We all know that we need to eat healthy and get plenty of exercise in order to maintain a healthy weight, yet if everyone knows this, why are we facing a nationwide epidemic of obesity - and obesity-related diseases?
One of the main issues is that while we all "know" this in theory, there is endless confusion over what these two necessities actually mean. What exactly is a "healthy" diet, and what type of exercise are we talking about? Some studies say 30 minutes of "moderate" daily exercise is enough - but how does the average person actually translate this into actionable steps? Is that just a couple of strolls around the block? Does gardening count? What about yoga? It is especially confusing when other contradictory studies seem to show that shorter, but more intense forms of exercise may be more effective.
We've covered healthy eating at length on this blog, so please browse our archives for more on this topic. Today, we are going to take a closer look at some fun and active forms of exercise that can actually keep you healthy, without having to slog away on the treadmill for hours, or force yourself to use those boring and repetitive machines at the gym (which actually aren't really all that great for your body anyway).
The first thing to remember is that the best form of exercise is the kind you actually do! Committing to a new workout routine every few months, and never really following through on any of them, is one sure way to never make any real progress towards your fitness goals.
Instead, it is important to find forms of exercise that you actually enjoy and will do on a regular basis, and you'll find it much easier to prioritize your fitness. Exercise doesn't need to be boring or stale - it's just a matter of mixing things up, and trying things you might not have even thought of as "working out." Not to mention, by participating in a wide variety of activities, you'll actually build stronger and more resilient muscles and joints, and reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries.
Below are a few fun non-traditional workout ideas to incorporate into your regular activity lineup. Try these out, pick one, two, or several of them that you really enjoy, and sprinkle these throughout your week, along with some weight training and HIIT workouts. You'll be amazed to find how much they improve your fitness, without even feeling like you're "working out"!
One of the main issues is that while we all "know" this in theory, there is endless confusion over what these two necessities actually mean. What exactly is a "healthy" diet, and what type of exercise are we talking about? Some studies say 30 minutes of "moderate" daily exercise is enough - but how does the average person actually translate this into actionable steps? Is that just a couple of strolls around the block? Does gardening count? What about yoga? It is especially confusing when other contradictory studies seem to show that shorter, but more intense forms of exercise may be more effective.
We've covered healthy eating at length on this blog, so please browse our archives for more on this topic. Today, we are going to take a closer look at some fun and active forms of exercise that can actually keep you healthy, without having to slog away on the treadmill for hours, or force yourself to use those boring and repetitive machines at the gym (which actually aren't really all that great for your body anyway).
The first thing to remember is that the best form of exercise is the kind you actually do! Committing to a new workout routine every few months, and never really following through on any of them, is one sure way to never make any real progress towards your fitness goals.
Instead, it is important to find forms of exercise that you actually enjoy and will do on a regular basis, and you'll find it much easier to prioritize your fitness. Exercise doesn't need to be boring or stale - it's just a matter of mixing things up, and trying things you might not have even thought of as "working out." Not to mention, by participating in a wide variety of activities, you'll actually build stronger and more resilient muscles and joints, and reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries.
Below are a few fun non-traditional workout ideas to incorporate into your regular activity lineup. Try these out, pick one, two, or several of them that you really enjoy, and sprinkle these throughout your week, along with some weight training and HIIT workouts. You'll be amazed to find how much they improve your fitness, without even feeling like you're "working out"!
Here are a few interesting and fun exercise ideas from fitness trainer and nutritionist, Mike Geary:
1. Wind Sprints and Hill Sprints - Find any open field in a park or athletic field and try 50, 75, and 100-yard all-out wind sprints. After each sprint, rest long enough to catch your breath before the next one (generally 1-2 minutes). Try workouts of anywhere from 6 to 20 wind sprints for a great "cutting" workout. Also, if you have a hill nearby, hill sprints are also great workouts. Sprint up the hill as fast as you can and walk down for your rest interval. Repeat until you're whooped (a 20-30 minute hill workout is plenty).
These sprint workouts are so amazingly effective at changing your entire body for the same reason as stairs exercises...by powerfully working the biggest muscle groups in your entire body, you greatly stimulate your metabolism while simultaneously increasing your fat burning and muscle building hormones.
Just look at any world class 100-meter sprinters and notice how lean & ripped-to-shreds those guys are. Now compare that to the emaciated weakling physiques of many marathoners, and you'll see that sprinting is where the action is at for a healthy, ripped, powerful body!
Now I don't want to upset any of you distance runners out there. Hey, if distance running is something you enjoy, then go right ahead. But don't say you're doing it for the health benefits, because I might just have to disagree. You can read my full story on why I believe variable intensity training is far superior to steady-state endurance training.
2. Staircase Workouts - This is great because stairs are everywhere. You can go to a football field and do stadium stairs, any building that has stairs like a hotel (most people take the elevator, so you will not even have many people looking at you while you're working out), or even the stairs in your own home. For an awesome full body workout, try mixing stairs sprints with an upper body exercise like pushups or pull-ups.
If done with a high enough intensity, stairs workouts help to create changes throughout your entire body due to the muscle building and fat burning hormonal response and metabolism increase that you get through working the biggest muscle groups in your entire body. If you thought that going up and down the stairs was the only way to get a good stairs workout... think again. Here are a few different ways to exercise using just a staircase.
3. Indoor (or outdoor) Rock Climbing - This is yet another fun way to get in a great workout that will also challenge you both physically and mentally. Indoor rock climbing gyms have starting popping up all over the place in recent years and will be more accessible than outdoor rock climbing to most people.
