Cardiovascular exercise on the fourth day of the seven-day lifestyle adjustment.

The fourth day's practice tasks

1. Write down your cardiovascular exercise goals (e.g., do a certain type of aerobic exercise 4 days a week for 30 minutes each time).

2. Ensure that you perform cardiovascular exercises according to the following regimen for the next 30 days:

a. Do 5 minutes of general warm-up exercises;

b. Do 5 minutes of light stretching exercises;

c. Do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise (on the fifth day, which is tomorrow, we will add a strength training session).

d. Do 10 minutes of general relaxation exercises;

e. Do 10 minutes of light stretching exercises.

3. Do not create an exercise schedule that lacks substantial workout content! Based on the exercise plan you created earlier, immediately begin to refine your first aerobic exercise routine.

4. Write down the exact time for your exercise each day for the next few days. You should gradually develop the habit of planning your exercise time for the next day before going to bed and listing it on your work schedule for the following day.

You can also make marginal notes in your journal, writing down your daily or weekly exercise goals. The more often you copy down your exercise goals, the more deeply they will be ingrained in your subconscious. So you should do this exercise regularly. You can even copy your exercise goals next to your journal.

Another way to achieve a balanced health condition is to increase muscle strength and endurance, which is what we call "strength training".

Today is day five of this 7-day fitness plan. Now you can incorporate strength training into your workout routine and increase your progress by up to 10 times.

Day 5 Fitness Plan

Muscular endurance is the ability of human muscles to withstand repeated stresses second only to their maximum limit, or the ability of muscles to withstand exercise for a certain duration.

In general, improving muscle endurance means:

Perform free weightlifting exercises;

Use exercise equipment to exercise;

Do push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups.

Of these three types of exercise, my personal favorite is free weightlifting. Whatever your training goals, free weightlifting allows you to better control your future and increases your chances of achieving them. Of course, if you lack free weightlifting equipment (such as dumbbells or barbells), you can choose push-ups, sit-ups, and other similar exercises. However, in this case, your physical progress will be slower, and the exercises may be more difficult.

One of the biggest benefits of exercising and building muscle is that it makes muscles the body's power pump, burning most of the energy produced by the body. If a person's muscle density is too low, the same amount of energy obtained from food cannot be used, but will be stored in the body as fat, thus increasing weight.

After the age of 30, muscle mass begins to decline due to various factors. During this age range, our basal metabolic rate also begins to decrease at a rate of approximately 0.5% to 1% per year. Therefore, the older a person gets, the slower their overall metabolic rate naturally becomes. Unless muscle density is increased, this slowing metabolism is unavoidable. The fitness program we're working on, "Optimizing Your Metabolism," aims to strengthen muscles through strength training, increase muscle density, and prevent muscle loss.

You must remember this: every 4.54 kg (1 pound) of muscle in the human body burns approximately 209 joules (50 calories) per day. As long as you gain 4.54 kg of muscle through exercise, eating an additional 209 joules of food daily will neither cause you to gain fat nor increase your weight. Therefore, it's best to eat more healthy foods and increase the density of your muscle mass. Then you'll see what happens: you'll undoubtedly find your body fat decreasing rapidly. At the same time, your metabolic rate will significantly increase! It's very clear that the opposite will also lead to the opposite result. If you unfortunately lose 4.54 kg of muscle (and you will lose a lot of muscle without consistent and appropriate exercise), you must reduce your daily calorie intake by 209 joules or more to avoid gaining weight.

According to traditional weight loss science, to achieve optimal metabolism, the body's energy resources must be balanced. Simply put, the amount of energy the body receives must equal the amount of energy it expends. If the energy equivalent of the food you consume exceeds your body's energy expenditure, you will gain weight and become obese. Conversely, if the body burns more energy than it obtains from food, you will lose weight and become thinner.

However, this view is not entirely accurate. The human body also exhibits an adaptive effect to diet; the more frequently and for longer periods you restrict your calorie intake, the less effective your metabolism becomes. The slower and less effective your metabolism, the more likely the food you subsequently consume will be stored as fat in your body.

The best way to deal with this natural tendency to store energy is to readjust your metabolism and improve its function through strength training and aerobic exercise programs. A balanced weight loss plan will help you permanently lose excess weight at some point in your life.

In fact, using exercise and physical activity as a booster for metabolism and an effective fat-burning strategy is more effective than simply focusing on dieting for weight loss. The goal of our exercise is to burn excess calories during exercise and to continue this calorie-burning process after exercise. Through strength training, we can ignite our own calorie-burning "furnace" and increase our metabolic rate.

Weightlifting can more effectively break muscle fibers. In fact, when you lift weights, you are consciously "injuring" your muscle fibers. However, if you allow these injured muscle tissues proper rest and nutrition, they will automatically develop a protective response to prevent re-injury in the next exercise: they will become stronger and better able to cope with further weightlifting training. This method of muscle adaptation may sound cruel, even a bit masochistic, but it is actually a very natural and healthy tendency.

The human body adapts to the stress of weightlifting by repairing damaged tissue and stimulating the growth of new muscle tissue to overcome the increased workload. In this adaptation process, the most important outcome is that the muscles become stronger, denser, and better able to withstand greater external pressure.