Fitness and Exercise: Stay Everyday Fit and healthy

 Fitness and Exercise: Health Benefits, How to Get Started, and How to Get Better

Types Of Fitness

Cardiovascular/Aerobic Fitness

This type of fitness involves activities that increase your heart rate and improve your cardiovascular system. Examples include running, cycling, swimming, brisk walking, and dancing. Cardiovascular fitness enhances endurance, improves heart health, and boosts overall stamina.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

 This type of fitness focuses on building and maintaining muscle strength and endurance. Strength training exercises, such as weightlifting or bodyweight exercises like push-ups and squats, help develop muscular strength. Endurance exercises, such as high repetitions or circuit training, improve the ability of muscles to sustain effort over a prolonged period.

Flexibility: 

Flexibility refers to the range of motion in your joints and muscles. Engaging in exercises like stretching, yoga, or Pilates helps improve flexibility. Flexibility training enhances joint mobility, posture, and reduces the risk of injuries.

Balance and Stability

Balance and stability exercises aim to improve your ability to maintain control and stability during movement. Activities like yoga, tai chi, and specific balance exercises can help enhance core strength, proprioception, and prevent falls.

Functional Fitness

Functional fitness focuses on exercises that mimic everyday movements and improve overall physical performance in daily activities. It includes exercises like squats, lunges, lifting, carrying, and bending. Functional fitness helps improve strength, balance, coordination, and flexibility required for daily tasks.

High-Intensity Interval Training 

HIIT involves short bursts of intense exercise alternated with brief recovery periods. It can be applied to various forms of cardiovascular exercises such as running, cycling, or bodyweight exercises. HIIT improves cardiovascular fitness, burns calories, and enhances metabolic function.

Sports-Specific Fitness

This type of fitness is tailored towards the requirements of a particular sport or activity. It involves training specific skills, endurance, strength, and agility needed for that sport. Examples include soccer, basketball, tennis, or martial arts training.

Mind-Body Fitness

Mind-body fitness focuses on the connection between the mind and body. Practices like yoga, Pilates, and meditation promote relaxation, stress reduction, mindfulness, and body awareness.

Flexibility and Mobility

Flexibility and mobility are important components of physical fitness that contribute to overall health and performance. They are often used interchangeably, but they have slightly different meanings

Flexibility

Flexibility refers to the range of motion (ROM) around a joint or series of joints. It is the ability of your muscles and connective tissues to lengthen and allow movement. Good flexibility allows you to perform movements with ease and without restrictions. Stretching exercises are commonly used to improve flexibility.

Mobility

Mobility, on the other hand, encompasses both flexibility and the ability to control that flexibility. It is the combination of joint ROM, muscle strength, and neuromuscular control. Having good mobility means you have both adequate flexibility and the strength and stability to move through that range of motion effectively and efficiently.

Here are some key benefits of incorporating flexibility and mobility training into your fitness routine:

Improved range of motion

Regular flexibility training helps increase your joint ROM, allowing you to move more freely and with greater ease. This can enhance your performance in various activities, such as sports, weightlifting, and everyday movements.

Injury prevention

Adequate flexibility and mobility can reduce the risk of injuries by improving joint alignment, muscle balance, and posture. It helps your body move in proper alignment and reduces the strain on muscles and connective tissues during physical activities.

Enhanced athletic performance

 Flexibility and mobility training can optimize your athletic performance. By increasing your range of motion and movement efficiency, you can generate more power, speed, and agility in your chosen sport or physical activity.

Pain reduction

 Poor flexibility and limited mobility can contribute to muscle imbalances, joint stress, and muscular tension, leading to discomfort or pain. Regular flexibility exercises can alleviate muscle tightness and relieve pain associated with conditions like lower back pain, muscle strains, and joint stiffness.

Improved posture and body mechanics 

Flexibility and mobility exercises can help correct postural imbalances and alignment issues. By addressing muscle imbalances and lengthening tight muscles, you can improve your posture and movement mechanics, reducing the risk of chronic pain and improving overall body alignment.

To improve flexibility and mobility

 you can incorporate various techniques and exercises into your fitness routine, including static stretching, dynamic stretching, foam rolling, yoga, Pilates, and mobility drills. It's important to perform these exercises in a controlled and safe manner, gradually increasing the intensity and duration over time.

Remember to consult with a qualified fitness professional or physical therapist to ensure you are using proper techniques and exercises suitable for your specific needs and goals.

