The key word for fitness is body usability, therefore getting fit is not all about having the biggest muscles as promoted by body building agencies and supplement sellers, its about having the right balance of strength, agility, flexibility and muscular development.
A strong core is essential for all weight training activities . It is very easy to forget actual fitness and get involved into the rat race of putting on big fatty muscles and having a bulky body in order to show off, but you should remember that these wont last forever and will lead to long lasting anomalies.
You are better off balancing these with proper core training and conditioning exercises as it will lead to fat control and also enhance over all body strength, flexibility, endurance and ultimately usability.
I try to make my workouts as entertaining as possible, so they usually involve compound movements instead of the mundaneness taught at the gym. I believe that if you are having fun doing it, you will benefit the most out of it.
Keeping that in mind here are a few core exercises which will help you get fit:
Modified Ab Roller
The modified ab roller is perfect for people trying to lose belly fat fast. Slowly increase your range till you can extend your midsection completely while keeping your legs stagnant on the knees.
Modified Ab Crunch
Inverted body crunch is a slightly difficult exercise. Its typically for people who are wanting to enhance ab definition and aesthetics. Try to end it with a dragon fly hold to maximize ab crunch.
Ball Jacknives
The Ball Jacknife helps you with fat loss and muscle building. It is really helpful for people with back trouble as it puts no pressure on the back muscle. Should be performed under supervision until mastered.
Get Fit
Hope you understand that losing weight and fitness is not a struggle if done the right way. Most gyms and trainers make it appear tough to keep you enslaved to their long lasting boring regimes.
In the modern world its easy to get involved in the struggle to be the guy who lifts the heaviest weights and has the perfect abs. That’s why it is always important to keep an eye on overall fitness and body usability when you hit the gym.
Some people think I’m bonkers, But I just think I’m free
Man, I’m just livin’ my life, There’s nothin’ crazy about me
Some people pay for thrills,But I get mine for free
Man, I’m just livin’ my life,There’s nothin’ crazy about me.
Be inspired never imitate.
We are living in a world where it is easier to become famous and difficult to be original. Don’t be blinded in your rush for fame and appreciation, try doing that by seeking inspiration from those around you rather than by imitating others. Be yourself, cause you are the best you.
Don’t compromise your true potential as simply copying is a limitation,
Be inspired and create your own magic, refrain from cheap imitation.
Chasing stability you destabilize different facets of your life. You don’t even realize your ignorance till you are jolted with an impending consequence. Strokes, cancer, obesity, undernourishment, weakness, stress, depression don’t just happen overnight. They are the result of years and years of ignorance.
Though the medical domain is well equipped to provide immediate solutions but these short term remedies are mere eye and pocket washes. The problem lies in your mindset, and if you are not willing to alter it you are bound to have a relapse.
Man chooses to forsake his most important responsibilities, taking care of himself, partly because the society promotes a blind chase for security and partly because he thinks these things will take care of themselves.
The viscous circle ends when all of his collected wealth and resources amount to nothing in front of the medical bill and even when he has the wealth he is not left with the health of body and mind to enjoy it.
I was introduced to this cycle very early in life, the hospital became a second home because of the deteriorating health of my parents. Years of genuine hard work, wasted on medicines, travel, fees and most of all the stress which cant be valued in money. Even after insurance covers the amounts you give away to chronic illnesses in cash and kind are more than the biggest fortunes.
So instead of living a stressful life to earn superfluous money which you will eventually spend to remove this piled up stress, and take more stress in the process, why not be a little mindful in undertaking everyday tasks. Why not live each day to the fullest, spend time maintaining a balanced lifestyle, taking care of the little things along with the larger ones, giving time to your health and happiness?
In lieu with this here are 6 healthy things you can do each day to ensure a balanced life:
1. Treat a bottle of water like your smart phone
Water is the potion
What do you look at when you get up or just before sleeping? What is the one thing you never want to lose sight of? Well your smart phone offers you temporary distraction from reality but water offers your permanent solutions to ailments. You don’t have to use google to find out the benefits of water, for the ones with trust issues, you can go ahead, what you will see is that water is utilized in almost all of the bodies functions.
Water forms 60% of your body, if you take a sip of water every other minute you will be able to increase your water intake to up to 4.5 litres, which is much more than the requirement for the entire day.
20 ml sip * 15 times in an hour * 15 waking hours in day= 4.5 litres of water
Add this to the water you drink in the morning and night and that makes it much more than the required amount.
2. Lemons-aids
Lemons-aid
When life gives you lemons squeeze one into your glass of water in the morning and the other 2 into your bottle of water
Other than helping in digestion and developing immunityby providing vitamin C lemons help maintain your body pH. This means that they help control the damage that eating food does to your body. Lemons have a very mild citric acid which balances the Hcl in the body, reducing the acidity. There are many Benefits of a balanced body pH.
