Orrin Woodward and the LIFE business have opened up an opportunity for information to help us with the meaningful areas of our lives. One of the 8 F categories to learn more information about is ‘Fitness ‘. This one typically gets the least attention in most people’s lives because in a busy world it gets placed low on the priority list. Although most people tend to prioritize everything else in their schedule over fitness, without fitness we would have trouble in all the other areas of our lives. Becoming a member of the LIFE business is a commitment to learning how to enhance our mind, body and soul. Let’s take a look at the body.
Fitness is the quality and state of being fit. It is directly related to our health and wellness. The opposite of being healthy is illness and sickness. Most of us don’t pay attention to our health until we lose it. Learning about and becoming more fit will help us in all the other aspects of our lives.
All of our tissues are living cells. Exercise and diet are intricately related to our health. Much of disease and illness is related to lack of exercise and poor diet. Prevention of poor health starts with the right attention to exercise and diet. Start by learning. Follow by developing a routine that fits into your life. The LIFE business uses a variety of media sources to teach in areas of self - development. An example of the information being taught can be found in the 8 F’s introductory pack which includes a great talk fromMark and Jen Paul on fitness. Make fitness a ‘Big Rock’. The key is to begin. Be regular for over thirty days so the activity becomes a habit.
Recommendations prior to starting an exercise program include getting a check up if you’ve had health problems or are over forty years of age. Start with short and simple exercises that gradually progresses to a feeling of exertion. Learn how to check vital signs like your pulse and blood pressure.
Exercise is simply a bodily exertion for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness. It is performed or practiced in order to develop, improve, or display a specific capability or skill. There are three general areas to work on when exercising. Each of these is equally important so they should all be addressed when designing your program.
I put flexibility as the starting point since it’s important that you should be able to move to exercise. When you move your arms or legs you should learn to understand what your normal range of motion of a joint is. Stretching into muscle tightness should be done slowly with a sustained stretch no less than ten seconds.
Stability is the strength or the firmness of a muscle or joint. Strength is related to the ability of a muscle to do work. This is where dumbbells, elastic, or weight machines come in. Strengthening exercises requires resistance so start light with more repetitions before hitting the heavy weights.
Aerobic exercises involve the heart or the cardiac system. By working on this area you will affect your endurance or ability to sustain an effort or activity. Begin gradually. The goal is to increase an activity like walking between 15 and 30 minutes every day. Change your pace or the incline to make it more difficult.
Nutrition is critical to your health. Diet is related to weight loss or gain. Diet also effects your energy. What you eat can even affect the way you think. Nutrition is the value or worth of food to nourish your cells. Energy that is consumed is measured in calories. Learn to understand calories. Calories may be empty which means the food is worthless because the food has no nutritious value. By understanding the types of calories in food, you can learn to ingest foods with essential vitamins and minerals.
Think about the content of the food you eat. Nutrition will be divided up into:
- Water : 60% of our body weight so water intake is critical to say the least. One of the simplest ways of improving fitness is by drinking water at convenient times and locations through out the day.
- Carbohydrates: compounds such as sugars, starches, and cellulose, (plants). Contrary to popular fad diets, carbohydrates are a necessary staple for our nurition. Learn what a complex carbohydrate is.
- Minerals: substances formed from the earth such as salt, iron, and zinc, and occur naturally in certain foods.
- Lipids: get a bad rap because they are associated with fat. Not all fats are bad and some fat is critical to our health. Fats includes oils and butter but are found in beef and other meats too.
- Proteins: hold the key to biological activity and serve as structure for the cell.
- Vitamins: maintain normal metabolic (factory) functions of the cell.
This is not an all inclusive article but designed to wet your appetite for more information. Orrin Woodward and the LIFE business are making this information available to enhance a person’s life. Take the next step for better health. God Bless, George Guzzardo
