The AP wire reported a really interesting report last Friday. I found the information to be challenging to current, common thought on fitness and exercise. While this report seems to fly in the face of fitness and dietary guidelines from the government, it’s worth contemplating. I am sharing this with you because I honestly believe that workouts should be as individual as the person doing the workout.
The report indicated that the government’s dietary and fitness guidelines of 2004 and 2005 require 90 minutes of exercise a day for those trying to maintain weight loss. The idea that you need to spend 90 minutes a day has a lot of people ready to throw in the towel. Face it, 90 minutes is a lot of time in our rapidly moving society.
However, other experts in the field of fitness dispute those guidelines. 90 minutes a day is good for athletes staying on their game. That message, however, was lost in the backlash.
In the article titled Minimum exercise, big health boost by Kate Santich, experts like Russell Pate, a professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health stated that ‘the best-supported public-health guideline on physical activity calls for adults to accumulate about 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week.’
The guidelines that require more time spent on working out are about those who are looking at losing a tremendous amount of weight or are in training for an intense physical activity. Pate’s advice is worth hearing as he served on the advisory committee that helped revamp the government guidelines on nutrition and exercise last year.
30 minutes a day helps the majority achieve the goal of lessening the risk of chronic disease. It keeps the heart and lungs fit and blood pressure reduced. The amount of exercise needed to lose weight and keep it off is less clear, because it varies among individuals and depends on factors such as metabolism, age and current fitness level.
This is a very telling moment. The first thing you do when you meet with a personal trainer is to provide them with a history of physical activity, your eating habits as well as health concerns and age.
Frankly, telling someone who has never worked out that they are going to be doing even 30 minutes a day may be asking them to do too much.
You build up from sedentary to active through incremental steps.
If that means you walk for ten minutes a day, then that is where you start. If you do ten minutes in the morning and ten in the evening, you can build up to 30 minutes over the course of the day. In fact, the 90-minute guideline can work the same way. Spend 30 minutes on fitness in the morning, 30 at lunch and 30 at dinner.
If you do too much, too fast you risk injury and discouragement. This is one of the biggest reasons people give up on an exercise program right after they begin it. Pushing too hard and too fast can get them discouraged, feeling pain or injured.
Ultimately, the studies indicate that if you need to lose significant weight, you’re going to have to work harder for longer. Once you’ve established your weight loss, you can modify your workouts to a maintenance program. You need to decide what your goals are and that will help you define the fitness program that is right for you.
Exercise is a chain-reaction. A little is good and more is better. Weight loss and fitness can be linked. If you work out regularly at a good intensity over 30 to 45 minutes 5 to 7 days a week, you will benefit.
Research shows that exercise controls:
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*High Blood Pressure
*Reduce Risk for Type II Diabetes
*Heart Attack
*Colon Cancer
*Ease Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression
*Reduce Risk of Osteoporosis
*Lessen Arthritis Pain
*Lower Risk for Alzheimer’s
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So what does all of this mean for you and me? It means we can live better, healthier and lose weight, but our fitness levels will be determined by our individual histories, needs and goals. Discover yours today.