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Michael Hehn asked:


Most people understand that exercise is important for their overall health and well-being. However, many complain that they just don’t have enough time in their schedule for exercise. With the fast paced lives that most of us lead, it’s understandable that most of us are time starved and without the proper time for exercise.

However, exercise is essential to our health, so it is important to understand that even a brief amount of exercise performed on a regular basis can go a long way to improve your life.

10-15 minutes of exercise performed 3-4 times a week will do a lot to improve every aspect of your physical health. No special equipment or props are needed. In fact, a number of exercises can be done in the morning while you are still in your pajamas. Some routines may be so easy that you may be tempted to think that they are not doing much good as all. However, if performed properly on a consistent basis, 10 minutes of exercise can get you in shape.

Here are a few exercises that you can do in just 10 minutes to improve your total fitness health.

1 Minute Back Stretch

- Sit with your legs straight out in front of you and your back straight.

- Place your right palm flat on the floor behind you as you twist your head and shoulders so that you are looking over your right shoulder.

- Make sure that you keep both buttocks flat on the floor.

- Hold for 15 then do the other side.

Repeat twice.

1 Minute Back Scratcher

- Sit with your legs stretched out in front of you and your back straight.

- Stretch your right arm and bend it at the elbow as if you are going to scratch your back between your shoulder blades.

- Reach your left arm behind your back to touch or hold the fingers of your right hand.

- Hold this position for 30 seconds.

- Repeat on the other side.

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2 Minutes of Sit Ups

- Lie flat on the floor on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.

- Place your palms on your hips and run them up to your knees, pulling yourself up by your stomach muscles.

- Do as many of these sit ups as you can in 2 minutes.

5 Minutes of Step Ups

- Find a step of about 6-8 inches of height. Step up with your left foot.

- Raise your right foot to join it.

- Take your left foot off of the step and then your right foot to join it.

Repeat For 5 Minutes

1 Minute of Press Ups

- Lie on your stomach.

- Bend your arms at the elbows and place both hands flat on the floor with your thumbs at shoulder level.

- Keep your toes flexed and on the floor.

- Push on your palms to raise your upper body.

- Your back and shoulders should be flat and your buttocks should not be sticking up.

- Fully extend your arms but do not lock them.

- Now slowly lower your body back on to the ground and repeat as many times as your can in 1 minute.

Congratulations! You have just completed 10 minutes of exercise that did a lot to increase your cardio-fitness, helped to maintain the strength in your arms, shoulders and legs, and increased the flexibility in your joints. If you don’t have a lot of time to work out, try performing these exercises for 10 minutes 3-4 times per week, and you will see and feel a great difference.

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C Lynn Beebe asked:

The key to achieving good health is really quite simple. About now youre undoubtedly thinking, if it is so simple, why is the health level of the overall population declining at a record pace?

Of course the key to how one becomes healthy and maintains health is not difficult. In fact you may already know several of the things you should be doing to improve your health. It becomes complicated when we are faced with choices that are less than healthful and they cloud our judgment. These distractions compete for our attention with more healthful alternatives that may not seem quite as exciting.

We must allow ourselves to become focused by gaining an understanding of what is required in order to get the big prize – a healthy life. Basically there are three parts we need to master including proper nutrition, fitness, and finally the motivation to keep on track with both.

Proper nutrition, or healthy eating, is probably the most basic and easiest to understand principle of good health. Virtually everyone is aware when they are eating something that is healthful versus a food that is void of nutritional value.

Many times the simplest method of including a majority of healthful foods in the diet is to focus on good foods to eat rather than on bad foods that should not be eaten. As with most things in life, focusing on the positive usually produces the best results. Try to include as many fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains as possible in each days meal plan. By including a large amount of good foods each day, you will find that theres little room left for the not-so-good foods. Proper nutrition will be nearly automatic.

Unlike nutrition, fitness is a bit more difficult to incorporate into daily life. The primary reason for this is that everyone must eat in order to live. Achieving proper nutrition simply means making the right choices for something you are going to do anyway. Activity, however, is not something we must do every day. Even though we should move every day, we wont suffer major consequences immediately if we dont. Instead, the price will be paid years down the road.

The key to increasing ones fitness is to build upon the activities already in place. For example, walking is an activity that most people perform every day. To get the most of this daily activity, expand the amount of walking you do. For example, park in the back of a parking lot to increase the number of steps it takes to reach your destination. Once inside a multi-level building, take the stairs to move from floor to floor rather than the elevator. Start with small changes and build from there.

Once you have increased your natural activity level it is time to focus on developing a fitness routine. Start slowly with just a short period of time devoted to your program each day. Even ten minutes is a good start. The key is to start a program and stick with it.

Sticking with it is where the motivation factor comes in. Motivation is tricky and its different for everyone. Many people are motivated by doing something routinely and building on it. If youre one of those people, consider yourself lucky and just get started with your health plans. The rest will take care of itself.

For the rest of us it is important to find what motivates us. Maybe its buying a new workout outfit or trying a new healthful recipe. Many people like to read fitness magazines and search online for new tips and exercise techniques. Others read inspiring stories and quotes.

Whatever it is for you, find it as soon as possible and hold on to it. Getting motivated is the number one key to achieving your health and fitness goals.