Excercise: Getting Started and Staying Motivated
By Gil Cromshaw
Probably the single best form of health care insurance we can acquire for ourselves costs very little and is available to vir tually every man, woman, and child : regular exercise. Regular, low-to-moderate intensity exercise offers us tremendous benef its. Our health-care system is vastly overburdened with the expensive treatment of many largely preventable diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Diseases such as these and others are of ten the result of poor body maintenance including lack of exercise and bad nutrition. To a large degree, exercising regularly can even offset some of our less-than-desirable nutritional choices. The human body was made to move and depends on regular movement in a variety of way to function at its best...............so let’s get moving !
There are three main types of exercise and a good exercise program ideally includes some of each. These include aerobic exercise, strength training exercise, and flexibility exercises. Aerobic exercise improves the health and function of the heart, lungs, and circulatory system. Aerobic exercise requires steady, continuous movement for usually at least 20 minutes and causes an increase in breathing rate and heart rate. Good examples of aerobic exercise include walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, aerobic dance, and stair climbing.
Strength training involves exercise for the purpose of retaining or improving muscle strength and/or muscle mass. Progressively heavier resistance through weight training or machines which allow variable resistance help increase strength and bulk of muscles. Muscle tissue burns fat much more efficiently and so even when we are at rest, our muscles act like furnaces; burning calories that would otherwise be stored as unhealthy fat.
Flexibility or stretching exercises should be done in conjunction with both aerobic and strength training because they will decrease our risk of injury during exercise, increase our capacity to exercise more vigorously, increase blood supply to joints and muscles, and reduce soreness after exercise.
How Should I Start?
If you haven’t exercised in a long time, I usually recommend simply beginning a walking program. Pick several places around town or your neighborhood so you can have some variety in your walks. Try walking slightly faster than you usually would for about 20 minutes. Gradually increase to 30-40 minutes and increase to a brisk pace with the arms moving rapidly. If the weather’s not good, you can simply walk in place indoors or if you belong to a gym, use the treadmill (or purchase one for home; there’s lots of good used ones on eBay). If walking is a little too boring for you and you don’t want to join a gym, there are excellent aerobic fitness programs on the FIT TV channel on cable television or you can purchase or borrow from your library a variety of fitness tapes which are available.
If you’ve thought about joining a gym, many offer a variety of group classes such as yoga, Pilates, aerobic dance, and martial arts. These types of classes are great since it can be motivating to work out with other people and the different classes provide opportunity to have a variety of workouts.
How Can I Stay Motivated?
While it would be ideal to exercise at least 30 minutes every day, any level of increased activity can be of benefit. Too many people give up and lose motivation if they miss some workouts or even several weeks once they’ve begun a program. I personally try to exercise three times per week but I don’t worry about it if I miss that goal sometimes. The key is overall consistency. Try finding partners to work out with and try doing a variety of exercises so it stays interesting. One week you may try walking on Monday, a yoga tape on Wednesday, and jump rope and therapy/fitness ball exercises on Friday. If you belong to a gym; swimming, weight lifting, and stationary cycling on different days is another way to divvy up the routine. Obviously, if you wish to increase your capacity or strength in any one given type of exercise, you will need to repeat them more frequently. But if your overall goal is simply more exercise, don’t worry too much about what you do but simply anything that will get you moving.
Try visualizing the benefits of your exercise before you do it: imagine your blood sugar levels going into a normal range, your blood pressure improving, or the pleasant, relaxed feeling you get after a good aerobic workout. Don’t worry too much about your weight; weight loss will usually come naturally as a consequence of your increased capacity to burn calories at rest, especially if you are using a combination of aerobic and strength training.
Opinions in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent management views.