The impact?

From our physical health to our mental health everything gets spoilt without the essence of exercise in our life. You may be an extremely active person while you head out, but at home, everything just gets stagnant. 

So, how to overcome this problem? With the help of online gyms. Online gyms provide you with the ambiance and the training you need to keep your mind and body fit while you are busy working from home all day.

Understanding Online Gyms

The concept of online gyms is not new. However, since offline gyms were readily available, online gyms weren’t a preferred option then. Online gyms create a platform to ensure a virtual session for the whole gym experience. 

Now the question arises, how is the whole experience ensured online?

Either the gym or the personal trainers have their online platforms and websites where they host these sessions at a particular time online every day. People across the globe join these live workout sessions from the comfort of their homes.

The benefits of these online fitness training sessions

Do you struggle hard to make it to the gym? Do you become extra cautious while working out in public? Then online gyms are meant for you! Here are the top 6 benefits these training sessions can provide you while you make an escape plan from your work from the home schedule!

• 24*7 access pass: Work schedules and handling home can make daily routine extremely tight. In such cases, it becomes very difficult to travel and show up in the gym or to have a fixed time for a workout every single day. In such cases, online gyms grant you 24*7 access to their workout programs. Even if you cannot make up for the live session of a particular day, you can always go and check out the recorded videos so that you don’t have to miss any allotted day for your workout plan!
• Extremely affordable: Are you feeling skeptical about hitting the gym due to the heavy package prices they offer? Don’t let this become a barrier to your better health and mind. You can always check out the online training programs of the best trainers all around the world either on their website or their gym site and access them at a very affordable rate. These programs are designed so that people can maintain the optimum level of their health without having to spend much if they want to. 
• Remote workout sessions: When you are at the beginning phase of your fitness journey, it is quite obvious that you may feel self-conscious. The unwillingness to hit the gym due to public exposure becomes a huge issue due to which people often don’t hit gyms. Online gyms can become the savior in such a situation. You can practice all your workout videos from the comfort of your home that ensures a sense of comfort and security. Nobody is there to watch you hence the fear of judgment goes away automatically. 
• Expert guides: The gyms near you may not have five-star ratings. It often leads to long travel history before you reach the gym and start working out. Result? You tend to skip the gym more often. Online gyms bless you with the access of professional coaches from around the world. So, you can not only choose to get mentored by the best in town but the best across the globe! These guides layout your plans according to your work from home schedules so that you don’t have to compromise with your time management. 
• Personalized plans: Do you have your favorite style of working out? An absolute favorite diet plan? Are you not comfortable with some workouts? Or do you need a fitness plan from the personal trainers for your personalised work out sessions? All your requirements, desired results, and preferences will be kept in mind, and a personalized plan will be made just for you when you enrol for personalized online fitness training. These plans are specially designed so that you can achieve a perfect and healthy lifestyle with your preferences. 
• Focus and motivation: The online gyms host live workout sessions where people from all around the world join this community and build a healthy lifestyle together. Also, a lot of people join these programs along with you so, you will never feel a lack of motivation and focus while you enjoy training your body from the comfort of your home. 

Check out this full body workout programme in an online gym of a personal trainer. 

How to get started with this journey?

The online world seems skeptical. There are so many options available with such extraordinary claims that it gets difficult to figure out which one may be the best fit for you. 

When we opt for an offline service it is easy to figure out for yourself which one to opt for. But how to ensure the best service at the best rates with options that are perfect for you? 

Here are a few guide steps which you can follow to ensure the best online gym experience:

• All online gyms may not provide the fitness training program that you are looking for. Hence it is important to look out and figure out some top online gym websites that are providing your desired style fitness program ranging from HIIT to yoga.
• Get a fixed budget range. Things may sometimes seem way more tempting online. It is important to set a budget for yourself and fluctuate with your program options somewhere around the same. 
• Go through the reviews and recommendations thoroughly. We often tend to buy things that our friends’ circle buys. Hence, the recommendations are very important. This will help you get a clear idea regarding the training program’s quality. 
• Never miss out on freebies. A lot of fitness programs offer a free trial period for some days. Do check them out for yourself and see whatever is the best bit for you. 
• After going through all these steps, do not think twice to enroll in the perfect match you have for your online gym sessions! After all, self-investment is the best form of investment you can make to ensure a healthy lifestyle. 

Drawbacks of online gyms

Do you lack motivation when it comes to being active in your workout schedules? Are you extremely new in your fitness journey? Then maybe, online gyms are not a feasible option for you. There are a lot of talks going on regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of online gyms. Here are a few reasons why you may prefer offline gyms more than online gyms:

• Lack of self-inspiration: If you are extremely new to your fitness journey then you might not feel extremely focused upon your goals. There can be a few days when you might just feel to skip. Online gyms don’t have the option for you to get inspiration. In traditional fitness plans, people are looking after you hence, you don’t have a way out to skip. But this isn’t the scenario with online gyms. Out here, you have to inspire yourself to get up and play the workout sessions for practice. 

One way to get out of this low self esteem loop is to get yourself a subscription plan from the personal trainers of these online sessions. This will act as a drive to work out as there will be a cancellation charge and money loss from the subscription as well. 

• Mismatched formations: The workout sessions reach their prime effectivity level only when you maintain your postures and techniques correctly. Your gym trainers will not only ensure that you do these correctly to obtain the maximum out of it but also that you don’t injure yourself while doing so. However, this isn’t possible for trainers in the online gym. You have to look out for yourself and ensure that you work out correctly without hurting yourself. 

However, you can overcome these issues by hiring a personal trainer. They offer personal session that happens in a webcam via which they can guide your every movement and correct your postures. We will attach a link below about our next articles that discusses upon online personal trainers and offline personal trainers. 

• Progress check: How much physical strength did you gain? How far did you progress in your fitness journey? All these remain unclear when you train from online gyms. You have to measure all this by yourself and keep a regular track. Despite this, you may not be able to keep your progress tracked the way professional gym trainers would do. 
• Equipment Hassle: If you are opting for a beginner’s training program, it is okay if you just have a fitness mat at your home. But as you gradually enhance and willingly increase your capacity, you will need equipment such as weights, bands, and machines. All this brings in added hassle and huge expenses without which you may not be able to utilize your physical strength to its optimum level. If you stream your online gym sessions at your house itself, it may get difficult to work out the way your gym guides are performing. A lot of time you may not be aware about the correct usage of the equipment’s that may become another problem to deal with. 

All these make the online gym experience skeptical. On one side, the benefits it provides ensures even if you are sitting at home, you can have a good mental and physical health. On the other hand, you need self-inspiration to go through these training sessions regularly. 

Work Gyms: The Concept

Several experiments have been made to overcome these issues. Some people may feel extremely productive to work out every day with ease while others may not feel the push to ensure they maintain their health regularly. According to the BBC, the concept of ‘Work Gyms’ got experimented worldwide. As people from around the world got more used to the schedule of work from home, ensuring the optimum level of productivity and health was the sole concern. 

