With all the nutrition and fitness hype around these days, how do you know what is correct and what isn’t? The intentions of this article are to help you identify factual and effective information regarding current fitness trends.
Total health is threefold – aerobic exercise and resistance training are addressed in this article. The third part, healthy eating, will be examined in a future article.
Diet and supplements alone will not get you the physique you want. You must make exercise a part of your weekly routine. Exercise will help to boost your metabolism, change your body composition and decrease your carbohydrate sensitivity.
AEROBIC EXERCISE
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) defines aerobic exercise as “any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature.” This can be any continuous rhythmic activity that keeps the heart rate elevated in the target zone for the length of the workout. Aerobic activity must be done for a minimum of 30 minutes a day at least 3 times a week. Your goal for aerobic exercise is 4 – 5 times a week for 45 minutes to one hour. This is the same type of exercise that, when done over time, will help to improve the condition of the heart and lungs.
Examples: Walking, jogging, cycling, stairs, cardio machines, swimming, and circuit training.
RESISTANCE TRAINING
Resistance training is a term used to cover all types of weight training. This type of training is beneficial in many ways. Primarily, muscle is more metabolically active than fat, so you burn more calories while at rest. Other benefits include a decreased risk for osteoporosis and an increase in bone mass. Resistance training should be done twice weekly incorporating 1 – 3 sets of exercises for each of the major body parts.
“No pain no gain.” Let’s clear the air on this age old misconception. Bodybuilders and athletes coined this phrase because they felt that if their workouts did not leave them in pain, they did not work hard enough to gain any benefits. It is true that during resistance training you may feel a slight burn or uncomfortable feeling in the muscle; this is a natural reaction when placing a muscle under stress. However at no time should you feel sharp pain or pain in the joints. On occasion there will be a mild soreness after the workout and even soreness 1 – 2 days after the workout. This is a normal reaction, as you workout you have a temporary build up of lactic acid, that is eventually cleared out by the recovering muscles.
A proper warm up and cool down is as important as the actual workout. Mentally these two will prepare the body for the workout and allow the body to return to normal activity in a comfortable manner. A warm up will allow the bodies’ metabolic processes a chance to catch up with the increased work load in a more proficient manner helping avoid premature fatigue. It will cause a gradual increase in muscle temperature which will help reduce the chance of injury. A cool down will aid in the removal of lactic acid which in turn will help with muscle soreness. Also it will help the body return blood to the heart and eliminate venous pooling, which leads the feeling of dizziness. Lastly a cool down helps lower the levels of adrenaline in the bloodstream. Any adrenaline that lingers in the bloodstream after the workout can place unnecessary stress on the heart.
Flexibility is the movement or lack of movement we have in our joints. We do stretching exercises to improve these movements. The exercises done to improve our flexibility should always be done at the end of a workout. They can be incorporated right into the cool down. The reason for this is our muscles are much like rubber bands, they have elastic properties and when they are stretched they go back to their original form. If you stretch while the muscles are cold just like the rubber band they do no go back to the original form and you run the risk of having an injury. For improved flexibility stretching exercises should be done everyday.
The information provided here is in no way intended to be a substitute for counseling provided by your healthcare provider. Consult your healthcare provider before beginning exercise or a fitness program.
Karen Skidmore, author, NATA certified Athletic Trainer and NCSF certified Personal Trainer owns and operates the Completely Fit Personal Training Company. Visit http://www.completely-fit.com for more information and great articles.
