Fitness - Know Yourself

"You've not exercised unless you've exerted yourself to the point of sweating and panting." It was one of those careless, over-the-shoulder remarks thrown at a cocktail party by a self-possessed young woman. A petite teen-aged girl reacted with a dainty grimace which said, "No way! I'm not about to join the sweat brigade!" Another nodded knowingly. "How about dieting?" asked another, interestedly.

It's unfortunate, but most people believe that at the end of a workout, you should be spewing perspiration, your -tongue should be hanging out, your legs should be trembling with exertion - and then only will you benefit from exercising. Rubbish! These myths are built up by those suffering from fitomania - an obsessive craze for fitness. Mixed with this craze is also the sense of importance they derive, the boost to their ego that they and only they can achieve such superhuman levels. They say it with such self-pride and utter confidence that it's no wonder that their listeners run a mile from exercising.

The fact is that each of us has our own individual requirements. Unless you plan to compete in the Mr. or Miss Universe stakes, or in the sports arena, there is no need to go overboard on exercising.

Why do most people need to be fit? You could be an executive, a housewife, a student, a teacher a self-employed professional. But whether you are intermittently or always on your feet, at your desk or in a travelling job, an average, normal day of work can be an exhausting experience. It requires almost all your energy to cope with the volume of your day's work. As dusk falls, you feel like a limp sock just managing to sip at your glass of scotch, changing the channel on your TV set or fixing your night meal. Some of you may wish you had more energy to do all the other things you wanted to do after your working hours. Others may take it philosophically, saying to themselves, "There's only so much I can do. So be it."

Yet, haven't you secretly envied your colleague who clocks extra time hours productively? And then races to the station to catch the last train home? Or the live-wire who having cooked for an entire party, out-boogies the best? While such people seem to find a voracious enjoyment in varied activities, why is it that you feel like a walking energy crisis whose power batteries have been drained?

That is exactly the reason for you to be fit you need that extra energy. If you are fit, you will have a larger reservoir of energy than if you are unfit. If you are fit, you will utilise only about 60 per cent of your energy capacity for your day's work. The remaining 40 per cent will be there, bubbling inside you, for other interests.

That is only the tip of the iceberg. If you are fit, you will be healthier and recover faster from any illness that may befall you. Overall, you will have a clearer mind and be able to deal with any situation that crops up without feeling that old tiredness creeping through your bones.

So, basically, you need to be at a level of fitness that will enhance the quality of your waking hours. To make it easier for you, here is a list of what you don't have to do to get and stay fit.

You don't have to exercise until you are ready to drop. Over-exercising has never helped anybody - not even an athlete.

You don't have to starve yourself or your taste buds by gazing sadly into a bowl of boiled vegetables. There are a host of delicious healthy foods you can safely tuck into which we have dealt with in later chapters.

You don't have to go on an extensive guilt trip if you miss one day of exercising or occasionally eat something you shouldn't have eaten. You can get right back on the fitness track a few hours later or even the next day.

You don't have to spend a paisa more than you want to. However, in case you do go in for a pair of good walking/jogging shoes or some exercising equipment that you fancy, think of all the medical bills you would be saving in the future. After all, isn't it better to invest a little in your health today, than a massive amount in your illness tomorrow?

And last but not the least:

You don't have to feel that achieving fitness is an impossible task. Believe us when we say that it is eminently achievable and enjoyable. For you will do only as much as is required to increase your energy level and enhance your life.

Why do we always stress on your individual-requirement? None of us is made from the same mould. Each of us has his own outlook, his own problems, own conditions, his own capacities. We differ from one another even physically.

In fact, we would broadly divide body types into heavies (mesomorphs), twiggies (ectomorphs) and soggies (endomorphs). Heavies are those large-boned, muscled guys who adore pushing themselves beyond their limits. Perspiration is their milestone, competition their god. They scoff at those mere mortals who walk for fitness. And they are not satisfied unless they instantly cool their hot, sweaty bodies with ice-cold, freezing pinpricks from a shower. It is these heavies who usually become physical-training coaches and since they view twiggies and soggies from their lofty, spartan pedestal, they have no patience with them.

Twiggies are those thin, wiry chaps with tons of nervous energy vibrating through them. They can't sit in one place and being so activity-oriented, they over-exert themselves as they follow the trainer's instructions and often end up exhausted and, perhaps, even fall sick.

Soggies, by their very appearance of plumpness and their laid-back attitude, are the trainer's target. He wants to prod them out of their complacence, re-shape them like they were clay. And, invariably, the soggies pay up their fees, attend for a day or two, then find excuses not to return to their work-out sessions.

