Keeping In Shape Made Easy
I’ve seen the fitness world evolve over time and it seems to be getting more and more complicated, with fitness gurus preaching about new diets and interesting looking exercises, it seems that keeping your body in shape is harder than it really needs to be. Many of my personal favorite exercises to do are some of the most simple ones in the fitness world.
Keeping your body in shape is not something that really requires 2 hours a day, unless of course you are trying to max out your body as much as possible, but for the person who just wants to steer clear of obesity or anorexia, it can take as little as 10-15 minutes a day. The best exercises are those that activate the most amount of muscles in the body every repetition. Now why is this so? One reason is that activating more muscles means that more calories will be burnt during your session, great for people who are trying to lose some weight. The other reason is more based on our human nature. See, when we were not as developed as we are now, we spent most of our time hunting, climbing, running, etc. , we essentially would spend our entire lives on our feet doing something. These actions utilized more muscles than our isolated workouts we have now, and we were definitely in better shape than we are now as a race.
So what are these exercises that use more muscles, well they are formally known as “compound movements”, compound referring to more than one muscle. Well known compound movements include but are not limited to: bench press, squats, deadlifts, pull ups, push ups, etc. These are some of the best exercises you can do for your body as a whole, if done correctly. Now, the point of this post is to show how easy it is to keep yourself in shape, let me add on something here, it’s easy to keep yourself in shape if you do the correct things, otherwise you will just go in circles and never really be happy with your body. I’m assuming the majority of you have a little time to spare and have a small place to exercise in your house. You can start off by doing push ups, it will strengthen your upper body and allow you to start being in control of of your muscles and movements. Next, advanced to different types of pushups, now there are many type which I can’t get into because it would be far too long, but different types of pushups target your muscles in a different way and will allow you to become more in control of your movements.
The push ups are just a starter, after you start to get a little more comfortable with the movements, add dynamic exercises into your routine. These can include mountain climbers, high knees, burpees, etc., something to get your body moving and your heart rate up. The main thing really is to progress with more and more dynamic exercises and refrain from using too many weights as these can cause injuries if done incorrectly.
These exercises will ultimately help you become more in control of your body, more fit, and stronger both mentally and physically. I hope this helps some people out in their fitness journeys. Take care.
