Resources - Fitness

Top 10 fitness tips

		1. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity: A perfect technique is more important than how quickly you lift a weight, or how many repetitions you get. Remember, technique is everything.
		2. Listen to tunes: Music can give you a competitive edge. A 2005 Canadian study looked at the influence of music on weight loss in women over 24 weeks. Those who worked out to music lost seven more kilograms (four per cent more body weight) than the women who didn’t get to listen to tunes. Next exercise session grab your iPod and workout to the beat.
		3. Eliminate the weakest link: Some muscles in your body will tire before others, forcing you to stop your workout early. Identify these muscles and train them with specific resistance exercises such as squats for weak gluteals. Strengthening these weaker muscles will help you achieve more.
		4. Drop the all or nothing approach: It’s better to do a little training than nothing at all. Just because you have 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes for your run, doesn’t mean you won’t benefit. Work with the time you have and remember anything is better than nothing.
		5. Be realistic: Know your exercise limits. If you haven’t exercised for two years, you can’t expect to be able to walk or run as fast or as far as you did two years ago. Set yourself the goal of walking for ten minutes every day and then increase the time from there. A gradual increase in your workouts will see you stick to them.
		6. Change it up: Getting involved in different exercises means more of your muscles are being used. Running every day is definitely good fitness but it doesn’t use the same muscles as swimming for instance. Vary your fitness program as much as you can so that you’re getting an all over body workout. Variety makes exercise more enjoyable too.
		7. Lift weights while you balance: Bring more muscles into play by balancing as you lift your weights. Instead of lying down on a bench, use a Swissball. You could also perform an exercise standing up instead of sitting down. You could even make the exercise harder by standing on one leg. These exercises bring your core muscles into play, as they are forced to balance your body while you’re lifting the weights.
		8. Add intervals: Alternating between short bursts of high-intensity exercise and lower-intensity exercise has been found to boost fitness levels quicker than moderate continuous sessions. Try one-minute sprints for every five minutes of running. If you prefer to cycle, take it easy for two minutes and then sprint for one.
		9. Positive reinforcement: Sign up to receive daily health, nutrition and fitness tips. You could also get a friend or partner to SMS or email some inspirational words. Research from Clayton State University in Georgia found that simply receiving a reminder email, positively reinforcing the importance of exercise, doubled weekly exercise sessions in participants.
		10. Have a latte before training: The caffeine in your latte has been found to reduce ratings of perceived exertion i.e. how hard you think you’re working out at. This means that you can exercise harder and longer before you tire.