What Qualifies as Exercise? Part 1

You may be thinking that you have to go to a gym and work out on the machines, or do an exercise class to get “qualified” exercise. That is certainly one way, but just as certainly not the only way.

You can get your workouts at home and save some money – first in the club sign-up fee and monthly dues, then in driving costs, and in that perhaps most precious of all commodities, time.

Dumbbells are cheap and easily found at Walmart, Target, sports stores – even garage sales.

How to know what to do with your dumbells, or what routine to do at home? There is a plethora of dvds and videos available, made by incredible fitness gurus.

Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser tv series has great dvd’s, and there are many others that you can check out at Amazon.com. Read the reviews to see if a certain workout will be a good match for you.

Garage sales are again a great source, as are Amazon, eBay, overstock.com, half.com, craigslist, etc. Utube has free videos of workouts online, and of course many magazines have exercises in some of their articles.

So, if you are disciplined you can get a full workout at home, suited to your schedule and your personal preferences.

But, consider this: Walking in your neighborhood is free and one of the very best exercises you can do. Take your dog for a walk if you’re not already, even if he or she is older and can’t go as fast or as far as you would go by yourself. It’s healthy for her, too.

More on this next time…..

In the meantime, go take a walk! :-)

Exercise - It Does a Body Good! Part 1

Exercise - It Does a Body Good! Part 1

Exercise.

When you hear that word, do you cringe? It is either something you love or you hate.

Some of us will go to practically any length to avoid it, and some of us (including this author!) actually look forward to their workouts.

Regardless of where we stand on the subject, it is a fact of life that our bodies were made to exercise, and if we do not, we suffer the consequences in the form of premature aging, aches and pains, and actual disease.

Let’s talk about some of the benefits of exercise.

When we exercise, impurities leave our bodies through our skin. It is one of the body’s methods of detoxifying, a term you hear quite often these days.

We look and feel younger (and who doesn’t want that?), our skin is healthier, it becomes easier to do physical tasks, our heart and lungs are strengthened, we get improved circulation, improved quality of sleep, weight loss (along with diet) - we are healthier in every way!

There are three main categories or types of exercise.

. Aerobic or Cardiovascular

. Flexibility

. Anaerobic

All three are absolutely necessary to our health. Next time we'll look at each one a little more closely.