People from different countries participated in this Work gyms concept. Out here, all the participants are given a different project to work upon. They are separated into different groups to complete their work projects keeping a proper balance between the work from home routine and health. the optimum performance is made sure using a few scientific techniques such as:

1. Pomodoro Technique
2. Regular intervals
3. Support groups
4. Workout schedules

This practice showcased a lot of benefits for the people working from home in the long run. Let’s look into some of these:

• Camera accountability:  During the project session, all the members in the group are encouraged to keep their cameras on. These sessions had a particular time mostly for 30mintues. The participants tend to be more productive due to the camera being accountable along with the timeline in which they have to complete the task. The cameras helped the participants to feel the presence of their group members ensuring that they complete the task on time without feeling lazy.
• Isolation rescued: Freelancers often struggle from isolation due to their remote work ambiance. Along with them most of the working class is now confined in their home ensuring the remote work from home ambiance. The Work gyms ensure that even during remote work sessions, participators have a group or a partner working in the same condition on camera so that they don’t feel isolated and alone. 
• Deep Flow: People tend to get more productive when they are having a deadline. The time sprints for each task ensures the same. Especially when the tasks are supposed to be completed within 30mins or more, people tend to work at their productivity peak. Some participants go so deep into their flow that they work way past their time sprints. This feeling of optimum productivity ends with some participants’ task achievements. 
• Motivating talks: Each task begins with a set of alarms. In between the tasks, there are some motivating talks to ensure that the participants never feel low. There are various cycles performed wherein they give out work out schedules. They are perfectly balanced ensuring proper mental and physical health of the participants. 

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200812-the-online-work-gyms-that-help-spur-productivity

Yes, not every organization has come up with the work gym ambiance. However, you can always practice your work gym sessions with your colleagues and friends together to ensure your perfect physical and mental health during these unpredictable times. 

The post Why do you need online gyms? Everything you need to know about fitness training online appeared first on Live Well Live True.

In simple terms, a good personal trainer can make or break your transformation journey. They can help you achieve your desired goals within the set time ensuring that you don’t feel burnt out. So, how to go about that hunt? Let’s figure out what do you need first. 

Setting the criteria’s:

You can browse through the internet the whole day still end up disheartened. To ensure that you are looking in the right direction, it is important to understand what you are looking for:

• Goal: What goals do you have? Do you want to lose or gain weight? Strength training? Prepping up for a tournament? There are personal trainers specialized in various departments. So, make sure you know in which department you seek help. 
• Experience: Are you new to personal training? Or did you go through personal training sessions before? This can become a ground-breaking factor to pick the right personal trainer.
• Style: What style of training do you seek? Do you need a trainer who can motivate you even on your low days? Or someone who can give tough love to you? Keep a note about that. 
• Certifications: There are various personal training certifications. Ensure that you have the basic knowledge about them. Have a thorough check about these certifications on the personal trainer’s profile. 
• Fees: Everybody wants to hunt for the best. But before you hit the play button, ensure that you have fixed a budget for yourself. Looking for the best in your budget is the wiser option. 

Where can you find personal trainers?

Let’s delve deeper into the 5 categories from where can you find personal trainers perfectly fit for your training:

1. Gyms: The gyms near you may have the best facilities for personal training It is always wise to look around your community first, as you can have a better idea. Hunt down for the top-rated gyms in your community and start looking into their personal training programs. Select your trainer upon the categories set above. If you are already a gym member or were a member before, your insights can be extremely helpful for your selection. You can even join the regular gym first in case you feel doubtful. After a few days, you will have an in-depth idea about the members and the ambiance around the gym. 
2. Youtube: If your hunt is going on the online platforms, youtube can be extremely handy. Many individual personal trainers have their own workout videos on youtube. It will help you to gain an idea about their training techniques and their personality. You can then opt for their paid programs as per your choice. Some top-rated personal trainers also host free workout challenges over a certain period. If you are still wandering around the fence, you can opt for these free sessions over youtube itself to try. Once you are convinced, you can avail of their paid programs to gain the maximum benefits.
3. Instagram: Instagram is an excellent platform to understand your trainers better. You can get the list of top-rated personal trainers on your required goal by just searching. All their certifications, client testimonials, lifestyle, food habit, is visible on their public accounts. Over Instagram, you can get an in-depth analysis of their price rates and payment plans. It will help you get a better idea about your options under the fixed budget range. 
4. Upwork/Fiverr: These two platforms contain a wide range of freelance personal trainers. You can register on these platforms and search for personal trainers. They will provide you with a list of best-fitted personal trainers as per choice. It will include their bio, personal details, certifications, testimonials, and their rates per hour. Having an hour session will help you understand whether you want to go forward with them or not. This becomes difficult on other platforms since most of them either have monthly plans or packages. 
5. Social media communities: Social media communities such as Facebook groups, telegram, and other community platforms can provide you with an upper hand over your selection process. You can join groups which are specific to personal training and can observe a lot of personal trainers at once. The other group members can provide you with their experience and opinion. It can ease up your process to select your personal trainer. 

Is it even worth the investment?

Hiring a personal trainer may seem like a luxury when you are on a tight budget. In the states of U.S., the average rate for personal trainers is 80-125$. Unless you are sure about your transformation journey and ready to take the next step, investing in personal training may not be the best option for you. 

So, how to ensure that do you even need that kind of an investment? Here are a few points that can help to make that decision for you-

• There are no visible results despite putting in your 100%. A personal trainer can exactly guide you out of your unknown mistakes. 
• You are a beginner, and you have no idea where to start your transformation journey. 
• From personal point of view, you need someone to hold you accountable and motivate you regularly. 
• You want to increase your strength level and get challenges under supervision. 
• Medical reasons – you have some specific illness that you need expert guidance over. 
• You are training for a specific competition/program. 
• You are no consistent with your training on your own. 

These are a few reasons that you can consider while opting in for a personal trainer. The transformation journey always gets easy when you have someone to guide you in the right direction. So, make sure you make your choice worth your time and investment. 

The post Where to find the perfect personal trainer of your choice? appeared first on Live Well Live True.

What are these health apps?

Health apps are applications that you can easily access to track your health. There are specific apps meant for specific purposes such as diet planners, fitness apps, and personal training apps. 

Most of the fitness and personal trainer apps include the diet and food section. Hence, we will delve deeper into these two sections of health apps. 

Fitness apps: Fitness apps are your go-to health guiding app. These include fitness trackers such as steps counter, heart rate, basic workout plans, meal plans, and others. Fitness apps can become your best buddy to get you started in your fitness journey. Along with the online community in these apps, you will never lack the motivation to work towards your dream body. 

If you are looking for a space to be inspired and work towards a better lifestyle both physically and mentally, fitness apps are designed to provide you so. It is filled with daily inspiration and prompts to develop your overall wellbeing and develop a healthy habit.
 
Personal Trainer apps: Personal trainer apps are a level up from the fitness apps. These platforms provide you with a specific workout routine in your preferred style like yoga, cardio, running, strength training, and others. These are often guided by an expert personal trainer. Personal trainer apps ensure that you get the experience of having a personal trainer while you stay amidst the comforts of your home.  

Personal trainer apps have a more professional outlook when it comes to the overall space. It is specific, catered to your requirements, and has a laser-sharp target for you to work on. If you have any specific target to achieve such as lose weight at a certain time, strength training, yogic exercises, and others, there are programs specifically designed for each one of them. 

Fitness apps VS Personal trainer apps

This seems like a never-ending debate. While there isn’t any conclusion to the fact that which one is better, here are a few pointers we have come up with to help you choose the best one for you. 

Programs: 

The workout plans and training programs created in fitness apps are much more beginner-friendly. They also come with a wide range of options to give you a taste of every form of physical activity before you niche down to your favorite. These are quick and easy to grasp, perfect for any beginner planning to start their fitness journey. 

As the name goes by, the programs in the personal trainer apps are guided through specific expert personal trainers. These are highly target-oriented and focused on getting you results. The videos are either recorded or live hosted by the personal trainer of your choice. Once you choose the plan, it will become consistent until you reach your target. 

Pricing: 

Being beginner-friendly, fitness apps are much cheaper. The best part is that you can find some of the most renowned fitness apps for free. They provide the basic features to track your fitness goals and stick to your healthy lifestyle. 

