Recently, my good friend gave me a 3 month free pass to use a gym. Despite not being a gym person, I thought I'd give it a try. The gym was near my office, but getting there was already a 15 minute aerobic cardio exercise from walking. This was good, since I needed to warm up before getting started. The first machine they normally put you on is a thread mill, and yes, it was the same for me too. Then after that they got a PT to guide me (or rather try to close PT training sessions sales). It kinda pissed me off a bit, since the PT was suppose to show you how to use machines but he was busy making me do 3 laps of butterfly jumps and then tell me I have bad stamina when the chick next to me can't even complete 1 lap. So in a way, I was pretty discouraged to go to the gym, since I know that they are just trying to make you buy more and more packages to sign up. Whatever, I still have my 3 months pass, so I don't really give a hoot to what they want to think or say.
Regardless, exercise is a crucial must in our daily lives. Yes you got me right, it has to be daily. But it doesn't mean you have to jog every single day. There are many types of exercises you need to understand and plan them according to target.
1. Cardiorespiratory work out
This is the most common work out everybody does because it is perceived as the most important. It can be anything from running to jogging, or brisk walking to dancing, aerobics, swimming. Regardless, most professionals agree that 30-45 minutes a day is enough and can help reduce a lot of heart related problems such as reduce risk for coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, lipid levels etc. I would normally recommend doing some cardio workout before targeted exercises as it helps to improve your blood circulation, muscles are more prepared and warmed up so it reduces injury. But if you have existing problems like back pain, obesity, joint pains - you should start with low level exercises like walking first before jogging or running. When is the best time to exercise? When you can slot a time of 30 minutes of no disturbance of the routine. An exercise is only effective if you do it continuously for at least 10 minutes at a time.
2. Body strength and composition exercises.
One of the most interesting things I learnt during my previous anti-aging conferences was that in order to maintain weight you need to lift weights. So I decided to follow this technique and bought myself some dumbbells. And sure enough, I did notice my weight maintaining better despite my lack of running around. So I decided to read more and understand why. The main reason is that if you have a lot of muscle bulk, you burn more energy in your sleep maintaining them compared to if you didn't. The problem when you are obese or overweight, most of the muscles are mixed with too much fat, and fat is a storage organ, so you don't really burn that much calories with them. Now, when we go on a starving diet, our protein stores in our muscles are the first to go hence leading to smaller muscle mass thus why the weight doesn't go down. That is why a lot of diets nowadays preach on a higher protein consumption, more fiber and no refined carbs for a better weight loss result. Another new thing I learnt was that sudden usage of energy for example short sprinting exercises burns more energy and brown fat compared to a 60 minute cardio. So for people like me, who persistently have a V/Q mismatch or poor respiratory endurance, 5-10 minutes sprinting in between my regular jog benefits more in terms of fat loss, compared to trying to sustain 45 minutes of running that would exhaust me more. As for heart rate, although most people believe that you cannot exceed 80% or your max heart rate as it can cause problems, this is not entirely true. High velocity sprinting causes your heart rate to jump even higher than the so-called maximum heart rate level, and studies have shown that it is safe in short outbursts.
3. Flexibility exercises
When I was younger, we use to have this game where we would try to flex our body backward all the way and walk. It was so much fun then. Flexibility exercises are important to maintain the elasticity of the joints and avoid injuries especially in sudden movements. How to stretch? Basically it needs to involve the muscles in each group i.e. extensors or flexors. Still gibberish? Try Yoga or Pilates - these involve a lot of stretching exercise in the routine that is done in stages. Other simple stretch methods are the stretch exercises we use to learn in school during PE (If we did). Or when you learn martial arts or dancing half of the routine are flexible exercises. I normally do stretching exercises after all the cardio and sprinting as the joints are already warmed from the 2 other work outs. Otherwise, I do it on my bed before getting up :).
Basically you need to have a mixture of all three types for a complete work out. There are many forms of exercise to choose from besides the typical treadmill so choose one you are most comfortable and happy with. Other benefits of exercise also includes:
1. Reduce risk of cardiovascular diseases. Even if you already have cardiovascular disease it helps to improve it.
2. Reduces risk for diabetes by increasing insulin sensitivity and improving glucose metabolism. So even if you already have diabetes, it helps. This is also true for resistance exercises, not just the normal aerobic.
3. Reduces hypertension - this is true for aerobic exercises. High intense exercises have not shown much effect.
4. Reduces blood TG, Cholesterol and LDL. This is true when you burn 1000-2000 calories a week usually from constant aerobic or sprint exercises.
5. Reduces risk of stroke due to all above.
6. Reduces risk of colon, breast, lung and multiple myeloma cancers with 30-60 minutes of moderate to high impact exercise daily.
7. Reduces osteoporosis. Lunge exercises and medium impact exercises stimulate bone growth.
8. Improves muscle health and reduces sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the age-related muscle wasting that we see in elderly people. In some it occurs faster than others. Regular exercise helps maintain muscle masses thus reduces sarcopenia.
9. Maintains body composition and reduces obesity.
10. Reduces Arthritis.
11. Reduces stress. This is only true when you make the exercise fun. Like I said, there are many forms of exercise you can choose from.
12. Improves mood.
13. Reduces Depression and anxiety due to the improvement of mood and reduction of stress.
14. Improves self-esteem. When you exercise and feel good about it, reduces stress and elevates your mood, your self-esteem improves. Plus the multiple health benefits and the figure benefits would definitely boost the inner you.
For busy people like me, there are studies on people who do exercises only on weekends or once or twice a week and it does shows improvement and benefits. So even if you are strung out during most the week, at least take a day off to do some exercise. The recommended is to burn at least 1000 calories a week and this would give you a reduced risk of 20% of dying prematurely.
Like I always tell my patients during aesthetic consultations, Doing something is always better than doing nothing. So even if you do not get an optimum exercise routine, at least doing some exercise would benefit.
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