Planning an exercise program to optimize women’s health and wellness can be both confusing and difficult to do. These are a few tips and a guideline to plan your exercise program. To see the greatest results you need to eat properly, cut down your calories and fat intake in conjunction with adding an exercise program.
When you are planning your exercise program each workout should include:
Warm-up: A warm-up is five to ten minutes of stretching and light exercise to increase your body’s temperature, circulation and heart rate to prepare your body for exercise.
Exercise: Your exercise plan should include: walking, jogging, running, cycling, inline skating, or an exercise of your choice to get your heart pumping. You need to exercise at least twenty to thirty minutes.
Cool Down: To help prevent post-exercise problems your cool down should consist of five to ten minutes of stretching.
Burning Fat: Burning fat during exercise is relatively easy. To burn fat you must exercise at a lower intensity than you would exercise for cardiovascular fitness and you need to exercise for a longer period of time. During the first few minutes of exercise your body uses easily accessible carbohydrates as its energy source. After a few minutes of exercise the body’s readily available energy source is used up and your body will begin to use stored fat calories as its source.
Cardiovascular Fitness: To achieve cardiovascular fitness you need to approach your exercise routine a little differently. If your goal is to strengthen the cardiovascular system you need to do aerobic exercise.
Aerobic exercise is not just an aerobic class at the gym but it is an activity that requires large amounts of oxygen for a prolonged period of time. This will increase the demand on the heart to pump blood to the muscles, and the lunges to oxygenate the blood. Therefore creating a stronger heart, lungs and muscles.
So whether your goal is to burn fat, become fit, and work towards good health and wellness, you need to tailor your exercise to you goal.
Exercise is actually a no brainer for both men and women. Exercise is needed by the body for overall health, coupled with proper diet and nutrition of course.
However, women have always been special cases. Women are able to give birth. Women experience health concerns which are not experienced by the male species.
Here are some exercise secrets for women-
Cardiovascular fitness for women
For women, the secret is not stressing yourself with more and more aerobic exercises every day. That can result to exercise injuries. The stepwise principle is to be followed.
Allow your body to gradually accept the increase in physical activity day by day. And then try increasing the amount of the same form of exercise. Maybe a 20-minute walk can turn into a 30-minute walk. Or 2 laps in the swimming pool can become 4 laps the next day.
In this way, you can prevent injury and eliminate the frustration felt by feeling that you do not do much aerobic exercise to show some effect.
Fitness for pregnant women
Pregnant women are special women. They have special needs when exercising, yet it’s even more important that they stay in shape and healthy.
It is always pointed out that before going into a fitness program, the woman should consult with her doctor first. There are special exercises that can be arranged by the doctor so as not to stress the baby inside and the woman’s body.
Being pregnant is not an excuse for not doing any exercise. In fact, it is more reason to be engaged in physical but less strenuous activity.
Strength-training for women
Like men, women also engage in strength-training through the use of weights. But take note however, women’s bodies have special conditions and limitations. However, weight training is bar none the best way to keep your body weight under control and the idea that strength training is only for men or will turn them into She-Hulk is the biggest mistake made by women when planning to exercise. Lean muscle mass will not only look good (and not like a bodybuilder!) but burns more calories every day while you’re not even doing anything! Don’t be shy; use those weights!
Of course, it is advised that the doctor pattern a special strength-training program for the woman trainer.
Weight loss tips for women
Many women go into the exercise routine to lose weight. But oftentimes, between men and women, it is the women who find it hardest to lose weight.
Women’s body structure is different from men. Women’s metabolism rates are also not the same as compared to men. This is the reason why most women fight the weight loss problem to the end.
Women must understand that health is not just about weight loss. Though it is a factor. And weight loss is not just about dieting and eating less.
In all cases, exercise is very, very important; and I cannot just stress it enough.
To attain weight loss, women should balance strength-training with aerobics and also proper nutrition.
The above tips are not exactly secrets for the women to discover. They are actually known already, and it is up to the woman to discipline herself in following them.
In exercise and overall fitness, discipline is the key.