Exercising is not always at the top of teens’ to do lists, but exercising does not always have to be boring.
Keeping up with exercise is important, and one way to do that is to make it interesting. Doing fun exercises like yoga and Zumba are easy ways to get exercise and fun enough to stick with.
Doing yoga is a great way to strengthen your muscles and different poses. Some poses that I have found to be easier are the plank pose, the full boat pose, the chair pose, and the downward-facing dog.
To do the plank pose, get in the correct position for a plank, similar to a high push-up. Hold that position for 30 seconds to one minute. This pose helps build wrist and shoulder strength.
The full boat pose helps to tone and strengthen your abdominal muscles. Your body should be shaped like a V with your arms straight out and your hands placed on the front of your legs.
In the chair pose, you raise your hands straight above your head, bend your legs as if you are sitting in a chair, and move your chest forward. This pose strengthens your lower back and legs.
At first, the chair pose was challenging for me because it involves a lot of upper leg strength, but after doing the pose several times, I was able to perfect the pose and hold it for the correct amount of time, 30 seconds to one minute.
The downward-facing dog, one of the more common yoga poses, helps strengthen your lower back and shoulders and decreases back pain. Your body should be in an upside down V shape with your hands and feet flat on the floor.
To view the yoga poses featured earlier in the article, go to www.jcpatriot.com.
Another fun way to exercise is Zumba, which has been a great way for me to get in shape. You can enroll in classes at your local gym or buy a Zumba video game at a local store. Zumba is a video game for both Wii and Xbox Kinect.
Zumba incorporates Latin style dances into your workout that are challenging. However, they are fun to do and yield great results. This is also a great exercise to do with friends, which is also a good way to keep with an exercise. Doing Zumba regularly can strengthen and tone your muscles and improve your health overall.
Because I don’t have much time to enroll in classes, I purchased the Zumba video game for the Kinect. Now I am able to get into shape in my free time. Doing Zumba with other people has helped me stay on track.
The first time I tried Zumba, it was hard for me because I had never done any Latin style dancing before, and though the steps were challenging, I was able to pick up the moves.
I like that it has a warm up dance, a main dance and a cool down dance so you are able to get your heart pumping and experience different styles of Latin dancing.
I do Zumba in my basement because you need a lot of space. Once I got the hang of it, Zumba became very fun and it is now one of my favorite ways to exercise.
Staying in shape, and finding fun ways to do it, is vital in the teenage years.
Ashley Beyer is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.