Health Benefits of Exercise  

Improved fitness drastically reduces the  threat of  habitual  conditions that develop over time,  similar as heart  complaint, type 2 diabetes, and indeed cancer. “ The one thing that will help  help  nearly any type of  complaint is fitness, ” says Grayson Wickham, DPT, CSCS, author of Movement Vault, a mobility and movement company in New York City.   In 2007, ACSM partnered with the American Medical Association to launch the Exercise Is Medicine action, with the  thing of making physical  exertion assessment part of routine medical care and  furnishing exercise  coffers to people of all capability  situations. “ The scientifically proven benefits of physical  exertion remain  irrefutable, and they can be as  important as any pharmaceutical agent in  precluding and treating a range of  habitual  conditions and medical conditions, ” the action’s website notes.   Then’s a breakdown of those benefits 

  Exercise Boosts Your Mood

  Regular exercise has been shown to be a buffer against depression and anxiety, according to  exploration. What’s more, other studies show that exercise can help manage the symptoms of depression and help treat it, notes a scientific composition. Exercise may help reduce inflammation,  commodity that has been shown to be increased in people with depression; it’s also possible that physical  exertion promotes favorable changes in the brain, too, say the experimenters.   Learn further About the Ways That Being Fit Boosts Energy and Mood 

  Exercise Is Good for Sleep 

 Habitual exercise can help you get  further  peaceful sleep at night. Of 34 studies included in a methodical  review, 29  set up that exercise  bettered sleep quality and was associated with longer bouts of slumber. It may help set your body  timepiece( so that you're alert and sleepy at applicable times),  produce chemical changes in the brain that favor sleep, and, as  once  exploration indicates, can ease presleep anxiety that may  else keep you up.   It’s worth noting,  still, that high- intensity exercise done too close to bedtime( within about an hour or two) can make it more  delicate for some people to sleep and should be done  before in the day.   Learn further About the Intimate Relationship Between Fitness and Sleep  

 Exercise Promotes Long- Term Health

  Exercise has been shown to ameliorate brain and bone health,  save muscle mass( so that you ’re not frail as you age), boost your  coitus life, ameliorate gastrointestinal function, and reduce the  threat of  numerous  conditions, including cancer and stroke. Research involving  further than 116,000 grown-ups also showed that getting the recommended 150 to 300  twinkles of physical  exertion per week  dropped the  threat of death from any cause by 19 percent.   Learn further About the Amazing Ways Being Fit Boosts Your Health   

Fitness Helps You Manage Chronic Disease 

 Exercise helps the body function, and that includes managing other  habitual health problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC), if you have osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s  complaint,  madness, or have had a stroke or cancer, physical  exertion can help. Exercise can help  drop pain, ameliorate insulin  perceptivity and blood sugar control, promote mobility, ameliorate heart health, lower the  threat of other  habitual  conditions, and play a  part in good  internal health.   still, a walking routine is generally a safe place to start, If you have a  habitual  complaint and you ’re looking to stay active or get more active. “ The vast  maturity of people don't need  concurrence from their croaker

How Much Exercise Do You Need?

Per the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, clocking either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (such as brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity (such as jogging or running) per week is the lowest amount of exercise that promotes good health. (Doing a combination of moderate and vigorous activity is also okay, as long as you spread it out over at least two days during the week.)

Additionally, do muscle-strengthening activity at least two days a week, targeting all of the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms), according to the guidelines.

There is currently no recommendation for flexibility or mobility work, according to the HHS. But older adults in particular should incorporate balance training into their weekly physical activity.

Doing more physical activity has been linked to even greater health benefits, particularly up to 300 weekly minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (after which the incremental benefits start to flatten out). And know that these baseline fitness recommendations, while they are enough to promote good long-term health, may not be sufficient to meet certain health or fitness goals. (For example, you will need to exercise for a significantly longer amount of time each week if you want to train for a marathon.)

And know that extreme amounts of exercise may put increased stress on the body and can actually lead to some negative health effects; research has yet to determine what that upper limit might be, but the evidence so far suggests that it is at least several times the current weekly minimum recommendations.

Learn More About How Much Exercise You Actually Need

What to Eat Before, During, and After Exercise

Fueling your body with adequate and healthy foods also plays an important role in exercise. 

Before Your Workout If you’re exercising shortly after you wake up in the morning, listen to your body’s hunger cues, says Jackie Dikos, RDN, a sports dietitian in Westfield, Indiana, and author of Finish Line Fueling. If you ate a heavier or later dinner the night before, you may not need anything. If you have an intense workout ahead of you and are hungry, you may need a small snack.

Eating easy-to-digest carbohydrates, such as a banana or some cereal just prior to a workout, or a combination of carbs and protein (e.g., toast with nut butter) 30 minutes beforehand will fuel you up for the work ahead. If you recently ate a meal, you may be able to skip the snack entirely.

During Your Workout Shorter workouts don’t require mid-exercise fueling, but longer bouts of endurance exercise do. Consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates every hour after the first 60 minutes of exercise, according to recommendations from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Sports drinks are one option. 

After Your Workout A low- to moderate-intensity workout, such as a 45-minute brisk walk, doesn’t require immediate refueling (particularly if your next meal is not far away), Dikos says. But if you’ve just done a high-intensity workout, or if you know you’re doing another workout later that day or a tough workout the next day, your body will need fuel. Dikos recommends eating half a gram of carbs per pound of body weight, plus 10 to 20 grams of protein.

