photo credit: bepositivelyfit

Recently more and more people are turning away from gym membership and instead invest money to have their own gym at home. An advantage of home gym is takes only little space at your home so you can just put it in an unused corner of your house. Alternatively, you could also put it in the basement.

Rather than buying individual equipment, a good alternative is buying an all-in-one exercise equipment. Such equipment weights less and also takes less space than buying the equipment individually.

Just like any buying, you should first consider your goals. What do you want to achieve from your exercise? What kind of equipment do you think you need? After identifying your goals, it should be easier for you to find the equipment that meets your needs.

While there are many kinds of all-in-one equipment in the market, the most popular type is the one for people who lift weights. The two most popular brands for now are Bowflex an Total Gym. The Bowflex system has a flexible design so it could meet the needs of people with different needs and budgets. It’s easy to adapt and very popular.The smaller types could even be stored under your bed if you choose to do so. The larger types, on the other hand, are comparable with the equipment on gyms.

An alternative to the Bowflex is the Total Gym system. Instead of using actual weights, the Total Gym system uses gravity to emulate weights. The system is less expensive than Bowflex and it can also be adapted for different kinds of exercises.

One thing you should consider when buying an all-in-one equipment is whether or not everyone agrees with the equipment. This is especially important if there are many people in your house who also want to use the system. You should be sure that the system you buy is easy to use for all the people involved.

Also remember to survey all available equipment out there. Don’t just limit yourself with the popular brands such as Bowflex and the Total Gym. Instead, browse all options in the market to find the best possible deal.

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When you are exercising, there are chemical substances released by your brain called endorphins. These substances give you a good feeling in your exercise that could easily be addictive. When you are exercising and don’t feel the euphoria, you could continue exercising despite the fact that your body can no longer sustain it. This mainly happens since when people get addicted to endorphins, they will show symptoms like anxiety and depression when they don’t get them. As a result, they may push themselves to exercise even beyond their capacity. This will lead to problems related to over exercise.

In essence, doing so will harm you. You could break down your muscles or have heart problems. This problem of over exercising often happens to people who are new to exercise. Since they still don’t have the habit of exercise, they may overestimate their capabilities to exercise. Unconsciously, doing so will only give them the problems related to over exercise.

One of the first indications of over exercise is exhaustion. Since your body is not accustomed to the intensity of the exercise, you will easily get exhausted when you push yourself over the limit. It could cause problems not only on your muscles but also your bones. In fact, over exercise could cause permanent damange in your body.

Even simple exercise like walking could give you adverse effect on your body. It’s because when you’re walking you are against the force of gravity. Even if it’s relatively small, it could still affect you negatively if you don’t do it in the right way.

The key with exercise is moderation. Don’t push yourself too hard, but don’t do too easy things either. You should find the balance where you can get the most benefit from your exercise without excessing your body’s capacity.

To reduce the risk of permanent damage, you should do more than just one type of workout. By combining different kinds of workout, you balance the pressure on your muscles. This will prevent just some of your muscles from receiving excessive pressure that could eventually cause damage.

One rule of thumb to help you is you should not exercise until you become exhausted. To the contrary, you should be fresh and energetic after you exercise. At most, you should exercise no more than one hour a day and no more than five days a week. Don’t forget to take breaks within your week so that your muscles will have enough time to recover.

photo credit: mikebaird

Finding the right exercise for you is important. Otherwise, it’s difficult for you to build the exercise habit. What you need to consider first and foremost in choosing the right exercise is what you like to do. This is important because otherwise you won’t stick with your exercise for long. Only if you like the exercise can you turn it from mere activity to a habit.

If for now you can’t think of the exercise you like, a safe choice for most people is walking. Even if you don’t like exercise, walking could be the kind of exercise you hate the least.

The nice thing about walking is it suits different people with different conditions. What you need to adjust is just the intensity and duration of your exercise. Another good thing about walking is the fact that you can build social relationships while doing it. Since walking is a simple exercise, it’s not difficult to find partners with whom you can chat along the way.

