| Exercise is the key to health at any age, you are | | | | belong. |
| never to young or to old to incorporate physical | | | | By the time you reach your forties you will |
| activity into your life. That is the real key, it | | | | definitely notice changes to your body, gravity |
| should be part of your day to day life style and | | | | begins to take over, hormones begin to change |
| not a sporadic undertaking to lose weight, the nice | | | | and you continue to see more evidence of |
| side effect of exercise is weight loss. | | | | muscle loss and body fat increases. You have to |
| In the late teens and twenties the focus is mainly | | | | work much harder to keep the weight off and to |
| on looking fabulous at any cost instead of being | | | | keep your muscles toned. |
| healthy. This misguided view generally leads to | | | | To help ward off these impending changes total |
| drastic dieting instead of a balanced diet and | | | | body weight training should be a part of your |
| exercise routine. For those individuals who are | | | | weekly routine (at least three one hour sessions). |
| looking improve their overall fitness it is | | | | This is especially important for women because of |
| recommended that one hour of exercise six days | | | | the correlation between menopause and bone |
| a week in the ultimate goal. These sessions should | | | | loss. You also be incorporating in thirty to forty |
| focus on cardio with at least three thirty minute | | | | five minutes of cardio activity five days a week. |
| sessions of resistance training incorporated in. This | | | | In your fifties you will notice real changes to your |
| then means that on three of the days you will do | | | | metabolism, your body takes much less calories |
| a half hour of cardio and half on hour of weight | | | | to keep it going and therefore it is much easier to |
| training or resistance training of some kind. | | | | put on weight. For women it is a must to continue |
| Find activities that you enjoy, doing cardio does | | | | to incorporate weight training or resistance training |
| not mean that you have to run on a tread mill or | | | | into their lifestyle, bone loss is a real concern and |
| spend your time on a stair climber. It is much | | | | osteoporosis is on the rise. |
| more beneficial to your body to mix things up, | | | | Again four to six sessions of cardio twenty to |
| play tennis, swim some laps, play hockey or | | | | forty minutes each is optimum, remember a good |
| soccer, go skating or skiing. There are a lot of | | | | brisk walk is a cardio workout. It is recommended |
| activities that are considered cardio so there is no | | | | as a minimum that you commit to two half hour |
| need to get bored the goal is to have fun while | | | | sessions of weight training or resistance training. |
| pursuing a healthy life style. | | | | There are many at home DVDs on the market |
| When we reach our thirties many of us have | | | | that incorporate both cardio and resistance training |
| experienced a major shift in priorities, work and | | | | into one session and can easily be done in the |
| family seem to dictate every moment of our | | | | comfort of your own home. |
| waking hours. Our bodies begin show the signs of | | | | The sixties and beyond and new focuses for |
| inactivity and we are tired and stressed. Life is | | | | physical activities as many individuals now begin to |
| definitely underway. Our focus is on others and no | | | | experience medical concerns. It is never to late to |
| longer our selves. Although this trap is | | | | start being active and positive results are can be |
| understandable this is also the beginning of our | | | | achieved very quickly. |
| bodies and health going downhill. | | | | Cardio should still be a focus, three days a week |
| When we enter this phase of our lives it | | | | of concentrated physical activity is recommended, |
| important to make the time to be physically | | | | such as walking, swimming or riding a bike. In |
| active as this is when we begin to naturally lose | | | | addition three days of weight training or |
| muscle mass and gain body fat. Our metabolism | | | | resistance training are necessary to keep muscles |
| begins to noticeably slow down. To stop and | | | | strong, prevent bone loss and to maintain balance. |
| reverse this trend it is important to get in at least | | | | Activities such as Yoga, Pilates, and Tia Chi are |
| five or six days of concentrated exercise. There | | | | good alternatives as they give you all the benefits |
| should be a slight shift to incorporate a little more | | | | of a total body workout, every muscle is worked |
| resistance or weight training to compensate for | | | | and stretched and balance is a focus. |
| the bodies natural changes. | | | | Working out and staying physically active are a |
| Doing circuit training is a good option, because you | | | | must at any age. It is also important to |
| are alternating between resistance training and | | | | remember that exercise is the number one way |
| cardio on a constant cycle. Pilates and yoga are | | | | to prevent illness and disease. It needs to become |
| beneficial for new moms especially because they | | | | a part of your life style, make it fun and change it |
| are very effective at strengthening your core | | | | up to keep it fresh. Find activities you enjoy doing. |
| muscles and lifting your parts back up where they | | | | |