Women’s Health And Fitness Tips
by Ernestine Clagge

Ever wonder what life would be like if no one exercised? Just take a look along a typical city street. Our society is faced with an epidemic of obesity, and it’s time for people to become more in tune with their own health and fitness issues.

We all know that exercise is essential to living a healthy lifestyle. It’s the best way to lose body fat, because exercise boosts the metabolism and encourages the body to burn excess calories. Physical exercise revs up your heart and gets your lungs pumping at their maximum capacity. You’ll have healthier bones when you exercise, and you’ll look good and feel great about yourself. Exercise gives you increased stamina, making it easier for you to keep up with life’s busy pace.

People are well aware of the many benefits of physical exercise. Why, then, do so many women ignore the facts and choose to remain out of shape? Of course, it’s much easier to hit the snooze button, take the elevator and drive to work. Ours is a society of convenience and, as a result, we are suffering from a lack of health and fitness.

You can reach and maintain your ideal body weight simply by using the following tips. The specific issues that women face, including a higher susceptibility to osteoporosis, bring to light particular health and fitness issues. To keep your body strong and maintain optimum health, you should follow these tips and implement no less than two of them into all of your health and fitness routines:

1. Don’t feel as though you’re not doing enough. It seems that women are born with the innate feeling that they’re letting someone down. But it doesn’t matter if you can’t spend ten hours a week at the gym or jog every evening. The important thing is that you make a commitment to improving your health and fitness, and then stick to it. Women’s health and fitness advisors suggest that you exercise three to five times a week, for 20-60 minutes. In reality, this isn’t always possible. Don’t frustrate yourself by aiming for someone else’s ideals when you know it’s just not possible. If you can work out twice a week at twenty minutes per session, you’re doing a great job.

2. Stay focused on your success. Keep thinking about how good it feels to have committed to a new health and fitness regime. If your plan includes weight loss and you’re struggling to meet a goal, don’t beat yourself up about it. Focus on all that you’ve accomplished up to this point. Consider today to be your new starting point. Your biggest personal success is the fitness commitment that you’ve made to yourself.

3. Weight lifting comes first. Many women begin their health and fitness routines with cardio exercises, and then go on to weight lifting. The disadvantage of this is that it is possible to miss out on a critical component of the routine, and spend all of your time on cardio training. When this happens regularly, the outcome can be disappointing despite countless hours at the gym. By reversing the order, and performing weight training first, women are more likely to realize a positive visible outcome.

4. Don’t overexert yourself. Most women’s health and fitness regimes require a workout of no more than an hour at a time. If you spend too much time at the gym, or perform the same exercises over extended periods, you may find that the routine become boring and tedious. Focus on the exercises and narrow your time frame. You’ll find that your workout sessions will be more efficient, and you’ll have more fun.

5. Watch your heart rate. Ideally, women should exercise at 75-85% of their maximum heart rate. If the rate is too low, you’re not exerting yourself to your full potential. If it’s too high, on the other hand, you can put yourself in a potentially dangerous position. Don’t try to stay at 50 percent or so, because you will not realize your fitness goals. Use a heart rate monitor or do a manual count incrementally during your workout. Make sure that you’re reaching the prescribed target heart rate, and not exceeding it.

6. Find a fitness friend. Support is so important when trying to stick to an exercise program. If you are currently working out to an individual regime with no fitness community, you may find that your workouts are lacking, or just not that successful. Having social support around you can bring a greater sense of camaraderie, kinship and even healthy competition. If you normally work out at home by yourself, try visiting a gym for a sample workout or join a yoga, Pilates or sailing class. Running clubs, golf courses and group sports such as bowling are all great ways to meet new people and stay in shape.

7. Give yourself the support you need. It can be difficult to adopt and new health and fitness routine, and even tougher to stick with it. You’ll need discipline, commitment and a lot of hard work. Be your own private trainer by giving yourself a pep talk. Be supportive, but not too hard on yourself. Ease up on the pressure and give yourself a pat on the back when you need it. Give yourself the great feedback you deserve.

Women’s health and fitness is big news, now more than ever before. Our society’s lackadaisical lifestyle and plethora of fast food restaurants have robbed women of our good health and stripped us of our self-esteem. You have the power to make changes and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Work at your own pace and you will be amazed at how far you can go.

Columnist Ernestine Clagge is a freelancer for a variety of popular Internet sites, on health education and health information topics.