Move yourself! #1

in #motivation7 years ago (edited)

How often do you catch yourself being dissatisfied of your current look and physical shape? How often do you catch yourself thinking “I have to start doing something with this!”? And few minutes later you are ready to leave this idea behind. For what reasons? You do not have any knowledge about exercising? You do not have any equipment? You are to lazy to get up in the morning and go to the gym? You can’t afford going to the gym regularly? You are ashamed of your current figure? You are afraid that people will laugh at you in the gym? You can put your concerns away, because...

Everyone can be athletic and healthy

You too! I know that it may sound like an empty phrase, but it’s truth. A properly composed diet (we will get to that in the future) and simple exercises are the way to achieve that. I also was in the same point when, one day, I come across a few simple training plans* which are perfect to develop and maintain your good shape and health. In this series of articles I want to present you those training plans. You don’t need any complex equipment or even gym access to achieve the results that will improve both your physical and psychical condition. I started already - now it’s your turn!

How to start

I’m sure you might be very eager to start immediately with all trainings at once, but I strongly recommend you to start slowly and thoughtfully. Your goal should be to make a habits that will become the part of your life and will keep you healthy and in good shape for a long time. Therefore, you shouldn’t start too intensive. It may make you feel tired and discouraged very easily.

Warm up

Warm up is few minutes workout which will prepare you to proper training. It is very imported to get the warm up before every training session. Warmed-up muscles are more efficient, and the major training exercises are easier to perform. Every warm up should be considered as a workout and made intensively.

I guess now you wonder how the warm up should look like :) I can recommend you a simple set of exercises that I use by myself. Perhaps this should be a separate article in the future, but we will see. For now I will put everything here, so you can use it right away. Here is my typical warm up:

1. Head rotation

Starting position:

  • stand with your legs straight
  • your feet should be placed at shoulder-width
  • keep your arms loosely at your sides

Exercise: rotate your head clockwise and counter-clockwise [20 repetitions]

2. Shoulders rotation

Starting position:

  • your feet should be placed at shoulder-width
  • keep your arms loosely at your sides

Exercise: rotate your both shoulders simultaneously clockwise and counter-clockwise [20 repetitions]

3. Forearms rotation

Starting position:

  • stand with your legs straight
  • your feet should be placed at shoulder-width
  • keep your arms raised up to shoulder height

Exercise: rotate your forearms at the elbows [30 seconds inwards and 30 seconds outwards]

4. Arms rotation

Starting position:

  • your feet should be placed at shoulder-width
  • keep your arms loosely at your sides

Exercise: rotate your both arms simultaneously [20 repetitions clockwise, 20 repetitions counter-clockwise, 20 repetitions in opposite directions]

5. Wrists rotation

Starting position:

  • keep your hands clasped

Exercise: rotate your wrists in both directions [60 seconds]

6. Torso swings

Starting position:

  • stand with your legs straight
  • your feet should be placed at shoulder-width
  • bend your torso forward 90 degrees
  • raise your both arms straight to the outside

Exercise: perform the most extensive movement to the left and right - look at the hend you are lifting while doing that [15 repetitions each side]

7. Hips rotation

Starting position:

  • keep your head straight
  • keep your hands on your hips

Exercise: rotate your hips clockwise and counter-clockwise [10 repetitions]

8. Knees rotation

Starting position:

  • keep your feet slightly apart
  • keep your hands on your hips

Exercise: raise your leg bent in the knee and rotate the knee to the left and to the right [10 repetitions each leg]

9. Feet rotation

Starting position:

  • keep your feet slightly apart
  • shift your body weight on one foot and stand on the toes of the other leg

Exercise: rotate your raised foot clockwise and counter-clockwise [10 repetitions each leg]

10. Abdominal muscles

Starting position:

  • lie down on your back
  • lift your leg above the ground (15cm)

Exercise: perform horizontal scissors for 30 seconds, make 5 seconds break and perform vertical scissors for 30 seconds

11. Back muscles

Starting position:

  • lie down on your stomach

Exercise: lift your legs and hands simultaneously, keep them in the air for 1 second [20 repetitions]

12. Burpees

Exercise: perform burpees [20 repetitions]

And now when you already know how to warm up...