Rock climbing is a great workout for your legs, arms, shoulders, and your entire back. It also really works your grip strength and forearms like crazy. Whenever I go indoor rock climbing (which is only on occasion), my forearms are sore for about 2-3 days afterwards.
4. Rope Climbing - This goes back to the old high school days of climbing the rope in gym class. Seriously, if you have access to a rope, either at a gym or somewhere outdoors, rope climbing builds a powerful and ripped upper body like no other exercise. A great way to incorporate rope climbing into intense workouts is to do a climb up, then lower yourself back down. Then while your upper body is recovering for the next climb, you can do a lower body exercise like squats or lunges, or go up and down stairs. Keep alternating the upper body rope climbs with the lower body exercises in between and you'll get one hell of a full body workout.
5. Rope Skipping - You can't beat rope jumping as a great full body exercise. I like to use it as a warm-up for my weight training workouts. I prefer to use the really cheap "speed" ropes with a plastic rope instead of a fabric rope. Once you get good, you can jump rope much faster with the plastic ropes than the fabric ones, which will allow you to get a more intense workout. And don't mess with the weighted handle ropes...they'll just slow you down.
Your goal is speed when rope skipping. Try mixing together two legged jumps, one-legged jumps, arm crossovers, double jumps (rope passes under feet twice for each jump) to keep things interesting and increase the intensity. Also, try alternating 15-20 second high intensity bursts where you jump as fast as you possibly can, followed by 15-20 second recovery intervals where you jump slowly to get ready for your next burst. Keep repeating until you're whooped, which might happen pretty quick!
Find more interesting workout ideas at TruthAboutAbs.com.
I hope you've enjoyed these fun exercise ideas! Comment below or follow us on Facebook and let me know what types of exercise you like best, and how you stay motivated to keep up with your fitness!
Rose.
1. Wind Sprints and Hill Sprints - Find any open field in a park or athletic field and try 50, 75, and 100-yard all-out wind sprints. After each sprint, rest long enough to catch your breath before the next one (generally 1-2 minutes). Try workouts of anywhere from 6 to 20 wind sprints for a great "cutting" workout. Also, if you have a hill nearby, hill sprints are also great workouts. Sprint up the hill as fast as you can and walk down for your rest interval. Repeat until you're whooped (a 20-30 minute hill workout is plenty).
These sprint workouts are so amazingly effective at changing your entire body for the same reason as stairs exercises...by powerfully working the biggest muscle groups in your entire body, you greatly stimulate your metabolism while simultaneously increasing your fat burning and muscle building hormones.
Just look at any world class 100-meter sprinters and notice how lean & ripped-to-shreds those guys are. Now compare that to the emaciated weakling physiques of many marathoners, and you'll see that sprinting is where the action is at for a healthy, ripped, powerful body!
Now I don't want to upset any of you distance runners out there. Hey, if distance running is something you enjoy, then go right ahead. But don't say you're doing it for the health benefits, because I might just have to disagree. You can read my full story on why I believe variable intensity training is far superior to steady-state endurance training.
2. Staircase Workouts - This is great because stairs are everywhere. You can go to a football field and do stadium stairs, any building that has stairs like a hotel (most people take the elevator, so you will not even have many people looking at you while you're working out), or even the stairs in your own home. For an awesome full body workout, try mixing stairs sprints with an upper body exercise like pushups or pull-ups.
If done with a high enough intensity, stairs workouts help to create changes throughout your entire body due to the muscle building and fat burning hormonal response and metabolism increase that you get through working the biggest muscle groups in your entire body. If you thought that going up and down the stairs was the only way to get a good stairs workout... think again. Here are a few different ways to exercise using just a staircase.
3. Indoor (or outdoor) Rock Climbing - This is yet another fun way to get in a great workout that will also challenge you both physically and mentally. Indoor rock climbing gyms have starting popping up all over the place in recent years and will be more accessible than outdoor rock climbing to most people.
Rock climbing is a great workout for your legs, arms, shoulders, and your entire back. It also really works your grip strength and forearms like crazy. Whenever I go indoor rock climbing (which is only on occasion), my forearms are sore for about 2-3 days afterwards.
4. Rope Climbing - This goes back to the old high school days of climbing the rope in gym class. Seriously, if you have access to a rope, either at a gym or somewhere outdoors, rope climbing builds a powerful and ripped upper body like no other exercise. A great way to incorporate rope climbing into intense workouts is to do a climb up, then lower yourself back down. Then while your upper body is recovering for the next climb, you can do a lower body exercise like squats or lunges, or go up and down stairs. Keep alternating the upper body rope climbs with the lower body exercises in between and you'll get one hell of a full body workout.
5. Rope Skipping - You can't beat rope jumping as a great full body exercise. I like to use it as a warm-up for my weight training workouts. I prefer to use the really cheap "speed" ropes with a plastic rope instead of a fabric rope. Once you get good, you can jump rope much faster with the plastic ropes than the fabric ones, which will allow you to get a more intense workout. And don't mess with the weighted handle ropes...they'll just slow you down.
Your goal is speed when rope skipping. Try mixing together two legged jumps, one-legged jumps, arm crossovers, double jumps (rope passes under feet twice for each jump) to keep things interesting and increase the intensity. Also, try alternating 15-20 second high intensity bursts where you jump as fast as you possibly can, followed by 15-20 second recovery intervals where you jump slowly to get ready for your next burst. Keep repeating until you're whooped, which might happen pretty quick!
Find more interesting workout ideas at TruthAboutAbs.com.
I hope you've enjoyed these fun exercise ideas! Comment below or follow us on Facebook and let me know what types of exercise you like best, and how you stay motivated to keep up with your fitness!
Rose.
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