Selena Deleon – THE WORKOUT FROM THE beginning of time philosophers and health professionals have observed that regular physical activity is an essential part of a healthy life.
Low levels of fitness increase the risk of heart disease and other health problems. An active lifestyle enhances the quality of life. All of us who love to exercise can celebrate what it does for our minds and bodies, and learn more about why we can't live without it. Total fitness means enjoying the best possible condition of life, in all of its aspects social, mental, spiritual and physical. It is also called positive health.
There are five aspects of fitness: muscle strength, muscle endurance, cardiovascular health, low body fat and flexibility. A healthy fitness goal incorporates all of the above five, although fitness is not limited to exercise. It is a condition reached through striving for the optimal quality of life. It is a complete method of loving yourself and caring for your body, which incorporates exercise, stress management, a healthy diet, regular check-ups, adequate rest and water.
HEART RATE
Aerobic exercise can be described as using the same large muscle group, rhythmically, for a period of 15 to 20 minutes or longer while maintaining 60-80 per cent of your maximum heart rate. Aerobic means that the body needs oxygen to perform the activity. The harder you work aerobically is the more oxygen rich blood your heart has to pump, which is why your heart rate increases.
During the exercise you should be able to carry on a short conversation. If you are gasping for air while talking, you are probably working anaerobically (producing energy without oxygen), which means that you will tire faster and are more likely to experience sore muscles after the exercise is over.
Aerobic exercise is also referred to as cardiorespiratory fitness and is by far one of the most important components of fitness because it strengthens the most important muscle in your body, your heart. The heart and lungs are conditioned during aerobic activity by increasing the oxygen available to the body, enabling the heart to use oxygen more efficiently.
Dancing, running, swimming, cycling and brisk walking are good aerobic exercise activities. The benefits of aerobic exercise include the control of body fat (aerobic exercise in conjunction with strength training and a proper diet will reduce body fat), increased resistance to fatigue and extra energy, decreased tension and aid in sleeping and increased general stamina.
Aerobics for all of its benefits has limitations! In order to strengthen the muscles in the body and enhance the structural integrity of the joints and the bones themselves, aerobics unfortunately but definitely falls short. Nor will aerobics substantially tone or firm the body! In order to get firmer, you must get stronger. In order to get substantially stronger muscles, you must perform anaerobic or resistance exercises.
REDUCE FATIGUE
Anaerobic exercise by contrast presents an overload, a form of sufficient added resistance to the muscles. In anaerobic exercise you induce fatigue in the muscle faster than the muscle can compensate. Regular anaerobic exercise of this nature will lead to a stronger, firmer body with stronger joint structures, less prone to injury, (adequately strengthening the muscles around the joints enhances joint stability).
Muscles are fat fighters. The more muscle mass that you have is the more calories that your body is capable of burning. An effective resistance training routine will increase the amount of muscle fibres and therefore the oxygen efficiency of the muscle. The more muscle fibres that you have is the more oxygen they can absorb, the more oxygen absorbed, the more calories you burn during the workout and thereafter.
The key to fighting flab is to balance your workout, doing a combination of anaerobic and aerobic work. Excess calories are stored as fat. Fighting fat is really about burning off the maximum amount of calories during daily exercise, whilst restricting the daily caloric intake, so that the body will then use the calories which have been stored (fat) for fuel.
ESSENTIAL
Resistance training conditions the muscle, aerobic training feeds it with oxygen, the essential element to burning fat. The combination makes sense for those who want to lose fat or tone up. Toning up essentially means replacing fat with muscle definition, which of course is not an automatic process. The phenomenon involves burning the fat off gradually and building muscle as you lose. The result is a sleek, lean and efficient body.
Serious but sensible aerobic and anaerobic exercise performed in combination on a regular basis, can and will stimulate the body to respond. Train sensibly and safely and you will be doing all that is necessary to see and feel the results that you are seeking.
Selena DeLeon is a fitness expert.
