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The importance of Exercise
Exercise not only speeds weight loss, helps maintain a healthy weight and enhances muscle tone, it also offers a host of other health benefits.
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Exercise not only speeds weight loss, helps maintain a healthy weight and enhances muscle tone, it also offers a host of other health benefits. Many studies have shown that inactivity is a serious risk factor for heart disease; more recently, lack of exercise was linked to a greater risk of developing cancer. Regular aerobic-exercise strengthens the heart muscle and widens the arteries that supply extra oxygen-rich blood to weaker areas of the heart.
What kind of exercise do I need, and what's the best way to get started?
Select a form of exercise that you enjoy, whether walking, running, swimming or bicycling. You actually need to engage regularly in two kinds of exercise.
Isometric, or dynamic-exercise is aerobic, meaning it increases the heart rate and the blood pressure. Swimming or brisk walking are good examples.
Isotonic, or static-exercise, such as weight lifting builds muscle, but does not significantly increase the heart rate.
You need a combination of aerobic-exercise, for its cardiovascular benefits, and weight-bearing exercise to protect your bones and strengthen your muscles as you age.
If you're trying to lose weight, start your exercise regimen with aerobic- exercise. You can add weight-bearing exercise once you've built a base of endurance. Aerobic-exercise helps you burn fat. If you are metabolically resistant to weight loss, you can jump-start the fat burning by exercising. For cardiovascular benefits, you need a bare minimum of 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, three times a week. For weight loss, it may be necessary to do aerobic-exercise five times a week.
Start with any aerobic exercise at any level you can sustain. (If you are overweight, don't start off running; it places too great a stress on your body.) Check with your doctor before embarking on an exercise routine. If you're out of shape and very heavy, you may be need to start with only 10 minuites a day to make sure that 10-minute regimen takes places five times a week. The body can usually handle a 10 percent increase in workload per week.
It's also a good idea to vary your workouts so you don't get bored. For example, you might bicycle twice a week and walk the three other days. Another important motivation for exercising is the knowledge that the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. That's because muscles carry oxygen and oxygen burns fat.
Everyone Can—and Must—Find Time to Exercise
Let me take this chance to share with you two recently published reports that stress the value of exercise in preventing significant health risks. The first study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, followed 73,000 postmenopausal women for an average of 3.2 years. In this study, JoAnn E. Manson, M.D, Dr.P.H., of the division of preventive medicine at Harvard University, and colleagues found that women who either walked briskly or exercised vigorously at least two and a half hours per week had a 30 percent lower risk of heart-related problems such as heart attack, stroke, the need for heart bypass surgery, heart failure or death than the least active women.
The second study, which followed a group of young girls through adolescence to their later teenage years, found that the level of physical activity declined precipitously over time, so that by the age of 18 or 19, up to 56 percent of the girls reported no regular physical activity. Not surprisingly, a significant number of girls were overweight. Together, the message from these studies is pretty powerful: Exercise is important
Top 10 tricks to work in workouts, to help you manage your time
1. Ride, run or walk to work. If you have a shower at work, this is a great way to start the day and make the most of your time.
2. Work out at lunchtime. A midday exercise break helps boost energy and allows you to make the most of your afternoon.
3. Exercise in front of the TV This way you are less likely to put off a workout so that you can watch your favorite show. Watching the tube can become a reason to work out, rather than a deterrent.
4. Exercise with friends or coworkers. If you use your exercise time as a way to socialize, you can accomplish two goals at once. Group workouts are also a great way to meet new people with a shared interest, so check out local running clubs, spinning classes or aerobic studios for times that fit your schedule.
5. Get up early. Morning is your friend. With practice, predawn workouts can become found hours.
6. Exercise at home. It’s tough to be away from the house and family for long periods of time. I’ve found that running on a treadmill in the basement is a great way to fit in a run and at the same time be part of the household.
7. Make a plan. Following a schedule is a powerful tool in the battle to stay on target. Look at the week in advance and pick your time slots carefully. Remember that it is always safer to start the day with your workout than to plan on getting to it later: Distractions are less likely to come up unexpectedly first thing in the morning than later in the day.
8. Make a date. If you plan to exercise in the morning, try the buddy system. There are few things more powerful than guilt to help motivate me to get out of bed in the early hours. If you commit to meeting someone for an early workout, chances are, you will show up—at least after the first time you sleep in and your buddy plays up the guilt factor.
9. Exercise before you go home. If there is a way to work out before getting stuck in the evening commute, you can avoid wasting time in traffic along with the pitfalls of procrastination. A run before the drive home; by delaying the evening drive by an hour, you could cut the drive time in half, effectively saving time that would otherwise have been wasted in the car.
10. Remember that time with family and friends is priceless; the benefits of exercise do not outweigh the importance of experiencing what is most valuable in life. When it comes down making exercise fit into your life, use these tricks to maximize your time with the people that matter most. It is all about balance, being your best while at the same time realizing for whom you are doing this. Get in shape so that you can enjoy your family and friends, so you can live longer and healthier and share more time with them, not less.
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