3. Sameness is lameness
Enjoy nuts and oats as much as you enjoy eating fish and goats, Your kitchen is much more than just mutton and chicken.
Variety is the spice of life. Most working people seldom have a choice of eating what they like, the ones who do are too hurried to care about what they eat. Modern day food is usually outsourced, but in all cases it has little to no variation to the previous day.
sameness is lameness
Do yourself a favor and try to include a variety in your meals, meat eaters understand the relevance of roughage and carbohydrates, give fruits, oats and green veggies a chance. Vegetarians try to find sources of proteins like, sprouts, tofu, cheese. Ensure that you eat a well rounded diet comprising of fats, carbs and proteins throughout so that you don’t have to make reservations later.
4. Timing is everything
Everyone has a unique schedule in their lives, most of which is controlled by how and where they work. The 3 meal a day pattern offers no flexibility and leads to starvation and over eating at different times of the day. You should be more flexible with your eating schedule. Try to eat as many small meals during the day. This will not only lead to better digestion, but prevent you from over eating in the later half of the day.
Breakfast is served
Your breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day, divide the rest of your day as per your schedule to take around 4-5 more meals. Ensure that your dinner is the lightest so that you don’t sleep feeling heavy.
Following heavily marketed dieting plans and eating super foods is a waste of time. They are too expensive to sustain for too long and people tend to think that they can temporary quit their fast paced lifestyle to detox. False, detoxification wont be require if you watch you eat from the start and time it properly.
5. Angels and demons
Here is a list of things you can avoid, the demons, they wont kill you immediately but regular and uncontrolled intake of these things will lead to ailments in the future. The demons you need to control include sugar, salt, simple carbohydrates, most saturated and unsaturated oils, spirits, smokes among others. The angels will keep you healthy and add to your health, honey, mono saturated oils( olive oil, canola oil), nuts ( Walnut, almonds), oats, complex carbohydrates(Oat meal), lean meat, lemon, fruits and green vegetables. This along with reading and researching to find out things by yourself so as to make your exclusive health plan form the angels.
6. Meditate, condition yourself to care
Mankind has reached a stage of evolution where he needs to re-learn the art of caring for himself. Your brains are so consumed with thinking that you seldom get a break to reassess your lives. So rather than waiting for the bomb to drop, spend at least 5 minutes every morning to shut your eyes and empty your mind. Once your mind is free from worldly worries you would find that you will start caring about the finer things in life like loving yourself and spreading happiness by adding to the lives of others.
Although it is very easy to make a list of things and very hard to follow it, these simple things can be easily followed. Prevention for sure as hell is better than cure. So please give yourself a chance to make a pit stop in this rar race to understand that even if you win the race you will remain a rat.
So you finally decided its time to get back into shape. Time to start working out. Time to say goodbye to the jiggly part preventing you from seeing your toes. You might have already tried and given up. You might have started last month and are about to give up. You might have struck your first plateau (a place where you don’t see any physical growth). Your lazy fries eating mind cant take the sudden shock you have put it in.
You want to quit without knowing that the fault is not in you? Knowing that only if you act a little smarter you would see more results from your workout. Knowing that if you just read one little article, your way of looking at your workout would change forever. If so then you are free to go back to your reckless corpulent life. Or you can give yourself a chance and alter your perspective of looking at your workout by reading further.
Most people have the will to start improving their physical condition, the money to enroll at an expensive gym, the time to invest in themselves but where they miss out is the astuteness to recognize what is the right way of going about remedying themselves from the doughnut they turn themselves into.
The lies you like to believe
A palatial gym with customized cooling, a buffed up trainer, expensive supplements, crazy workout routines, a mind bending diet chart, these might help you as a placebo by nourishing your ego, but in the long run these would not help you get and stay fit.
Everyone wants to believe in the lies being sold by the marketing divisions of fitness centers and nutrition companies. You want to tread the easy way, which seldom leads you to where you want to be. If there was a magic potion which could replace hard work at the gym, then no one would be obese. Your timid minds are fooled by the stories marketing agencies concoct in order to sell their product or service. You end up losing a lot of money, and gaining nothing, if not some more bad health.
The magic potion
Let me tell you first and foremost, there is no easy way, no magic potion, no short cut method to fitness. You have to be dedicated, sacrifice your taste buds, and be patient. Putting in the hard hours at the gym is the only way to actualize your dream physique.
Still there are some tools and tips which will help you out in your pursuit of the ideal physique:
1. Start small and be regular- Its impossible to seen years results in a week. Usually people tend to over burden themselves at the gym and give up as a result. They fail to understand the importance of easing into your workout. Rather than over training yourself for a small time and expecting colossal results, you are better off starting small and just being regular.
