Going green is all the rage now.  It’s not even just a fad, thankfully. It’s a realization that we are all growing in population, taking over much more of this green earth and polluting it, and we really need to start thinking of how we are taking care of the earth.

We also need to be more mindful of our energy and water consumption, as these are not completely infinte resources.  Another consideration is gas or fuel for our cars. Many people consider gasoline an infinite resource, but really it is what is called a fossil fuel, and there is only so much of it under the ground.

Well, getting away on a relaxing vacation can certainly put a kink in your “on a roll” status with working out. I think that virtually everyone who works out on any type of regular basis has experienced slumps in their routines due to life demands, commitments, getting sick, feeling lazy and a gazillion other excuses.

However, vacations are one of the wores for working out to take a dive for the worse. When people go on vacation, they typically look at it as a vacation away from most of the doldrums of their normal lives. They look at it as a vacation from their commitments. And guess what one of people’s least favorite commitments tends to be?

Top 10 Gym Mistakes

They always say that the hardest step toward a new healthy life and exercise program is the first step to begin it in the first place, but sadly this is not the only step. Workouts and gym regimes are challenging to say the least and mistakes in various areas of the gym are hugely common. It is important to ensure that not only are the best efforts being involved, but also an awareness of some of the most common mistakes that could be standing in the way of excellent results:

1 – All or Nothing

Well, it’s official. My husband and I are much more tolerable people to be around when we work out after we get home from work, rather than laying like slugs in front of the television or our computers til it’s bed time.

It’s tempting to do this when you’re beat from a day at work. The stress and anxiety of the work day can really get you down and sap all of your energy. Many days I don’t get to the gym on my lunch or I get very little exercise during my work day otherwise.

If you are primarily focused on exercise as a way to burn calories, then there are some things you should know about which activities can give you the most bang for your buck. What does that mean in this day and age?

Well, it means what can you do to burn the most calories possible in the least amount of time, so as not to use up too much time for little return.  Time is really, really precious, and that seems to go doubly so for the people of today’s rushed and harried world.

One of the rules that I’ve always followed, unless I really do have a lot of pent up energy and need to work out to get that energy out, is to not work out at least two to three hours before bed time. For me, I follow this rule because exercising gets my endorphins going, and my adrenaline usually stays higher for a few hours after I work out.

If I work out a couple hours before bed, I’m likely going to still be in this “jazzed” state before I hit the hay, and I’ll probably lay there forever before I can actually get relaxed enough to sleep.

Many of us suffer from back pain. Whether it is from an injury we had, or from simple stress and genetics, back pain can be an all encompassing pain that really is life interrupting if you don’t know how to manage it.

Many people think, intuitively, that when you are in pain, you should stay still and this will help. That is exactly opposite of what is true. Staying still, and leading a sedentary lifestyle where you get little movement and sit in a chair a lot is the WORST thing you can do for  back pain.

If you asked me this question, I’d say it’s of vital importance. Some people may disagree, or may think that less of it is required than I do.  That is because for me, I’ve found that warming up and cooling down before and after my exercise sessions helps me immensely when it comes to avoiding injuries and discomfort from the exercises that I do during those sessions.

Warming up is even more important than cooling down for me, becuase I find that I don’t feel strains in my muscles or uncomfortable pulls when I’m working out if I do an adequate stretching session.  Adequate to me is about 3-5 minutes, although some people may do more than that.

I am constantly on my husband about stretching before and after he works out. He never does it, and always wonders why he easily gets injured. While I can get him to do it occasionally, he stubbornly believes that he doesn’t need to stretch before he exercises, especially if he’s just weight lifting.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth. You should always warm your body up before you work out, no matter what kind of workout you’re doing. Think of your muscles as a rubber band. If you warm a rubber band up, it would be less likely to snap and break or tear because you’ve warmed it by stretching it out, making it more pliable and less brittle.

Stress fractures are actually easier to get than you think from physically exerting yourself for longer periods of time, or simply holding too much weight – whether it’s your own body weight – or carrying something that is simply too heavy for your bones to bear the weight of.

Stress fractures are quite common if you are a runner, do not wear the right kinds of running shoes, or have a good treadmill for running, which has a comfortable padding on it that eliminates or greatly reduce the bouncing and pressure that occur on the joints and the bones in the feet and the legs when you run.