Posted by : admin | In : self confidence
One sure fire way to improve your self esteem is by exercising. The obvious reason for this is that you’ll improve your physique which will make you more attractive and more capable. You won’t feel physically threatened by other people as you’ll be strong enough to deal with attackers (men more than women, but even for women a bit of extra strength can be reassuring), you’ll win respect from others who are impressed by your new shape or envious even (you’ll find that you become a font of knowledge for anyone who wants to do the same), you’ll be better at sports and all physical activities and you’ll be more attractive to the opposite sex.
That’s not all exercise is about however. If you train regularly you’ll soon find that it effects you in ways that you wouldn’t have expected. Training your body is something you can do regularly that has a visible and practical effect. Over time you will see that you’re directly controlling an aspect of yourself. Every time you go to the gym you come away a little bit better than you were before you go in and that’s one productive thing you’ve done that day. Even more, when you’re in the gym, trying to run an extra mile on the treadmill or lift an extra 10kg on the bench press, you’re testing yourself and coming out better. You’re challenging yourself and overcoming it on a daily basis – over time you’ll learn that you can do the same in any aspect of your life. Working out is a truly life affirming activity that can help you to grow both mentally and literally physically.
Working out will also increase your mood, and so your self esteem, in other ways too. The actual act of working out causes you body to release the feel good hormone serotonin. On top of that it also leads to neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells. In short training will lift your mood and improve your cognitive performance both immediately and over time.
To begin training then you need to assess your current condition. If you’re currently over weight you need to be doing large amounts of CV (cardiovascular…that’s aerobic exercise such as running or sprinting) and cutting your caloric intake. If you’re currently very thin you need to do the opposite – using fewer repetitions of a heavier weight while increasing the amount of protein you eat (that’s meats and dairy products). You can even take either a protein shake or a weight gainer to supplement your diet. Similarly to lose weight you need to train more regularly – about five times a week, but to get stronger and larger you need to train more heavily and less often to give your muscles time to recover and build.
To begin with you can train using a simple full body routine. While ‘split’ routines and the like are more conducive to training when you’re more advanced, to start with you need to get your body used to training. Each session should last about forty minutes, and each exercise should consist of three sets – that means you lift the weight how ever many times, take a rest then repeat for three sets. Once you begin to see progress start reading into the process in more detail and learn the tricks and techniques used by the pros. Congratulations, you’re on your way to a body that you can be proud of.
Regular exercise is a huge benefit to build self esteem and reduce depression. The key is to find an exercise or activity that you enjoy. Enjoyment is a wonderful reward — it insures frequent and sustained exercise activity!
one piece of advice, never spend money on expensive devices that promise you great abs and so on, you don’t need any of that, instead try running, jumping rope, plyometrics, they’re bound to work and are much more effective.