Some of the features include a calorie tracker, water tracker, workout videos, and support community, all of them form a perfect kit to keep you motivated towards your journey. 
Personal trainer apps are slightly towards the pricier end. Since the programs are specifically designed by expert personal trainers, the membership ensures that it can provide quality services to their clients. 

The apps also have various subscription plans and membership levels for you to choose from. It makes the selection process easy. Some of them even provide a trial period for you to judge yourself. 

Features:

Self-paced, leveling up, no guide, accountability, 
Fitness apps ensure that they provide you with all the basic features and trackers. Most of the programs inside these apps are self-paced i.e. you can access them at any given point and pick up from where you left at your own pace. The trackers help you to track your own progress. You can also shuffle between various workout plans such as cardio yoga, etc, and figure out what works best for you. 

Personal trainer apps generally come with a certain duration for your programs since the personal trainers manage these. These trainers either host live sessions or upload recorded videos according to your chosen plan and ultimate goal. 

They also hold you accountable and track your progress. One of the biggest boons for having a personal trainer app is that your personal trainer will know when you need to level up your game to manifest the best results. 

Personal trainer apps VS Fitness apps- which one is the best for you?

To finally answer this question, here are a few aspects that you need to look into-

• Are you a beginner at starting your fitness journey?
• How much time can you dedicate religiously, if you can at all?
• Can you keep yourself accountable? Or do you seek help?
• What kind of programs with what intensity are you looking for your fitness goals?
• What are the features that you need from your health app?

All these criteria will help you make the best choice for your fitness journey. You can also opt-in for the trial period in these apps and pick the perfect fit for you. 

Various apps are catering various fitness needs. You may want to keep an eye on our next blog where you present our top picks in personal trainer apps both for android and IOS for various fitness goals.

The post Personal trainer apps or fitness apps? The best pick for you in 2021 appeared first on Live Well Live True.

Perks of ‘Work from Home’

The importance of mental wellbeing is no more hidden. The trendy work from home culture gives ample time to spend at home with an option to work in pyjamas. One can work comfortably that office cubicles are not equipped with. Well, this works fine for a few days but prolonged work from home has side-effects that can’t be ignored.

This new culture drives away mental peace, it makes one feel sick anxious and depressed. In addition to it, there is continuous stress to meet the consecutive deadlines which increase stress levels. One experiences loneliness and isolation followed by the prolonged work from home hours.

When everything is closed down all around the world, it is very troublesome and common to have a terrible psychological wellness condition. Notwithstanding, in the ground level stages, exercise can be the logical answer for every one of these issues. Obviously, in the event that you are now seriously influenced, it is ideal to look for some expert counsel. Be that as it may, for the ground level stages, activities can do miracles to help manage psychological well-being issues.

One step closer to be on the right track

What can be done when you are locked up inside the four walls? Home workout is definitely a good option but for how long? Sooner or later, you may have to seek help because everyone needs an expert to guide through. Talking about physical exercises, you can join online gyms which includes a virtual session to give you the gym-environment.

Or you can choose a personal trainer. The job of a personal trainer is to plan a workout routine and a diet chart keeping in mind the requisites of his clients. Every individual has a different body requirement. Once, your trainer identifies your body type, how your body reacts to different exercises and diet, if you are allergic to certain pills or meals, he or she can frame a customised plan for you.

There is a plethora of online platforms which host scheduled sessions to beat the traffic of boredom and inculcate fitness around the globe. Be it weight gain, weight loss or muscle building, set goals for yourself and let your trainer know.https://www.trainerize.me/articles/what-to-look-for-when-hiring-an-online-personal-trainer/embed/#?secret=w0IRMoTAXD

Check on this article to know more about what to look when you are looking for online personal trainers. 

Benefits of online personal trainers

Each one of us has an alternate body necessity. Once, your coach distinguishes your body type, how your body responds to various activities and diet, on the off chance that you are hypersensitive to specific pills or diners, your online personal trainer can outline a modified arrangement for you in the online sessions.

1. Your money, your time!

As the entire training is online, you get to choose your convenient time to consult your online personal trainer. There is no need to wait to coordinate with others, or skip the work from home hours, or travel extra miles to reach the gym. Plus, the online coaches also give away free tips when you work out at home. 

2. Pocket-conscious

The expensive personal training at gyms is enough to spoil one’s enthusiasm. But when you are looking for the same online, you will be amazed to see the difference in your monthly expenditure on an online online personal trainer. A month-long online training is much less than one hour, which can never be so, if offline.

3. Easy approach

With online mode, it becomes a lot easier to get in touch with the online personal trainer than otherwise. You can communicate via text, call, Skype, or whatsoever means. There are chances that you get more attention as your health is regularly monitored by them through the app.

4. Expert Advice

As your radius is small and access is limited, you can only consult a personal trainer residing nearby, but with open online platforms, the world is in your reach. You just have to enrol yourself to get in touch with the expert in the field and track your progress. You are in safe hands!

5. Technological advancements

One of the best perks about online sessions is the optimum use of technology. Unlike the real scenario, virtual personal training offers to screen the correct posture and viewing workouts live via camera. Phone heart rate monitor lets you check your progress precisely. With all of these, your online personal trainer also has access to set difficulty levels for you. This is made possible by the internet connected exercise machines. 

6. Inspiration

When self-motivation fails, inspiration from the right one works. With a concerned online personal trainer, your goal to achieve desired results become easier. The trainer can have a check on your daily progress and have a weekly chat for you to complete your workouts regularly. With the right motivation, you can’t resist being active but show results.

7. The Goal!

With the online apps, you can track your progress every day. Every detail that your body has performed gets tracked. Additionally, you can know stats like your body weight and fat percentage. The online apps have various options to choose from to show the graph of your actual progress.

Check out the benefits of online personal trainers.

A genuine token of advice

Don’t let these benefits mesmerise you. There is more to know when everything is online. The major question here arises is how can one find out if his/her online trainer is eligible for the training? What more can he offer? Is the training provided by him well-recommended and certified? All these details are mandatory before joining the online program. Only then, you can truly enjoy the above discussed benefits of online personal training.

1. DON’Ts to follow:

• Do not fall prey to presentation: You may be attracted to a website’s attractive look or the number of followers of an online trainer. Your judgement will be biased with the provocative look but do not fall for it.
• Do not judge a book by its cover: A fit-looking trainer s not all that speaks out loud for his training. Always refer to the testimonials and pictures (before and after) of real clients shared on the website. 
• Do not opt for shortcuts: There are plenty of supplements available in the market. If the online personal trainer is offering you these supplements even before getting to know your body requisites, diet plans, goals set, etc., do not hang on to that site any longer.  

2. Certification:

Anyone can look fit, also anyone can gain an online certification to turn into a “fitness coach”, but this doesn’t generally mean they realize how to help other people arrive at their wellness objectives. There are numerous accreditations that coaches can get, however, the best one among them is professional education in Kinesiology or related field. It is highly unlikely to become a fitness coach learning on the web or in an end-of-the-week course, what one would realize in a long-term advanced education. 

On the off chance that you don’t see a degree, don’t forget about them immediately, there are some enormous administering bodies that offer broad accreditation courses, for example, NCSA, CSEP, CanfitPro, ACE, NASM, and ACSM. 

Also, letters behind their names do not really mean a great deal. Do make it a point to check if the coach is as yet proceeding to go to workshops and read books identified with their field. Likewise, in the event that they will be recommending you a diet chart or explicit nourishment data, ensure they have some sort of sustenance confirmation or training.