One thing to remember while you’re building your exercise habit is to start slowly. Start gradually from low intensity training and don’t go directly for high intensity training. Doing this ensures that your body is well prepared and you also minimize the risk of injury. It also helps you keep the exercise habit for long time.

If you are starting, a good intensity is walking just 10 minutes each day. You can then gradually increase the duration in the coming weeks. To maintain interest, you can also walk in different places or different directions. You may also choose different friends to accompany you at different times. All these will help you maintain your interest in walking.

Of course, walking is not for everyone. If that’s the case, you may want to go to a gym. A gym has more variety of exercises you can choose. In addition, they also have trainers that can guide in the exercise you choose. Obviously the downside is you need to pay membership fee to join a gym.

Choosing a good gym is not easy though. You should be sure that they treat you well from the jump start. You should also ensure that their equipment is well maintained. Just don’t make the mistake of choosing the wrong gym because it may cost you a substantial amount of money.

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To stay healthy, it’s important that you exercise regularly. But to exercise well, you should also eat properly. Eating provides you with the energy you need for your exercise and activities. For that reason, you need to pay attention to what you eat before and after your exercise.

For your exercise, you need to consume enough carbohydrates and protein. They are necessary to give you the exact kinds of energy you need. The right percentage of carbohydrates and protein for you is determined by the kind of exercise you do, whether it’s resistance or cardio exercise.

The right time to eat is about one hour before your exercise. The amount of calories you consume depends on the intensity of your exercise. The higher the intensity of the training, the higher the calories you need to consume.

If you plan to do cardio exercise, then you need to consume more carbohydrates than protein. It’s safe to say that you need to consume about twice as much carbohydrates than protein. This extra carbohydrates will give you the level of energy you need while also give your muscles enough protein.

On the other side, if you plan to do resistance exercise, then you need to consume more protein than carbohydrates. This will give you enough protein your muscles need.

Eating after your exercise is just as important as eating before it. After your exercise, your body needs glycogen to replace that which is lost during the exercise. If you don’t replace the glycogen, the body may turn your muscle tissue into other form that can replace the lost glycogen. This will have adverse effect on your muscles.

After resistance exercise, you mainly need protein for muscle repair. Enough protein will prevent break down of your muscles after you exercise. After cardio exercise, on the other hand, you mainly need carbohydrates. Normally, you need to wait at least 15 minutes after your exercise before you eat. This way you won’t take blood too suddenly from your muscles.

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The majority of our body consists of water (more than 70% of it). So it’s not surprising that you can’t live more than just a few days without water. That’s why consuming enough water is essential for your health. Unfortunately, people often replace water with soft drinks and other kinds of beverages.

Different people need different amount of water. But you need to make sure that you get the water you need. By drinking regularly you can replenish your body for the water it needs and prevent dehydration. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty before you drink water. By the time you are thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. It already loses the water it needs. It’s better to just drink water regularly rather than waiting for yourself to be thirsty.

One thing to keep in mind is you shouldn’t drink alcohol or caffeine in place of water. These beverages could increase urination which in turn make you lose more weight than you should. Drinking water is a better option.

You need to know that our body loses water all the time, even when you are sleeping. So you need to drink regularly to keep your body dehydrated. When you exercise, your body loses even more water so you need to drink water more to keep your body well-functioned. You also need to drink more water when you’re sick. Your body loses more water when you’re sick so you need to drink more to replenish it.

To ensure that you drink water regularly, it’s a good practice to always bring a bottle of water wherever you go. This way you can easily drink water in the midst of your activities. Again, drinking water is better than drinking other kinds of beverages that don’t supply the needs of your body.

This is the first post of Real Life Now and I’d like to welcome you. Just as its name says, this is a blog about real life. What I want to share are tips and information to help you live the real life successfully. It would cover multiple topics though I will mainly focus on the topic of fitness.

Why fitness? Because you can only live the real life successfuly if your body is in great shape. Only with a healthy body can you really enjoy your life. That’s why a lot of the writings will be on the subject of fitness.

I hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful.