Let’s Get Moving!

Why is physical activity/exercise important?

We all know that consistent exercise and physical activity have numerous benefits for our physical and mental health, but here is a quick review:

• It boosts your mood, sharpens your focus, and lowers your stress.
• It helps improve your sleep.
• It helps improve memory and brain function.
• It can help you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.
• It can help you build healthy bones and muscles and prevents loss of bone and muscle mass
• It can lead to improvement in joint pain and stiffness
• It helps to improve balance and to decrease risk of falling
• It helps you live a longer and healthier life by lowering your risk of Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer.

Physical activity versus exercise

Physical activity is any movement that requires energy while exercise is intentional movement that tends to be planned, structured and/or repetitive. The purpose of exercise is to improve or maintain physical fitness. Physical activity is something we do every day and can include things like gardening, housework, and pushing the cart around the grocery store while exercise includes things like walking your dog, participating in a group exercise class, and running/walking on a treadmill. Since physical activity helps with our overall health and well-being and since exercise can help improve our physical fitness, it makes sense that the combination of both physical activity and exercise can have a greater impact on our health. So let’s talk about some ways to participate in more physical activity and exercise in our busy lives.

How can I add more physical activity/exercise into my daily routine?

I think most of us can agree that getting going with exercise and being more physically active can be challenging. There is always something else that seems more important or is demanding our attention, which often involves being in front of a computer screen. However, I think we can also agree that we feel better after we exercise or are physically active and do not regret having spent the time on these activities.

Here are some ideas to try:

• Try out different activities to see what you enjoy and have fun while being active! Try out a Zumba class, a yoga class, a line dancing class, or a Pilates class (either in-person or online); go for a hike; shoot some baskets with family members; swim some laps; or go kayaking.
• Ride your bike or walk to work.
• Stand whenever possible. When you stand, you can burn 10-15% more calories compared to when you are sitting. Use a standing desk, take breaks from sitting at your computer to stand (and walk around for a few minutes if possible), and/or stand while you are talking on the phone.
• Take stairs instead of the elevator.
• Pick a parking spot further away from where you are going. Or if you are running errands within a short distance of each other, park your car in one place and walk to the other destinations.
• Break up your activity into shorter bits of time – you don’t have to do it all at once.
• Stretch or exercise while watching TV or even just during the commercials. Try jumping jacks, jogging in place, sit-ups or pushups.
• Plan a new walking route that includes some hills (to increase the intensity of the workout).
• Alternate periods of sitting with some household chores such as washing some dishes, scrubbing a sink or toilet or vacuuming a room.
• Get off the bus at an earlier stop and walk the rest of the way to your destination.
• Slowly increase the amount of time spent in an activity and level of effort to prevent injuries and major soreness.

Struggling with motivation?

Here are some tips to help you get motivated to exercise:

• Find a workout buddy! Be active with a friend or coworker and encourage each other.
• Tell a friend or family member what your exercise plan is and ask them to help hold you accountable to follow through with your plan.
• Plan your physical activity ahead of time. Be specific: WHAT you will do, WHEN you will do it, and HOW long you will do it. Put it in your planner or on your phone calendar and set a reminder. If you tend to get involved with things as the day progresses, consider doing your exercise in the morning before your day starts to get busy.
• Focus on how good you know you will feel after you exercise.
• Put on your workout clothes as soon as you get up in the morning, including your shoes! This will make it easier to get started on some exercise.
• Reward yourself with a non-food reward after completing your exercise: take a bath, watch a favorite TV show, read a few chapters of a book, or call a family member or friend. (But don’t forget to fuel your body before and after your workout).
• If your muscles are feeling sore, try some lower intensity exercise (like walking) and/or stretching. This can help decrease muscle soreness.
• Make your exercise more enjoyable: listen to music (I like to listen to 70s music on Pandora while I walk outside), watch TV/read (if you are on a treadmill or other cardio equipment), listen to an audio book or podcast, or talk to a friend on your phone.
• Is cold and rainy weather preventing you from walking outside? Try walking inside your house by doing a Leslie Sansone Walk at Home Video on YouTube or walk inside the nearest mall.

What about strength training?

Research has shown that people in their 30s can start to lose between 3-5% of their muscle mass each decade, and the rate of decline is higher after age 60. Even when a person is physically active, they will still have some muscle loss. Participating in strength training sessions 2-3 times each week where you exercise all your major muscle groups can help prevent this loss from occurring and can even help rebuild muscle. It is important to allow some time in between strength training workouts to allow your muscles time to repair and heal, ideally 2 days. As a person continually challenges the muscles with higher levels of resistance or weight, the muscle fibers sustain damage. The body then repairs damaged muscle fibers by fusing them, which increases the mass and size of the muscles (muscle hypertrophy). It takes a number of weeks or months of consistent strength training before muscle changes are apparent.

By maintaining or even adding to your muscle mass, you will burn more calories each day which can help with weight control. Muscle uses more energy than fat even while at rest. It is also important to make sure that you are eating enough protein in order to have the necessary building blocks to build muscle (amino acids). Aim for about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. To figure out how much protein you need divide your weight by 2.2.

Some ideas for starting strength training:

• Do strength training exercises using your body weight such as push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Start by doing pushups against a wall and then progress to doing them against the kitchen counter, the coffee table and finally the floor. Start with abdominal crunches and work up to full sit-ups.
• Consider taking a strength training exercise class at a gym or following an online one that uses free weights and/or resistance bands.
• Use stationary weight machines at a gym. Most gyms offer a complimentary session to help you become familiar with the equipment.
• Check out “HAS Fit” Strength Training workouts on YouTube. Search for “HAS Fit Beginner Strength Workouts” if you are just getting started and consider using water bottles or cans of soup instead of light weights.
• Set up an area of your house to use for strength training. Keep equipment such as an exercise mat, light weights, and resistance bands handy.

Information compiled from:
Cardio.com
Helpguide.org
Journals.sagepub.com
Medicalnewstoday.com
Medlineplus.gov
Webmd.com