Aerobic And Yoga Can Maintain A Healthy Body

As the number of people being over-weight has risen due to many reasons such as bad eating habits or lack of exercise, more and more companies are seeking to offer quick fix solutions to the marketplace. We see a lot of attractive advertisements for weight loss pills, surgeries and fad diets every day.

However, many people fail to realize that although these methods help, such methods should only be part of their weight loss efforts. Losing weight successfully and maintaining a healthy body definitely requires exercises. And among the many types of exercises, aerobic exercises are among the most recommended by fitness instructors. Not only will these exercises help you lose weight, they will allow you to stay healthy and feel energized as well.

Aerobic exercises will help you lose unwanted fats and keep your body healthy and energized through increasing your intake of oxygen. Aerobic exercises have three basic parts – the warm up, intense exercise and cooling down. The warm-up part involves stretching to prepare the muscles for the strenuous activity that will follow. The last part of the routine is the cooling down to relax your muscles.

Among the many activities that promote physical fitness, aerobic exercises are the most appreciated and recommended by fitness instructors. Aerobic exercises offer many benefits. They help increase the circulation of the blood and oxygen in our body. They tone those muscles and help you get rid of unwanted fats. And the best thing about aerobic exercises is that you can do such exercises in the comfort of your home. Just wear light clothes and a good pair of comfortable shoes and play up-beat music and you can start doing the drills.

Fitness experts recommend that aerobic exercises be done at a moderate rate. They also recommend the following aerobics exercises:

• Dance Aerobics- It is a combination of graceful dance routines and rhythmic aerobic steps. It strengthens and tightens your muscles and at the same time helps you lose excess body fat. It is considered as one of the easiest aerobic exercises that can be enjoyed by people from all ages. Since dance aerobics can include intense jumping, you may want to do warm up exercises for 15 minutes or so before dance aerobics. Variations in your dance steps as well as your routines make this exercise more fun.

• Running- It is one of the best forms of exercise because it helps burn fat fast. It helps in increasing oxygen intake and thus, increases blood circulation. If you haven’t done running exercises before, begin with jogging a few rounds in the first few days. And once your body has adjusted, start running a few lapses. Make sure that you are wearing running shoes that fit perfectly to avoid any leg injuries.

• Stair climbing- It allows you to develop the muscles in the lower part of your body, including the hamstrings, calf and hip flexors. For this exercise, you can make use of machines, such as the Stairmaster 4000 PT, the ClimbMax or the Versa Climber, if you do not have the regular stairs. Try to keep your balance with the right posture and as much as possible, avoid using the handrails.

All these aerobic exercises will help keep your body healthy and in good shape. Such exercises also keep your weight in check and make you feel energized every day.

Shannen Lee has been a freelance writer for the last 3 years. Check out her latest writing here on the bronze shower head website, where you can read her review of the best Danze shower heads.

Heart rate is a much discussed aspect of cardio vascular training, weight loss and fitness. I get a lot of questions about it as it pertains to fitness and weight loss. The questions covered here are some of the ones I hear frequently on the topic.

What is resting heart rate? Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you art at rest. As you become more fit, your resting heart rate will decrease. This is because a fit, healthy heart is strong and more efficient. Therefore it needs fewer beats to circulate the blood. A good number for this would be in the 70’s. Athletes others who are very fit can get it even lower.

What is max heart rate? This is the maximum beats per minute your heart is capable of beating. You can go to your doctor and request a stress test. This is a test in which they hook you up to various monitors and have you get your working harder by doing something that will put load on your cardio vascular system such as walking on a treadmill. Speed and/or incline are increase until you cannot continue. When calculating this number for an exercise program use the rule of thumb calculation: 220 – (your age) = (your maximum heart rate)

What is target heart rate? This is the range in which you want to get your beats per minute in order to increase cardio vascular fitness, burn calories and burn fat. For most fitness programs, target heart rate is the range between 60% and 80% of your max heart rate. Just multiply your maximum heart rate by.6 for the low end of the range and.8 for the high end.

