BUSTING BAD FITNESS HABITS Prevention Magazine1 and fitness trainer Jillian Michaels recently wrote about common fitness habits that you would be wise to reconsider, if you want to improve your results. This includes: AVOIDING EXERCISE DUE TO SORE MUSCLES—More than likely, you’ve at some point experienced the muscle soreness that sometimes follows a new or vigorous workout, called DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Tempting as it may be to coddle and rest your sore muscles, recent research3 has found that exercise using light resistance actually provides acute relief similar to that of massage. IGNORING SEVERE PAIN — On the other hand, ignoring messages transmitted through sharp pains is not to be recommended either. Pushing through pain can result in hard-to-heal injuries, so always listen to your body. Pain can signify that you’re doing an exercise incorrectly, so make sure to pay attention to your form. STAYING WITHIN YOUR COMFORT ZONE— This is a critical flaw of any fitness regimen. Without variety and challenge, your body will quickly adapt and plateau. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. “MACHINE HOPPING” WITHOUT A PLAN — According to exercise physiologist Tom Holland, quoted in the featured article, this has pro’s and con’s. On the one hand, jumping from one machine to another automatically prevents your body from adapting to any particular routine. On the other, he warns, “ you need to develop a sound strength base before you can build on it. Jumping around doesn’t allow for that.” He suggests making sure you maintain a certain amount of consistency to start, and sticking with a particular routine for four to six weeks to develop a solid base. Once your fitness and strength increases, you can give yourself more leeway. AVOIDING STRENGTH TRAINING— Many people, women especially, avoid weight training because they don’t want to “bulk up” a’ la Schwarzenegger. This is another critical mistake, as strength training has significant health benefits that have nothing to do with building “bulky” muscles. For example, weight-bearing exercise, like resistance or strength training, can go a long way to prevent brittle bone formation, and can help reverse the damage already done. It also has brain-boosting side effects, which can help you avoid age-related dementia. LAST BUT NOT LEAST-- Just as you check your vehicle prior to a long trip in order to prevent problems that will cost you dearly, you should check the parts of your body that from which the muscles you are about to exercise are attached to: your spine and your extremities (arms and legs) by a competent chiropractor. Just because your cars alignment is off does not mean you can not make your trip, but it will most probably cost you a lot of money and down time to fix and replace the damaged mechanical parts and replacement of tires. The is true with your structure (SPINE), but here you cant change damaged parts (other than knees and hips, after this your quality of life will be diminished). By focusing on your quality of life you are more likely to enhance your quantity of life. Its all natural, the body never breaks down for lack of surgery or external man-made chemicals such as pain or muscle relaxer medications. Now go have fun.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 13:03:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015