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Best Sport for Overall Fitness
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

The best sports for fitness are the ones in which you exercise continuously, those that are least likely to injure you and the ones you enjoy the most. You become fit by exercising vigorously enough to increase the circulation of blood. It makes no difference to your heart how you increase your circulation. The best sports for fitness use your legs because the blood vessels in your legs are so much larger that you can circulate far more blood with your leg muscles. Furthermore, arm exercises tire you earlier because most people have weaker arms.

Some sports require a great level of fitness just to start. For example, to jump rope, you must spin the rope more than 80 times a minute to keep it from tangling. Many people can't jump 80 times a minute. The safest sports are low-impact aerobics, walking, swimming and pedaling a stationary bicycle. Running causes lots of injuries because the force of your foot striking the ground can be three times your body weight, which can damage muscles and bones.

You are most likely to continue a lifelong fitness program if you pick an activity that you enjoy. However, sports that don’t keep you moving may be fun, but they won’t make you fit. Most tennis players spend about 80 percent of their playing time waiting for the ball; and golfers are often required to ride in carts, even if they would prefer to walk. You Want to Read More...

Cardio or Strength Training First?
By Michael Paladin

Many people need to do their cardio and strength training in the same exercise session because of their schedule or need to use fitness center facilities and/or equipment. Even experienced exercisers sometimes ask the question: should I do cardio or strength training first? Unfortunately, no one answer applies to everybody. It all depends on what your goals are. Once you've set your goals, though, it's easy to decide which to do first.

If you're a runner, swimmer, or cyclist (or all three) and strength training is intended to improve your sports performance and prevent injuries, do your cardio before your strength training. If you do strength training first, you will deplete the tremendous amount of energy you need to do hard endurance training. Training for endurance sports is so taxing, in fact, that many athletes don't feel like doing strength training afterwards. Don't go to that extreme, but you do have to be realistic. Your weights and reps are going to be less than what they would be if you hadn't done cardio exercise first. As long as you're putting forth your best effort and making progress, just relax and accept it.

Bodyweight Exercise Cardio "Deck of Cards" Routine

[Health-and-Fitness:Exercise]
Bodyweight exercises can be used to develop an almost ideal cardio routine. They can be done indoors or outdoors, are safe for most people to perform, and require little or no equipment. However, many people who have never wrestled competitively or served in the military are unsure of how to construct a bodyweight exercise routine. The "deck of cards" routine is the answer to this problem. The "deck of cards" routine can be adapted to almost any level of fitness, can be completed in 30 minutes or less, and, best of all, will increase your muscular endurance, and cardiovascular fitness in a relatively short amount of time. The only equipment needed is an ordinary deck of playing cards.Read More...

The 4 Basic Approaches To Quitting Smoking

[Health-and-Fitness:Quit-Smoking]
Is there anyone nowadays who doesn't know that smoking is bad for you? I doubt it, which is why I think that ads about the dangers of smoking are a waste of time and money. The emphasis should be on getting information out to people about how they can quit if they want to. There are 4 basic approaches to quitting smoking.Read More...

Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals

[Health-and-Fitness]
Do you dread exercising outdoors in bad weather, or driving across town to work out in a crowded gym? Would you rather do a 10-20 minute total body workout in the privacy of your home? Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals require no weights, take only 10-20 minutes, and work out virtually every muscle in your body. Read More...

Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals turn the calisthenics and bodyweight exercises that you probably remember from gym class or boot camp into a cardio circuit. To set up your circuit, you select a calisthenic exercise (jumping jacks, mountain climbers, squat thrusts), an upper body exercise (dips, push-ups, pull-ups), a lower body exercise (squats, lunges), and an abdominal exercise (crunches, sit-ups, flutter kicks). Use a low number of repetitions for each exercise (probably 5-10) and do the circuit continuously until you complete the time you're aiming for. The continuous motion is what keeps your heart rate up and builds muscular endurance.

Let's set up a sample circuit of 10 reps of jumping jacks, 5 push-ups, 10 squats, and 10 crunches. You would start by doing the jumping jacks, and then go on to the push-ups, squats, and crunches. When you finish the crunches, go straight back to the jumping jacks and continue doing the circuit as many times as it takes to reach the time you're aiming for or until you can't do the exercises briskly with good form any longer.

Coach Lomax suggests 10 minutes of Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals for beginners, 15 minutes for intermediates, and 20 minutes for advanced workout warriors. However, if you haven't been doing bodyweight exercises, you may find that you can't even complete the 10 minutes suggested for beginners. No problem. It just shows what you've been missing in your exercise program. Start where you're at and add about 10% to your exercise time every week or two. In other words, if you start at 5 minutes, add 30 seconds every week or two. If you start at 10 minutes, add 1 minute, and so on. If you keep at it, most people will eventually reach the intermediate or advanced level.

Do Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals 1-3 times weekly to partially or completely replace your current cardio routine. Don't do Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals more than 3 times weekly. Alternate Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals with another cardio routine if you want to do cardio more than 3 times a week. No matter what exercise routine you do, if you do the same routine every day, you will eventually develop overuse injuries.

Another great thing about Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals is that you can change routines as often as you wish, or you can do a different routine every day of the week that you work out. If you get bored with the program you've been using or have maxed out, change to a different or harder routine. Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals put an end to the problem of boring, inconvenient, or expensive cardio routines. Try Bodyweight Exercise Cardio Intervals yourself and have fun getting into the best shape of your life.

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