Signs 2.0

As of today, we are halfway through the first month of 2016 and like normal, the local gym is packed. The first few weeks of the year I always get a good laugh at the gym. And laughing is good for the heart (Proverbs 17:22).

However, many people go overboard with it, especially in their fitness goals. A 2012 study shows that 73% of people who set fitness goals give up before achieving them.

According to the study the reasons were: it’s too difficult to follow a diet or workout regimen, it’s too hard to get back on track once they fall off, not enough time.

In a generation that has a device for everything to simplify our lives, they seem to have an opposite effect. Later this year Samsung will release the Welt, a smart belt that will monitor your waistline, calories burned, how long you’re inactive and other health signs. Actually, it’s easy to see the signs of the wannabies in the gym.

Signs?

• One of the first signs that somebody is a newbie in the gym is wearing too much clothes, if you’re really working out you don’t need a lot of clothing to keep warm.

• Next are the over-trainers. These people are so determined to get in shape that they try to do every exercise machine in the gym they can and usually do them all wrong.

• Which leads to what I call the no-lifers, these are the people who spend hours in the gym working out, sometimes coming multiple times and not getting enough rest. It’s like they have no life outside of the gym.

• On the flipside there are those who really don’t want to work out, they just want to feel good and have fun. These are the ones sitting on machines watching TV and barely moving or standing around talking to their friends, or worse yet talking on their cell phones.

• You often find them walking on the treadmills and talking on the phones. Cell phones are cancerous to working out, simple music players work best. Walking is not cardio, it’s a start.

• Finally, you should never wear heavy clothing when doing cardio, the point isn’t to sweat because you’re trapping heat, the whole point is to get your heart rate up high enough so you’ll sweat without trapping the heat.

Cardio?

Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise, which means working the heart harder, so it will get stronger and be healthier. Burning calories and sweating aren’t the focus of cardio—they are the byproducts of it!

If you do cardio correctly, your heart rate will go up and your body temperature will go up. Then you’ll sweat and you not just burn calories while exercising, your metabolism will increase and you’ll burn more calories when you’re resting and not in the gym at all.

If your heart is stronger, you will lower the risk of: heart disease, strokes and aneurysms. For the newbies in the gym, these are important signs.