INTRODUCTION IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE
Fit exercise into your busy schedule? That’s as absurd as saying that
there are eight days in a week. First, you’ve never exercised before
or regularly played a sport. Second, you’ve never been into the
fitness crowd and third, you’re far too busy to even think about
exercise. In other words, You're just not into it.
Of course, your friends talk about it and rave about the latest fitness
craze, but you’ve seen it too often, some of them are on the “on-again-off-again” treadmill/stair master mania, and you wonder why
they haven’t shed the fat that they’re desperately still trying to hide.
Seeing what your friends go through and not seeing any results, you
cling to the notion that your total lack of interest is justified.
You’re not the least bit inclined to engage in these circus-like
contortions or do those mindless freestyle strokes in the water. That
would only encroach into your already busy schedule of juggling
family, home, and career. These three combined –
husband/children/work are your exercise.
Before tackling the idea of fitting exercise into your busy schedule, it.
might be better if we start with the concept of self-assessment and
then familiarize ourselves with the disease-prevention aspect of
exercise.
Once you’ve accepted the fact that exercise is good for your health,
then you can consider some of the ways you can include it in your
life.
ASSESSING PHYSICAL
DAMAGE AND ACCEPTING THE
IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE
Lifespan and Physical Appearance
The average life span is 80 years, give or take a few years. The truth
is, a significant number of people look and feel 80 before their time.
They have :
❤ sagging dry skin unsightly posture an uneven and
unsteady walk aching joints
If their outward appearance is bad, imagine what the inside
machinery is like. Most likely, it’s even worse:
❤clogged blood vessels heart problems mounds of sugar
and fat parked in or around vital organs Conditions such
as diabetes, nervous tension, high blood pressure, and
cardiovascular disease that are silently brewing.
If fitness authorities had it their way, they’d create legislation to
make exercise mandatory as soon as a baby leaves the cradle, not
during the teenage years when obesity is likely to strike.
But fitness shouldn’t be associated with any age. You can start at 10
or at 30 – even at 50 or 60. Fitness should not be seen as the cure for
an illness you already have but as preventative maintenance.
Assessing Your Fitness Level
Brad King and Dr. Michael Schmidt in “Bio Age, Ten Steps to a
Younger You” have devised a questionnaire for assessing physical
damage to a body as a result of no exercise. We will borrow some
of their guidelines:
Start with the question, “How do I look?” Do any of these answers
apply to you?
➢ Am I overweight? Do I look like an apple or pear?
Do I have a spare tire?
Has my skin become excessively dry, almost paper-thin?
Next, ask: “How do I feel?”
➢ Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exertion?
Am I constantly worried and anxious?
Do I feel tired and sluggish most of the time?
Do I suffer from mood swings?
Last question, “How am I doing?”
Is walking and climbing stairs difficult?
➢ Do I have problems concentrating?
Is running impossible for me now? Am I unable to sit straight,
preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?
You’ve completed your basic assessment. Note, however, that other
exercise or fitness gurus will have their own parameters or indices
for assessing your body’s overall state.
Turning You into a Fitness Buff!
After going through the assessment phase, you’re probably
experiencing a “rude awakening”.
Slowly but Surely…
In fact “slowly but surely” was probably what motivated Denise
Austin to come up with her popular one-minute exercises.
She had two types of people in mind when she designed the one-minute movements:
▪ Uninitiated
▪ People on the go
It’s a quickie society we live in; we want everything quick, especially
exercise.
Benefits of Exercise
If you make exercise part of your day, Denise Austin believes you’ll
already experience some noticeable benefits.
These include:
✓ Waking up in the morning feeling refreshed
✓ Walking with a gait
✓ Having energy left at the end of the day
✓ Feeling more optimistic about recreation
✓ Sleeping more soundly at night
More Benefits of Exercise
The benefits above are general. Let’s examine the more specific
benefits of exercise on specific parts of the body, as described by
Goldberg and Elliot:
✓ Exercise prevents heart disease
The average ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol (good
cholesterol) is about 4.5. If this ratio doubles or reaches 7, you
double your chances of developing coronary heart disease. You
reduce that risk by as much as 50% if your ratio is 3 or lower.
The lowdown on cholesterol: not all cholesterol is bad. You have
the good one (HDL-1 and HDL-2), the not-so-bad one (VLDL), and the
harmful one (LDL).
To get your ratios, divide the total amount of your cholesterol by
your amount of HDL. The lower the ratio you have, the better.
✓ Exercise prevents osteoporosis
28 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE OSTEOPOROSIS. 80% ARE WOMEN. ONLY ¼ OF
THIS 80% KNOW THEY HAVE THE CONDITION AND ONLY HALF ARE BEING TREATED.
THE ANNUAL OSTEOPOROSIS BILL TO THE UNITED STATES IS $14 BILLION.
STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT SUFFICIENT AMOUNTS OF CALCIUM AND REGULAR
EXERCISE BUILD STRONG BONES.
WHILE GENETICS PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN DEVELOPING THE RISKS OF OSTEOPOROSIS,
INDIVIDUALS CAN CONTROL SOME FACTORS THAT WILL HELP PREVENT THE
PROBLEM.
PEAK BONE MASS IS ATTAINED IN YOUR 20’S.
STARTING AN EXERCISE PROGRAM WHILE STILL YOUNG, EVEN IF YOU LIVE IN THE
FAST LANE, WILL HELP YOU AVOID BONE DISEASE.
✓ Exercise prevents diabetes
People are still debating how much exercise an individual needs, but
for people with type 2 diabetes, exercising three or more times a
week improves fitness and blood sugar levels. If you have type 2
diabetes and are overweight, exercise done with the following
parameters would be of tremendous benefit: intensity of 60%-70%
maximal heart rate, with the duration of 30 or more minutes, 4-7 days
each week.
There have been hundreds of documented reports that reveal how
people’s lives have significantly improved and the remarkable
transformation that their bodies experience after they made the
decision to take ownership of their weight and fat problems.
In fact, Diane Rinehart (former Toronto magazine editor and writer)
wrote in the Montreal Gazette on December 12, 2005:
“What we’re hearing about…is waiting times in
emergency and operating rooms for ailments such as hip
replacements, heart surgery, and amputations. That’s a
shame because the fact is, if we
dealt with obesity, we wouldn’t be facing the epidemics
of heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and diabetes that clog
our hospital waiting rooms and ORs.”
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