Exercise for Fat Burning

Exercise is the fountain of youth. Exercise not only keeps us feeling young and fit and energetic, it is critical for maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system. Exercise stimulates the immune system, improves memory, prevents osteoporosis and fights aging. Regardless of your current level of fitness, be sure to increase your levels of exercise gradually as the muscles tend to get conditioned faster than the joints. By giving your joints time to get used to a new exercise program you will stay healthy with less chance for long term injury.

Remember that extreme exercise can be just as hard on your body as a lack of exercise altogether. Before starting any exercise program you should always check with your doctor, especially those with chronic conditions or over the age of 40.

The first step to becoming more physically fit is not to just implement a new workout program but to get used to the idea of being more active in general. The summary of Newton’s Laws of Motion is basically that “An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion.” Starting an outdoor hobby, joining a recreational sports team, and playing with children and pets are simple ways to increase the amount of movement in your day.

If you are working in an office and mostly sedentary you can obtain a basic pedometer to count how many steps you take each day. The average sedentary office worker only takes about 2000 steps per day. An optimal number of steps to work your way up to would be 10,000 steps per day. Get creative and find ways to add more movement in to your everyday activities! Walking at lunch, running up and down stairs, and parking as far away from your office as possible are a great place to start. Make it your job to fetch the things that someone else is supposed to get for you. Strolling around on breaks to chat with co-workers is also a simple way to get more steps in. Have a weekly contest with friends, family, or coworkers to see who is getting the most steps in each day.

The best place to start with an exercise program is to start doing twenty minutes of walking every other day. Work up to a twenty minute walk daily as your baseline. At the very least you should be doing this twenty minute walk every day. Walking is a great way to start the day, or is an asset after meals to improve digestion and jump start your metabolism.