How to Start Exercising and Get Back in Shape

Getting started with exercise can be extremely difficult, especially when someone has not exercised for a long time.

There are many programs and machines that can be purchased to facilitate the activity of exercise, but often these machines and programs become dusty and unused.

Money is wasted and much disappointment arises when these programs and machines end up doing nothing. Often these things become nothing more than a pointless waste of space, time, and money. Advertising of these products is so pervasive that it is almost impossible to avoid. Supplements are also a large industry constantly claiming to be the very best at helping with the loss of unwanted pounds.

The first thing to know is that the advertisements for these products are manipulations. Every part of the commercials or infomercials are designed, on purpose, to get you to do exactly what they want you to do. What they want is for you to buy the product.

Their goal is not for you to be healthy or get in shape, their goal is to get your money. They want you to buy their product so you will give them your money. Many people have been manipulated into believing that a gym membership, special machines, or an expensive supplement is the key to getting in shape, but it's just not true.

If you don't already exercise and care about your health then buying any of these products is an absolute waste.

If you want to take yourself from not exercising at all, to exercising daily and being in good shape, the first place to start is in your own brain. If your mind is not right, no matter what you do or how hard you try, you will never accomplish anything.

If you have been sitting on the couch eating potato chips every day for ten years, your brain will be programed to keep you doing just that, sitting on the couch eating potato chips. That is certainly not going to lead to the better health of anyone.

As is explained in the article, Who's Programing Your Brain?, you have to go into your brain and tell it how things are going to be. You have to tell your brain that you are healthy, you are in shape, you exercise everyday, and you want to exercise.

"I am healthy, I am in good shape, I exercise everyday, I want to exercise."

You do not want to tell your brain that you are out of shape, overweight, or don't feel like exercising. If you tell your brain those things then that's what you are going to do. You will be out of shape, overweight, and won't feel like doing anything about it. So, don't say those kinds of things to your brain. Your brain will do whatever you tell it to.

Even if it is not true yet, telling your brain that you do want to exercise, you are healthy, and you are in shape, will cause your brain to automatically help you make it happen. If you repeat these type of things to your brain, eventually it will start getting the idea. Soon, your brain will believe that you are indeed all of those things that you have been telling it.

When your brain believes that you are healthy and in shape it will automatically prompt you to do the things necessary for you to actually be in shape. Soon, that will truly manifest into reality on the scale, in the mirror, and in the doctor's office. When starting exercise the brain is the first and most important part, but it is not all that needs to be done.

After your brain is in the right place then it is time to actually begin to do some exercise. It does not matter what type or how much exercise is done.

What matters is that something is done. After spending some time in your brain convincing it that you do exercise, it is time to do some exercise. Actually doing something physical will then solidify the idea even further in your mind.

Whatever your fitness level, start with something that is easy and simple. Start with something no one would really ever call exercise. It can be as simple as one push up a day or walking in place for one minute. It makes absolutely no difference what it is.

Do something extremely easy that is no big deal and is really not considered to be exercise. Your brain will become fully convinced of this new reality, that you do exercise on a daily basis. Once you have reached this point, the daunting task of daily exercise and getting in shape will certainly be on its way to actually happening.

Everyday, continue to tell your brain what it is to do. Continue to do the physical movements that you decided to start with. Keep doing this until you are automatically being drawn toward it and it seems natural to you. Keep doing it until you feel you are missing something that day if you have not done it. After a while it will be automatic to think this way and to do this small exercise. This means the habit has been created and you do indeed exercise everyday.

You have gotten your brain understanding that you exercise everyday. You are actually doing at least a very small exercise everyday. This has become a habit and something you automatically desire to do everyday. This is amazing progress from sitting on the couch eating potato chips for ten years, but there is more to do. The next step is to gradually increase, very slowly, into more and more exercise.

Gradually increase in very small increments based on what you decide is appropriate for you. No one understands your body better than you do. You are the absolute best person to decide how much and how often you should increase.

Using one push up per day as the example, it is now time to decide how to increase. An increase number needs to be decided upon. Will you increase by one, by five, by ten, or more?

Then it must be decided how often these increases are going to take place. Will it be each day, each week, or even just once a month?

If the example is one push up per day, set to increase by one push up each day, then at the end of a month you will be doing 30 push ups every day. Maybe you are going to increase by 5 each week, or by 10 each month. It makes no difference at all what way you choose to do this. What matters most is that you do it and end up where you want to be.

When this gradual increase approach is taken, your body doesn't really notice the increase. If the goal was 30 push ups per day, and you have gradually reached that goal, maybe other forms of exercise can be gradually added as well.

For instance, you are doing push ups everyday and you want to add sit ups or some other form of exercise. Continue doing push ups exactly the same as you have been. In addition to the normal everyday push ups, start at 1 with the new exercise. Continue the push ups while gradually increasing the new exercise. Do this exactly the same as when you started the first exercise in the very beginning.

In time, you will not only be doing 30 push ups, but also 30 sit ups everyday. Continuing down this same path eventually leads to a full exercise of your own choice. This is so easy that you will barely notice how much more you are doing than when you first started. It will seem as if nothing at all has happened. One day, as a result of what seemed like nothing at all, you will have accomplished something you once thought you never could.

The benefits of exercise are outstanding. Looking and feeling better are just some of the benefits. Results will be seen in the doctor's office as well. You will feel more energetic and doing nearly every thing you do will be easier.

The mental health benefits are amazing. There is nothing more effective at combating depression and mental illness than exercise.

Divide a group of people who suffer from depression into two equal groups. One group will be prescribed antidepressants, but no exercise. The other group will be prescribed exercise, but no antidepressants. The results will be overwhelmingly clear every time. The group who exercised will have less depression. The group that did the exercise will have a much higher over all health score as well. Those who exercised will be better physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

There simply is nothing more effective than exercise when it comes to health, no matter what form of health is being considered.

Exercise is also one of the few things that causes the brain to produce the youth hormone after we have reached a certain age.

In ancient times food was scarce and it took an enormous amount of energy to get it. Now we barely have to move to get our food. It is so easy to just dial the phone and wait for the food to arrive, or just go to our car and extend our arm out the window.

That's really all we have to do to get food now. However, our bodies have not had time to adapt to so easily being able to get food. For thousands of years the Human body was forced to use tons of energy just to barely get enough food to survive. This is part of the reason we have such a problem with obesity and poor health.

This makes it vitally important for all of us to exercise as regularly as we can. For those who cannot seem to get started, doing it gradually might be very helpful.

Exercising face muscles is important. This part of exercise is something that no one ever talks about.

We have all seen someone who has gotten in shape and lost some weight, their bodies look great, but their faces don't seem to match their bodies anymore. The body looks like it's been exercising, but the face still looks out of shape. Sometimes if a person has lost a lot of weight they will actually look older. This is because losing fat in the face, but not tightening the muscles in the face, allows the skin to become loose, saggy, and wrinkled. It's because they did not exercise their face.

Facial exercise sounds funny, but just as you can dramatically transform your body with exercise, similar results can occur in the appearance of your face. In your face and head there are muscles just like in the rest of your body. These muscles allow you to make facial expressions. There are muscles between the skin and the skull, if you don't exercise them, they will be soft and saggy just like the rest of your body if you don't exercise. Exercising your face can literally take years off of your appearance and should be included with any exercise routine.