EXERCISE AND WEIGHT CONTROL
(Continued)
Tips to Get You Started on your Exercise Plans
Hopefully, you are now convinced that in order to successfully manage your weight you must include exercise in your daily routine. Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Check with your doctor first. Since you are carrying around some extra “baggage,” it is wise to get your doctor’s “OK” before embarking on an exercise program.
2. Choose activities that you think you’ll enjoy. Most people will stick to their exercise program if they are having fun, even though they are working hard.
3. Set aside a regular exercise time. Whether this means joining an exercise class or getting up a little earlier every day, make time for this addition to your routine and don’t let anything get in your way. Planning ahead will help you get around interruptions in your workout schedule, such as bad weather and vacations.
4. Set short term goals. Don’t expect to lose 20 pounds in two weeks. It has taken awhile for you to gain the weight, it will take time to lose it. Keep a record of your progress and tell your friends and family about your achievements.
5. Vary your exercise program. Change exercises or invite friends to join you to make your workout more enjoyable. There is no “best” exercise – just the one that works best for you. It won’t be easy, especially at the start. But as you begin to feel better, look better and enjoy a new zest for life, you will be rewarded many times over for your efforts.
Now you have enough quality information to make your lifestyle more active. But, before you actually go for a strenuous exercise program, there are some basic considerations that need to be followed in order to get benefited from exercise and reduce your chances of injuries. Then we will move on the last topic in this module of health-related behaviors i.e., Accident Prevention.
Fitness Fundamentals: Guidelines for Personal Exercise Programs
Making A Commitment
You have taken the important first step on the path to physical fitness by seeking information. The next step is to decide that you are going to be physically fit. This lecture is designed to help you reach that decision and your goal.
The decision to carry out a physical fitness program cannot be taken lightly. It requires a lifelong commitment of time and effort. Exercise must become one of those things that you do without question, like bathing and brushing your teeth. Unless you are convinced of the benefits of fitness and the risks of unfitness, you will not succeed.
Patience is essential. Don’t try to do too much too soon and don’t quit before you have a chance to experience the rewards of improved fitness. You can’t regain in a few days or weeks what you have lost in years of sedentary living, but you can get it back if you keep on. And the prize is worth the price.
In the following pages you will find the basic information you need to begin and maintain a personal physical fitness program. These guidelines are intended for the average healthy adult. It tells you what your goals should be and how often, how long and how hard you must exercise to achieve them. It also includes information that will make your workouts easier, safer and more satisfying. The rest is up to you.
Checking Your Health
If you’re under 35 and in good health, you don’t need to see a doctor before beginning an exercise program. But if you are over 35 and have been inactive for several years, you should consult your physician, who may or may not recommend a graded exercise test. Other conditions that indicate a need for medical clearance are:
- High blood pressure.
- Heart trouble.
- Family history of early stroke or heart attack deaths.
- Frequent dizzy spells.
- Extreme breathlessness after mild exertion.
- Arthritis or other bone problems.
- Severe muscular, ligament or tendon problems.
- Other known or suspected disease.
Vigorous exercise involves minimal health risks for persons in good health or those following a doctor’s advice. Far greater risks are presented by habitual inactivity and obesity.
Defining Fitness
Physical fitness is to the human body what fine tuning is to an engine. It enables us to perform up to our potential. Fitness can be described as a condition that helps us look, feel and do our best. More specifically, it is:
“The ability to perform daily tasks vigorously and alertly, with energy left over for enjoying leisure-time activities and meeting emergency demands. It is the ability to endure, to bear up, to withstand stress, to carry on in circumstances where an unfit person could not continue, and is a major basis for good health and well-being.”
Physical fitness involves the performance of the heart and lungs, and the muscles of the body. And, since what we do with our bodies also affects what we can do with our minds, fitness influences to some degree qualities such as mental alertness and emotional stability.
As you undertake your fitness program, it’s important to remember that fitness is an individual quality that varies from person to person. It is influenced by age, sex, heredity, personal habits, exercise and eating practices. You can’t do anything about the first three factors. However, it is within your power to change and improve the others where needed.
Knowing the Basics
Physical fitness is most easily understood by examining its components, or “parts.” There is widespread agreement that these four components are basic:
Cardiorespiratory Endurance -the ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues, and to remove wastes, over sustained periods of time. Long runs and swims are among the methods employed in measuring this component.
Muscular Strength -the ability of a muscle to exert force for a brief period of time. Upper-body strength, for example, can be measured by various weight-lifting exercises.
Muscular Endurance -the ability of a muscle, or a group of muscles, to sustain repeated contractions or to continue applying force against a fixed object. Pushups are often used to test endurance of arm and shoulder muscles.
Flexibility -the ability to move joints and use muscles through their full range of motion. The sit-andreach test is a good measure of flexibility of the lower back and backs of the upper legs.
Body Composition is often considered a component of fitness. It refers to the makeup of the body in terms of lean mass (muscle, bone, vital tissue and organs) and fat mass. An optimal ratio of fat to lean mass is an indication of fitness, and the right types of exercises will help you decrease body fat and increase or maintain muscle mass.
