article in New York Times entitled “Never Too Cool for a Hard Workout” which was written by John Branch. It features numerous athletes for ice sports such as snowboarding.

We always have assumption that exercise is not needed for sports. Anyhow it is already physically demanding activities which utilize your energy and improve your fitness level. However oftentimes we forgot the importance of conditioning our body to give optimum performance in any sports.

Regular exercise conditions your body muscles and enhances your stamina. If you are playing sports for leisure, then it is still best to exercise. Do not underestimate the benefits of exercise to your body. It avoids injuries and improves your sports performance.

Similar reasons are cited by the athletes in the article ‘Never Too Cool for a Hard Workout‘.  To read the full article, click it here.

The equation for weight loss is simple. Eat less and exercise more. Though as simple as it seems, it is difficult to keep your weight from escalating. You can consume the same amount of food however engaging yourself to move can help you shed extra pounds faster.

The article “Motivation to Move” of Joan Westlake is very helpful to encourage you to keep on moving. The motivations are very practical but oftentimes taken for granted. Reading this motivational list regularly can boost (no doubt about it) your desire to exercise more.

If you are falling off from your track, try to read the article “Motivation to Move”. It will definitely ignite your commitment to lose weight and to continue exercising. So fortify your will power by remembering these motivations and you will certainly not hesitate to engage yourself to move.

Word of advice. Print it off and post it in a place where you see it every day. Make it a habit to read it on daily basis to reinforce your motivation to exercise.

Read the full article ‘Motivation to Move’ from HealthKey.com.

Sometimes you may ponder what happen now to your washboard abs. Though you maintain the same set of abs exercise, the fat belly is still there. Then you try harder to have the same abs as you had five years ago.

As Alyssa Shaffer mentioned in her article ‘Flat-Belly Shortcuts’, you have to maintain workouts and to start learning how to eat smartly because burning the fats around your belly is difficult as you age. Shaffer has suggested the best exercise and nutrition for faster result of flattening your belly.

The first she mentioned is the walking exercise. If you have been doing it, then continue however you need to speed up your pace. Increasing your speed means burning 25% more calories. The crunch is already known for defining
your abs but try to crunch with the ball for best result.

Like any exercise program that is tailored for losing weight, cardiovascular exercise and strength training are best for your body. You convert the fats in your body to muscles which is good because the more muscle you have, the
higher is the consumption of calories for energy.

As for the food, the nuts, whole grains and proteins are proven to be flat-belly friendly food.

Shaffer has indeed made excellent recommendations on how to flatten your belly faster.

Read the full article, ‘Flat-Belly Shortcuts‘ from MSN Health and Fitness.

Fitness Editorial Credits to Alyssa Shaffer, Prevention.com.

by Julie Brealy

Do you workout everyday in a confined air-conditioned room and stare at the same wall every time you run in the treadmill? Sometimes the gym can be suffocating especially during the peak hours. You are lucky if your time is flexible because you can hit the gym anytime of the day.

However, if you are one of those unlucky who can workout only in the gym after office hours, then perhaps you may want to consider other options for fitness. Why not step out from a typical crowded fitness gym and hit the neighbouring park to get fit?

Here are the top five benefits why you should consider outdoor exercise for your fitness.

The Unrivaled Benefits of Sunlight. Nowadays our work and lifestyle has driven us to spend more time indoor. More so, there is the news, researches and stories about over exposure to sun can lead to skin cancer.

These are few reasons that propel us to take for granted the benefits of sunlight. However, proper exposure to natural sunlight is good for our health and well-being. It has a significant effect in our bones because sunlight makes our bones denser. The Vitamin D that we get from the natural sunlight helps the process of calcifying our bones.

Also, skin exposure to sunlight boosts our immune system and it makes the healing process of cuts, bruises and rashes faster because it transports more blood to the skin surface.

Indeed exposure to sunlight is vital to our body and for these reasons; its benefits cannot be underrated.

Fresh Air for Cleaner Lungs. Most of us know that fresh air is good for our health but have you asked why?