Start with sit-ups

Sit-ups are the best start. They develop one of the most important muscle group, they help to burn fat a little bit, but - what is the most important - they will help you to make the habit of regular training. So… start with the sit-ups and when you finish the plan, add another one. Or you can add the new training plan for another muscle group earlier, but not before 2-3 weeks of regular sit-ups training.

What next?

In the short time, you will add next training plans to your routine: push-ups, squats, pull-ups, running. I will provide all the training plans in the future articles, in this current one I will present the plan for sit-ups.

Why it is worth to train abdominal muscles?

Abdominal muscles have few, very substantial functions:

  • stabilizing function - together with back muscles, abdominals allows us to keep the straight position. Abdominal muscles are antagonistic to back muscles. That means their function counteracts with the back muscles function. Abdominals bend torso forward, and back muscles bend it backwards. The balance between those muscle groups allows us to stay straight
  • motoring function - abdominals allows us to perform many movements of our body, for example torso twists or hips movements
  • protective function - along with the ribs, abdominals creates the natural protection for our internal organs
  • support functions - thanks to tensioning and relaxation of abdominal muscles, our organism can perform many physiological functions such as breathing, excretion or childbirth

300 Sit-ups training

This training programme will let you strengthen abdominal muscles and have flat stomach. No matter on which level you are right now, you can use it to systematically develop your muscles. But remember, sit-ups can charge your spine and neck, so if you suffer for any injuries, please contact your doctor before you decide to start with this training.

The rules of the training

  1. Do the test. The result will let you choose the cycle suitable for your powers.
  2. Choose a cycle based on your test result.
  3. Carry on with the training using the instructions from “your” cycle. Don’t forget that you need to rest between the cycles for at least one day, and for at least two days after three cycles. Do not overworked your muscles. If you do, your efficiency will start to drop, not rising.
  4. Don’t panic if you weren’t able to do exercise for a given day. Rest as long as you need, even two or three days and then start the cycle from the beginning. This will let you eventually jump to the next cycle.
  5. Rest for at least two days when you finish a cycle, then do the test. It will tell you which cycle do next. Do not cheat to yourself during the test. It is far more better to repeat the cycle than start the next one if you are not ready yet.
  6. Take two days break after the test and start your new cycle.
  7. Follow this instructions until you reach the last cycle. When you do, you will be able to try to do 300 sit-ups.

There is also one general rule - always remember to do the warm up, before any exercise.

The test

You have to do the test before you start this training programme. It ensures that you do the cycle fitting your efficiency. Obviously you will have to repeat the test after every training cycle, just like it is mentioned in the training rules above. Remember - before you start the test, make sure that there are no health contraindications. In case of any doubts, contact your doctor.

The test is really simple. You just have to do as many sit-ups as you can at the moment. If you do this correctly you will be literally exhausted. You should do the exercise until you won’t be able to do another sit-up at all. This simple test will help you to decide which cycle to choose to start with.

The cycles

Depending on your test result, you should choose one of the cycles below as your start one and then proceed by the rules of the training.





















Other training plans

This plan is of course only one of many various types of training for abdominal muscles. I really hope you will enjoy it and get your results shortly. But, if you are looking for some more advanced programs for tough guys, you should definitely look into Weider 6 Pack training or ABS2, but remember - those are really hard exercises, probably suitable for advanced sportsmen.

Good luck!

I really hope that this article will motivate you to move yourself and become healthier and happier person :) Just be patient and persistent, eat healthy and your results will come sooner than you think. I also guarantee you that when you start with this programme, you will be quickly eager to add another one. And I'm going to describe it for you in my next article :)

*This article is my own elaboration, based on http://www.wruchu.pl/

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I have to be honest. It is very rare people will read such long post. I would divide a long post like this into several post. In that way you have material to post for many days.

You are probably right, but I'm new here, I wanted to do something different, let's say out of the box. And on the occasion it's really practical text if you're looking for something similar... Well, at least I think so...

It is. Very much indeed! I am just trying to give you tips on how to inspire more people, because that is what you are trying to do and I like it.

I can try to divide this and post it one more time, but I have to figure it out how to handle all these tables. They are crucial part of this text.

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