Learn how to
Exercise Safely
Anytime you exercise,
your brain releases chemicals known as endorphins that produce a
feeling of euphoria, which is known as "runners high". This
feeling of wellness and power is very easy to become chemically
addicted to and can be just as powerful as the addiction produced by
other powerful drugs.
When you go some time without this "rush", you may feel irritable and
out of it until you exercise again. As a result of this, some
people go on exercising and do not listen to what their body is
actually telling them - which is to stop. Knowing how to
exercise safely includes knowing when it is time to take a break.
The main reason exercise addicts will continue to push themselves lies
in what they feel will happen when they don't work out.
Normally when they are unable to exercise, they will commonly display
signs of depression, anxiety, confusion, and be less happy with
themselves and life in general.
Heed Aches
and Pains
Over exercising doesn't only affect the mind, but the body as
well. Exercise will initially do what it is intended to do,
which is give you a fit body and even a contented mind, but once you
cross the line, negative results can be drastic. Muscle damage,
osteoarthritis, and heart problems will all be waiting in the wings if
you continue to overdo it. The body has limits and if you
push beyond that limit, you'll do nothing but harm yourself.
Someone who truly knows how to exercise safely is going to learn to
heed the messages sent them by their body.
Don't Get
Alarmed
Please understand that while there are some people who will push
themselves beyond reasonable limits over and over, most of us will at
least have sense enough to quit when we feel pain. However,
be careful of those who preach "no pain, no gain". That might
be a tactic for those hoping to compete professionally in some sport,
but it is a dangerous practice for those of us simply wanting to be
healthy and physically fit.
Still, be careful, because pain is intended by nature to be a signal
that something is wrong. It is normal, particularly if you
are new at an exercise or sport, to experience that sore, achy feeling
for the next couple of days. However, if the pain continues
over a long period or is exceptionally intense, at the very least,
knock off for a couple of days and let things heal. Better
yet, check it out with your doctor if you are the least bit unsure.
Obsessive
Exercise
Obsessive exercise tends to happen more often among those who are new
to exercise. This is especially true if their motivation is
extremely high, or if they begin experiencing results that please them
greatly. For example, someone wanting to lose weight may
figure that if one mile is good, two miles must be better.
This is fine if you have trained up to the point where you can do this,
however, trying to do too much too soon can be downright
dangerous. One of the most important points of learning how
to exercise safely is exercising patience and understanding that the
health benefits of exercise take time to truly make themselves known
Results are
Not Always on the Surface
Always remember that for every visible sign of the effects of exercise,
there are an untold number of changes occurring within your
body. These changes are generally completely invisible but
ignoring their existence can lead to permanent damage. When
you first begin a jogging exercise program, for example, the supporting
tissues around the joints must be given time to strengthen, the heart
and lungs will be asked to make changes in terms of performance and
makeup, new blood vessels will be built gradually over time, and muscle
tissue will be damaged during exercise, and will have to be repaired
between sessions. At first, your body's systems, if you are
not already physically fit, will have to adjust themselves to
accommodate this new way of life.
Signs of
Over-Exercising
One of the initial signs of too much exercise is commonly good
old-fashioned exhaustion, which can lead to a build up of
fatigue. Keep in mind, while this is normal and will
eventually become less of a problem as you become more physically fit,
it isn't only the muscles that are at risk, but the bones as
well. Many people who exercise push themselves to the point
of injuries such as shin splints or even stress fractures, then they
refuse to rest, which causes greater and sometimes even permanent
damage. This is obviously not how to exercise safely.
Even a brisk walk in the morning doesn't come without some
risk. Walking is an excellent exercise, but walking too much,
for example, can lead to its own aches and pains and may aggravate some
conditions, such as osteoarthritis. When you walk, you are
working against gravity. Even though you are exercising your
muscles, you are also possibly harming your knee joints as well, so
discuss you plans and your exercise program with your doctor.
Again, what you can do when you have trained up to a certain point will
normally exceed what you can do at the beginning of an exercise program
by a large margin.
Many people who walk for an hour or more everyday and end up with
complaints of aches in the knees. The fact is,
Walking and jogging can harm the knees, just as too many sit-ups, or
too much weight lifting can hurt other areas as well. With
any type of exercise, unless you are training for competition, and you
should have a professional coach for that, moderation is the key if you
want to learn how to exercise safely.
Get a
Professional
In fact, if you do not intend to actually study the effects of exercise
and acquire a broad base of knowledge, your best bet might be to get a
professional trainer to help you learn how to exercise safely.
With or without a personal trainer, you should always start off
gradually, and combine several different types of workouts, which is
one thing that obsessive exercisers forget to do. One of the
worst factors complicating the possible harm to people who get addicted
to exercise is that they commonly tend to perform the same workout, or
type of workout, each and every day. Without varying the
workouts somewhat, the exerciser further increases the risk of
permanent damage.
Types of
Exercise
Just a quick aside on this point. Not only should you
consider varying your workout a bit to get a broader range of health
benefits from exercise, bear in mind that different types of exercises
have different health benefits for the body. Resistance
training builds strength, for example, while cardiovascular exercises
(cardio) tend to build what used to be referred to as "stamina" and are
more effective for improving the health of the heart and lungs and
their related organs. Any program should always include
flexibility exercises as well, and no workout should begin with a
warm-up.
While professionals might do so, you should never work out to the point
where you feel completely exhausted once you have finished.
As a rule of thumb, your limit with exercise should be 45 minutes to an
hour, four or five days a week. When you are finished, your
workout should leave you feeling fresh and energetic. Every
week should make it a point to take a day or two as a break - as your
body will need to relax and rejuvenate.
This sort of thing will depend on the type of exercise being done, the
intensity at which you are exercising, your present state of physical
fitness, and other factors as well. Different types of
exercises sometimes need different rest periods. You can
probably walk almost every day for example, but you should definitely
give a muscle a rest at least one day before exercising it again in a
resistance training program, and give it a couple of days off in a row
every week. It is during these rest periods where actual
muscle growth and fitness improvement occurs as the body repairs all
damages a little bit better than they were before and upgrades systems
to deal with the next onslaught.
The key to achieving a safe and healthy exercise program lies
completely in your hands. Exercising is the way to a healthy
life. If you do it only to please yourself today, rather than
working towards the future, you'll defeat the entire purpose when you
stand there signing in at the doctor's office the next day.
If you start slow and take things one day at a time and don't overdo
it, you'll be well on your way to a healthy body. Exercising
can be a lot of fun and a great way to relax as well, if you don't rush
it. Start gently and gradually work your way up to higher
levels of exertion. Keep learning as you go, and before you
know it, you'll know how to prevent injuries before they happen and
you'll know exactly what you need to do to remain healthy and will be
advising others who need to learn how to exercise safely.
Want to know more on a subject related to this one? Click here
for an in-depth article on performance nutrition.
While I do not normally recommend diets themselves, healthy eating is
important to any health, fitness, or weight loss program. Click Here
to learn more about Diet To Go
meals.
P. S. If you want to learn more about why Diets Don't Work,
please click here.
If you want to learn how to burn fat, a great book to read is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom
Venuto
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