Although there are no sure-fire recipes for good health, the mixture of healthy eating and regular exercise comes awfully close.  I write a lot about eating a clean, healthy diet.  So I’d like to switch today and give physical activity its due.  This is Part 3 of my H.E.A.L.T.H. series.

Is exercise REALLY necessary?  Does being active REALLY help our health? What BENEFITS do we get from exercise? Does it matter what kind of exercise we do or how long we exercise?

Most of us have heard that exercise is good for our health.  So why don’t we do it? Any of these sound familiar? “Don’t have time. Don’t live near a gym. Don’t know what exercises to do. If I can’t exercise an hour, then I won’t do any. I exercise and I don’t lose weight.  Too tired.”  Excuse after excuse.  I’ve used them all.  But we, as mother’s wives, and friends, need to take time to care for our own health, so we will be healthy enough to care for the people we love.  We need to put our oxygen mask on first and then help our children, family, and friends.  Keep reading and you’ll discover how you don’t have to be a gym rat to benefit from exercise and how those benefits totally outweigh the cost of inactivity.

Benefits of Staying Active

Regular exercise or physical activity helps many of the body’s systems function better, keeps heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other diseases at bay, and is a key ingredient for losing weight. According to the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, being physically active on a regular basis

• Improves your chances of living longer and living healthier
• Helps protect you from developing heart disease and stroke or its precursors, high blood pressure
• Helps protect you from developing certain cancers, including colon and breast cancer, and possibly lung and endometrial (uterine lining) cancer
• Helps prevent type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome (a constellation of risk factors that increases the chances of developing heart disease and diabetes; read more about simple steps to prevent diabetes)
• Helps prevent the insidious loss of bone known as osteoporosis
• Reduces the risk of falling and improves cognitive function among older adults
• Relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety and improves mood
• Promotes weight loss and helps keep weight off
• Improves heart-lung and muscle fitness
• Improves sleep

 The Cost of Inactivity

If exercise and regular physical activity benefit the body, a sedentary lifestyle does the opposite, increasing the chances of becoming overweight and developing a number of chronic diseases. Despite all the good things going for it, only about 30 percent of adult Americans report they get regular physical activity during their leisure time—and about 40 percent of Americans say they get no leisure-time physical activity at all.  According to analyses by a team from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, inactivity was associated with more than 9 million cases of cardiovascular disease in 2001.

More recently, studies have found that people who spend more time each day watching television, sitting, or riding in cars  have a greater chance of dying early than people who spend less time on their duffs.

In sum, a morning jog or brisk lunchtime walk brings many health benefits—but these may not entirely make up for a day spent in front of the computer or an evening in front of the television set. So as you plan your daily activity routine, remember that cutting down on “sit time” may be just as important as increasing “fit time.”

Physical Activity Guidelines: How Much Exercise Do We Need?

If you are just starting out, begin with 15 minutes per day and work your way up to 60 minutes per day.  If you have been consistently exercising, I would suggest you start with the amount of time that you are used to and increase from there.  You can combine moderate and vigorous exercise over the course of the week.  What does moderate and vigorous mean?  Moderate-intensity aerobic activity is any activity that causes a slight but noticeable increase in breathing and heart rate, enough to break a sweat, but not so hard you can’t comfortably carry on a conversation. Vigorous-intensity aerobic activity causes more rapid breathing and a greater increase in heart rate, but you should still be able to carry on a conversation—with shorter sentences.

Many people believe that cardio is the way to go. Others believe that lifting weights is really a must.  They are both right!  You really need both – but in different percentages depending on your age.  When you are younger and up to age 25, your workout should be 70% cardio and 30% muscle building or weight lifting. After age 25, we start to lose muscle mass.

At around 40, your workout should include 50% cardio and 50% muscle building.

Post menopausal women have a natural decline in estrogen, which in turn increases visceral fat mass, decreases bone mass density, muscle mass, and strength.  Low physical activity and protein in takes are the two contributors to sarcopenia and osteoporosis and the loss of strength in postmenopausal women.

On the other hand, exercise and high quality supplementation has the potential to slow down and even stop the loss of muscle mass.  After the age of 50, your workout should consist of 60% muscle building and 40 % cardio.  Once you reach your 60’s, you should be doing weight bearing exercises such as brisk walking, golf, dancing, yoga, etc. which will increase your muscle mass.

Not only does exercise improve your bone health, it also increases muscle strength, coordination, and balance, and it leads to better overall health.  Here are a few tips that I follow when it comes to exercise:

1. 1. Never let more than 2 days go by without exercising!
   2. Interval training – just 15 minutes per day, 3 x week, super efficient and the ideal workout for a busy schedule.
   3. Alternate your cardio and muscle building days.  Always take 1 day off a week to let your muscles to recover.  Example: Monday – 20 to 25 minutes of vigorous intensity activity, Tuesday – muscle-strengthening activity,  Wednesday – 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity, Thursday – muscle-strengthening activity, Friday – 20 to 25 minutes of vigorous intensity activity, Saturday –  30 minutes of moderate intensity activity, Sunday – day off. It’s fine to break up your activity into smaller bursts, as long as you sustain the activity for at least 10 minutes.
   4. Do what you LOVE!  If you don’t like running, then don’t run. Pick something that you love doing. You will be more consistent.
   5.  Try this 10 minute FULL BODY workout that you can do in the comfort of your own home without any equipment except your body.

Let me know in the comments below how you exercise (it just might help someone else).

Always keep moving!