Before initiating a new fitness program it is very important to get clearance from your physician.Now you are ready to start a new fitness lifestyle or motivated to stick with your current fitness lifestyle -Right!!!! Well, choosing a fitness lifestyle is one of the very best choices you can make in life. There are so many benefits including a stronger physical self-stronger bones, muscles and stronger cardiovascular system, improved blood fats (exercise lowers bad cholesterol-LDL and raises good cholesterol-HDL), a higher self-esteem, and more fun to add to quality of life (yes, fitness is fun!!!!) and endorphins are produced during cardio workouts that are great for stress relief and natural feel good chemicals. In this section you will find general guidelines for your fitness lifestyle. For fitness guidance for the management of specific conditions including diabetes, arthritis, COPD (emphysema, chronic bronchitis), hypertension and weight management reference those specific drop down sections under Fitness Guidance.
Establish a specific fitness goal for yourself and track your progress in achieving that goal. A great idea is to complete a fitness contract with yourself in which you state your commitment to your fitness lifestyle and state your fitness goal(s). Be sure to sign your contract to seal the deal. You can find your Fitness Contract under You and Fitness –Your Fitness Contract which you can print off and sign and place in a visible place in your daily life e.g. your refrigerator.
Choose exercises you enjoy. There are so many activities which will give you a great workout-Bike riding, swimming, playing Frisbee, gym workouts-elliptical, stairmaster, treadmill, stationary bikes, group aerobics, walking, jogging, hiking, playing tennis, dancing. You should vary your exercises to keep it interesting and to work out different muscles. If you have a core activity or exercise that you prefer to do most days of the week you might add another activity a few times a week. This is called cross-training. It is very important that you choose exercises that you enjoy so that you stick with your program.
Always stay well hydrated. Water will keep you hydrated but for optimal hydration, drink sports drinks containing up to 6% carbohydrates and 100mg sodium per 8oz which will provide hydration, energy and electrolytes.
Be sure to warm up 10 minutes at the beginning of your exercise session to increase your blood circulation gradually and warm up your muscles to help prevent injury. Also cool down 5-10 minutes at the end of your workout session to help prevent pooling of blood in your lower extremities which can happen if you stop a vigorous exercise session too abruptly. A lower level intensity cool down for 5-10 minutes will help promote blood flow to the heart following more vigorous exercise.
Water is critical for the following body functions:
Regulates Body Temperature
Cushions and lubricates Joints
Protects Body Tissue such as the spinal cord
Gets Rid of Waste
Important Core Elements of a Fitness Routine Include Stretching, Strength Training, Aerobic Exercise and Nutrition.
General Stretching Guidelines:
Stretching is important for maintaining flexibility-range of motion, better overall mobility and as part of a warm-up to help prevent injury before starting your aerobic exercise routine. Stretching is also very valuable after an aerobic work-out. Stretching after a workout is effective because the elevated tissue temperature just after an aerobic workout facilitates more flexibility while stretching. In general, stretches should be held for a minimum of 15 seconds and up to 30 seconds. Stretches should be repeated two-four times.
General Strength Training Guidelines:
Strength training is important to maintain muscle composition. After age 25 without regular strength training, we lose 1/2 pound of muscle every year. This can be prevented with strength training which helps maintain and build muscle. An increase in muscle, increases overall physical strength and muscle composition. The increased muscle composition leads to increased bone strength. Increased muscle composition also increases your metabolic rate to promote weight loss.General guidelines for strength training include: Alternate every other day upper body and lower body or complete an overall body strength training regiment every other day. Lift weights for larger muscles before smaller muscles because the smaller muscles are needed to assist the larger muscles. Lift reps to exhaustion-also called Max Resistance-to build muscle strength. The amount of weight and number of reps combination to reach fatigue will vary depending on your fitness goal. A muscle building power lifter will lift heavier weight and fewer reps e.g. 3 reps to fatigue than an older women or men with a goal of maintaining muscle tone may lift 12-20 reps to fatigue to achieve such a goal. Many different kinds of activities can be used to build muscle strength-free weights, nautilus machines, Resistance band stretching or body weight lifting exercises-e.g. pull-ups, push-ups and squats. It is important to find strength exercising activities that you enjoy so you will stick with the program. After all we are talking about a lifestyle change.
