EXERCISE: Part II

I don't want to sound like the disclaimers on "The Biggest Loser" when I say, before starting any exercise regimen, if you haven't exercised regularly, get a good check up before you start.  I don't say that as someone could somewhere down the line be sued, I say this in that I wouldn't want anyone on here to hurt or injure themselves because of advice I gave them.  That would really make me feel bad.  Getting a check-up once a year is worth the money for peace of mind anyway.

 My background in athletics is extensive.  I grew up in an athletic family and played everything from basketball to tennis to racquetball.  I ran track in High School and I trained nearly year round as a teenager into college.  So I already had a pretty good idea about exercise, or so I thought.  I was one of these people who thought the old mantra "no pain, no gain" was actually true.  I used to run on a treadmill inclined to the point of exhaustion.  I used to lift weights to the point of feeling like my pectoral muscles were going to burst.  This is not the right way to treat your body. Period.

 As I mentioned in Part I yesterday, the first thing I did when changing my lifestyle was to educate myself.  I learned so much about the body and metabolism on the food side but I went into the exercise side thinking I would know it all.  Turns out I didn't know squat.  The body is a temple.  We need to treat as such.  You don't take a sledge hammer into a Japanese shrine to restore it.  You take careful loving care for the sanctity of it and treat it with kid gloves.  The same goes for your body.

WALKING:

I used to laugh at people who walked.  I had the idea, why walk when you can run and get your miles in much faster?  The truth is, walking the correct way and consistently burns about as many calories as running does and it's way better on your knees and feet.  Especially for anyone in my age group 40 and above.  I went from running on a treadmill to walking out in nature and found that not only did my body respond, but my mind was allowed to enjoy the sites much more freely.  I started out walking briskly and in a correct posture one mile a day and believe it or not, I could feel it in my thighs.  What I didn't expereince was the horrific pain and soreness you have after that first jog in a year.

My other cardiovascular workout.

I built myself up to around 4 miles 4-5 days a week.  Walking gets your heart rate up but it's much less taxing on the system.  It works with your metabolism and makes your body more efficient.  You don't get the same adrenaline/endorphine rush you get from running and pushing your body to the brink, but you also don't get the let down afterward that running would sometimes give me.  For the record, I only walked that quantity while I was losing weight.  Once I reached my goal weight and got my metabolism boosted, I cut down to 2-3 times a week for a mile or two for maintentance.  The reason?  Time.  I wanted to make my workout as efficient and less time consuming as possible.

 Push-Ups 

The second thing I integrated into my work-out regimen was push-ups.  Now PLEASE don't take this as sexist, but speaking from experience with my own wife when she started doing my work out, women may have to do a modified knee push-up to start.  Women, on average have less upper body muscle mass than men and pushing your body weight up and down is taxing on the pectoral muscles and triceps.  Plus, we don't have gravity working against us as some women do. (Hopefully I worded that correctly!)  My wife is a petite woman so she never really had that problem.  Push-ups seem rather easy, but they are the single best exercise for building core body strength.  "Core" body strength is essential to get your "chi" or center of energy aligned.  I'm putting part one of a good series on push-ups on here, and for the ladies (and some of the men) you'll find the instructor much more aesthetically pleasing than me.  I HIGHLY recommend investing in a set of the "Perfect Push-Up" handle grips pictured above.  They are truly much easier on your wrists and give you faster results.  They are around $40.00 a set.

Asana (Sanskrit आसन sitting down < आस to sit down^[1]) is a body position, typically associated with the practice of Yoga, intended primarily to restore and maintain a practitioner's well-being, improve the body's flexibility and vitality, and promote the ability to remain in seated meditation for extended period.

 So you will learn about what Asana's you can do, how long to do them and what benefit or what part of your "chakra" they will affect.  I'm not going to go into the integral importance of the body's chakra's  but here is a simple definition.

