The goal of this article is answer the question “WHY DO WE EXERCISE?”

Now, I know what you’re all thinking: WE EXERCISE TO LOSE FAT SO WE CAN LOOK GOOD! To be honest, that’s the reason why most of us exercise, and THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!

But did you know that exercise gives us some MUCH more substantial benefits than just looking good? It’s true! If you’re working out just to look good, then consider these other benefits just a bonus!

Regular exercise has been proven to:
1) FIGHT OBESITY - Obesity is linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes.

2) IMPROVE PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE - Resistance training will increase muscle size, strength and endurance. This, in turn, will help with improvements in work, sports, hobbies, and day-to-day activities.

3) PREVENT MUSCLE LOSS - Unless you strength train regularly, you will lose about 1 pound of muscle every year of your life after age 25. Resistance training prevents the muscle loss that normally accompanies the aging process. Resistance training can even REVERSE some muscle loss!

4) INCREASE METABOLISM - The muscle loss we all experience each year (after age 25) creates a 1.5% reduction in basal metabolic rate (BMR) every year. A reduction in BMR means that your body is less able to use the food you consume as energy…..thus more gets stored as fat. Resistance training will slow, or even reverse, that muscle loss - which will increase the BMR.

5) DECREASE THE RISK OF INJURY - Not only will consistent exercise improve balance and stability, but regular resistance exercise will do even more to reduce the risk of injury! Muscles function as shock-absorbers and serve as important balancing agents throughout the body. Well-balanced muscles reduce the risk of injuries that result when a muscle is weaker than its opposing muscle group.

6) IMPROVE BLOOD PRESSURE - According to the World Health Organization, high blood pressure may contribute up to 50% of cases of cardiovascular disease which kills more than 12 million worldwide people each year. Regular exercise lowers blood pressure for most people.

7) HELP HEART DISEASE - By helping to keep the arteries free and clear or obstructions, exercise helps to prevent heart disease. Regular aerobic exercise also lowers the Resting Heart Rate (RHR), a key indicator of heart health.

HELP PREVENT CANCER - Evidence suggests that 1/3 of the 550,000 cancer deaths that occur in the United States each year are due to unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity. Regular exercise has been proven to reduce the risk of breast cancer and colon cancer.

9) HELP PREVENT DIABETES - The American Public Health Association has announced that being physically fit may help prevent the development of diabetes in healthy women.

10) HELP PREVENT ESTROGEN LOSS - Regular exercise can prevent or lessen the impact of many of the changes women experience during menopause (particularly bone loss/bone weakening). There is some evidence that symptoms often associated with the hormonal changes of menopause, such as hot flashes, insomnia and depression can also be alleviated by exercise.

Well, there you have it…..ten reasons why regular exercise will help you ADD YEARS TO YOUR LIFE…..and you thought that exercise just helped you look good in a swimsuit!!

* Copyright 2005 Pick Up The Pace. Permission is not required for the distribution of Pick Up The Pace articles as long as they are used in their entirety, are properly credited to Pick Up The Pace, and are accompanied by our website link: www.letspickupthepace.com.

* The information in this article and on this site is for general reference purposes only and not intended to address specific medical conditions. This information is not a substitute for professional medical advice or a medical exam. Prior to participating in any exercise program or activity, you should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health professional. No information in this article or on www.letspickupthepace.com should be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition.

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women, focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit http://www.letspickupthepace.com for more information.

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When it comes to life in general, 90% of us feel the need to lose weight or change the way we look in some way.

Once we’ve undertaken our fitness quest for weight loss or hypertrophy, usually after the first week or two we find that the energy required to do so is becoming harder and harder to conjure. Usually, these physiological changes leave our bodies craving for the fuel needed to perform these transformations. In this article i’ll show you exactly how to get the energy your body requires and how to kick your body into 2nd gear.

What do I need to keep the pace up?

When it comes to gearing our bodies to perform at higher than average energy levels, firstly it takes time. Time requires patience, which is a virtue in itself. It also requires a strong belief in what you’re setting out to do.

Here are the 3 things you need to change for optimal energy.

1. Sleep

The first and most important of them all is sleep. It is during our sleeping hours that the body does the vast majority of its repairing. Usually, the first 4 to 5 hours of sleep are spent repairing the bodies neural systems and pathways.

The last 4 hours are spent knitting worked muscles, and replenishing glucose stores for the next days activities, which, remember, are going to be higher than usual.

Based on this first step, if your not getting at least 7 to 8 hours sleep every night, your body is eating into its energy stores and before long, you will find yourself with not enough energy to carry out your program, and once your mental stubbornness wears down, you will loose the will to want to do it in the first place and you’ll revert to your previous habits.

