Remember how we referred to your body as a machine? Well, the time has come to improve the way that machine is working. This means physically. Your body is a well designed machine, actually. Each part of your body functions well because of the support that other parts play.

Your heart pumps oxygen rich blood to each cell in your body, delivering fuel to is so that it can perform its duty. Your lungs supply your heart with that necessary oxygen. Your brain keeps everything working, even those things that you don’t think about doing like your heart beating and your lungs breathing.

Your job is to give your body what it needs to continue to perform correctly. While your diet is something for the next chapter, we need to address your body’s ability to do what it needs to through being physically capable.

What some people don’t realize is why their body has developed as it has. Well back in the time of the cave man, the body had to do what it needed to so that you could stay alive. It would store food in fat so that when there wasn’t enough food available, these fat reserves could be used.

Your muscles are necessary for functioning but they have been built to be used, not to sit ideally. Your body is used to providing your muscles with the fuel that they need to work hard. If you don’t work hard, your body can’t maintain a healthy muscle mass.

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What’s Healthy?

To know what level of fitness your body is in, you need to take into consideration the vast number of measurements that we’ve already taken:

• Your weight.
• Your blood pressure.
• And your body mass index are good indications of your overall health.

Yet, it goes further than this, too. You should understand how well your body is working, too. Do you have any physical limitations? If you physically can’t lift things for fear of hurting your back, this could be a potential problem that needs to be considered.

If you have problems with your legs, your neck, your arms or anything else, you should address these specific concerns. The best place to start is to work with your doctor to determine why you aren’t physically fit in those areas.

That way, you can improve your overall health and then improve upon your situation by knowing how to.

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Where Are You?

As we’ve mentioned, it’s important for you to know where you stand health wise. That means:

• Taking the measurements that we’ve listed.
• You should weekly weigh yourself, the same day at the same time each week.
• Keep a log of this information so that you can see your progression.
• Talking to your doctor is a great place to start when it comes to determining your overall health.
• You shouldn’t skip this step.

If you are overweight, chances are good that your heart has been affected by it. You may not physically be able to exercise to a certain level. We won’t even include that level of exercise here because your doctor must tell you what’s okay and what is too much.

If you aren’t having any physical limitations, pains or weight problems, that’s a great sign. Now, look at your body in other manners to determine what you can improve on. Even an overall fit person can often improve their body’s fitness through improving their body’s makeup.

Understanding where you are is difficult for many at first. It’s a hard realization. But, it’s not the permanent solution, its going to improve, one step at a time.

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How Can You Improve?

Improving your body means improving your body’s ability to move and function. Its not easy thing to do at first, but it will get easier. Our overall plan to improving your body’s fitness level is through exercise.

Exercise is something that people hate, but remember your body is built to be used, not to sit in a chair at a desk all day. It is estimated that most people don’t get the exercise that they need and that leads to all types of health problems.

Again, even if you aren’t overweight, chances are good that you aren’t getting enough exercise and fitness into your life anyway. Using your muscles and strengthening them are vital to improving health and fitness.

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Aerobic Training: 

Movement is important for your body. Exercise is the best route to take to gain that health. Aerobic training is the best way to improve your overall exercise tolerance and therefore to improve your muscles.

Aerobic training helps to increase your heart’s ability to pump and therefore to get oxygen throughout your body faster. In this type of training, your body will work to improve its function by improving how much work your heart can do.

To find out if you have any limitations, talk to your doctor. If not, then start with a basic program. Here are some tips for you to get in aerobic training.

• Start with basic aerobics and work up as your tolerance increases. Walking is a great place to start.
• Increase your resistance by taking trails that offer hills or speeding up your walk as you improve.
• Move on to more aerobic style exercises. Swimming, bike riding, playing your favorite sport, running, elliptical machines, and other physical activities are perfect for aerobics.

Your goal is to start with 10 minutes of continuous aerobics three times a week. You should try to increase this to 30 minutes three times per week, though, as soon as your body allows for it. The guidelines of your doctor are a must to follow!

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Strength Training:

Along with aerobic training, you also need to consider adding strength training to your workout. Now, you don’t have to be a body builder here. You don’t have to have bulging muscles. But, you do want to develop lean muscles that are strong and therefore healthy.

If you need to lose some weight, strength training is a very essential aspect of making sure that happens. With strength training, you will be able to move flabby muscles and fat into lean muscles. Muscle burns through fat faster, allowing you to lose weight faster.

Strength training is essential because it allows you to improve the way that your body works, too. Muscles that are strong are less likely to become injured. They are able to be used easier, with less likelihood of being strained or hurt through your daily exercises, movements or even in accidents.