Exercise & Fitness to Prolong Life

You cannot achieve fitness without exercise or exercise is necessary for fitness. You will protect your heart if you do a moderate level of physical activity throughout your life because regular exercise helps you keep

People who are physically fit look good and feel good. A good exercise program will lengthen your life, improve your appearance, build self confidence and help delay the aging process.

Remember that you need to do something physical activity every day. If you don't use your joints, they'll tighten up with age to create the bent and worn out appearance associated with old age. People with arthritis experience less pain if they continue to keep their joints flexible.

The exercises may be categorized based on the energy pathways that are utilized during exercise. Some exercises need oxygen while others do not need oxygen. Following two categories of exercises may be considered.

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic means "with oxygen", so aerobic exercise is done in such a manner that the body requires large amounts of oxygen to generate energy. This involves moving the body slowly and smoothly. The muscles utilize oxygen to burn fat and glucose to produce energy. The exercise is performed at moderate levels of intensity for extended period of time.

Aerobic exercises include walking, jogging, running, dancing, swimming, skiing, rowing, etc. You can do aerobic exercises at home on an exercise bike, treadmill, etc.

The benefits of doing regular aerobic exercise

• Improving lungs by strengthening the muscles involved in respiration.
• Strengthening the heart, improving its pumping efficiency and reduce the resting heart rate, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Improving the blood circulation and reduce blood pressure.
• Increasing the number of red blood cells.

Anaerobic Exercise

Anaerobic means "no oxygen". The anaerobic exercise is performed at high levels of intensity for short period of time. During the anaerobic exercise, the muscles don’t require large amounts of oxygen, but metabolizes muscle glycogen to produce power.

Anaerobic exercises involve resistance training or strength training and weight lifting.

One of the important advantages of anaerobic exercises is that these don't hurt the body joints as these are usually non-impact exercises.

Safe Exercise For You

The safest form of exercise is regular walking.
Other form of physical activities good for your heart that uses the large muscle groups are: running, jogging, swimming, bicycle riding, rowing, dancing, taking stairs, etc. While exercising, keep an eye on your Target Heart Rate.

• Spend 30 minutes each day in brisk walking.
  
• Park your car 10 minutes from work and walk. Make little changes in your habits.
  
• Get off the bus or train 1 or 2 stops early and walk that last part.
  
• Take the stairs instead of lift or escalators.
  
• Don't look for excuses for not doing any physical activity.
  

Researchers suggest people to walk 150 minutes a week, which is equivalent to 30 minutes each day 5 times a week.

Following is the new guidelines for exercise based on the exercise version of the food pyramid from the Health and Human Services Department.

• For aerobic activities, go at least 10 minutes at a time to build heart rate enough to count. You should be able to talk while doing moderate activities but should not be able to sing. With vigorous activities, you will be able to say only a few words without stopping to catch a breath.
• Adults should do muscle strengthening activities like weight training, push-ups, heavy gardening or carrying heavy loads for at least two days a week.
• Older adults who are still physically able to follow the guidelines should do activities that maintain or improve their balance.
• Children and teens must do muscle-strengthening activities like sit-ups, tug-of-war - and bone-strengthening activities such as rope jumping and/or skipping, three times a week.
• Children must do daily mostly moderate or vigorous aerobic activity, such as running, skateboarding, bike cycling or soccer for an hour.

Excuses For Not Doing Exercise

Warning for those who exercise for the first time

Warning