The easiest way around this problem is to get regular, high quality sleep. Make it a priority equal to and above going to the gym.

2. Nutrition

The second step to gearing your body towards performance is nutrition. Eating right is vital to maintaining a program, especially for those of you who are participating in weight programs where the end goal is hypertrophy.

Your intake of food should be regular and healthy. Get as much fresh meat and vegetables as you can manage and stay away from processed foods wherever possible.

When writing nutritional plans for clients, I like to suggest a minimum of 5 meals a day. Beginning with breakfast as the largest meal of the day, and tapering down food portions accordingly, all the way to dinner.

Remember that it takes time and patience to get your body used to eating large meals early if it’s not something you’ve been doing for a while. Eating regular, complete meals will encourage your body not only to grow, but also to shed fat, as fat is only there as an emergency source of energy for your body.

Contrary to what the media will have you believe, the way to loose fat is not by starving yourself, but by feeing yourself healthy meals regularly — every 2 hours!

By doing this, your body will think that you’re living in a time of food aplenty, and holding fat will do nothing but hold you back. If you want to gain weight without putting on pounds of fat in the process, simply eat this way and stay away from processed foods and sweets. Chocolate tastes great, but unfortunately it isn’t part of the human bodies evolution, and therefore useless if not harmful in building a healthy lean physique.

3. Program design

Now that you’re eating right and sleeping right, the third and final step is to get a program that is not only suited to you and your energy levels, but also in accordance with what your goals are.

So many people who frequent gyms and training halls these days are over trained for what they are physically capable of. To put it simply, you cant sit behind a desk all day every day for 10 years, wake up one day and start working out and running for extended periods of time and expect your body to sustain it.

I’m not saying that you should be shy of hard training by any means — you cant get anywhere without hard training — but don’t ever OVER train. If you’re waking up in the morning and you can barely move out of bed then you’re not recovering from the previous days training.

Weight programs with the intention of hypertrophy should last from 45 to 60 minutes max. If that’s not long enough then you’re either socializing too much or doing too many exercises. Be specifically scientific about the way you build your programs, from the second you finish stretching, the clock should start ticking. You need designated rest intervals between sets depending on what stage you’re training at — be it technique, cellular or neural.

Ask questions to whoever builds your programs, and if they can’t give an informed answer on rest, duration and time under tension, find someone who can and get them to build a program for you. You’re playing around with your body and the only person who has to put up with it is you!

If running, cycling, skating, swimming or playing teams sports ensure that you stretch thoroughly before and after you train, then it will help you to be able to get up and do it again tomorrow. All these things should be down in your program, so that nothing is left out or forgotten.

By sleeping right, eating right and approaching your training with the right mindset, you will be able to function in your everyday life while building your body and not feeling that its too muchwork for you.

In today’s society of business, money and power, science and thorough work prevail, even though our bodies are expected to function in a slap and dash way. Approach your training in a scientific way and it too will run like the business you own or work for, and it will look after for many years to come.

John Sherman is currently studying and practicing Neuromuscular therapy and metabolic typing at the Institute of Human performance. John is also an avid Martial artist, recently completing his “Uchi Deshi” (Live in student) - 2 years living, training and breathing Koyokoshin Karate. He is also one of the newest AccomplishLife resident authors. Keep an eye out for more from John on - AccomplishLife - Self Help and Personal Development or contact John at john@accomplishlife.com

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A new study shows that being overweight in mid-life substantially increased the risk of dying of heart disease later when they get older. This finding is based on a research by Northwestern University as result of tracking 17,643 patients for 3 decades. Even people with healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels when the study began are not safer.

Overweight people are more likely to have heart disease, as they are more likely to have a higher blood pressure and cholesterol. Both hike the risk of heart disease. Statistics shows obesity can cause heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.

So if your weight is above normal level, you need to shed a few pounds for the sake of your health.

How do you know for sure if you are overweight or not? You can tell that by your Body Mass Index, BMI for short. Generally speaking, a person whose BMI index is above 25 is considered overweight.

BMI Weight Status
Below 18.5 Underweight
18.5 - 24.9 Normal
25.0 - 29.9 Overweight
30.0 and Above Obese

You can calculate your BMI by the following formula:

English Formula
BMI= weight in pounds/(height in inches x height in inches) x 703

Metric Formula
BMI= weight in kilograms/(height in meters x height in meters)

Even if you don’t quite mind being overweight, it’s better to keep your weight at normal level for your health.

Visit http://4-weightloss.info for information and resources about weight control.

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