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The more you want to use it, the more we would recommend that you go for high quality treadmills.

When you understand the basics of a quality treadmill, then it will be easy to find one that is perfect for your home and budget.

Long or short workouts determine the quality of motor you need for your treadmill.

I usually end my treadmill routine with about 15 minutes of quality stretching.

Researches have shown, that during exercising most people forget to breath deeply or they are unable to integrate their breathing pattern with the exercises causing them muscle pain and fatigue after the workout.

Exercise and Knee Osteoarthritis
When your body is in good working order, you may not spend much time thinking about things like, say, your knees or your shoulders or your elbows. But, when you have an injury or you get older, you get to know parts of your body you never really wanted to know that well.

The most common? The knee, which can start to cause problems after injuries, when you get older or if you're obese. Normal movements may cause your knee to enter your consciousness in a whole new way, leading to disturbing thoughts like, "Did I just feel my patella move sideways? Because I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to do that."

The most common knee problem is osteoarthritis, a condition that can leave you with tender, swollen and stiff knee joints. If you have knee OA, exercise may be so painful that you completely avoid it. However, it's one thing that can help you manage the pain, provided you do it right.

That's what I'm talking about in my latest article, brilliantly titled, Exercise and Knee Osteoarthritis, providing a few alternatives if you find traditional exercise, quite literally, a pain. I've included a simple workout focusing on strengthening the muscles that support the knee. I know I don't have to tell you to see your doctor before you do any type of exercise if you have knee pain or an injury.

I also want to hear from you. Have you had knee OA or other types of knee problems? If so, how have you worked around it to keep (or start) exercising? Has exercise helped your situation? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Exercise and Knee Osteoarthritis originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 05:00:22.

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Vote in This Week's Poll: How many hours do you exercise each week?
How much exercise does it really take to lose weight? If I could answer that question, I would be writing this from my Maui beach house and...wait, I wouldn't be writing this because I would be too rich to care. In previous articles, I've talked about the fact that every person needs a different amount of exercise depending on his goals and a bunch of other stuff - genetics, metabolism, body composition and planetary alignment.

You can really see that difference when you ask people how much they exercise. One person may exercise several hours a week, struggling to maintain his weight, while another might only need a few workouts a week to maintain his.

So, what about you? If you added up your workouts each week (and by workouts, I mean structured cardio, strength, flexibility, yoga, Pilates, etc.), how many hours do you spend exercising? Do you struggle to exercise more or have you found the magic number? Vote in this week's poll and leave a comment telling us how much exercise it takes to keep you fit.

Vote in This Week's Poll: How many hours do you exercise each week? originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Monday, August 9th, 2010 at 05:00:54.

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Autoregulatory Progressive Resistance Exercise: A Better Way to Lift Weights?
The way I learned to lift weights was based on linear progression, or the idea that increasing the intensity over time (i.e., adding more weight while reducing reps) will increase strength. That makes sense but, what fitness experts are realizing is something most of us probably already know: The body doesn't always perform the same way from day to day.

There are any number of things that can affect your performance. Maybe you didn't sleep well the night before or you're stressed out about your mother-in-law coming to visit. Maybe you're fighting a cold or maybe you're having a bad hair day. Any of these situations can make your performance suffer and, though you may think there's something wrong with you (wondering: "Why can't I lift as much as I did last week?"), it's natural and something you can use to make your workouts more effective.

That's what scientists looked into with Autoregulatory Progressive Resistance Exercise (APRE) which asks the (very paraphrased) question: What happens if the amount of weight you lift and the number of reps you do each day was based on how you feel and how well you can perform?

That's the question scientists looked into in a recent study published in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. The study took college football players through a standard linear progression workout and an APRE workout. In the linear workout, the athletes increased the amount of weight they were using in a planned progression, going from 70% of their one rep max to 85% over a series of sets. In the APRE group, the athletes adjusted their weights based on how they were performing, rather than on a planned progression. The results? The APRE group increased their strength more than the linear group over a 6 week period.

Most of us probably don't follow a rigid periodized program, like the ones in the study, but one very unscientific way to use this approach in your own workouts is to simply ask yourself: How does this weight feel? If it's too heavy, lighten up. If it's too light, add more weight. Too often we feel obligated to use a certain amount of weight regardless of how it actually feels but, as the study shows, going by what your body can actually do that day may lead to greater strength gains.

What about you? Do you use this method in your own training or do you follow a more planned progression from week to week? Is this something you'd like to try in your own workouts? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

_Source:

Workout of the Week - Sprint Interval Workout
If you've ever slogged through a long, boring cardio machine workout, you know how tedious it can be (and if you put a towel over the display in order to pretend that you weren't watching the clock, you get bonus points). Your goal may be to burn calories, but what you end up doing is wondering - How can a treadmill actually stop time and isn't this against the laws of physics?

If burning calories without being bored is a goal of yours, sprinkling in a little interval training 1 or 2 times a week will do the trick.

Interval workouts are great for burning calories - you work hard for a short period of time and, while working hard is...well...hard, knowing you only have to do it for a minute or so helps you feel better about it. During that hard interval, you're building endurance, increasing your anaerobic threshold and you end up burning even more calories for the rest of the day.

There are a variety of ways to do interval training, but if you want a real challenge, this Sprint Interval Workout has got it all. In this workout, your intervals involve going all out - as in, there's a big, snarling dog chasing you and your only chance to escape is to go as fast as you can. Luckily, the dog only chases you for 30 seconds and then he allows you to rest for 4.5 minutes, at which point he inexplicably starts chasing you again, repeating this behavior 4 times.

At the end of this workout, you'll feel spent, satisfied and bite-free.

Do you have a favorite interval workout? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Workout of the Week - Sprint Interval Workout originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 05:00:26.

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Avoid Weight Gain in College
When I was in college, I never woke up late for class and scarfed stale, cold pizza as a quick breakfast. I never spent an entire day in my dorm room watching soap operas without once getting up. I also never gained 5 pounds of pizza-beer blubber during my first semester.

Okay, it's possible all those things are true, but it's been so long that I've decided to rewrite my own history.

If you're going to college this year, you've got a lot on your plate and exercise may not be a top priority, but it's a necessity if you want to manage your weight, reduce stress levels and give your brain more power for all that studying. If I could change one thing about my college experience, it would be my exercise habits (or lack thereof) for my first couple of years. Oh and I would probably do something about my grades and all.

There are ways to avoid weight gain, but one thing you can do right now is take a look at your schedule and figure out how you can squeeze in some exercise. Some ideas:

• Join the student fitness center - If you have a fitness center on campus, chances are you can get a discount membership or, in some cases, workout for free. Don't forget to check into local gyms. Many may offer student discounts as well.
• Look for ways to move more - Could you jog, inline skate or walk around campus before or between classes? What about P.E. classes? You might be able to sign up for something active and get credit for doing it.
• Exercise in your dorm room or apartment - There are plenty of body weight exercises you can do to work your body whenever you have time. This Boot Camp Circuit Workout is intense, requires no equipment and can be done just about anywhere.

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