What is interval training? Interval training is purposefully varying your heart beats per minute during a cardio session by varying the intensity, and therefore the level of exertion, at which you work. A sample interval training workout might go something like: 5 minute warm-up, 2 minutes moderate intensity, 30 seconds high intensity, repeat moderate and high intensity interval combination 10 times, cool down for 5 to 10 minutes. There are dozens of possible variations on this but, that is the basic idea. Interval training is a great way to burn more calories and fat and increase cardio vascular fitness more quickly than steady state cardio.

What is steady state cardio? Steady state is just like it sounds. You go at a fairly even pace throughout the duration of your cardio session. Steady state training is a good way to burn fat and calories and good to throw into the mix for a well rounded cardio program.

What is the RPE scale? RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. The RPE scale describes how you should be feeling at each level of exertion on the scale. The scale will either run from 6 to 20 or 0 to 10. Either way, the lower numbers represent less exertion with exertion levels increasing as the numbers increase on the scale. This is a method of determining your approximate the rate at which your heart is beating by assessing, based on some subjective guidelines, how hard you are working. It can be a good method to know if you do not have a heart rate monitor.

Certainly there is plenty more to know about heart rate and cardio vascular fitness but, these are some of the basics to help get you started.

Laura Lawson is a certified personal trainer who is dedicated to helping people to improve their quality of life through fitness. In addition to individual and small group personal training sessions she offers convenient and cost effective online training programs. Please visit http://www.besteverfitness.com to learn more.

If you’re an indoor cycling class participant, or maybe just getting back into a fitness groove, you may hear some new terminology being bantered around in your classes. The term is rate of perceived exertion, and it is a great way to measure your effort and activity level. Let’s examine how and why it works…

What Is Rate Of Perceived Exertion (RPE)

For years, fitness instructors and participants have struggled to come up with a relatively uniform method of measuring effort level. For example, when an instructor in your class tells you to work harder, what exactly does that mean? How can “harder” be measured? In truth, it really can’t. Further, each of us has different capacities for fitness. You may be able to run comfortably at seven miles per hour, while I struggle mightily to maintain a six mph pace. Conversely, what might be an intense workout for me may be the proverbial walk in the park for you.

To more or less even the playing field, the concept of rate of perceived exertion was introduced. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is used to gauge or measure how hard you’re working during a cardio workout. RPE is based on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the hardest. Your instructor will indicate a number, which you will translate to your own intensity level. The best way to measure your intensity level is your ability to chat with your neighbor during the workout. Here are explanations for each of the levels:

RPE 1-3: This is typically your warm up phase and the tail end of your cool down. You can converse very easily with no effort at all.

RPE 4: At this level, you are sufficiently warmed up but you can still converse with practically no effort.

RPE 5: You are beyond the warm up stage and into the actual work of your routine or class. You can still converse quite easily with only a small amount of effort.

RPE 6: This is the moderate level. You can talk but it requires some effort.

RPE 7: At this level, your effort level is getting more intense. You are able to converse but it requires quite a bit of effort.

RPE 8: The work is now difficult and conversation requires maximum effort.

RPE 9: Now you’re only able to get out one or two words at a time.

RPE 10: This is your absolute peak effort and your entire energy level is focused on the workout. Breathing is heavy and there’s no thought of talking.

RPE is most commonly used in indoor cycling classes, although it is also appropriate for treadmill classes. You will find that some instructors use a scale of one to five for RPE, basically sandwiching the levels together. But since our brains are trained to think on a scale of one to ten, this terminology is more common.

Understanding RPE is important because it allows you to tailor your workout according to your fitness level and individual capabilities. An instructor can’t tell participants to peddle or run at a specific speed because it may well be beyond the skill set of some students.

Rate of perceived exertion provides everyone a more standardized measurement of intensity level, similar to mile posts in a distance run. When you monitor your effort level with RPE, you are more likely to have enough left in the tank for the really difficult segments of your workout. Try to use the concept of RPE in your next group fitness class. You’ll notice a positive difference in your workouts!

Understanding rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is just one way to help you get the most from your cycling classes. If you liked this tip, we’ve got lots more for you! Visit us today at: http://www.indoorcyclingmarketplace.com