The most key factors to remember about working out to lose body fat and tone the muscles is;
- warming up and stretching properly before exercising (specially for long intense workouts)
- workout environment and motivational music and thoughts
-cooling down.
- a well balanced or intense (dangerous) diet
Also remember that what works for others may not work for you, everybody's is different, performs differently.
Okay so lets start off with warming up and stretching:
- Warming up & Stretching -
Never forget to warm up your muscles by stretching before starting your toning routines. Ideally, warm up exercises should last 5 – 8 minutes. Remember to target the muscle groups that will be toned. Warm up exercises are beneficial because they help the body in increasing blood circulation and provide more nutrients to the muscles that will be exercised. So focus on the body parts you tend to tone more during your warm up and stretching but not to neglect the rest of your body.
Stretching should start from the head and work down to the toes. Some ppl prefer to only stretch the parts that going to be worked out but your body is one whole machine and again to neglect other parts that are linked can cause stiffness and and uncomfortable training which will only lead to poor health. No point in looking good on the outside if your dead on the inside.
- Workout Environment, Motivational Music and Mental state
Everyone knows or should know the importance of a good workout environment. A lot of people prefer going to the gym and others feel uncomfortable going to the gym. For myself i don't mind going to the gym but find home workouts more effective specially if you got all the equpiment you need. If anyone wants to know the best basic stuff to have at home for a good work out which doesnt even cost that much just let me know and il post items up.
When focusing on body toning and weight lost there are so many execerises and techniques that can be done at home or outside the gym. The main benefits from the gym would be, its easier find training partner, suana, swimming pool and the theory of the crowd mentally - following the crowd, seeing others train hard tends make you train hard too - The gym isnt a bad place but its not essential and plus if you save money and money the workout items you need then you'll save money having your own items you can use as much as you want and not having pay subscription fee. Never feel that you have to join the gym to workout and keep fit as many people fool themselfs into believing or use as excuse not to workout in the mornings or in the evening or whenever your able too. Just becuase you cant make it to the gym or go gym doesnt mean you cant workout and keep fit.
Motivational music is a big help becuase music stimulates the mind and keeps you active by making your body to want to move. Finding songs and creating a playlist will really help. When your in a good mind set and your doing a cardio workout and you hear that song that sturs you on you'll increase your rate and keep it constant. If that constant stays for the duration of the song, you've potental lost more weigh becuase of it. Mental state is important, theres so many different types of mental states that can help with a good workout, for me i personally use negative reinforcement. No no i don't hate my body and think why cant i be better i have to train harder. Don't get me wrong for some people that actually works for them but for most people it dont specially if you have low self of stim.
My negative reforcement focuses on memories that hurt me and make me feel bad to my core and i use this fuel me to run. You can't run from this type of pain but yet it makes you wanna run and with no where to go you'll just keep going till you burn out. For me thats when i can't go no more. However i set myself a timer which knocks me out of that state. The psychology behind mental state that helps motivate you is so improtant becuase really its that state of being that actually makes you workout. So this topic im going to branch alot onto but keeping in mind its alot to handle and sometimes just keeping it simple for most is best. But if you always fall out of working out and you wish you can focus better and workout then let me know and il be more then happy enough to find a good mental state for working out for yourself. No one knows yourself as good as you do but ive actually followed studies and done few classes in the past. Also being very observant i can recommand a few things but it will invovle me asking quite few personal questions. There actually questionnarie which il try find again that if you answer the qestions based on it, it will describe what kind of mental states is good for you to stay driven and focus.
Motivation and mental state is the most improtant part of workout to me. You can know everything you need to do but doing it specially if it comes repetitive will make you lose focus. soon as that happens you stop training properly or workout less and then stop. So please everyone take this section seriously
- Cooling Down -
End of workout with cool down exercises. This should last between 5–10 minutes. This is enough time to lower the heart rate. Cooling down reduces the risk of injury and muscle soreness caused by intense work out. Cool down exercises should include 5 minute cardio exercises (etc, walking and stationary biking) and 5 minute focused, slow stretching.
***I tend to do a few breathing and stretching techniques (Qi Gong - if ppl are interested in knowing more about or learning some Qi Gong exercises just let me know) which is really good and powerful, helps with inner body stretching***
- a well balanced or intense (dangerous) diet
There are so many different diets out there but the truth of the matter is if you workout alot then treating yourself to little bits here and there wont do that much harm. Workout hard, play hard. My own personal diet now consist of white meat; specifically chicken and fish, fruit and veg, alot of meat has fat and red meat is great for building fat that can be turned into muscle mass. I'm not looking to get any bigger and if thats the same for you out there then information here and more to come will benefit you more.
Weight lost will involve alot of cardio so building a diet around cardio building would be best. When i stated intense diets and how its dangerous is extreme diets such as only water during the day monday to friday and then low carb meal on the weekends. Now this mixed with working out during the week is extremely hard n damagering to the build, not many can do this type of training all in one. Many people just do the diet plan becuase they dont have the energy to workout or dont want to workout. Yes you'll lose fat becuase your body is eating it away but soon as you stop that diet you'll put the weight back on extremely fast and thats why deit plans rarely work because soon as you got your body looking the way you want you stop your diet.
Everyone you can have nice balanced diet, a nice teasty meal which is health, workout and maintain this for most of your life. Keeping fitting and looking good is a lifestlye and you can be half assed about it.
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When i have time during this week il be posting up routines and helpful tips and training execisers for all that do work for anyone who may be interested ^^ but i hope based on the information here that it incourages ppl to start working-out, workout more or to think about how they workout and how it can be improved. I know in alot of my sections i mention alot about posting more info on cetrain items such as dieting and cooling down techniques which i will.
Now here are some links with helpful execerises, there are even video clips of the excericse further down as well. As i said before il post up exercises i do myself which are good for men and women so just keep an eye out.
http://www.fuelthemind.com/health/fitness/Body_toning_women.html
http://www.nowloss.com/body-sculpting-workouts-for-men-to-build-muscle.htm
http://www.weightloss-hq.biz/exercise-reviews/how-to-get-a-toned-body.html