A Workout Schedule
How often, how long and how hard you exercise, and what kinds of exercises you do should be determined by what you are trying to accomplish. Your goals, your present fitness level, age, health, skills, interest and convenience are among the factors you should consider. For example, an athlete training for high-level competition would follow a different program than a person whose goals are good health and the ability to meet work and recreational needs.
Your exercise program should include something from each of the four basic fitness components described previously. Each workout should begin with a warm-up and end with a cool-down. As a general rule, space your workouts throughout the week and avoid consecutive days of hard exercise.
Here are the amounts of activity necessary for the average healthy person to maintain a minimum level of overall fitness. Included are some of the popular exercises for each category.
Warm-up – 5-10 minutes of exercise such as walking, slow jogging, knee lifts, arm circles or trunk rotations. Low intensity movements that simulate movements to be used in the activity can also be included in the warm-up.
Muscular Strength -a minimum of two 20-minute sessions per week that include exercises for all the major muscle groups. Lifting weights is the most effective way to increase strength.
Muscular Endurance -at least three 30-minute sessions each week that include exercises such as aerobics, pushups, situps, pullups, and weight training for all the major muscle groups.
Cardiorespiratory Endurance -at least three 20-minute bouts of continuous aerobic (activity requiring oxygen) rhythmic exercise each week. Popular aerobic conditioning activities include brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, rope-jumping, rowing, cross-country skiing, and some continuous action games like racquetball and handball.
Flexibility - 10-12 minutes of daily stretching exercises performed slowly, without a bouncing motion. This can be included after a warmup or during a cooldown.
Cool Down -a minimum of 5-10 minutes of slow walking, low-level exercise, combined with stretching.
Some activities can be used to fulfill more than one of your basic exercise requirements. For example, in addition to increasing cardiorespiratory endurance, running builds muscular endurance in the legs, and swimming develops the arm, shoulder and chest muscles. If you select the proper activities, it is possible to fit parts of your muscular endurance workout into your cardiorespiratory workout and save time.
Clothing
All exercise clothing should be loose-fitting to permit freedom of movement and should make the wearer feel comfortable and self-assured.
As a general rule, you should wear lighter clothes than temperatures might indicate. Exercise generates great amounts of body heat. Light-colored clothing that reflects the sun’s rays is cooler in the summer, and dark clothes are warmer in winter. When the weather is very cold, it’s better to wear several layers of light clothing than one or two heavy layers. The extra layers help trap heat, and it’s easy to shed one of them if you become too warm.
Never wear rubberized or plastic clothing, such garments interfere with the evaporation of perspiration and can cause body temperature to rise to dangerous levels. The most important item of equipment for the runner is a pair of sturdy, properly-fitting running shoes.
When to Exercise
Among the factors you should consider in developing your workout schedule are personal preference, job and family responsibilities, availability of exercise facilities and weather. It’s important to schedule your workouts for a time when there is little chance that you will have to cancel or interrupt them because of other demands on your time.
You should not exercise strenuously during extremely hot, humid weather or within two hours after eating. Heat and/or digestion both make heavy demands on the circulatory system, and in combination with exercise can be an overtaxing double load.
Safety Behaviors and Accident Prevention
Unsafe conditions threaten people’s health in virtually all environments, such as in traffic, at home, on the job, and at the beach. These conditions produce huge numbers of illnesses, injuries, and deaths each year. In most cases, these health problems could have been avoided if the victim or other people had used reasonable safety precautions. Sometimes people don’t know how to prevent injury—as is often the case for elderly individuals who become injured when they fall— but safety training can reduce these injuries.
How can accidental injuries be prevented?
In discussing this question, we will focus on injuries in traffic mishaps for two reasons:
(1) they account for about half of all accidental deaths and
(2) researchers have done many studies on methods to prevent traffic injuries.
The death rates for motor vehicle accidents in the United States increase dramatically during adolescence, and the rate of deaths from traffic mishaps among 15-to 24-year-olds is over twice as high for males as for females. Because of the high rates of traffic fatalities in adolescence, special safe-driving programs have been directed toward teenagers. One approach has involved providing driver training in high schools, and early quasi-experimental research showed that students who take driver education courses subsequently have fewer accidents than those who do not.
Injuries and deaths can also be prevented if drivers and passengers will use protective equipment, such as seat-belts in cars and helmets when riding motorcycles or bicycles. After seat belts were installed as standard equipment in cars, few people opted to use them.
Research shows that the use of drugs or alcohol before driving is also one of the major contributing factors to traffic accidents. Also, sleep deprivation can be a very easily-neglected safety issue. If some one has not had proper sleep before driving, there are chances that they might feel tired and drowsy, which can take on very dangerous form.
Health psychologists and medical health practitioners advocate the use of seat belts and other protective measures while driving. They also urge that drivers stay away from drugs and alcohol to not only keep their lives safe, but also of others who may be involved in accidents. Similarly, proper sleep is also emphasized in order to reduce the risk of accidents.