You stayed for few hours in the bar last night or you occasionally spray air fresheners at home. We also regularly inhale dust that is swirling unnoticed around us. All these impurities are breathed in through our nose and mouth, and because our respiratory system is like a sponge, it absorbs all the impurities.

However, with fresh air it cleanses our lungs because it brings more oxygen to our body. The more oxygen we have in the body, the better it is because it boosts up our energy level and it significantly clears our brain.

If you want to be on top of your performance always, physical and mentally, step out and get a fresh air. The easiest way to achieve this is to carry out a regular outdoor exercise.

A moment to Appreciate Mother Nature. Let us face it. We run in the treadmill everyday and looking at the same wall for an hour or two. Or you can deceive yourself and install a nature theme TV screen but still, nothing can replace the real beauty of nature - the vast blue sky, the greenery landscape and the woods.

These beautiful sceneries are soothing not only to our eyes but to our total well-being. Exercising outdoor is invigorating and revitalizing experience.

Fun & Adventure. How many of us quit the gym because of boredom because we do the same routine every day?

There are great outdoor workouts that you can choose and it ranges from jogging, hiking, swimming, cycling, gardening, skiing, skateboarding and so on.

Opportunity to Develop New Skills or Hobby. You cannot certainly be extremely good in all various sports but you can definitely try and continue practicing until you become good at it. This process can lead you to discovering an untapped potential to excel at certain outdoor sports or exercise that you never consider before being good at.

It is a good occasion to learn, explore and nurture new skills or hobby.

These top five benefits of outdoor exercise cannot be taken for granted. It is the best way to keep a healthy lifestyle and improve your fitness level. Though another option you can consider is fitness boot camp wherein you will have the proper guidance from certified fitness experts and nutritionists. Boot camps offer varied outdoor activities and exercises.

Julie Brealy is the health manager at FitFarms, UK’s No. 1 Weight Loss Holiday and Fitness Boot Camp. She has been working for over 10 years in the weight loss industry advising companies in the US and the UK. Julie is also an experienced deep tissue massage therapist.

Article Source:  http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julie_Brealy

There is an interesting article in New York Times entitled ‘Train the Mind to Run Right Through Winter’ written by Gina Kolata.  She cited how other people’s exercise routines are affected with the weather. During winter and fall people tend to quit their exercise routines compared in the summer season.

How many of us are guilty of this? It can be a good excuse to escape our exercise regime, right? However, the article conveys a message that we should carry our exercise regardless of the weather.

It means exercising against all odds. Exercising despite of the weather condition is a matter of commitment to our fitness goal. A one-day-slip from our exercise routine can turn to two days or more until we realize that we eventually lost track of our fitness goal.

It may not be easy to run in a chilling weather but a proper conditioning of the mind will greatly help. To be a seasoned runner or biker, one has to run or bike in any season. Weather condition should not beat your determination to keep up in your fitness goal.

Read the full article, ‘Train the Mind to Run Right Through Winter‘ from NYTimes.com - Fitness and Nutrition.

The article ‘Keep Your Indoors Workouts Interesting’ written by Matt Fitzgerald gives us an insightful ways to maximize the result of our indoor workouts using the five popular gym equipments.

It is based on the concept of Chris Carmichael, founder of Carmichael Training Systems, and coach to Lance Armstrong. According to him, “by decreasing the duration and varying the intensity of your exercise sessions, you’ll get better results in less time”.

The article offers guidelines on how to effectively use the elliptical trainer, the rower, the stair climber, the stationary bike and the treadmill while allocating 20 minutes for each equipment.

This is a great idea to resolve the routine workout in the fitness gym that results to boredom. Instead of doing 3-4 hours workout, you can do it in one hour and forty minutes with the same result by following the guidelines in ‘Keep Your Indoors Workouts Interesting’.

It is no doubt that walking daily for one hour in the treadmill is boring. So why not make a twist in your regular gym workout and rake the optimum benefits in less time.

Before you hit the gym tomorrow, make sure to read first the full article of  ‘Keep Your Indoors Workouts Interesting’ from MSN Health and Fitness. Health article provided by Men’s Health.