Exercise: Four Things for Women to Embrace

The wide-ranging health benefits of regular exercise include:

• Reducing the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, and obesity
• Helping keep joints, tendons, and ligaments flexible
• Helping increase metabolism, energy, and endurance
• Reducing some of the effects of aging
• Contributing to mental well-being (including alleviating depression, stress, and anxiety) and ensuring better sleep
• A properly designed and executed exercise program can improve or protect posture, help keep bones and muscles stronger, and maintain joints, tendons, and ligaments injury-free.
• Exercise can help improve your skin and enable your internal organs to function better.
• Exercise helps you lose body fat by:
• Burning calories when you are exercising and increasing your metabolism for many hours afterward
• Increasing your lean body mass, which:

1. Equals a higher sustained metabolic rate
2. Leads to a firmer, more sculptured physique

• Exercise makes you healthier, feel better, look younger and more alive—it’s sexy!

An exercise program should consist of the six components shown in the following chart. Each workout should fit your age, current fitness level, and any medical or physical limitations you may have. Your goals, lifestyle, exercise interests, and commitment level should also be taken into consideration when your exercise program is designed.

But an exercise program should include
"Diva Six Components to an effective exercise Program", of which I have covered in the last six blogs....

• Cardiovascular Conditioning
• Strength and Endurance Training
• Flexibility Training
  
• Core and Balance Training
  
• Corrective Exercises
  
• Functional training

As a fitness expert, I get all of the excuses on why women choose not to exercise and there are a few concerns (myths) that are also attached to exercising....Four of which I want to address... #1 Sweating

• Sweating is good for you, so don’t be concerned about how you look when you exercise—get moving and sweat when you work out!
• Sweating:
• Speeds up metabolic processes of vital organs
• Makes the heart pump hard, producing a drop in blood pressure
• Strengthens the immune system and inhibits and kills bacteria and viruses
• Relieves pain and speeds healing of joint injuries and other problems
• Moves fluids through the body, thus cleansing the body and improving skin and cell function

#2 Muscle mass

• Muscle mass is great for your metabolic rate and makes you firmer.
• It is difficult for women to gain extreme amounts of muscle mass because we don’t have the same hormonal make-up as men, so don’t fear gaining too much muscle mass if you weight train.
• If your exercise program is designed and executed properly and you are losing fat at the same rate of your muscle increase, you will not get bulky.

#3 Veins

• Veins are the blood vessels that carry blood to your heart. Visible veins (except for varicose veins) are a sign of good health, a signal of low body fat and lack of subcutaneous fluid. Don’t consider them ugly but rather view them as a health & fitness measuring tool.

#4 Rest

• The health benefits of sleep include reducing inflammation, depression, and stress and increasing alertness, memory, immune function, and more.
• Sleep also helps repair muscles after exercising, damage caused by stress, and harmful exposure to ultraviolet rays.
• Don’t be extreme in your exercise program and be sure to get plenty of sleep and relaxation time. Take some time off of your exercise program every 6 weeks, providing you are on a steady program.