There
are many reasons as to why activity is important. Most people
think that activity such as exercise is responsible for keeping
people trim. This is only partly true.
Exercise
as such does not really burn many calories, when you relate
it to the amount of body fat you store.
One
kilogram of body fat is 7500 calories worth of energy. This
means that you can run 3 marathons, a total of 129 kilometers.
Put
a different way. To burn 600 calories which is about what
you find in one Big Mac and Fries, you need to do one of the
following;
1
hour of jogging
1 hour of advanced aerobics
1 hour of vigorous cycling
1 hour of fast swimming
Walking
burns about 240 calories per hour.
Lets
now think back to last month where I mentioned metabolism.
Your
metabolism is the rate at which you burn energy. If you have
a slow
metabolism your body uses less energy to perform the same
functions.
I
mentioned that one way to speed up your metabolism is to have
more lean muscle on your body. This requires you to be active.
Your
body is supported by a skeleton. Around each of the bones
in your body there are muscles. (Everyone has muscle) These
muscles are responsible for your movement. Around the muscle
is a layer of fat. These three things largely make up the
shape that you are today. Some of this is genetic. Some of
this is a result of the choices you have made.
When you were young you were probably very active, you may
have walked to school, rode a bike, played sports etc...We
use our muscles and they have a reason for being.
As
you age, you
drive a car instead of walk or ride, you work in an office
instead of run in a playground.
As
you use your muscles less they start to deteriorate. You lose
muscle mass.
Here
is the trap if you do not exercise -
As
each year passes you have the same skeleton, less muscle and
more body fat.
Yes
but...I
hear alot of people say "
I am still the same size as I was 20 years ago"
This
is because the amount of muscle you have is decreasing every
year and the amount of fat on your body is increasing every
year and you are staying around about the same size.
Your
actual lean body mass is decreasing and therefore your metabolism
is slowing every year.
Now
that you are all convinced that exercise is a must, what should
we do and how often.
Assuming
we are beginners and we are in good health (see your doctor
if you are not sure) I will use the example of walking for
our exercise.
There
are three stages
1.
The habit of activity
2.
The base work
3.
Specific exercise
1.
Habit is the hardest to master. Once you have this then you
are right. You build the habit by consciously making an effort
to do something. Do something really easy. Try walking for
3 minutes away from your house and then back. 6 minutes of
activity. You need to do this everyday for at least 3 weeks
and you will have built the first stage of the habit.
This
must be separate from any similar activity ie: walking to
the train station when you go to work in the morning etc.
You
can then increase the distance, however you need to do this
for a year before it becomes a life time habit.
As
you walk, monitor the thoughts in your head, what are you
thinking? If the thoughts are not positive you must also work
on changing your attitude to exercise.
2.
The base work is what gets you into the right condition to
exercise. After you have formed the habit (the first three
weeks) you can start to work on increasing the distance of
your walks. If you started with 6 minutes of walking. Try
walking an extra minute or two everyday. Build up the length
of time for your walks until you are walking between 45 -
60 minutes everyday. This may take a month or two. (There
are no short cuts - we are here for the long term) Once you
can walk comfortably for this period of time you are ready
for the specific exercise.
3.
It is important now to note that your body is an amazing organism
which adapts easily to many situations. This means we must
constantly change what we do so that our body doesn't adapt.
If our body adapts it will not be exercise anymore just an
activity that we are used to.
We
can increase the intensity of our walk in a simple way. Walk
the same distance but try to decrease the time it takes. Don't
try too hard on every session, listen to your body and how
it feels. Look at the long term picture and aim to improve
your time from week to week, month to month etc. Every now
and again change your walk, pick a new route, walk in the
opposite direction or just break into a jog.
Traps
for the young punter
Focusing on the amount of exercise instead of forming the
habit.
Giving
up because you aren't making any progress. Progress is usually
not progressive and smooth, it comes in lumps. The next lump
may be just around the corner.
Becoming
disheartened because you can't manage to exercise everyday.
Aim at everyday and be happy if you can achieve a habit of
regular exercise no matter how often that may be.
Walking
the same walk 'forever' because it gets easier and becomes
comfortable. This is not exercise, you must exert your body
slightly so that it is under load.
What
to do
Start
something! Try walking as an easy start. Develop a habit.