Certifications you need for online personal training

3. Research on real clients:

Is the online training program as effective as it is visualised? Were others also benefitted following the tips and suggestions of the trainer?

If the coach is new to the field, he probably won’t have a great deal of when pictures but in the event that he is making professes to be the best online personal trainer or that he has helped thousands achieve the desired targets, then at that point, he ought to have evidence of these cases. If the site does not contain any of these shreds of evidence, do not waste any of your time on that website. 

Always make sure to watch that they have worked with customers like you with comparable objectives, and not just with weight lifters, competitors, or extremely fit people. On the off chance that you are a normal individual searching for weight reduction and to figure out how to practice securely and adequately, this current coach’s speciality probably won’t fall into your requirements. In this case, you need somebody who represents considerable authority as per your needs.

Should you take up the online personal training?

Consider your inspiration, objectives, and your wellness level. In case you are a beginner in working out, you may profit more from in-person training. This encourages you to keep away from wounds and gets you to your objectives quicker. Additionally, on the off chance that you will, in general, possibly appear at exercises when you have a set arrangement, then you should avoid the virtual way, rather select a mentor at your rec centre or gym. 

Yet, if you do have the self-inspiration to get to the exercise centre and overpowered when you are alone, virtual training is the right thing for you. Likewise, on the off chance that you don’t have a gym in your locality, or if you are experiencing difficulty arriving at your objectives despite the fact that you have been getting this party started all alone, or you have a jam-pressed timetable and need an exercise, you can undoubtedly start with the online personal training. It will probably be your smartest choice.

Ways of online personal training:

1. As mentioned, online training enlists exercises customized according to your objectives. However, the methods that you choose to find the right trainer and collaborate with him/her relies upon the strategy you pick. For instance, applications like Trainiac ($50/month) and Future ($150/month) offer admittance to their own list of mentors who make customized programs. 

You share your objectives and involvement in exercise in the application and a mentor will define an arrangement to match so. You would then be able to send messages to and from to share your progress and other updates.

2. Additionally, there is another strategy for online personal training which comes directly from the mentor. Numerous mentors grow their contributions outside of a studio or rec centre (gym), permitting you to take their projects any place you like. 

The coach reviews a month-long program of activities, reps, and sets, and give instructional recordings on the most proficient method to do each move in the program which is monitored by them personally. They also make themselves available to answer queries and/or concerns you have en route. 

3. A few trainers utilize an application like True Coach, which permits them to associate with customers and they give customized exercises through the app, without meeting in person.

Taking care of your wallet

Online personal training can obviously be savvier than joining with a gym trainer at the gym. Web gives you access to approach the top-level coaches, regardless of whether you don’t have one topographically close to you. As your span after the tight schedule of work from home hours is little and also your access is restricted by distance, the internet has made it possible to open up the world-class options for you. You only need to connect with the master in the field and keep tabs on your development. 

Probably the best advantage of online meetings is the ideal utilization of innovation. In contrast to the genuine situation, virtual training offers to screen the right stance and survey exercises live by means of a camera. Telephone pulse screen lets you check your advancement exactly. With these, your online fitness coach can set difficulty levels for you. This is made conceivable by advancements in web technology.

The trainers typically charge at least $100 per meeting. But in the online training, most of the applications range from $50 to $150 per month and the individual mentors will also charge comparable costs, approximately $200 per month, contingent upon the mentor. 

Another side of the coin:

With lined up benefits, there are opinions that differ.

• If you are looking for a trainer to make your postures critically right, then online training may not be up to the mark.
• You may lack motivation as there is no one to physically check on you. However, it is highly recommended that you become more independent than relying on someone else to give that extra push. 
• One more factor that may be concerning while opting your online personal trainer is its safety as the online platforms are always not reliable.

But if you do a proper investigation, like background-check of the trainer, refer to testimonials published on the website, etc., then you can easily find the legit source of the app and your online personal trainer.

How to make the most from online personal training?

To make the most from your personal online training, answer all the questions genuinely, that the coach seeks, related to you, your goals, your tenacity with physical activities, etc. 

Once you set the program with your trainer, make sure that you get the individual attention from the coach to bring out the best form of you. Your progress should be tracked every week and the coach should tell you all about it in detail. If still, you think things are not working out, have a clear chat with the coach to make the virtual sessions work as much as possible. Your strategy to beat the stress levels and tactics to escape from the tedious work from home hours should not go in vain.

Online training is sophisticated. It is for those people who need that one extra push to reach their goal set, or for those who are seeking for guidance to get in shape. One click solves the problem for all those people out there. If you are one, then remember you too are just a click away!

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It’s not only the change in lifestyle routines that is uncomfortable but starting something new in a social environment can make your nerves anxious. To top it all off, the pandemic has given another major reason for people to start focusing upon their physical fitness from the comfort of their homes. 

So, to sum all the problems and solutions up, new workout routines are coming out for you to try out online every single day. Yes, the market gets flooded with beginner-friendly workout plans and programs that can easily help you get started on your fitness journey. 

But, let’s talk about the process. How should you actually go about with your workout sessions and your training programs when you are starting with your fitness journey? Below we will discuss the basic roadmap that will help you to have an idea and get started with your fitness journey. 

How to get started with the journey?

Let’s look into the steps in detail:

• The why: This plays one of the ground-breaking factors to determine how your workout journey will actually proceed. Understand the reason for you to start. Is it for a certain program coming up, is it to get fit, is it to recover from a certain disease/injury, etc. Understanding the reason will help you to choose the type of workout that you want to go forward with and in return help, you stick through the journey.
• The vibe: Understanding your vibe plays a crucial role in picking up the workout routines and videos. Go through the online websites and other streaming platforms. Look for workout routines that are challenging you but at the same time do not exhaust you to the next level. Find out with whom your vibes match. You can try out the free trial period on these platforms for some time and then opt for the paid version. There are a lot of creators who create these routines for free as well. If you find something that matches your requirement, go for it. 
• Adapt to change: Accept the fact that it may feel uncomfortable for a few days. At this point, a lot of beginners give up. In such cases, stick through the routine, spice it up or tone it down. The key out here is to be consistent until your body gets adapted to this new level of physical training. 
• Too much on a plate: While trying out new things we often end up taking too many things on our plate. Understand that your body may not be able to take up so much exertion all at once. It can even lead to severe injury, and ultimately you have to give it up. Take things slowly and give your body the time to adjust. Once your body do not feel challenged anymore, you can amp up your routine and add some new challenges and elements.   
• Timings: Every one of us has different timings for our workout routines. Try out different routines, morning, evening, or any timing, and figure out when your body responds the best. Without understanding it you may not feel the enthusiasm and energy to follow through your training sessions, leading to inconsistency and no results. 
• Diet: By this, we don’t mean you leave every food you love. Along with your physical workout, try to eat clean as much as possible. It will complement your training sessions as a beginner and will help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In addition to that, ensure that you get your regular source of all the necessary amount of vitamins and proteins. Since you will be working out, your body will require these nutrients more as compared to your previous food habit. 

Key points to start working out as a beginner at home

Once you have understood the type of workout you want to go forward with, it is now time to look into some of the key factors. These will help you to ensure that you do not fall prey to beginner mistakes and continue with your workout routines with ease. 

