Exercise

Image : http://www.flickr.com

People spend hours on exercise machines of various description. Do they really help you lose weight or build muscle? OR is there a better way?

I own and use a lot of exercise equipment. I really do not like going to a gym to use machines sweated on by lots of people.

However I found that using my Pilates or Elliptical walker (even though I use the arms along with leg movements) do not leave me feeling like I did a great workout nor do they do much for my muscle building and therefore weight loss.

Remember that the more muscle you have the more fat you burn – even when you sleep. I like that idea of losing inches while I sleep, don’t you?

See if this is you – I would get on the machine and plug in my headphones and attend Workout University while doing my workout. I got through a whole lot of material while walking or climbing or cycling over the years.

And then I noticed something that changed my workout routine and habits drastically.

The point of the workout is to do what? Catch up with the latest news or self development course? I don’t think so.

So what do you think happens for your body when you divide your attention between the walking, running, cycling, etc. and the visual/audio input?

You get out of your workout what you put into your workout. If your routine on the machine gets to the point of being automatic and mindless (which happens quickly) you maybe pay 10% attention to the exercise most of that happens while you program your routine for the day) and that leaves 90% of your focus on your music or video subject (well, except for the15% on the cute person on the next machine).

You cannot expect to get 100% benefit from 10% focus regardless of what you activity you do on life.  When you do something, anything, do it at 100%.

I discovered when I stopped using the machines and paid attention to what I did with my body (breathing into the muscles, noticing and focusing on the muscles involved with each movement, etc.) suddenly I got way more benefit from my time and energy.

In fact I found fat dropping off as never before. My muscles developed so fast I had to cut back on the weights I used so my biceps didn’t get squeezed in my blouses! Yikes! Unreal!

After years on all those machines, going to workouts with no equipment led me to the elimination of the saddlebags I stressed over all my life. And then it happened in just six weeks and, more importantly, that pear shape never came back to haunt me!

For me, isolating muscles to work on them (as in doing circuit routines on my versatile Pilates) and cardio warm-ups, just didn’t pack the oomph I sought. Going to full body workouts that use upper and lower muscle groups simultaneously made all the difference, not just in how I look but also in how I feel energy-wise, clarity of thinking and also in my mood.