It's a good idea to check with a health professional
and ask their opinion before undertaking any exercise,
especially if it has been a while since you have undertaken
any fitness program or exercise.
- Start off gently, and work within your comfort
zone. Increase your effort gradually over several
weeks.
- Maintain regular breathing throughout the exercises,
try not to hold your breath - your muscles will need
that oxygen!.
- Try to keep strict form with control, not using
momentum.
Do not undertake any exercise if you are in pain
or feeling unwell. If you feel faint, dizzy or unwell
while exercising stop immediately.
Burn Fat
Burning fat is all about using up more calories than
you take in. If you eat more calories than your body
uses throughout the day, these additional calories
will be stored as body fat. To prevent a build up
of body fat you need to either reduce your calorie
intake or increase your daily activity levels - doing
both will have the best effect on reducing body fat.
The more fat you want to lose then the greater the
amount of calories you have to burn off.
This means exercise!. Regular workouts, tied with
a healthy balanced diet is the best way to work off
that fat, and get a new slim shape.
Once you have trained your body to be an efficient
fat-burner, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
To be an efficient fat burner you need to increase
your muscle density. The muscles are where all the
calories are burned during exercise - the more efficient
the muscles at burning fat - the quicker weight loss
will be achieved.
And believe it or not, you actually have to eat
more to be a good fat burner. If you deprive yourself
of food or fat, your body will go into survival mode
and slow itself down to prepare for a possible famine.
Basal Metabolic Rate will decrease, and your body
will not want to burn off any excess calories in a
hurry just in case you're not going to feed yourself
for a while. Then, over time, your metabolism will
slow down dramatically, making it harder and harder
to burn fat, lose weight and keep it off.
| Exercise Programs
An effective fitness program depends on an
individual, and the goals of an individual.
Obviously the exercise program of an Olympic
athlete will be significantly different from
an individual looking to lose a few pounds.
Planning a fitness regime should not only take
into account present fitness level, current
health and age, but also interests and individual
skills.
Try to fit exercise into your daily routine,
and if possible involve others as an aid to
motivation and to make exercise more enjoyable.
Taking up a sport is a great way to enjoy yourself
while getting fitter. |
|
| |
Fitness For You
How often exercise is undertaken is again down to
the needs of the individual, but it is recommended
to undertake workouts throughout the week and avoid
consecutive days of hard exercise.
Below is an example of the level of activity necessary
for the average, healthy person to maintain a minimum
level of overall fitness. Some popular exercises have
been included as examples.
WARM-UP - Gets the body in a state of readiness
for vigorous activity and enhances the performance
of movement required for exercise. A thorough warm-up
reduces the risk of injury, especially when performed
prior to repetitive and/or resistance-based exercise.
A general warm-up results in mild elevation of the
heart rate and ventilation and perhaps light perspiration,
but shouldn't be fatiguing.
Example Warm-up - 5-10 minutes of exercises
such as walking, slow jogging, knee lifts, arm circles
or trunk rotations. Low intensity movements that stimulate
movements to be used in the activity can also be included
in the warm-up.
MUSCULAR STRENGTH - the ability of a muscle
to exert force for a brief period of time. This can
be measured by various weightlifting exercises. The
gym is the ideal place to work on muscular strength
if you do not own you own weights.
Example Muscular Strength - a minimum of two
20-minute sessions per week that include exercises
for all the major muscle groups. There are some excellent
resources available if you would like to find out
more about weight training.
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.
Push-ups are often used to test endurance of arm and
shoulder muscles.
Example Muscular Endurance - at least three
30-minute sessions each week that include exercises
such as push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and weight training
for all the major muscle groups.
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE - Cardiovascular (or
cardio) exercise has numerous health benefits. In
addition to burning calories and lowering your body
fat, it will strengthen the heart and lungs. Long
runs and swims are good examples of cardio exercise.
See the Cardio page for more information on the effective
cardio exercise.
Example Cardiovascular Exercise - at least
three 20-minute bouts of continuous aerobic activity
exercise each week. Popular aerobic conditioning activities
include brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling,
rowing and skipping.
STRETCHING - the ability to move joints and
use muscles through their full range of motion. The
sit-and-reach test is a good measure of flexibility
of the lower back and backs of the upper legs. Flexibility
through stretching is important as it increases physical
performance, decreases risk of injury, increases blood
supply and nutrients to the joints, increases neuromuscular
co-ordination, reduces soreness, improves balance,
decreases risk of low back pain, and reduces stress
in muscles. Check out the Stretching Exercise for
stretching exercise details in full.
Example Flexibility - 10-12 minutes of daily
stretching exercises performed slowly without a bouncing
motion. This can be included after a warm-up or during
a cool down.
COOL DOWN - a minimum of 5-10 minutes of slow
walking, low-level exercise, combined with stretching.