• Warm-up: We all love to skip the steps and get into the juicy bit all at once. But ignoring your warm-ups can result in severe sore muscles at the very least. These can also cause muscle damage due to the strain that the actual workouts can cause if your body is not warm enough. Ensure that you never miss out on this. 
• Cool-down stretch: Yes, your routine might sound exhausting already, but this is another crucial part which ideally, you shouldn’t miss. Cool-down stretches become the savior of those post-workout sore muscles. These exercises help your body relax and breathe, ensuring that your muscles are well rested and don’t cause any pain after a few hours. 
• Hydration: Ensure that you are well hydrated throughout the day. Lack of hydration becomes one of the major factors for body fatigue, tiredness, and muscle fatigue. Consume at least 4litres of water regularly if you are starting out with your workout sessions.
• Accountability partner: When you are starting to work out as a beginner at home, there will be days where you do not feel like getting out of your sweatpants and wearing your workout clothes. It can happen more often when you are training online. In such cases, getting one accountability partner on board can save you from those gloomy days. 

 You can always have each other’s back, ensuring that you are consistent with your training programs to see the maximum result. Despite you not hitting the gym, your partner can become that added push that will help you to achieve your fitness goals. 

• S.M.A.R.T Goals: Create goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Keeping all the five factors in check will help you create realistic goals for yourself without facing any disappointment. As a beginner, you may often end up expecting way too little or way too much out of a training program that you are following at home. Understanding your goals and setting proper measures helps to understand whether or not you can stick through the plan.
• Check your health: Before you even begin with your training programs, get your health checked. Getting an idea about the current condition of your physical health will help you to understand which type of workout should you go forward with. Along with that, in case if you are dealing with any injury or chronic disease, consulting a physician before you start beginner workouts at home becomes a mandatory step. 
• Measure your progress: In addition to the previous point, keep a regular check over your body to see your progress. Have a set time after how many weeks do you want to measure yourself and stick to that. Check your weight and other measurements to ensure that you are making progress and not following routines that aren’t working for you. 
• Hire a personal trainer: Working out from the comfort of your home sounds all fancy until you actually struggle to make progress. Especially when you are starting out, it may feel difficult and overwhelming to figure it all out all by yourself. 

In such cases, hiring an online personal trainer can really ease out the process for you. He/she will understand all your requirements as well as understand what your body needs. After getting all this information they will create a workout plan that fits your physical training requirements. 

How to do the common beginner workouts at home

We are not going to leave you all alone to let you figure everything out on your own. Below we will talk about some of the common beginner-friendly workouts that you can perform at home that can help you get started with your fitness journey without much hassle. 

• Press-ups: The press-up or the push-up is an upper-body exercise that focuses upon the pectoral muscles on your chest, legs, and triceps. This exercise also helps to strengthen your core muscles. Press-ups are primarily done by keeping your whole body in a straight line position while lying down. The whole pressure of your body falls into your arms and toes. 

You can follow the following steps to execute a press up effectively:

1. Lie down in a straight line with your stomach on the floor. 
2. Spread your arms slightly wider than your shoulders, 
3. With the help of your arms put pressure on your palms and try to lift your body above the floor. 
4. Ensure that your hips are not high and your body is maintaining the straight line along with your toes. 
5. Keep the palm firm on the floor and try to fold in your arms to get your body back to the original position on the floor. 
6. Keep repeating this process while ensuring that your body maintains the straight line. 

Make sure that you record yourself while attempting this until you get it perfect. Incorrectly doing this workout can cause strain on the muscles leading to soreness and even injury. 

• Skipping: Skipping or jump rope is one of the most effective exercises that you can incorporate into your routine for overall fitness. It helps to build your strength and endurance, making the overall body healthy. Jumping ropes is one of the best workouts if you want to burn more calories within a short duration of time and have fun. 

Below we will look into the step-by-step guide to practice skipping. 

1. Hold both the handles of the skipping rope with each of your hands. Stretch it on the parallel side of your body and keep the rope behind your ankles. 
2. Slowly swift it forward across your head and rotate it. Once you see the rope approaching your knees, do a small sprint to get the rope past your toes. 
3. Once you have rotated the rope quite a few times, start adding one loop after the other without any break. The handles can move swiftly, so you do not have to swing your arms way too much. 
4. After you get the hack of it, practice jumping ropes on your toes. This helps to make the process much more smooth and also ensures that you can pace up without getting tired easily. 

• Dumbbell step-up: The dumbbell step-up exercise primarily works on the quads, glutes, and calves’ muscles. These muscles can help to increase your leg strength while you are starting with your beginner workout routine at home. It also helps to even out any sort of strength imbalance that you are facing. 

Below we will look into the procedure on how you can carry out dumbbell step-up easily at home. 

1. Pick up the weight as per your choice and convenience with your hands. You can either place your hands near your shoulder or keep them parallel to your body. 
2. Press your right ankle to lift your right leg up on the step straight. 
3. Bring your left leg near the right leg and bring it up the step without bending. 
4. Fold your right leg from your knee and place it down the step. 
5. Bring down your left leg beside the right leg on the ground. 
6. Repeat the procedure to complete the set. 

While going through this exercise ensure that you are not using weights that are either too heavy or too light. It will negatively impact on your muscles, either leading to strain or no work at all. 

• Dead bug: As a beginner, if you are wondering about how to strengthen your core muscles and ensure stability over your strength, the dead bug is the perfect workout for you. It helps to build a solid foundation, strengthening your spine. Dead bugs also act as a great savior if you are dealing with back injury or back pain in general. 

Let’s look into the step-by-step procedure on how you can do a dead bug at home. 

1. Lie straight on your back on the floor. 
2. Lift both your hands up at a 90 degree i.e. your elbows should be above your shoulders. 
3. Lift both your legs up until your knees align directly over your hips. 
4. While exhaling move your right hand and left leg towards the ground, back to your original position. But ensure that it doesn’t touch the ground. 
5. When inhaling lift your right hand and left leg back to the previous position. 
6. Repeat the process with your left and hand right leg. 
7. This is the completion of rep 1. Continue doing this until the completion of the set. 

• Crunch: If you are someone who is dreaming to hoard on those perfect abs someday, you must have heard about this workout. Crunches work on your core muscles especially your abdominal area and hence are effective for the toned abs. The crunches may cause strain to your neck and back therefore it is important to follow the process keenly. 

Any sort of wrong posture can cause severe injury to your neck or back muscles. However, this workout is extremely beginner-friendly so you can master it with ease. 

Below we will look into the process of doing crunches step-by-step. 

1. Lie down straight on your back. 
2. Keep your feet on the floor and bend your knees. 
3. Cross your hands and keep them above your chest. 
4. Try to contract your abs muscles and inhale. 
5. Exhale and try to lift your upper body up while your hands are placed at your chest. 
6. Inhale and go back to the original position.  

• Two-point bridge: If you want to try out something a bit more challenging, the two-point bridge can be the next task for you. This particular workout tests your strength, coordination, and core all at once. This is an amp-up version of the normal plank and can definitely help your body to enhance its strength. Ensure that you maintain the correct posture and follow the procedure precisely. 

1. Lie down flat on your stomach. Put your palms and toes on the ground and lift your body up by straightening your arms as you do in a push-up. 
2. Contract your core muscles as you inhale. Lift your right hand and left leg up as you exhale. 
3. Inhale as you bring them back to the original position. Repeat the process with your left hand and right leg. 
4. Ensure that your body is parallel straight to the ground and your hips are not sticking high above. 

Including workouts into your daily lifestyle does not need a lot of work now. With the rates of choosing fitness as a mandatory part of your lifestyle growing sky high, it is important to understand that this is worth every hype. You can easily choose to keep yourself fit from the comfort of your own home. In the end, it is all about you leading a fit lifestyle and age healthily, disease-free. So, start working on your next fitness goal today rather than waiting for the new year’s resolution to kick in!

The post How to do a beginner workout at home appeared first on Live Well Live True.

