Business & Finance Club - Fitness : Learn exercises that don’t always require you to use gym equipment. JUST TRY to recall how long you’ve been exercising and trying to lose weight, only to realize you’ve never really lost weight since you started. You’ve spent too much on exercise clothing, workout videos, fitness books and gym memberships, and you still have the same complaints about your weight.

Maybe you have been trying the same old strategies that never really worked for you. The world fitness and wellness industry is continuously growing, and more and more discoveries about weight loss, nutrition and exercise programs keep our interests.

It is time to embrace the latest exercise trends backed up by science and success story results of exercisers worldwide.

Exercising for health and sports performance

What’s out: People usually spend time and money for fitness to lose weight or to have the physique of a bodybuilder. Most exercisers focused on vanity years ago, when they were not really aware about the other benefits of exercise.

And since the focus was more on physical appearance, results didn’t last because there was no program continuity or workout application. They could even last for 60 minutes of running with just weight loss as their goal without thinking on improving their running time for an upcoming race.

With this scenario, once an individual achieves his weight loss, he tends to relax, reward himself with food and return to his old eating and exercise habits—then it becomes a cycle.

What’s in:

It’s never too late to start an active lifestyle. More and more people are engaging themselves in exercise even at the age of 70-plus, because they are experiencing the health and mental benefits of exercise.

Numerous studies show that exercise fights body age and even depression. Health professionals advise physical activity and healthy eating as core management to their problems aside from medicines.

You don’t really exercise now just to lose weight. You are doing exercise programs for your overall fitness improvements (strength, flexibility, cardio, balance, coordination) to be able to perform well in your chosen sports and activities of daily living. Anyone who is fit and trained can now join a triathlon.

Years ago, people thought being a triathlete was an impossible dream. This year, the CamSur Ironman event almost doubled its participants. I can still remember when Doray Ellis, a triathlete, told me four years ago that she knew of fewer than 20 female tri-athletes in the Philippines.

Family weight management

What’s out: Parents used to force their kids to lose weight. They enroll their kids in fitness centers and forced them to follow a diet or a nutritionist’s food plan.

After years of dieting and being deprived, many an overweight kid developed an eating disorder or a long-standing weight problem. When I assess clients’ weight histories, they usually attribute the start of their weight gain or weight cycling to their parents, who nagged and forced them to lose weight, exercise and diet during their childhood.

What’s in:

Be involved in your children’s weight-loss program. If you want them to lose weight, you should also be part of the process and be the role model.

Children don’t need a strict program at their early age because it will just backfire once they get their freedom as adults. You can plan a walking program for you and your kid, manage food choices and preparation at home and then discuss it with your kid. As a weight-management coach, I can testify that parents’ support and understanding are the major ingredients needed for a child/adolescent’s weight-control program to succeed.

Make your weekends a fitness family affair. Join fun run events that you can even do just by walking as a family, so there’s no pressure assigned to all.

Smart exercise programming

What’s out: Before, exercisers tended to follow a strict resistance training program. There’s no problem with this type of program, provided you can really follow the routine the whole year round. But if you’re the type of exerciser who travels a lot and usually stops going to the gym for a certain period several times a year, then you might have a hard time rebuilding your muscles and losing body fat after stopping for some time, since heavy-duty exercise machines are not always available at places you go to.

That’s the time when exercise can be called a fad—when it doesn’t fit your lifestyle anymore.

What’s in:

You can just do a realistic full-body light resistance training program at least twice a week, which is enough to maintain muscle mass and lose body fat. You can even do walking, jogging and resistance training on your own, even in your room or at the park, or do exer-games like Wii fit at home with your family.

You can learn exercises which do not always require you to use gym equipment, since you are not even sure you can maintain a lifetime gym membership. The goal of most exercisers now, men or women, is to develop a toned and shapely body figure, which is easier to maintain and more pleasing to the eyes than maintaining a huge and muscular body type. So it’s still realistic to get used to lifting free weights or even using your own body weight.