Chakra (derived from the Sanskrit cakraṃ चकà¥ï¿½à¤°à¤‚, Phonetic pronunciation "chukr", Pali: chakka, Tibetan: khorlo, Malay: cakera) is a Sanskrit word that translates as wheel or disc. Chakra is a philosophical concept used to describe wheel-like vortices which exist in the surface of the etheric double of man.^[1] The Chakras are said to be "force centers" or whorls of energy permeating, from a point on the physical body, the layers of the subtle bodies in an ever-increasing fan-shaped formation.

Go to this website to learn all you need to learn about yoga:

 http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/822

Pranayama -"Pranayama" is yogic breathing.  It's the essential part of Yoga, as much as the asana to strengthening your body and centering your mind.  Proper breathing is something that almost NO ONE does.  I know I didn't.  Most of us are very shallow breathers and when we get stressed, sometimes we forget to breathe at all!  Study up on proper breathing techniques.  It's easy and it will change your life and give you renewed energy.

Meditation

Meditation is the aspect of my work out that ties it ALL together.  At the end of my roughly one hour work-out daily, I do from 15-30 minutes of meditation.  It's imperative to incorporate mediation into your regimen.  You don't have to be a religious person to be a "spiritual" person.  What I love about Eastern Philosophy is the non-judgmental aspect of it.  Every book I've read on Yoga and Meditation is non-denominational.  In other words they always emphasize the importance of clearing the clutter from your mind and use soft, positive images and "mantras" to release your daily stress.  For those who wonder how I am able to multi-task, write several blogs on some days, do my job effectively, have a family, etc... I would give a lot of credit to my mental and spiritual change when I started down the Yogic path. Meditation keeps me sane.   It quietens your mind, body and soul to relieve stress and center your "Qi/Chi" or energy.  What is "Qi/Chi"?

"References to things analogous to the qi taken to be the life-process or “flow” of energy that sustains living beings are found in many belief systems, especially in Asia. Philosophical conceptions of qi date from the earliest recorded times in Chinese thinking. One of the important early cultural heroes in Chinese mythology is Huang Di (the Yellow Emperor). He is identified in the legends of China as the one who first collected and formalized much of what subsequently became known as traditional Chinese medicine."

So now, I've walked you through what I did to get myself free of excess weight without being hungry and I've shown you a guideline to an effective exercise program.  I've left out the most important aspect of my workout and what has kept me doing it consistently month after month, year after year.  Flexibility.  No, not the flexibility I achieved from Yoga (although I'm more flexible now than I was playing basketball in High School and College) I'm talking about TIME flexibility.  I do ALL of these exercises (except for when I walk) in the confines of my home.

Find a room in your home or apartment that give your room for a Yoga mat and your body.  You'll need a little room to do some of the "asanas", but at 6'5, even I find room for this.  You can pick your time of day to exercise as work, kids, life allows.  I recommend two essential things.  You need to close the door and lock it behind you.  You need to find good, meditative music (I use the Digital Cable Radio "Soundscapes" which is basically soft music like you hear in a Massage Therapist's office) and use this time each day for yourself.  You'll find that you will sleep like a baby...

If you have a spouse or partner, and/or kids, make sure they know the importance of non-interruption.   I promise you this, if you integrate all of these things into your lives over the next year, you will achieve a centering of mind, body and spirit regardless of your religion, absence of religion, sex, build, age, etc... All of these things are adaptable to your body type and limitations.  All you need to do is educate, educate, educate yourself on these things and I promise, you'll come back to me a year from now and write a blog on how your life has changed.

In closing, I don't claim to be an expert on any of this.  In fact, I'm sure there are people on here who know more about Diet and Yoga than myself.  But I have put a lot of thought into it and research and it has worked for me, friends, family and colleagues.  I have turned NUMEROUS people on to this and it has worked in nearly every case.  The only one's it didn't work with were ones who would not take the time.

 You can be the next success story.  Send me your thoughts, questions, feedback on what you've read.  I'll try my best to answer.  The most important thing anyone can get out of this is "don't worry, be happy."  I found my happiness, you can find yours too.

 Namaste' 

 P.S. The definition of "namaste'"-