It will not be surprising if all these sounds familiar to you. The worldwide opportunity that the working class received to work from the comfort of their home comes with its own set of mental health ruinations. As the world faces one of its greatest biological battles, we human always have this constant feeling of helplessness. 

There is an unending list of benefits that can be pulled down for the facility of work from home but, staying at home 24*7 causes massive damage to the mental wellbeing. This constant struggle with the personal and professional life has drawn a big chunk of society worldwide into the victim hands of ill mental health. 

Why is taking care of mental health important now, more than ever?

Good mental health acts as the 70% fuel for our optimum productivity level in our day to day life. Neglecting mental health struggles has been a part of our life for the longest time. But now is the time to take care of it more than ever. 

• Good mental wellbeing ensures that negative hormones are secreted in minimum amounts in our body. 
• It directly ensures that we have a positive behavior and approach towards everyone and everything we do. 
• During these hard times, a positive mental wellbeing ensures that we look after our dear ones better. 

When you avoid the symptoms that your body is showcasing as a sign of ill mental health, it tends to increase as time passes by until one fine day when you are overwhelmed with it. 

So, what are these mental health issues we are talking about as an effect?

• Increased stress due to work ambiance and style.
• The constant struggle with anxiety
• Feeling stuck and depressed
• Overwhelmed with loneliness and isolation
• The constant pressure to hustle harder. 
• A mixed emotion of some or all of the above. 

These are some of the most common mental health issues that most people are dealing with as a result of work from home scenarios. So, now the question arises, how to cope up with this situation?

When everything is shut down globally, it is quite difficult and natural to have a bad mental health condition. However, in the ground level stages, exercise can be the scientific solution to all these issues. Of course, if you are already severely affected, it is best to seek some professional advice. But, for the ground level stages, exercises can do wonders to help deal with mental health issues. 

Benefits of exercise upon mental health issues

Before we speak about the benefits, it’s important to keep in mind that we are not suggesting hitting the gym and that isn’t feasible either. What we are trying to implicate is how exercises at home can help you deal with and achieve good mental wellbeing. 

• Exercise increases the level of good hormones such as endorphins that helps you to deal with the feeling of pain and other mental health issues. 
• It keeps your body moving hence it helps you to stay fit physically that directly affects your mental health. 
• While you work from home, you often forget to take breaks away from the work thoughts. Exercises help you to get that break away from work. 
• Yoga and meditation are specifically designed to take care of your mind. The exercises are easy yet mindful that help to deal with some of the greatest mental health issues. 
• Constant work from home makes you work anytime and every time of the day making your routine the same. The brain fails to shut down work even if you aren’t working due to the same ambiance. Exercise helps to break the monotonous schedule and allows your mind to calm down.

All the goodness infused with basic home workout can help you beat mental health issues you are going through due to hectic work life at home.

Let us dive deep into each of these mental health issues and how exercise can help to come to terms with it in a better way.  

Here is a You tube from a psychiatrist, the Medscape video reference for the benefits of exercises upon mental health issues:

Mental health effects due to work from home:

Stress-

Is the first thing you do after waking up is put on the multiple task hat? While you are working from home, it is quite obvious that work isn’t the only thing that you are doing. A mixture of all the household routines along with work can leave anybody stressed. According to a report by European Foundation for the Improvement of living and working conditions, 41% of remote working employees report higher levels of stress compared to 25% of the ones who work at office. 

What stresses out the situation more is uncertainty. Yes, despite this being a part of life, uncertainty about the job, work, healthcare has struck badly into the stress levels.

Another major cause of stress at such times is the loss of control over the future. People like to have a general plan set about the near and far future that gives them a sense of control. However, during these times, it is not possible to predict or plan for the future as times may take a turn anytime. All these thoughts become an add-on to the stress levels. 

How exercise can help to deal with it?

• Yoga: Yogic exercises and stretching give in a sense of control over the body and mind. When you can attain this, your mind becomes more poised for you to take control over. 
• Walking: A brief walk or run at the terrace can give you that desired break from the overwhelming work schedule your brain is longing to have. 
• Workout: Light workout can help your muscles relax a bit releasing all the added tension that got built up due to the unending work hours. 

Work from home schedules tends to keep our body stagnant at one place building up all that extra stress. The idea is to take short breaks in between and keep your body moving that helps your mind to adapt to the change in the environment. 

Anxiety-

Is your body muscle in a constant shake while you freak out glaring at your laptop screen? Then chances are there that you are having anxiety. 

Excessive stress leads to an upscale mental health issue leading to anxiety. One cannot differentiate much between stress and anxiety unless you observe minutely. However, the scale of reaction in anxiety is higher. Your body never seems to rest even if you are not working, the mind seems to be overwhelmed with all the thoughts that are not in your control even when you go to sleep. 

Well, that’s not it. Anxiety can worsen your sleep pattern leading to some episodes of anxiety attacks. These attacks are mental breakdown periods when you don’t have any control over your emotions anymore. 

How can exercise help you deal with anxiety?

Anxiety leads to build in a lot of stress that tends to move out of the body. Due to this, your muscles feel at a constant move whenever you are anxious. Exercise helps to process out this excess energy in a better way.  

• Workout: To get rid of that excess energy build-up, there is no better way than doing freestyle workouts at home. You can either do it yourself or take the help of online applications or videos to do the same. 
• Dance: There is no better way to get rid of anxiety and uplift your mood than dance. It helps your body to work out that energy without letting it feel like an added mental pressure. 
• Meditation: one of the major symptoms of anxiety includes a racing heartbeat and shortage of breath. Meditation will help you to calm your mind and get your heartbeat in control. 
• Deep breathing: Nothing works better for someone who faces anxiety than deep breathing. An excess amount of oxygen into the body gives it a sense of control and calm heart rate. It is important to do if you feel you are losing control over yourself i.e. near to an anxiety attack. 

Depression-

When you are constantly working from home for months, chances are there that you might be going through a feeling of being stuck. Being in that loop of working without any promotion, without a change in ambiance, without anyone to talk to often makes one feel hopeless in life. As if they are not fulfilling their goals and that they are doomed. 

Depression can be a result of anything or everything that is affecting your mental well-being constantly. If you unnecessarily feel burnt, face constant emotional breakdown without reason, and feel hopeless about yourself, you may be leading into the paths of depression or are already depressed. 

You need to seek professional help for this. There is no alternative. Depression isn’t a battle that you can overcome alone. However, in addition to professional guidance, exercise can help you and become your right arm in the battle. 

• Cardio exercise: Cardio exercises are the ultimate gift you can give to your body and mind. The amounts of good hormones such as endorphins, dopamine secreted during cardio exercises help you to deal with depression better. 
• Tai Chi: Similar to yogic exercises, this form of light movement exercises practiced in the eastern region can help you break-free the aura of depression your body is dealing with. 
• Yoga: Nothing better than yoga can help you attain that blissful balance of mind and body. It gives a sense of connection and understanding of what your body needs without being overwhelmed with it. 
• Walking: at times being in the same environment for a long time can become a bonus to your depression journey. So, change and amp up your ambiance a bit, go for a walk. If not outside, at least at the terrace.

Pressure, loneliness, and isolation-

Working from home and staying in at all times have caused our life to cut out from a lot of important aspects. Social interaction, communication with one’s own-self and others, and ultimately, cutting out the interaction of our mind with our body. All this leads to a constant build-up of unknown pressure, loneliness, and isolation. 

Exercise helps you to gain that lost connection. It helps you to gain clarity with what your body needs and is trying to convey. 