Most books with those tempting titles on how to be fit in 'three weeks and so on are written by the heavies who want to hammer in their views into the 'flabby' minds of the soggies.

Worst of all is the way physical exercise is dealt out as a form of punishment in educational institutions. We remember a teacher who made " you touch your toes all through his period because you hadn't submitted your homework. The victimised student felt humiliated as he presented his backside through that excruciating half hour to his tittering classmates. There was also a physical instructor who, if a student showed lethargy, would order him to run a number of laps around the field. While such punishments may have been seen as character-building exercises, the fact remains that the pupils grow up seeing physical exertion as a self ­punishment or vice versa.

It's such experiences that make people eschew exercising and instead go on a dieting binge which, in itself, doesn't really help. Their militaristic nature also puts off civilians. In fact, years ago, we remember asking a colonel why the army 'kicked around' their juniors. "We don't" replied the amused army man. "But the men must learn to toe the line, snap to attention and follow commands without questions. When a general issues' an order at a crucial time, the jawan has to do it instantly for it could make the difference between winning or losing a war."

Such 'snap to' techniques, however, are wholly unnecessary for the average person or even the athlete. The world of fitness is neither a circus nor the undisputed arena of the heavies. In fact, exhaustion is an alien element in fitness.

The image of tyranny is false and should be discarded along with your daily rubbish in the dustbin. Exercising is an undemanding friend who wants to unfold a better, healthier world for you. You can choose your own level of fitness - a few kilos to be shed, a fairly flat stomach and, most important of all, the healthy, glowing feeling that vibrates through you. Put the last one as the primary point on your fitness barometer. True fitness will make you enjoy your work and leisure to their fullest. And that means exercising to the right degree - a normal, no sweat level.

How To Get Six Pack Abdominals!

I have been receiving tons of questions in regards to burning fat around the midsection and how to get 6-pack abs...

I will be straight to the point with you about how to get six pack abs.

It�s a 3 step process.

The first step is to take control of your metabolism.
The next step is to eat supportively
The final step is to complete a full body workout that is geared towards working as many muscles at once as possible.

Let�s break that down a bit more.

Step one: Take control of your metabolism
The way we do this is to stabilize your blood sugar levels. If your blood sugar levels are stable than the hormone that releases fat or liberates fat from your body is able to work. That is good news. On the other side of things, if you have an unstable blood sugar level then a hormone called insulin will work and insulin job is to stabilize your blood sugar. It does so by trapping the excess sugar and storing it as fat.

So if you are able to limit, not restrict, and simply limit your sugar intake to a reasonable amount you will notice that your body will be able to burn fat more efficiently.

Part 2 of the process is to eat supportively. Alot can be said about eating supportively. In fact people have written hundreds of books about supportive eating. Basically supportive eating is really simple. It�s eating meals that will support your lifestyle and will enhance your quest for building lean muscle mass. This will involve eating a lot of proteins and cutting back a little bit on the carbs and fats. Again I must warn you: DO NOT COMPLETLY LAY OFF THE CARBS OR FAT. It is so important to note that because carbs are where your body gets its energy from. If your body has no carbs to resort to for energy, your body will then resort to your muscles as energy and in effect eat away at your muscle (you grow weaker). Not good. So make sure you eat supportively.

The third step in this fat loss process is to follow workouts that will build you lean muscle mass and will shed fat. That sounds simple but yet it can be so difficult. I will be up front and honest with you. The majority of workouts that I see in magazines that promise 6 pack abs in 6 weeks or less are just a bunch of lies that get you to buy the magazine.

Six pack abs only become visible when your body fat is below 9% in males and 18% in females.

If you are able to understand that, then this next nugget of information will really make sense.

If your goal is to get down to 9% body fat, then it is obvious that you should build some muscle. The best and most efficient way to build muscle is to workout and do full body workouts. Full body workouts will incorporate as much muscle and therefore provide you with the greatest probability of gaining lean muscle mass.

Once you have added a few pounds of muscle and shed a few pounds of fat you will be able to see your six pack abs.

Fitness - The Mystique of Metabolism

Blood vessels play an important role in metabolism too. You must have read this mystical word - metabolism - in almost any fitness article or book. What does it mean? It means transformation or change. Your body has two kinds of metabolism. One: the transformation of food, which is burned by oxygen, to become energy. Two: the transformation of food into forming new tissue.

To give you an example of how it works: your car runs on petrol which is transformed into energy which makes the vehicle run. Similarly, food is fuel for your body and oxygen transforms it into energy to enable you to 'run'.

