Welcome to the second in my Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How to Exercise Series. We have already learned that “you” is who needs to exercise, especially if you do not exercise already. The great news is that the worse your initial condition or shape, the faster you tend to see results.
“What” is a little more complicated and controversial, but I will do my best to approach it in a tactfully-opinionated way. As an exercise physiologist, I am particularly persnickety regarding what I consider exercise to be. Many popular “workouts” unfortunately prove to be an exercise in futility at best. You may already know this to be true. Have you ever felt that all of your hard work is hardly working? Many times, it is not.
My intent is certainly not to offend or discourage you; being active is always commendable and, if you have the extra time and energy, there is a smorgasbord of workouts from which to choose. However, if you are interested in rapid routines and a timely transformation, it is important to evaluate the fitness of your fitness program. Is your work out working out?
We all know that exercise isn’t sauna suits, toning tables, and eight-minute abs, right? But what about skiing? Team sports? Elastic bands and “core” work? How about Pilates and Yoga? Is stretching the secret? What about cardiovascular activities such as swimming, running, aerobics, or Spinning? Is stamina the missing link?
Activity is not always exercise. Popularity is not always productivity.
So… what qualifies an activity as a quantified exercise? From a scientific viewpoint, exercise should be defined by what your body needs to possess progressively less disease and better health. True exercise reduces risk factors for disease. True exercise enhances the health-related components of physical fitness. If your workout is not doing both, perhaps it is not truly exercise.
So what activity best regulates the major controllable risk factors of disease… blood pressure, cholesterol, sugars, and obesity? What activity most improves cardiovascular power, muscular strength and endurance, joint flexibility, and body composition (fat to lean ratio)? Is any single activity as good as you think? Probably not.
Swimming, though great for cardiovascular conditioning, does little for strength or burning body fat. Yoga may be great for flexibility but does little for circulo-respiratory power. Running alone can actually decrease muscle mass and strength. “Core” work does no
t burn fat directly off the midsection.
This is precisely the problem with routine routines. Most individuals tend to gravitate to one activity… the one that they enjoy (or do not mind doing too much), whether or not it truly qualifies as a healthy and well-rounded exercise.
The closest thing to a one-stop shop for health and fitness is strength training. Yes, believe it or not, training the muscles with resistance (free weights, machines, calisthenics) is the most well-rounded and beneficial form of exercise available, in my humble – and accurate – opinion. Strength training reduces blood pressure, positively changes cholesterol and other blood lipids, and stabilizes blood sugar levels. It also dramatically improves muscular strength and endurance and favorably changes body composition (increasing lean and decrease fat). Strength training can also favorably influence cardiovascular fitness and joint flexibility. While separate cardiovascular and flexibility training is also valuable, properly performed muscular exercise is invaluable.
Nonetheless, even with the true panacea of fitness, strength training is typically ineffective due to improper technique. Although many individuals spend hours per week (or per day) involved in strength training activities, if performed correctly, resistance training can effectively produce optimal benefits in literally minutes per muscle per week.
Because this topic is far beyond the scope of this one 700-word article, I encourage you to officially “Join the Club” and learn all of the secrets solutions to strength. In the meantime, here are some key principles that can help you get started:
- Work every major muscle through a full range of motion.
- One set of each exercise, if properly performed, is often just as effective as multiple sets.
- Train each muscle group at least once, but not more than twice, per week.
- Lowering weights slowly is the secret to successful strength training.
- Slower speeds are safer and actually produce more force within the muscles.
- Use a variety of equipment: free weights, machines, and body weight exercises.
- Change exercises very often, perhaps even for each and every workout.
- Avoid the 3 sets of 12 routine. Use variety… from 6-15+ (sometimes even 100) repetitions.
- Warm up with cardio first. Cool down with stretching in between or at the end.
Next Topic: When to exercise… does it really matter if you have a “good time?”