• Social workout sessions: due to the overwhelming routine you are having, there is a clear excuse to avoid social interaction. Get a workout buddy along with you. It will help you to get over isolation and enhance your body balance well. 
• Walking: Having a walk outside (even terrace) can help you feel more connected to social beings. It will enhance your interaction decreasing your sense of loneliness. 
• Dance: Dance your heart out. It will help you to get rid of all the extra pressure built up and overcome isolation. Also, this works as a good cardio workout hence, all the hormones secreted will uplift your mood like no other. 
• Community Yoga: There a lot of online yoga communities that practice yoga every day at a particular time. Join these communities to keep your social interaction in check while enjoying the perfect blend of your mind and body control at the same time. 
• Meditation: Meditation helps your body and mind to deal with all the mental wellbeing challenges your daily routine brings in. 

The wellbeing of your mind is extremely crucial to have an immune body system and healthy life. Exercise plays a vital role to attain the same. Having the same ambiance, the whole day and night doesn’t help your brain and mind to shut your work off and relax. The whole difference between work life and personal life gets blurred when you work from home. Yes, it comes with its own sets of benefits but with the price of your mental wellbeing. 

The responsibility of your mental health is upon your own hands. Exercise and meditation at home is your best friend to do so. It is important to take care of your mental wellbeing now so that you can be at your productive best at all times.

The post How to adapt exercises at home to ensure mental wellbeing? appeared first on Live Well Live True.

So, what is HIIT? And is it even worth the hype, the claims, and every other result? We will debunk all of these in the upcoming sections. 

What is high-intensity training?

As the term suggests, high-intensity training emphasizes on training sessions that have high-intensity workouts with short intervals. These workouts are a form of interval training alternating short periods of anaerobic exercise accompanied by a less intense recovery period. 

The workout schedules primarily include cardio sessions, but HIIT isn’t limited to that. It can be customized as per the goals into short yet intensive weight-training sessions as well. These workouts ideally last for a 30minute session as the energy hits low after that. Each of these activities gets performed on average for a duration of 20seconds followed by a 10second recovery period. 

The HIIT sessions involve repetitive bursts of high-intensity workouts followed by low-intensity breaks. This particular pattern is extremely effective. It not only helps in muscle tone, fat burning, endurance, cardio fitness, and other aspects but also produces post-oxygen consumption or EPOC. It helps to ensure that you are burning fat even post-workout!

Types of HIIT workouts

There are primarily 4 types of HIIT workouts depending upon the goals you want to achieve and the muscles you want to target. Let’s delve briefly into each of these types-

Tabata HIIT: This form of HIIT workout session is one of the most popular and effective HIIT. Tabata sessions last for only 4minutes each session. But that might feel like the longest four minutes ever! 

The workouts consist of 8 rounds of training divided into 20seconds of high-intensity training followed by 10seconds of the recovery phase. Tabata sessions emphasize the glutes, core, and back muscles. Exercises, to begin with, Tabata can be Squats, lunges, crunches, and others. 

Full-body HIIT: Full-body HIIT workouts are ideal for anyone and everyone whose goal is to lose weight and get fit. Compared to any long session of cardio workouts, full-body HIIT training is much more effective and burns more fat even post workouts. These kinds of workout sessions are also ideal for toning your muscles. 

The full-body high-intensity interval training session focuses on all the muscle groups of the body ranging from glutes, shoulders, core, arms, and the overall body in itself. Some exercises to begin within this training would be push-ups, jumping jacks, side-kicks, mountain climbers, bear crawls, and others. 

Cardio HIIT: The workout sessions in the cardio HIIT focus and enhances your heart rates. The workouts are planned around exercises that can help to amplify your heart rate leading to burning more fat, improving bone density, enhancing your endurance and cardiovascular system. Always make a note to get yourself checked in case you have some issues with the health of your heart. 

The muscles cardio HIIT sessions focusses mainly on the core, back, glutes, quadriceps, and others. There is no specific exercise other than the fact that you need to ensure that your heart rates are at its maximum level. 

Weight training HIIT: Adding weight to your HIIT sessions can take your training sessions to the next level. It will ensure vigorous training for your muscles, enhancing your muscle strength, bone density, and overall heart rate. Ideally, if you are starting out with your HIIT training, it is better to avoid weights. Once you ace the exercises, you can take them to the next level with weights. 

Weight training HIIT sessions focus on shoulders, triceps, hip muscles, and other muscle groups. You can begin your sessions with workouts like squats, shoulder press, hip dips, and others. 

Benefits of high-intensity training

Yes, HIIT is high-intensity training based on short sprints of interval. But how is it helpful? What are the benefits and results-driven from HIIT? We will look into 5 benefits of high-intensity interval training-

• Helps to burn more calories: The design of HIIT training includes high-intensity workouts. Hence, these workouts sessions burn more calories than any other training program in a short span. HIIT can help to burn calories even after the workout session with EPOC.
• Enhances metabolic rates: The workout sessions are planned so that your metabolic rates are high even after the workout session. This ensures that you are actively burning more fat, and the excess doesn’t get stored in your body.
• Tone your muscles: High-intensity workout sessions can help to tone your muscles and enhance your muscle strength. The workouts help to increase your muscle strength and deplete any excess fat in the muscles.
• Enhances overall oxygen consumption: HIIT workouts enhance the overall oxygen consumption of your body. It helps in building your endurance and ensures that the maximum amount of oxygen gets utilized by the body. This occurs generally with long sessions of cycling or other cardio activities but with HIIT, you can reap the benefits in much lesser time. 
• Reduces chronic illness: These training sessions ensure that the chronic diseases with being overweight get decreased. HIIT can help to reduce your blood pressure and maintain your blood sugar level. Along with this it also helps to keep your heart rate in check. 

High-intensity interval training for beginners

If you want to get started with high-intensity interval training sessions from the comfort of your home, there are a lot of HIIT training videos available. It can help to ensure that you can continue your HIIT workouts from home. 

However, ensure that you have gone through a proper check-up before diving into any of these sessions. We all want to achieve our targets as soon as possible. But HIIT is no shortcut to any of your fitness goals. Hence, ensure that you don’t overstrain yourself. 

Have proper guidance before you start out. It can either be from a personal trainer or online fitness apps that include specific workout plans for beginners. You can check out our article on Fitness aps to have a better understanding of which one can be the perfect fit for you. 

The post High-intensity interval training for your next fitness goal appeared first on Live Well Live True.

Terms like cross-fit reps or boxes are common when you are trying to know more about these intensive training routines. But, on the contrary, cross-fit is not just for hardcore exercise enthusiasts, it is for all. 

What is cross-fit training?

By definition, cross-fit training is a combination of frequently varied high-intensity functional movement. These functional movements are essentially the way our bodywork in daily life such as sitting, standing, squatting down, lifting things, etc. Ideally, it is said that if you get better with your cross-fit postures and movements, you get better at your daily life activities. 

This form of exercise became extremely popular a few years back when box gyms started to show up. There are various kinds of workout features and variations of squats, push-ups, weight-lifting, and others. Cross-fit gets targeted towards improving the general physical strength and preparedness rather than achieving specialized movements. 

There is often a preconceived notion that cross-fit workouts are highly intensive and intimidating. It is not for everyone. The truth is cross-fit is for anyone and everyone who wish to achieve and improve their health and work towards their fitness goals. 