Learn More About What You Should Eat Before, During, and After Your Workout

Tips for Getting Started and Staying Motivated to Exercise

It can be tough to get into (and stick with) an exercise routine. Here are some tips:

• Break It Up Fitness professionals have changed their tune on this over the years. The current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans says that everything counts toward those weekly activity targets (as long as the intensity is high enough). You can take a 5-minute walk up the block, climb the stairs in your home a few times, or stand up from your desk and do a set of squats. “More recent data shows that there are health benefits to accumulating activity. Those short ‘exercise snacks’ add up,” says Sallis.
• Increase Slowly Jumping into a busy and intense exercise routine can set you up for mental and physical burnout — and it puts you at risk of injury, too. Sallis recommends beginning where you are comfortable (in terms of distance if you are walking or jogging, or in terms of weights if you are strength training) and slowly increasing the duration and intensity over a period of weeks or months. Getting on an exercise program (look at apps or small group training) or finding a personal trainer can help with this progression.
• Do ‘Non’-Exercise Exercise Do you count playing with your kids in the backyard, cleaning the house, doing yard work, dancing in your kitchen, and taking the dog out as exercise? You should — because they can all count toward your movement quota, says Sallis. Look at those everyday activities as opportunities to help you get fit and keep moving.
• Schedule It Exercise is as important as any other activity. And while small bouts are good, you’ll also probably get to a point where you want to do longer durations. And that’s where looking at your schedule, finding a time that works during your day, and adding it to your calendar (as a “nonnegotiable” meeting) will help, says Smith-Ryan.
• Consider HIIT High-intensity interval training (HIIT) can be great for beginners, including those who are sedentary or are overweight or obese. “In our lab, we have almost 100 percent compliance with interval training. HIIT is really easy to buy into and stick with,” Smith-Ryan says. HIIT calls for a shorter duration of exercise than traditional workouts (with the same benefits), resulting in less time commitment and fewer injuries overall, she explains. (Plus, it can be done without equipment, in your home.) Even though it is “high-intensity,” you’ll move at a pace that’s appropriate for your fitness level, and you’ll only do short bouts of the more strenuous type of movement at a time. Recruiting a personal trainer to help you structure a HIIT workout can be a great help.
• Phone a Friend Working out with a friend can stoke your motivation, prompt you to try new activities, and keep you consistent, says the CDC. Time to buddy up!

What You Should Know About Home Gym Equipment

Exercising at home means you get to skip the commute to the gym, and you won’t have to wait for someone else to finish up on the machine you want to use. You get to work out whenever it fits into your schedule.

One positive outcome of the pandemic is that there are now so many more online resources for exercise programs, says Smith-Ryan. Many of those programs require no equipment at all and can be easily done with a small amount of floor space.

If you are just starting out, she says that simple body-weight exercises (squats, lunges, pushups) can help build muscle during resistance training. Consider investing in a yoga or exercise mat, so that you can easily do floor exercises. After that, consider collecting resistance bands or a set of dumbbells to up the intensity of strength training.

What you choose will depend on your preferences, budget, and the space available in your home. For instance, a set of resistance bands is cheap and can be stored easily. But know that you can get in a good sweat session without a lot of equipment and without having to spend a lot of money.

Resources We Love

Favorite Orgs for Essential Exercise Info

American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)

The ACSM is a professional society that certifies personal trainers and sports medicine specialists around the globe. The organization publishes evidence-based position stands about key fitness and sports medicine topics. It also publishes scholarly journals with leading research in the field.

American Council on Exercise (ACE)

ACE is a nonprofit exercise professional and health coach certification organization. In addition to certifications, the group offers continuing education for fitness professionals. ACE partners with various community groups across the country to help make more physical activity opportunities available to everyone, and the group also engages in advocacy to advance policies that reduce the barriers that prevent people from being physically active.

National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)

NASM certifies personal trainers across the country. The organization also offers continuing education workshops for personal trainers, on topics ranging from nutrition to weight loss to behavior change skills.

American Heart Association (AHA)

The AHA is one of the largest and oldest organizations in the United States that is dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke and promoting healthy living. The nonprofit funds scientific research and publishes several scientific journals, including Circulation, Stroke, Circulation Research, and others. The group also publishes health information for everyday consumers and connects individuals with support networks in their communities.

Favorite Exercise Blogs and Online Fitness Communities

Girls Gone Strong

This is an online community that publishes content about women’s health, wellness, nutrition, and training — and connects women, moms, and moms-to-be with the coaches and trainers who can answer their questions via the group’s Facebook page.

Nerd Fitness

This online fitness community was designed for “underdogs, misfits, and mutants” who have tried to make healthier lifestyle choices in the past but failed, according to the site. The community offers in-person events, private coaching communities, and blog posts on topics ranging from nutrition to workout motivation to mental health.

Strength Running

This is a blog created to help educate runners about how to train in healthy ways and avoid injury. It was founded and is run by Jason Fitzgerald, a marathoner and a running coach certified by USA Track and Field. He also hosts the Strength Running podcast, which you can access on the site.