Playing different sports is a great way to stay in shape through fun and action packed exercise. Time flies by much quicker when you are running up and down a basketball court, playing hoops with your friends, than it would if you were doing sit-ups at home with your feet fastened under a book case.  Being a multi-dimensional athlete helps eliminate those mundane and routine workouts, the workouts that make each second feel like a minute, and each minute feel like an hour. The ones that don’t provide the kind of excitement we are looking for after a long day of work at the office. The ones where we look at the clock the entire time to see if it is time to leave yet. We need to eliminate those kinds of fitness training programs through various cardiovascular athletic competition. It is important to incorporate sports such as Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming, Yoga, Softball, Tennis, Baseball, Ice Skating, Golf, Football, and Track & Field into our everyday lives if possible. Sports are fun because we get to compete with our friends and before we know it, we have got in an amazing cardiovascular and strength workout.

Another benefit of actually “getting out on the field”, other than the fact that it works out our body in ways that we are not used to , therefore keeping our exercises fresh, is that playing sports drastically increases our coordination, agility and balance. When you lift weights, run on treadmills, train on an elliptical, climb stair steppers, or ride on an upright bike/recumbent bike/spin bike/stationary bike, your muscle memory becomes accustomed to the same, repeated motions. Doing the same exercises over and over again doesn’t allow you to tone virtually every spot of your entire body like playing the different sports mentioned above allow you to.

When you are playing sports you are unconsciously tearing down and rebuilding all muscles in your body, but through adrenaline and excitement, you push through the aches and pains without notice. If you have ever played sports, you know what it is like to wake up the next day after a rough game and your entire body is extremely sore, and you think to yourself, “Why am I so sore, I was not this sore during or after the game?” This is because the physical fitness aspect of your exercising was out-matched by your mind and its ability to concentrate and adapt to competition.

That total body soreness you feel from playing volleyball at the beach, a tough match of tennis or football, is not attained by sitting on an exercise bike for 10 minutes. If you want to work your body towards exhaustion and really push yourself to look and feel your best, there are workout routines, when followed, that can maximize your cardio results as effectively as playing sports themselves.

You will be able to stay in shape just like a superstar athlete through the use of home gym equipment and personal fitness equipment if you mix up your routine and keep your workouts fresh and creative. Through the use of all different kinds of equipment, such as Treadmills, Elliptical, Home Gyms, Recumbent Bikes, Stationary Bikes, Exercise Bikes, spin bikes, cross-trainers, abdominal machines, multi-station strength pieces, Stair Climbers, Pilates machines and any other piece of cardio fitness equipment for that matter. Throw them all in the mix. Don’t just let your body get used to the same old boring 30 minute jog followed by 20 minutes of weight lifting. Do different exercises, work out with different muscle groups, work out with different equipment, exercise with different people, run in different locations, lift different amount of weight. Change up your sets. On Monday when you lift weights on the bench press at the gym, do 5 sets of 5. On Wednesday, instead of doing the same exercise with 5 sets of 5, do 8 sets of 3. The last thing you want to happen is for your exercise routine to become dull and redundant. It is hard to enough to carve out enough time in your busy day to do something that you like to do, let alone something that doesn’t invigorate you. Never let that happen. Always change up you fitness routine thorough playing sports with friends and through the use of all different kinds of physical fitness gear. Not just treadmills, elliptical and bikes. Use everything from the abdominal crunch machine, to the Stair Climber, to the Cross-Trainer and then jump in the pool when you are done. The point is to keep your workout routines fun and exhilarating through various exercises that train a multitude of the muscles in your body.

When is the last time you incorporated all of the machines mentioned above into your exercise routine? When is the last time you worked out with firends and actually had a good time doing it? Never let your exercise routine lose its flavor and zest. Once that happens, it becomes more like a job than a hobby, and we start counting down the minutes. Throughout your cardio or strength training, or your sports game/match, you want to put forth your best effort so that you achieve maximum results. Maximim results will not be achieved unless you enjoy what you do, period. Cardiovascular and strength training is like anything else, you get out what you put in, so put money in the bank now, and when you need that extra burst of energy at 3 o’clock in the morning, you will have enough power to make it happen!