2. Laziness follows you to the gym- Dont expect someone else to help you out all the time. Pick and rack your weights yourself. Try to take as little help from the trainers as possible. Your laziness chases you to the gym, its your duty to not let it enter, so that you can exit without it. Fast food is as lazy as it gets, spend some time to understand the value of good nutrition.
3. Know the basics before going advance- Fitness centers, these days, are full of smart phones with even smarter workouts. The lack of patience triggers you to dive into the most vague workout routine. Exercises that sound weird and are even wierder to perform. Its very difficult to do justice to these routines because your body needs to ease itself into any workout. Start with basic training. Jog, do some body weight training( 30 pushups, 30 situps, 30 pullups) everyday for the first few weeks. Gradually increasing the repetitions each day. Its better to dip your legs into the river before diving into it, you find out
4. Delay supplementation as much as you can- If you think that a few protein shakes and a dose of creatine will get you desirable results, you are lazy and wrong. There is no substitute for hard work and perseverance. Supplementation can only augment growth and not be solely responsible for it.
5. Spice up your workout- Once you are through the basics it is not mandatory to follow the work out your trainer tells you. You have to design your own workout. Make it as exciting as possible. All exercises are modifications of the same movement, its how you mix and match them that makes your workout interesting or mundane. I usually mix 3 different exercises in one super set. This enables me to expend the maximum energy and keeping things entertaining for my mind, which wants to give up ASAP. Mixing high intensity cardio and cardio with regular weight training always assists in making your workouts a pleasurable experience.
6. Keep learning- The secret about any good endeavor is that you can always learn something more about it. Keep an eye out for nutrition and exercise advises. Filter marketing scams and research on what makes your body better. Every one will come with their own way and their own answers.
The declaration
I prefer empowering people face to face hence it is going against my nature to put workouts online. Still I want to force myself to post some good beginner and intermediate workouts which will assist everyone in getting better results.So I am making a declaration that I will be doing the same over the course of the next few articles. These will focus on making you workout smartly, so that you look forward to the next day of training rather than run away from it. These will be the perfect mix for someone who is joining the gym, facing difficulty in getting results and facing a plateau. These would also help people who are at a dirth of time for themselves because they are too busy being slaves to others, or to the ones who want to workout at home.
You are enveloped by urges all the time. These ubiquitous urges make most of our decisions. They compel you to sleep a little extra in the mornings, to check your smartphone before embracing the day, to eat for your taste buds, to become a puffing chimney, to give up on your workout, to resist change because of evanescent comforts and to give up prematurely.
These urges often have a butterfly effect like impact on your lives. It might appear to be a petty urge but the implications of sliding with the urge, echo across eternity. Succumbing to these ‘tests of faiths’, deforms mentalities and limits progress. The ones who overcome or control these petty urges might not become billionaires overnight but find a billionaire and he’ll tell you the importance of sustained mindfulness.
Gym workouts aren’t limited to muscle building, they teach you a lot about resisting urges.Anyone who has ever gone to a gym would understand the significance of resisting the urge. Resistance is the basis of all workouts, you can only progress if you resist the urge wanting you to give up too soon.
Most people overlook the subliminal benefits of going to a gym. It is not all about bazooka biceps, greek god abs and thunder thighs. On the contrary, these are the consequences of the hard work that goes into your workout, most of which is mental.
The urge to give up is amplified when you are starting off but you learn to control it if you don’t give up prematurely. And once you do, you reinvent your disposition and approach towards training your mind and consequently your body. So along with the well toned body what you carry out of the gym is a well toned mind.
Disco of Distractions
The wild eruption of technology has augmented distractions. The platter of diversions come as obstacles to our innately receptive brains. As a result, working efficiency have plummeted worldwide. The digital delirium has taken us into its grips and as we gradually succumb to the enumerable urges around us, the importance of a well toned mind cannot be overlooked. The well toned mind will help you uncover urges in your quotidian experiences. It will help you realize the consequences of sliding with these urges. It will be conditioned to consciously attempt to avoid these urges.After a while it will empower you to learn to smile at these urges when they shows up.
In a very interesting article Leo Babauta compares our urges to itches dictating us to scratch when we know we can do without scratching. Do have a look at Don’t Scratch the Itch and you will learn some more about the hoodwinking urges.
Cure before all you would do is endure
Dont forget to work these urges out before they work you out. If you enjoy your workouts initially and sustain your efforts, you will soon you realize the intangible benefits of the hard work you put in. Once this enlightenment is reached, you wouldn’t have to care about the urge restricting you from going to the gym on a daily basis. Regular subliminal workouts will not only help you at becoming more aware of your urges but also equip you well so as to control them.
The key word for fitness is body usability, therefore getting fit is not all about having the biggest muscles as promoted by body building agencies and supplement sellers, its about having the right balance of strength, agility, flexibility and muscular development.
