i’ll start next week……..

I find it interesting how people think.  You would be surprised at the number of people I see who believe that since the Affordable Care Act was passed, they can finally be healthy.  False!  Your health is and always has been completely up to you.  I get it; some people were unfortunate enough to be born with genetic diseases, physical defects, or other severe inborn health problems. In the big scheme of things, these are RARE.  I am speaking to the rest of you.  It is time you take what God gifted you with and take care of it!  Don’t tell yourself that you will start next week.  Start today.

Remember my EXCUSES post from last week?    I want to give you some things that you can do on your own to take care of your body, and spend as little time as possible doing it.  As far as working out / exercising is concerned, HERE is my short post on the best way to lose weight and keep it off forever.  As you already know, I am a huge believer in STRENGTH TRAINING.  Sure, I think think that Cardio Training is great, but if you simply look at the research, you’ll see that a little of it goes a long way.  This is to your advantage!  You do not have to be a gym member, nor do you have to spend 1-2 hours a day doing workouts like P-90X (or running mile after mile after mile) to achieve incredible results.  If you’ll cut the JUNK and SODAS, and eat a diet based on WHOLE FOODS (specifically think PALEO HERE), you can spend a brief time working out (emphasis on brief) — in the privacy of your own home if you like — and achieve incredible results quickly (HERE). 

How good of a workout can you get without being a member of a gym?  Believe it or not, you can possibly do better than you could in many gyms.  And all you need are an EXERCISE BALL and some light hand weights (dumbells), and if you are really motivated — a HOMEMADE KETTLEBELL.  The Exercise Ball (they go by lots of names including balance ball, fit ball, fitness ball, gym ball, physio ball, Pilates ball, sports ball, stability ball, Swedish ball, Swiss ball, therapy ball, etc, etc, etc) is simply a large inflatable ball that can be purchased at Cramazon or Mal-Wart (make sure to spend a few more bucks and get the ‘burst resistant’ heavy duty ball). 

The real advantage to incorporating the Exercise Ball into your strength training is that the instability of the ball builds strength and stability into all parts of your body —- particularly your CORE.  Instead of working out on a stable surface (a bench or floor), the ball forces the body to engage many more muscles just to maintain balance (which is great PROPRIOCEPTIVE TRAINING).  Not only is this great for your body, it is great for your brain as well (HERE).  There is arguably no better (or easier) core strengthening program than to spend time on the ball.  Simply head on over to YouTube and check out their videos on how to do strength and proprio training on a ball.

The ball workouts below are not necessarily the best, nor are they the only thing out there.  My hope is for you to watch these, take from them what you like, get started, and then continue to add exercises from there.  I promise that if you get with it and don’t slog, you can do a total body workout in 10-15 minutes.  Make sure that you mix it up and are not doing the same workout every single time.  If you are watching what you eat, and doing a ball / resistance workout several times a week, you will see changes.  In fact, INCREDIBLE HEALTH AND BODY CHANGES are quite possible in a brief period of time.  And if you really want to do something cool, invest in a WBV MACHINE as they are quite versatile.