“Sitting is so incredibly prevalent we don’t even question it. It doesn’t even occur to us that it’s not OK.” ~Author Nilofer Merchant
Got 10 Minutes?
The research keeps coming in and it’s good news: several 10 minute bouts of purposeful movement (exercise) throughout the day can support and improve your health and fitness. According to Dr. Toni Yancey of UCLA, even 10 minutes of dancing, marching in place or other moderate exercise two or three times a day can add up to a big payoff for your heart and mind. Additionally, study leader Kyle Sevits, a researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, conducted a research project which determined that just a few minutes of intense activity interspersed between less intense stretches of exercise actually helped study participants to burn excess calories all day long. So there you have it…no more excuses for time crunched folks…just get out there and DO IT and remember, the harder you work, the more calories you will burn per minute.
Cardiovascular Fitness…What is it? Why Is It Important?
In my last post (January 2010) I talked about the many components of fitness. In the following posts in the days/weeks to come I’ll address each component at length and attempt to describe the value and benefits of improving your fitness in each of these areas. The first and probably most important fitness component for a healthy adult body is cardiovascular (aerobic) fitness. Aerobic fitness determines how well our body processes and utilizes oxygen (to our cells and working muscle tissues) during physical activity. Adults with low aerobic fitness levels are less likely to endure activities that require energy and endurance. Inactive older adults cannot expect to improve sagging energy and endurance levels without training their cardiovasular systems on a daily basis. While the aging process does have some negative effect on the efficiency of our aerobic capacity, a sedentary lifestyle is more directly responsible for the largest reductions of cardiovascular fitness.
However, much research has been done in this area (with older adults) showing that regular bouts of moderate exercise (30-60 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week) can improve and maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. During aerobic activity, you repeatedly move large muscles in your arms, legs and hips. The body responds quickly to this activity by breathing faster and deeper which increases the amount of oxygen in your blood. Likewise the heart beasts faster which increases blood flow to your muscles and back to your lungs. Your entire vascular system will be required to dialate to deliver the increased oxygen to your working muscles and to also carry away the waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid. Your body will even release endorphins, natural painkillers that promote an increased sense of well-being. And this is just the beginning of all the benefits that you will reap when you engage in regular bouts of aerobic exercise. Here’s a list that should help motivate you to get out there and move it. Here’s what you gain when you exercise:
- Improve your mood
- Boost your energy levels
- Help manage your weight
- Improve your immune system
- Prevent and/or combat chronic disease
- Lower blood pressure
- Lower bad (LDL) cholesterol
- Increase good (HDL) cholesterol
- Improve your sex life
- Increase insulin sensitivity
- Promote better sleep
- You choose what’s fun for you
So don’t wait any longer! If you’ve been on the couch for awhile, then start slow when you get out there! Now stay with it and you’ll begin feeling better before too long…I can almost guarantee it!
What is Fitness?
Would you be able to define ‘fitness’ to an unfit, but interested individual? What does the term encompass? If someone exercises regularly, are they fit? How is fitness measured? Can someone be ‘fat’ and ‘fit’? These are the hot topics circulating in the wellness circles today. I’d like to expound on the defintion of ‘fitness’ today, and then tackle the intricacies involved with substantiating fitness and its relationship to physical activity.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, fitness (physical) is defined as ‘a set of attributes or characteristics that people have or achieve that relates to the ability to perform physical activity’ (ACSM 2010, Guidelines to Exercise Testing and Prescription). Furthermore, these attributes can be divided into components (health related and skill related).
The health related components of fitness measure an individual’s cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and body composition (% fat vs. lean tissue). The skill related components of fitness rate an individual’s agility, coordination, balance, power, reaction time and speed.
As you can see, determining an individual’s fitness level can take some time to measure and evaluate, but this is what exercise and fitness professionals are trained to do when they receive clients desiring to improve their health and fitness levels. A trained fitness professional will use valid industry standards (tests) to quantify her client’s readiness to engage in physical activity and thereafter, develop an appropriate program of activity which will target not only areas of weakness but build on areas of strength as well.
Healthy at every size
Today’s thought: What does it mean to be healthy at every size? Apparently there is a new movement within the ‘wellness’ community which states that healthcare practicitioners should focus on patient/client fitness levels instead of their fatness. What do you think?
Think...Feel...Be....BodyWise! 