The Power of Exercise

Regardless of how much you eat or don't eat you must exercise at least a few times a week.  You must lift extremely heavy weights and strain your body!  NO I'M JUST KIDDING.  That is exactly what you don't want to do.  


The type of exercise doesn't matter as long as you are using proper breathing techniques and avoid putting undo stress on your body.  I personally like yoga, walking and light running, swimming and biking.  


Many people believe that if you exercise at a really intense level that you will lose weight and be healthy.  There is a certain amount of truth to this but it's not the whole story.  If you are trying to excel at running lets say, then you must push your body to the next level to progress and get faster.  For our purpose of trying to become healthy and fit, you don't want to strain yourself.  This will cause your body to go into a catabolic state, which means it will burn muscle and this is not what we want.  My past article on stress will explain in more detail the effect of stress on your weight loss efforts.  


So when you exercise remember to find a balance between stress and relaxation.  This is what yoga is all about and we will discuss that in a later article.  You want to feel good after exercise.  You may be slightly tired but you want to feel slightly energized.  Avoid feeling sore and exhausted.  This will only slow your metabolism (due to lack of energy) and be detrimental in the long run. 


Now go outside and get some fresh air.


Vai