The benefits of cross-fit training

Let us look into some of the benefits that cross-fit training can reap into your body and health:

• Improve physical strength: Cross-fit training challenges your body regularly. It helps to improve your overall body strength and stamina. Along with that, regular implementation of weights in your routine can help to attain muscle strength and improve your muscle gain throughout. You can also take up a workout of the day session to ensure that you are regularly challenging your body. 
• Enhances balance and flexibility: Cross-fit training workout routines get created around the functional movements in daily life. Including this in your fitness training helps to improve your overall flexibility, agility, and balance. It will also help you to perform your daily task more swiftly. It also helps you to stay much more flexible even at old age. 
• Aerobic fitness: Cross-fit training is high-intensity power training. These can help you to improve and increase the amount of oxygen you can utilize during an exercise to the maximum level. It can also help to improve your overall aerobic fitness with these functional high-intensity movements. 
• Weight-loss and health: Since these workout routines are highly intensive, cross-fit training can help you burn more calories than usual with less amount of time. Along with that, it helps to maintain an overall fit body that is free of any sort of chronic illness for a longer time. If your goal is to attain a healthy lifestyle, include cross-fit training along with a healthy diet. 

How to get started with cross-fit?

Out of all the intimidations you face, getting started with cross-fit can become one of the biggest challenges. But here are a few steps that can help you to get started in your cross-fit journey: 

• The stereotypes: Before you start with cross-fit, it is important to get rid of all the stereotypical beliefs about cross-fit training. 
• The box: Find a cross-fit box near you. A couple of gyms should be ideal to try out and understand their ambiance, training equipment, and the culture in general. 
• The assessment: Before you jump into cross-fit, it is important to go through your physical assessment. It will help you to understand that whether or not you are fit for cross-fit training. Without this, you may end yourself up at a huge risk. 
• Trial: Once you have finalized the cross-fit box, it is now time to go for a trial and check out for yourself that do you like that space or are willing to go through this cross-fit training workout routine. 
• Take it slow: It is easy to get all pumped up and work out extra hard, leading to severe burnouts. It may cause a long-term effect on your body and may hamper the visible results as well. So, don’t be disheartened and take it slow. 

How to go about cross-fit training? 

It is easy to get caught up in the hype and end up getting hurt in such intensive training routines. Yes, if not handled with care, cross-fit routines can be dangerous. Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind: 

• Warm up before you start this training. High-intensity workouts in cross-fit can put major stress over your muscles and bones. So, ensure that it is properly warmed up. 
• Pay attention to your body well. Understand when are you challenging your body to the next level and when are you pushing yourself way too hard. Crossing that line can cost you a major injury.
• Ace the basics first. Before you add weights to your training routines, make sure that you have properly mastered the postures and techniques of the workouts. Improper postures can cause severe strain and adding weights to them can cause major damage. 
• Take baby steps, one step at a time. It is important to keep track of it and do not rush into the process. 

The average cost of cross-fit training ranges somewhere between $75-$225 per month. Depending upon the expertise, experience, fitness goal, and the number of days you perform, the cross-fit training prices may vary. 

However, if you are new to this and do not want to head to the gym regularly, you can definitely include cross-fit training at home. Not only is it cheaper but you can easily access the videos anytime from the fitness apps of your program. Having said that, even if you are working out from home, ensure that you do have the proper equipment to go about cross-fit training. 

Cross-fit training can be a life-changing routine. It can not only help you to achieve your fitness goals but to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle for a longer period. 

The post Everything you need to know about cross-fit training appeared first on Live Well Live True.

Stating the first thing first- High-intensity training or HIIT is ideal for anyone and everyone who is not going through any health condition. So, if you are up for burning some calories without much time, HIIT is for you. 

However, get yourself checked in case your body may not be eligible to take in intense workouts. Especially since your heart rates will increase and decrease as per the routine.

How to begin a high-intensity workout as a beginner?

With all the various routines, time-specific workouts, and recovery phrases, HIIT workouts may seem intimidating. How do you even start addressing it as a beginner? While it is best if you can start under the guidance of a trainer but here are a few steps that can help you to gain more clarity and get started with high-intensity interval training:

• Consistency: This is the first step towards the adaption of any routine. HIIT workouts can burn you out very quickly and very easily as a beginner. So, it is important to make note of how much can you bear in a day. It will ensure that you stick to it consistently. If required, start with 1-minute of high-intensity workouts. 

• Tabata HIIT workout: A good routine to begin with a high-intensity workout as a beginner can be Tabata style. It is the most common and effective style of HIIT. We will be talking more about it in detail later on in the article.

• Get a plan: High-intensity workouts may not work well unless you have a proper plan and schedule for it. Ensure that you have properly divided your cardio and full-body HIIT workouts throughout the week. A good way to get started can be via fitness apps that contain in-built plans for beginners. 

• Trust your endurance: HIIT workouts can get you disheartened in the beginning. But trust that your endurance will build with time. You may not be able to complete all the sets and repetitions on day1 but it will improve with consistency. 

• Aim for rep sets: Once you can go through one round of the workouts with ease, aim for repetitions in the sets of at least 3. It will ensure that you burn more calories without having to switch your routines. 

• Give breaks: High-intensity interval training workouts are not for every day. The post-workouts burning and the recovery phase do need some time before you can start with your next workout session. 

• Add weights:  As you go about with your HIIT training, once you master the basic routines, it’s time to enhance your endurance and strength more by adding weights. Add simple weights at first, and then build your endurance over time. 

Four HIIT workouts for beginners

15-minute wonder

This one is a 5-step cycle of 50 seconds each with a rest of 10 seconds in between. Start with some basic cardio like jumping jacks or burpees. Switch to some push-ups or triceps dips. Go for another minute of cardio, and then work out your legs with some squats or lunges. The cycle ends with some ab exercises like plank or crunches. Repeat this cycle quickly for the second time.

The 20-Minute MetCon

Your body will be pumped after these five moves of full-body exercises. In each 45-minutes interval try to do as many reps of push-ups, squats, butt kicks, tricep dips, and side lunges. Take a 15-second rest and go for another two rounds.

Tabata HIIT workout

Tabata includes 20 seconds of workout followed by 10 seconds of recovery phrase for 4 minutes or eight rounds. You can do creative variations of workouts like lunges, push-ups, burpees, dumbbell squats, jumping jacks, sprints, or kettlebell swings. 

Mixed-Interval HIIT Workout

This knock-out session combines different intervals of workouts. Do 30 seconds burpees, and after 15 seconds, rest do squat jumps for 45 seconds. Pause for 15 seconds and again go for 30 seconds V-ups. Take another break of 15 seconds and go for a 45-second downward dog ankle reach. Take your last 15 seconds rest and go for burpees (for 30 seconds). Repeat the cycle.

High-intensity training workouts for beginners over 50

The buzz around HIIT workout sessions often stops a lot of beginners over 50 to start their high-intensity training journey. But the truth is, HIIT is for anyone and everyone. Ensure that you hit the examination table before you hit the ground, especially for women. 

With age people may develop several issues such as low blood count, heart issues, weak bone density, and other factors. A medical examination will help them to determine whether they are fit for HIIT or not. Before you jump into HIIT, understand your body’s strengths and weaknesses.

However, it is advised that the entry-level for beginners over 50 in high-intensity workouts should be natural. If you haven’t done any workouts recently, a good way to start HIIT can be daily walking or jogging with high-intensity and low-intensity intervals. 

What not to do as a beginner? 

High-intensity training can get you results faster! Sounds tempting? That’s where it becomes an alarm sign. Don’t strain yourself even when you are burnt out. It can lead to severe injury. 

Take proper breaks in between and let your body recover before you exert it for the next session. Also, you need to understand that there might be a possibility that HIIT isn’t for you. Feeling regular burnouts, or not enjoying the process even after giving it days might be an indication. In that case, you can try out other low-intensity workouts sessions. 

Your workout sessions should make you feel good even before you see visible results. If you feel that this part is getting lacked even after spending weeks, it’s an indication to switch and shuffle up your routine. Select a routine that you can stick to for a very long time. 

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