How To Exercise The Right Way

A twenty minute workout: No Weights, No Equipment

1. Look out at eye level or above to spare your neck and keep you from rolling your shoulders forward.

2. Assume the Botox pose: Keep your face relaxed and tension-free.

3. Relax your shoulders and lift up your chest.

4. Pretend the top of your head is being pulled up by a string to elongate your spine and keep you from rolling forward.

5. Count your reps of each exercise out loud; this counting will help you remember to breathe continuously and keep you from holding your breath.

6. Keep your abs tight and pulled in to support your lower back. (Practice sucking in every time you enter a car, bus, train, plane, elevator, escalator - that way it becomes automatic).

7. Keep your knees slightly bent, so you don't lock them.

8. When doing shoulder exercises, make sure you could always see your hands (if you wanted to).

9. Breathe. Many people hold their breath while doing strength training.

10. Keep moving between exercises to keep your heart rate fast, or move directly to the next exercise. If you're unable to hold a conversation, you're exercising too hard. If you can keep a conversation going and are able to fill the listener in on all the details, you may not be going hard enough.

11. As you get stronger, go longer rather than harder with cardio exercises, and stronger with weight exercises. That is, do more repetitions of any non-weight bearing exercise. That will help prevent injuries from overexertion. If you really feel weak, just hold the exercise position without moving and slowly work up. It's more important to follow perfect form and do fewer repetitions than to do a lot of repetitions with form sloppier than spaghetti in a high chair.

You can have 100 percent strength gains within a few months, but it also works in reverse. By not doing strength training every week, you'll start to lose some muscle mass and your strength by up to 50 percent in three months and by up to 80 percent in three years. Look at exercise the way you'd study Spanish - the more consistent your are, the more consistent your results will be. Your muscles forget, just as your mind does.

Remember when starting any exercise program, consult your doctor first. And take it slow until you build up your strength. If you haven't exercised in years, your body will take some time to get up to speed. Your body is like any finely tuned instrument: pay attention to it. ~ Aunt Millie