Be Physically Fit for Any Event
Want your friends to think of you as the fittest person they know? Want to be good at all sports and active games? Want to impress everyone during a group hike or race? If you do, this is the article for you!
Steps
- Prepare mentally. You must realize that achieving this will require changes in your lifestyle. Not only be open to it, but be prepared to welcome the activities, exercises, and diet changes you will have to face. If you are not able to do this step, you won't get very far.
- Get a schedule together. Despite the popular theory, you do not need to work out 3 hours a day to build up your muscles. In fact, working out that much and working out every day will probably keep your muscles from getting stronger. Put together your schedule using the information below.
- Pick one or more endurance sports to practice, such as swimming, jogging, or biking. All of these sports exercise your cardiac muscles (heart). Having a strong heart is a major component of being fit. Without, you will not be able to do any active activity for very long. A strong heart will allow you do things for a longer period of time. So, practice an endurance sport every other day. A good place to start might be to swim 20 laps, run {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}, or bike {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}. When it starts to get easier, slowly start adding miles or laps (i.e., adding one more lap every two weeks, running half a mile more every month, etc.,).
- Put together a 30-minute workout for your upper body. There are many, many exercises that work these muscles, so you can change the workout every couple weeks to keep from getting bored. Do this workout every other day.
- Put together a 30-minute workout for your lower body. Again, there are a lot of exercises for your lower body, so you can change it every once in a while. Do this workout every other day.
- When you put together your schedule, you should be doing a cardiac exercise and either the lower or upper body workout on one day, and then the workout that's left on the other day. Therefore, you should be exercising around 30 minutes to one hour a day.
- It's good to mark your progress for the endurance sports to motivate you. If you don't write it down, you won't see that you'll improving as easily, and it will be harder to keep going.
- Change your diet. No, you don't have to go all-out and never eat junk food again. The meal before your workouts, eating a little less than normal is good, and eating foods with carbs and Vitamin C can give you energy. The meal after your workouts, eating foods that are high in protein help your muscles recover. But, the most important thing is to drink lots of water. Energy drinks, no matter what the commercials, cannot replace water. Drink water, and lots of it.
- Be patient! The biggest mistake people who want to get stronger make is working out 2-3 hours a day. They do this because they start out exercising moderately, but they don't see results immediately, and they think that their program is not exercising their muscles enough, so they work out more. You will not see immediate results. You will not become Superman in one night. The change will be gradual. It might be so gradual, in fact, that you might not notice it for a very long time. But you will improve eventually.
- Rest. You don't get stronger during the workout. You get stronger during the recovery. So, if you don't recover, you won't get stronger. Simple. If your schedule is correctly set up, you will not be exercising the same muscles on the same days, giving one group of muscles time to rest while working out another group. If your schedule is not set up this way, change it immediately.
- Have fun! Listen to music while you're working out. Work out with a friend. Challenge yourself! After all, this schedule isn't supposed to be temporary, but permanent. If you're going to be spending a chunk of your life following your exercise schedule, you might as well have fun!
Warnings
- Always stretch before exercising to prevent injury.
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