Empowering Resolutions: Are You Exercising Hard Enough?

With obesity becoming an epidemic in the United States, particularly among
children, we need exercise more than ever!

I get many emails a week about exercise and how and when to go about it. For the
most part, you can find the general answers here:

Healthy Exercise.

For heart health, cardiovascular and fat burning needs, aerobics is essential. I
am always telling patients that by simply moving (a brisk walk, jogging,
cycling, skating...) you will increase your heart rate, increase energy levels,
improve circulation, work the heart and lungs, improve your mood, increase lean
muscle mass, decrease body fat and relieve stress, especially when done on a
long term basis.

Frequency, duration, and intensity are the three determinants. How many times
per week are you working out? For what period of time? At what level of
intensity? These determinants will establish the overall effectiveness of your
exercise program.

Most experts recommend, that if you are a beginner, start with 3 times per week,
20-30 minutes per session. If 20 minutes is to difficult to begin with, that's
fine just keep at it until you reach the 20 minute goal. (In order for your
heart to benefit, you should try to exercise aerobically for a minimum of 20
minutes.) By beginning slowly, you can gradually work up to more exercise. Those
who start right into an exercise routine 5 or 6 times a week will burnout and
probably injure themselves as the go.

For those who are comfortable with aerobic activity for at least 20 minutes, 3
times per week, it is NOW TIME to increase the length of your workouts to 30
minutes and to exercise 4 times a week (rather than 3). If 20 minutes of
exercise has been the goal you have reached for two weeks now, try increasing
the duration in small increments by 5 additional minutes. This will make the
transition easier.

For those who are comfortable with aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes, 4
times per week, it is NOW TIME to increase the length of your workouts to 40
minutes and to exercise 5 times a week (rather than 4).

A variation on this theme is to increase the resistance/intensity in your
aerobic activity. By doing so, you will increase your caloric burn by a large
percent! If you are using the stair master, steps or elliptical machines, try
increasing the "effort number" or height of the incline on your machine and you
will appreciate the additional effort! If you are in a cardo class, jogging or
fast walking, take a small weight with you. 2-5 lbs. will make a world of
difference.

To avoid overuse injuries such as tendonitis, shin splints... you should cross
train (one day try walking, the next day ride a bike, the following day
participate in an aerobics class...).

Remember, aerobic exercise is essential for weight loss, cardiovascular fitness
and body-shaping. Current research supports a complete fitness program. A
complete program should include aerobic exercise, anaerobic exercise and
stretching. To be successful, you must incorporate it into your lifestyle, like
eating well and getting good quality sleep.

It's time to step it up!


Source:
https://www.peacefulmind.com/exercise.htm

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

A Case Against Cardio (from a former mileage king)

We all know that we need to exercise to be healthy.
Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, immune-compromised exerholics. Hate to say it, but we weren’t meant to aerobicize at the chronic and sustained high intensities that so many people choose to do these days. The results are almost always unimpressive. Ever wonder why years of “Spin” classes, endless treadmill sessions and interminable hours on the “elliptical” have done nothing much to shed those extra pounds and really tone the butt?
Don’t worry. There’s a reason why the current methods fail, and when you understand why, you’ll see that there’s an easier, more effective – and fun – way to burn fat, build or preserve lean muscle and maintain optimal health. The information is all there in the primal DNA blueprint, but in order to get the most from your exercise experience, first you need to understand the way we evolved and then build your exercise program around that blueprint.

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I'd rather meander for the prevention than race for the cure.

Yes. Much better to do interval sprints. I was going to say a lot more about the topic...but the link says it all already.

At some point Mark asserts that over 4,000 calories spent per week on exercise is too much.

Yup, intervals, moving about slowly, lifting heavy things. Seven to eight day rotations.

I figure that number would be different for different people depending on a large variety of factors. Someone who's extraordinarily healthy, consumes lots of antioxidants (from food), etc, could get away with more exercise then someone living on Big Macs and twinkies.

Although the second guy would need it more

Good points. I think you nailed it with 'getting away with it'. It boils down to recovery time and ability to take in nutrients. At some point, regardless of your health and nutrition, you overwhelm your system.

Cardiologists say that it is very beneficial for the heart if you exercise for 20 minute per day with your pulse around 120. I'm more interested in heart than weight and strength, so I try to pay more attention to the aerobic exercise. Now, if I'd just do it. How hard is to to get the heart rate to 120 anyway? Does dusting and vacuuming count? I seem to have to do a lot of that. Otherwise, in 2 weeks, I could grow carrots on my coffee table.

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- Jim

�Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.� Sir Winston Churchill

I'd recommend wheatgrass instead. Much better for you

Pulse for ideal exercise needs to be calulated as a percentage based on max pulse for your age. 120 is nothing for an 18 yo.

The 20 minutes is approx the average time it takes to turn from burning blood glucose to burning fat deposits. You will have better energy throughout the day if you train your body not to rely on blood glucose. It also gets rid of cravings (caused by a fall in blood glucose) or mid-afternoon slumps.

Muscle exhaustion is absolutely incredible for jump-starting your metabolism. It's also called "running the rack" because you start with a heavy weight until you can no longer lift it, then go to a lighter one and so on until you can no longer lift the lightest weight.

I did the "Cybergenics" program that was popular about 20 years ago and went from flabby to one of those guys with the muscles and veins in the tv commercials. And these intense programs do create a change so quickly your body changes almost before your eyes. I am still outstandingly fit 20 years later all thanks to taking a chance on a crazy exercise thingy I saw on tv.

Very well put. The 'chronic cardio crowd' exhausts all their glycogen, which leaves the body craving carbs.

Constructive exercise takes place at 50 to 75% of max heart rate. This keeps us in the fat burning zone.

Exercise without proper supplementation is suicide.

There seems to be and endless supply of athletes, including young people, falling over dead on the football field or basketball court. Most die from myopathy heart attack or ruptured aortic aneurysm, which are both caused by simple nutritional deficiency, but they are obviously not told this..

The best doctor in the world cannot protect you from a mineral deficiency.

We keep hearing these boobs pushing calcium, when what we
we really need is magnesium. PBD is right on --

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Imagined knowledge kills learning . . .
The cure for boredom is curiosity...there is no cure for curiosity..

I agree with magnesium being needed over calcium. I haven't taken calcium supplements in years, although they recommend them for post-menopausal women. I also have been using k2 daily, and magnesium citrate. If I took the doctor recommended dose of calcium, I'll likely be a stroke victim already.

We are not plagued as a society by those who work out too much - we are plagued by obesity and those who don't exercise at all and eat fast foods and high fat foods. TV and radio is inundated by ads that say -- take this pill and eat poison and don't exercise at all and lose weight. It's a fairy tale. You have to eat right and exercise or poor health is your destiny.