How To Plan Your Exercise Program

"He fails to plan, plan to fail" -Proverb-

Starting fitness program may be one of the best things you can do for your health. Physical activity can reduce your risk of chronic disease, improve your balance and coordination, help you lose weight and even help you to sleep better. It's easy to say that you will exercise every day, most worthwhile activity require planning..starting and maintaining a physical activity program does too. When you are designing exercise program keep these points in mind :

• What's is your fitness goals - Everyone has different goals when it comes to fitness, some just starting an exercise, you may want to lose weight. Others may have prepare for marathon, and for some people it's just maintaining their fitness goals. You and me have different fitness goals. So, choose which you want to achieve. 

•  Make excercise top priority - You know already the benefits of doing physical activity. If you want to look good, feel good, shed excess fat, increase your energy levels, and feel relaxed and happy, make commitment for healthier lifestyle. Put exercise as your top priority, make time for it and stop making excuses.

• Design a balanced routine - You don't want to go overboard with your exercise or get injured. For sure you don't want to lose muscles because you are doing too much of cardio exercise but neglecting weight training. Draw an activity plan when you can train your muscle groups as well your cardio. To shed some kilos you don't actually need to exercise for many hours. Aim for 60- 150 minutes of moderate activity. 

• Plan your recovery time - Many people start exercising by working out too intense or too long and give up when their muscles and joints become sore. Plan time between sessions to rest your body and muscle growth.

• Write down your plan - A written plan will help you to  stay on track. 

• Be creative with your plan - There are many things you can do to improve your health. Thousands of weight training you can do, also different activities for your cardio. You can mix it up to avoid plateau. You can join dance classes, you can run, or you can use the elliptical machine..sooo mannyy....to keep you off from boredom.

• Review your plans and goals - You may find that you can gradually increase some activities while others just too hard. You could find new activities, find more convenient times or trying new exercise.

• Track your progress - This will keep you motivated and strive more in the future. Reaching your goal will give you more confidence and self-esteem. 

Low Carb My Way!

My first encounter with low carb diet was when I was trying to lose weight. I've done different types of diets and even tried some diet pills. They didn't workout well. I met my trainer and he suggested me to do low carb. So, that time I looked and searched whole informations about low carb.

When it comes to low carb, we always refer to Atkins diet. But I'm not a total fan of Atkins Diet but I'm a big fan of low carb diet. My low carb diet is modification from Atkins, South Beach or any other low carb diets. I do admend some of Atkins rule in low carb and alter it to my own calorie needs and activities. I'm quite active person, 5 times a week in the gym and I do half marathon 3 times a week.


So, as for my low carb is nothing but eating plan. And low carb doesn't mean I eat nothing but fats and proteins. I'm just consuming fewer carbs than other people. I eliminate almost all simple carbs except fruits, and fruits I only take low sugar and medium sugar fruits such as apple, pear, strawberry or avocado. I really go low on sugar intake. Put away all those sugary drinks and switch to total water, sometimes I mix it with lemon slices to vary.

Low carb my way is more eliminate all the bad carbs such as noodle, white rice, potatoes, starchy food, even to brown rice. For breakfast, I consume a low carb biscuits. Afterwards, I minimize my carb intake.  For energy boost before running or workout just apple and cheese string.         

It's very easy to do, I don't time when I have to eat. Whenever I'm hungry,I eat ( low carb of course ). Just take it easy, low carb is not that hard. Do it your own way because you know yourself better.

Happy Low Carbing!

Reasons Why Your Exercises Are Not Effective

Reason #1 : Cardio is Enough

Dr. Kenneth Copper the father of aerobic is finally admitted aerobics itself is not the one and only solution to fat loss. However, the latest survey stated over 80% women still not put the resistance training into their weight loss program. Why exercising with resistance is necessary ? The amount of calories that you burn during exercise is pretty minimal. The vast majority of the calories burned because of exercise are burned in the hours after you have finished exercising. And the length and amount of this ‘after-burn’ are determined by both the intensity of the exercise and the amount of muscle used during the exercise period..not by the amount of time spent exercising!!! So remember…you can exercise hard, or you can exercise long…but you can’t exercise hard for long.

Reason #2 : Resting Too Long Between Sets During Resistance Training

I have seen many people in the gym, who spend their resting time by checking messages in their phone or talking to the person who is next to them. 

When you exercise a muscle, you are ‘breaking the muscle down’…tiring it out. However, the human body is a fascinating machine. The muscle that you just exercised to failure will regain about 50% of its initial strength in the first of 10 seconds rest. After one minute the muscle will regain its strength by 90%. So, if our purpose is to ‘break the muscle down’ with exercise, why on earth would we want to let it recover (almost) fully between sets? That means that we are starting each set almost from the beginning again. How inefficient is that?

Reason #3 : Poor Technique

You have the best fitness program that no one can beat, incredible motivation and amazing nutrition plan. But if you are not performing the exercises correctly, your results are still going to be far from optimum. Any exercise that is not performed correctly will only result injury. And if you are not performing the exercise correctly, you may be exercising completely different muscles than you think you are.

Reason #5 : Doing Outdated Exercise

We are living in the year 2012 now where many exercises have been improved and modified in order to minimize injury. Open up yourself to different types of exercise so you always have options and avoiding plateau. It's time to freshen up your routine and give yourself challenges in exercise. 

Reason #6 : Crunches Help Lose Belly Fat 

There is no proof doing 100 reps of crunches will shed the fat around your belly. Studies have shown that the belly fat area is most responsive to cardio and diet ( avoiding refined carbs, sugar and trans fat ). Speed up the process by cardio and resistance training. My favorite is planks. I still do crunches but limited only to 20 reps and do back up afterward.