General Aerobic Exercise Guidelines
Aerobic exercise is great for your heart and circulatory health, increasing your metabolism for weight loss or weight management and producing endorphins for stress relief or as we say at Compass Fitness.com-Endorphinize! As a guideline, everyone should exercise at least 30 minutes per day at a moderate-intensity physical activity most days of the week. When first initiating a fitness program you should start out with multiple shorter duration sessions of about 10-15 minutes and gradually progress to 15- 30 minutes. After progressing to a higher fitness level, it is safe to engage in
an aerobic fitness session in which you are exercising at your target heart rate (reference the YOUR TARGET HEART RATEunder “fitness and You”) for 30-60 minutes.Daily life can be a great source of activity such as taking the stairs instead of an elevator. Whatever fun activity you choose for an aerobic workout, it is important to exercise at your target heart rate which is between 50%-90% of max heart rate. For weight loss and improving cardiovascular strength, you should exercise at a moderate to high intensity level. A moderate intensity is in a range of about 64-76% of your max heart rate and a high intensity work out level is in a range of about 76-93% of your max heart rate. Once again, you can get your target heart by using the Target Heart Rate tool under “Fitness and You.”. In addition to your target heart rate, you can also use the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE). With this method you gauge your intensity by how heavy you are breathing, how much you are sweating and how fatigued you are feeling while exercising. Yet another simple test you can do to ensure that you are exercising at a high enough intensity in the “Talk Test.” With this test you gauge your intensity by how difficult it is for you to talk while exercising. As you increase to higher intensity levels, it will be more difficult to carry on a conversation while exercising. It is also important to know that as you progress with your fitness program over weeks and months, you will need to increase your workout level to maintain your target heart rate or aerobic intensity level. That is, if you power walk you will have to power walk faster or if you jog you will have to jog faster or if you bike ride you will have to increase the resistance and/or peddle faster or if you swim you will have to swim faster etc. to maintain your aerobic intensity level over time.Frequency: 5-7 days a weekDuration: At least 30 minutes a day. For newly initiated fitness programs, work gradually up to 30 minutes a day and then build on that foundation. Increase your duration gradually up to 45 + minutes.
Intensity: It is very important to exercise at an intensity that gets your heart rate up to your target aerobic heart rate range which is 50%-90% of max heart rate (Reference “You and Fitness” for the Target Heart Rate).
It is very important to choose an aerobic activity that you enjoy!!! Also, working out with a friend can help keep it fun and help you stay motivated.
General Nutrition Guidelines :
A healthy diet is one that promotes overall physical and mental strength. Diet is composed of macro and micro nutrients. There are three macronutrients-carbohydrates, proteins and fats . For adults, a healthy diet is about 40%-65% carbohydrates, 10% -35% protein and 20%-35% fat. Further, within the macronutrients there are important dietary choices to make to ensure a healthy diet. Starting with carbohydrates, you need to choose your carbohydrates wisely. There are two main categories of carbohydrates-complex carbohydrates (whole grains and fiber) and simple carbohydrates (sugar). When selecting carbohydrates, emphasize whole grains, and fiber rich fruits and vegetables. In a 2000 calorie diet, you should have about 28 grams of fiber. When choosing fiber containing foods, emphasize nutrient rich, dark green and leafy, green vegetables, orange veggies such as carrots or sweet potato and beans and peas.
Reference MyPyramid.gov for meal plans. On the MyPyramid.govsite you can enter your sex, age, height and weight to get a meal plan customized for your caloric needs.When committing to a healthier diet , focus on the following guidelines:
Maximize healthy complex carbohydrates-Whole grain brain, brown rice and foods which state wholegrains as a primary ingredient.
Eat healthy fats. Choose omega-3 rich foods such as salmon or albacore tuna.
Reduce Saturated Fat and trans fats-Check food labels.
Reduce simple carbohydrates-foods with added sugar such as cookies, cakes, soda with high fructose corn syrup.
Eat a variety of foods to ensure you consume all the required vitamins and minerals. You can also take a multivitamin.
For specific nutrition guidelines for the management of specific conditions including diabetes, arthritis, COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis), hypertension and weight management, select the specific Fitness Guidance topic from the drop down menu under Fitness Guidance and then reference the Nutrition Guidelines section.
