There are many reasons as to why you may decide to work out. But of course, most women exercise to maintain or keep weight in check. However, you can also exercise to counteract hormone-driven mood swings, relieve stress, and improve your sleep. Or to promote your physical and mental well-being and prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
But, whatever the reasons for your workout, you must know which kinds of exercise favor your health or suit your reasons for exercising. Remember, most health issues affecting women can be prevented with consistent exercising. Therefore, please mix various kinds of exercises.
This article discusses some of the best forms of exercises you need to consider to promote your health and keep your workouts exciting and varied.
Here are the simple guidelines and forms of exercise for you:
To effectively make the most out of your time and reap the health benefits, including maintaining a healthy heart and keeping your weight in check, you must focus on fitness for the whole body.
Consider a mix of the following elements of exercise:
- Cardio/aerobic training
- Strength exercises
- Flexibility and balance workouts
Table of Contents
1. Cardiovascular exercises
If your heart beats faster, breathes more deeply and rapidly, and sweat a lot, it may be due to moving your legs, arms, or hips muscles over some time.
So, what are cardio or aerobic exercises?
Also known as endurance exercises, these are forms of vigorous activities that use aerobic metabolism. That applies to any activity that involves the use of oxygen in the cellular reactions to produce energy used in sustaining a particular exercise.
It involves those activities that use your muscles in repetitive and rhythmic motions to get your heart pumping. When you engage your strengths, your respiration rate increases to produce energy, leading to the increased need for oxygen.
Something to note! For any activity to be considered aerobic/cardio, it must strive to raise your breathing and heart rate throughout the workout period.
Here are examples of some of the cardiovascular exercises you should consider doing:
- Hiking
- Dancing
- Rowing
- Cycling
- Soccer, basketball, and tennis
- Walking and running
- Stair and mount climbing
Benefits of aerobic exercises
The activities mentioned above would help achieve your cardiovascular goals, progressively challenge your body organs, and increase your heart, circulatory system, and lungs. In turn, they improve several aspects of your life, including:
- Improving your memory and thinking, and your general mental health
- Lowers the risk of blood pressure, blood sugar, among other heart-related risks
- Ensures weight regulation by burning calories
- Boost sleep, moods and reduce tension and stress
- Reduces joint pain and fall risks
2. Strength training/exercises
Also known as resistance or weight/power training, it includes activities or exercises that help build your muscle’s endurance and make you stronger.
You can achieve strength training through repetitive motions of muscles by using resistance from:
- Free weights like barbells and dumbbells
- Your body weight
- Elastic workout bands or resistance tubing.
- Weight machines such as cable machines, single or multi-gym exercise systems
Here are amazing examples of strength exercises you need to consider:
- Push and pull-ups
- Bench presses or deadlifts using a weight bar
- Squats- goblet and thruster or shoulder presses using resistance bands
- Training with weight machines at home or in a gym center
- Plank rows for strong cores, arms, or glutes
- Overhead triceps extensions
Here are the benefits of strength training:
- It helps build lean muscle mass and raise your energy levels
- Improves bone density and health
- Improves your flexibility, range of motion balance, and stability
- Reduces excess body fats, thus easy weight loss
- Efficient burn of calories
- Reduces chronic conditions like back pain, diabetes, and arthritis
3. Flexibility or balance exercises
How freely can your body or joints move? Well, balance exercises challenge your body to move freely in a different range of motions and help maintain stability whether you’re driving, stationary or doing exercises.
Practical flexibility exercises include:
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Stationary and movement stretches
Good balance exercises may include:
- Hiking
- Standing or jumping on one leg
Such activities would help prevent back pain, balance problems and keep your joints and muscles less prone to confusion and injuries. You should, however, avoid intense exercises that may lead to your gut damage, among other complications.
4. Conclusion
Your wellness is everything in your life. So if you need to improve your overall health- physical and psychological or prevent chronic conditions like obesity, blood pressure, and heart diseases, you better do exercise. Consider doing varied elements like cardio, strength, and flexibility or balance exercises.