Your body needs carbohydrates, proteins and fat food to keep its metabolic equilibrium.

But, if you overeat, the balance of the body gets upset. It can only transform a certain amount of fat for energy. If you pour in more fatty food than it can take, it overflows like your vehicle would if you put more petrol than its tank can hold. This overflow goes into your blood and, unfortunately, has strong staying power. Your blood vessels are the possessive types and refuse to let go of that extra fat. And they become even more possessive if you are the sedentary sort who does not exercise. The fat gets deposited on the inner walls of your arteries as extra cholesterol which resist the blood-flow.

If you have been exercising daily, your efficient metabolism will dissolve that fat from your bloodstream within two to four hours. If you have not been exercising at all, the fat remains in your bloodstream for a longer time-span as long as ten hours. Chances are that in those ten hours you will eat again at least once. And over the days, weeks, months, years, you have un-metabolised fat filling up your blood. And slowly, the body which began as a healthy mechanism at ease, becomes unbalanced and is uncomfortable and not at ease. This is how a person gets a disease ­meaning dis-ease or not at ease.

To prevent this from happening or even to correct the imbalance of your body, your doctor tells you to eat fatless food and exercise. So that as your body's system gets trained, the metabolism revs up and begins to burn off that extra fat. If he or she asks you to stop smoking, it is to stop you from inhaling carbon monoxide and to allow oxygen to circulate freely through your body enabling the purifying process to take its own natural course.

Sedentary people who land at the doctor's dispensary, however, quite often do not seem to understand the importance of exercising. Since swallowing a pill makes them feel better they are convinced that the pill is their saviour. They couldn't be more wrong. The pill is a temporary suppressant of their symptoms. Exercising - depending upon the illness ­provides the long-term and permanent cure.

What is the co-relation of fat and muscle? Fat is the fat man in your system, while muscle is the lean guy. If you do not exercise, fat spreads itself gleefully all around making the poor lean muscle shrink further into himself. But when you begin exercising the muscle has to move. As the oxygen pours in, he perks up and starts flexing himself. As he gets more toned up, he claims his territorial rights by using his oxygen-filled 'breath' to burn off his foe - fat. As the fat begins to burn, the lean muscle takes its place. And your skin tautens where previously it had bulged with fat.

And your heart? He is your body's best friend - working twenty-four hours a day. Whatever indignities you pile on him, the poor chap keeps pumping away valiantly. He is the centre of the entire oxygen-process. He draws in oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it all through your body. And it is this steady pumping action that also pushes the waste carbon dioxide towards the lungs to be expelled.

When the fat-clogged arteries do not allow blood to flow freely through them, he obligingly pumps faster to try and get as much oxygen to your body as possible. But, this fast-motion is bad for him and you. However, when you exercise, and your arteries clear up, allowing free blood flow, your heart can pump slowly and efficiently and transmit oxygen to every part of the body without straining himself. In short, he is strained when he has to try and pump the diminishing blood with more strokes. Whereas, he is in his element when he can pump more blood with fewer strokes.

Your pulse communicates to you how fast or slow your heart is beating.

Your resting pulse rate:

Take a watch with a seconds hand and sit still for about five minutes. Then, place your index and middle finger on your wrist or below your jaw and begin counting the beats. Count for ten seconds and then multiply that number by six, to give your beats per minute. If your heart pulses at the rate of 70 (or below) beats per minute, it means you are in a healthy condition. Above 70 means you should exercise to help lessen the strain on your heart.

For example, if your pulse rate is 80 beats per minute, it means it is beating at 10 extra beats per minute to keep you going. In a day, it is doing 14,400 beats more than it is geared for. Is that fair? Is it healthy? of course not! It is time to get into the fitness lifestyle immediately! Even if your heart is going at 70 beats per minute, exercise will ease it even more. Plus, the stronger it is, the more energy will you have, the more efficient will you become.

After all, what is exercising? It is your love affair with your heart. As we said earlier, your heart is a great guy. As you warm up, he responds immediately. By beginning your warm-ups you are complimenting him by acknowledging his importance. And as you exercise, he hums and thrums with appreciation. He is willing to do anything for you after that first warm rush of blood that makes him beat faster. All through your exercising routine, he will be with you, a happy companion keeping pace with your every move. With him beating in rhythm to your time and movements, you will feel like doing even more. And finally, as you cool down, he will be throbbing out his joyous message to you. That was great, he purrs, let us do it every day! You cannot resist such enthusiasm for your own well­being, can you?