What Exercise is Right for You?

What Exercise is Right for You?

At Health Through Healing Hands, we would like to consider what exercise you would enjoy and would be best for you. If you are not exercising at present, it would be a good idea to check with your health practitioner to get their opinion. Remember, a healthy diet and committing to any form of exercise will help with your weight loss and tone your body. You have to exercise at least five days a week for a minimum of thirty minutes to obtain the best result.

If you have not exercised for some time,when you first start, take it slowly. We believe that all exercise is good for you and will help you lose weight. What is best, an exercise like walking, weight lifting, yoga, tai chi or swimming? Do you join a gym and do group classes or do you exercise alone? Would working out with a personal trainer be the answer? All you truly need is to keep yourself on track and motivated.

At Health Through Healing Hands we are firm believers in a combination of exercises that include resistance exercises and flexibility training. Not only will you lose weight but you are improving your health at the same time. Recent studies have proven that the risk of osteoporosis is lower for people who are committed to doing weight bearing exercises for up to three times a week. The reason for this is that this type of exercise builds stronger, denser bones. These are a few forms of weight bearing exercises – weight lifting, hiking, step aerobics, jogging or any other exercise form that requires the body’s muscles to work against gravity. You may also include dancing in this category.

The best forms of flexibility training are yoga, pilates and tai chi.

Do You Purchase Exercising Equipment for Home?

The purchasing and the use of exercising equipment is a personal choice. To have this equipment at home, allows you to use it at any time you want. You can exercise through all seasons – so no excuse that it is cold or raining and you can not get out exercising. You are in the privacy of your own home and you may feel more comfortable to exercise this way. We do not suggest you rush out to buy any equipment unless you specifically know that you will use it and achieve your goals of weight loss and a healthy body.

As a member of a gym, I personally like to start each session with the tread mill – but that is my choice. I select the speed I want and I can see how many calories I am burning off in that session – however, not all machines are the same and if you want one with this type of feature make sure you select the right one. Because you can adjust the speed – it is easy to start at a slower rate and as the weeks pass and your fitness levels improve – you will be able to increase your rate to a slow jog. There are both electric and manual tread mills available.

I am also a big fan of the Swiss ball – but again this is my personal choice. There are many exercise that you can do using the Swiss ball but it requires you to get confident and comfortable with it.