Welcome to my blog! If you want to have fun while learning some helpful facts and tips about living a healthier, more nutritious lifestyle, you've come to the right blog! :)

Friday, August 12, 2011

Why Should I Move?

There are too many days that I wake up in the morning and ask myself, "Why should I move? Do I really need to get up and exercise?  I don't care about being buff, so what's the point?" Well, there is a point, a very important one. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that exercise decreases your risk for many chronic diseases, and increases your likelihood of living longer.  I happen to agree :)


In the USDA's Dietary Guidelines for America, there are specific guidelines set for daily physical activity.  I will briefly list them:
  • At least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, above your usual activity, on most days of the week to reduce the risk of chronic disease in adulthood.
  •  About 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity most days of the week to help manage body weight and prevent gradual, unhealthy body-weight gain in adulthood.
  •  At least 60 to 90 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity daily to sustain weight loss in adulthood.
You are probably wondering what the difference between "moderate-intensity activity" and "vigorous-intensity activity" is.  Moderate-intensity exercises include walking-briskly or jogging, light dancing, biking, or other aerobic activities, light weight lifting, yoga or stretching, household chores, and many other activities along those lines.  Vigorous-intensity activities include running, biking with resistance, and heavy lifting, dancing, sports, or aerobic activities that really get your heart rate up.  The more you exercise, the better shape you will be in, and you may have to do some harder exercises in order to get the same intensity workout.  I'm not an expert on exercise, but I would say that in general, it is best to start with the lighter activities and work your way up.  


I found a great website (http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/information/usda-aerobic-exercise-guidelines-ga.htm) that explains all of this in more detail and gives some great tips on getting started with an exercise routine.  If that's a little overwhelming, here's my VERY simplified advice:
  1. Do something fun that gets your heart-rate up and uses some of your muscles for A MINIMUM of 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week.  60 minutes is better, and 90 minutes, if you've got the time, is the best. 
  2. It is best to do all of your exercise at the same time, but you can also split up the time if necessary. 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, etc. As long as it adds up to the recommended time, it works.
  3. Don't do the same exercises everyday! It is best to mix it up.  You need to get at least some cardiovascular exercise everyday (walking briskly, running, aerobics, biking..anything that makes you breathe harder), but you need to fit in strength, flexibility, and endurance as well.  The best way to do this is to start with a good warm up that gets your heart pumping (about 10 minutes long) and then do weight lifting 2 days a week, yoga or another form of stretching 1-2 days a week, and the rest of the days do purely cardio workouts. 
 So that's Kamie's very simple workout plan.  Obviously those of you looking for more advanced workouts will need to step it up a notch or two more.  


Remember, exercise does not need to be miserable.  Choose activities that you enjoy, and becoming healthier will be a breeze.  If the long-term benefits of exercise are too distant to motivate you in the moment, there are lots of short-term benefits as well.  They include feeling stronger, healthier and more confident, sleeping better, thinking clearer (I've noticed this one personally), building a stronger immune system, and being able to perform everyday tasks more efficiently.  If there are others you can think of, comment and let us know!


Good luck everyone!  And don't forget to keep moving! :)


-Kamie
 
Norwood, Peggy.  "USDA Exercise Guidelines"  08 August 2011.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/information/usda-aerobic-exercise-guidelines-ga.htm>  12 August 2011.

CDC: http://longevity.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=longevity&cdn=health&tm=146&f=00&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/importance/why.htm 
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3 comments:

  1. JanelleyAugust 12, 2011 at 6:57 PM

    Hey Kamie! I really enjoyed this post. It's always something i've been unclear on. So, I just wanted to pick your brain a little. What sort of things can you do for endurance and flexibility besides running/jogging or plain stretches and yoga?

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  2. K. A. BushmanAugust 14, 2011 at 7:39 PM

    Great question! An endurance workout for your muscles would be lifting lower weight and more reps. A cardio endurance workout would be lower intensity for a longer time (I would say a half an hour or longer). There are lots of options outside of running. My personal favorite is dancing, but you can also do aerobics, kickboxing or like exercises, zumba, and hundreds of combinations of exercises that you can create yourself or find in workout videos. The goal is to get your heart rate up and keep it up for an extended period of time.

    For flexibility, you can do anything that extends your muscles beyond where you normally extend them. Again, dancing and danced based exercises are great for this. You can also do pilates and similar exercises. Also, you can throw stretching in with your other exercises if you don't like doing it all at once.

    Hope this is helpful!

    -Kamie

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  3. JanelleyAugust 15, 2011 at 9:25 AM

    That's very helpful! I've always wanted to try doing some dancing type workouts! All though, I have no idea where to even start on that. Do you need more of a dance work out video for that? Any suggestions on some good ones? :)

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