Exercise can help you get in shape, lose weight and it can be fun. Whether you join a gym or exercise at home, work out at night or during the weekend, this article offers tips to help you squeeze a few hours of fitness into your schedule whenever you can. You should see an amazing difference very quickly, and not only on the scale.

Marathons used to be for serious runners only, but now they have become a popular goal for casual runners as well. Many people nowadays come to a point in their lives where they feel they want the challenge of finishing a marathon. Luckily there are many good training programs now, to help casual runners prepare for more the 26.2 mile trek.

Do not be afraid to motivate yourself before a work-out. There is no audience and no judgment if you want to give yourself a little pep-talk on the way into the gym. The benefits are very real; when you exercise with positivity you work out more successfully. Tell yourself you are going to have a great work-out and you probably will.

A great fitness tip for runners who experience sore calves would be to sleep on your belly and let your feet dangle off the bed. Over the course of the night, your calves will stretch out just from being in this position. Of course, stretching, warming up and cooling down are also going to assist you with this.

Stretch those muscles. Your muscles have to get stretched for longer periods of time as you get older. Aging causes muscle density to decrease, as well as a decrease in pliability. Under 40 years old? Hold stretches for about 30 seconds. Over 40? Stretch for about a minute. You’ll feel more flexible and limber this way.

If you would like to avoid unnecessary soreness following your routine run, always include a cool-down to allow the sudden build-up of excess lactic acid to circulate through your muscles. In addition to a brief walk following your run, always allow time to stretch your muscles to avoid any pulls or cramping.

If you are a regular runner make sure that you replace your running trainers at least every 500 miles. If you don’t replace your trainers when the soles have worn out, you will be running in an unstable trainer which could lead to knee injuries and ankle pain. A worn out shoe sole can also cause the bottoms of your feet to be covered in blisters and hard crusty callouses.

No matter what your schedule is, make time for exercise. Now this doesn’t mean that you have to be able to make it to the gym each and every day. Just make sure that you are getting some movement in every day, whether that’s a walk at your lunch break, playing with the kids at the park or doing an exercise video before bed. Make a commitment to move your body every day.

You can build bigger biceps by bending your wrists slightly when you are doing arm curls with dumbbells. When your doing your arm curls, extend the wrists backwards slightly, and hold them like that. This slight change of movement will make your biceps work harder, thus, building bigger biceps.

If your workout program includes separate exercises for individual body and muscle groups, try this trick: After completing each set, take anywhere from twenty seconds to half a minute to stretch and flex the muscle you just targeted. Doing so may actually increase the strength of the muscle as much as 20 percent!

You can easily improve the quality and effectiveness of shoulder presses by concentrating on only one arm at a time. Perform two or three sets of ten reps with your left arm, then switch and do the same with your right arm. Even when you are using only one arm, your body is sending messages to stimulate the muscle fibers in the other arm.

When doing squats, don’t rest the bar on your neck. Resting it on your neck will make the entire weight press on your spine which will make muscle and spinal injuries more possible. Hold the bar as low as possible on your shoulders, this will help save your neck.

In between your workouts, you should try and change the grip on the bar that you use. Some people use a medium grip, while others use a large or wide grip. Changing the grip actually changes the type of muscle that you can work out, and you can get a variety of work outs for a single bar.

If you apply these tips, you should be able to live a healthier life. Fitness helps you look great but it also helps you age gracefully and live longer. Consider other healthy habits such as eating better or quitting smoking. Fitness is only the beginning of a journey that will take you to a place where you can love your body.