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What is exercise?
According to http://www.diabetes.org/weightloss-and-exercise/exercise/what-is-exercise.jsp “ exercise [also known as physical activity] includes anything that gets you moving, such as walking, dancing, or working in the yard” Or as stated by http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153390.php “exercise is the physical exertion of the body - making the body do a physical activity which results in a healthy or healthier level of physical fitness and both physical and mental health.” Whatever definition we use, the central understanding is that exercise is activities that go beyond the daily activities of our day. It involves some form of physical exertion that increases heart and respiratory rates.
What are the benefits of exercise?
Pick up any health and fitness magazine or book, look at any exercise program online or offline, you will find that these sources tend to list many benefits to exercising. These sources state that exercise:
- Makes you fitter
- Makes you healthier
- Makes you feel good
- Reduces stress
- Slows down the aging process
- Reduces cholesterol levels
- Reduces blood pressures
- Alleviates depression
- Reduces Obesity
- Improves glucose tolerance
Why do you exercise?
If you have yet to begin any exercise program, if you are just starting, or even it you are re-evaluating your current exercise program, it is good to know why you want or need to exercise. Your particular reasons will vary from:
- seeking to get fitter and in shape (general fitness);
- seeking to lose weight;
- wanting to reduce inches so that you can fit into your favorite goals;
- seeking to increase muscular strength, muscular size, muscular tone, or muscular endurance;
- wanting to improve your cardiovascular endurance, maybe for blood pressure reasons or maybe to run a marathon;
- wanting to increase your flexibility or range of motion because you have lost flexibility over the years;
No matter what your current level of fitness is, beginner, intermediate or advance, having a goal or set of goals will help guide your exercise program and help you assess whether or not your exercise program is effective. Moreover, it will help keep you motivated especially during those times when you feel like quitting.
What should you do?
Depending on your goals or reasons for wanting to begin an exercise program, the particular exercises you do will vary. If your goal is simply to increase cardiovascular endurance, then walking, jogging, running or using any cardio machine will make up a large portion of your program. If your goal is to increase muscular strength, tone and/ or size, then resistance training either with bodyweight or external weight like free weight or weight machines will make up a large portion of your regime. Also, if you want to increase your range of motion, be more relaxed, reduce stress, then stretching exercise like yoga will need to be incorporated into your regime. There are agility exercise, balance exercise, coordination exercise, speed and power exercise, etc… The point is that having an exercise goal or goals will determine what training modality you will incorporate into your exercise program.
Having a balance exercise program is extremely important for best results. Thus, any exercise program should have elements of flexibility training, cardio training and resistance training. This does not have to make up the entire exercise program, particularly if you are performing any technical skills training, like boxing, martial arts, gymnastics, etc… For most people however, flexibility, resistance, cardio, agility, balance and coordination exercises will be sufficient components of their exercise program. This latter description is exactly what constitutes our fitness and weight loss bootcamps at Better Bodies in Training.
Is this your experience? Are you participating in any exercise programs? If so, what are the benefits that you have experienced? Moreover, why are the goals that you have set for yourself? We welcome any contributions that you might have as a reader. After all, it is through dynamic interaction with other that we grow our understanding of how training theories and methodologies affect real people.
