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Fitness
Equipment and Program Recommendations
When
starting a training program make small changes each week.
If you are not doing anything, start with fifteen minutes
of stretching in the morning. A week later start walking
one day per week and so on. Small gradual changes
have a higher success rate and make it easier to maintain.
One
area of initial focus is basic body awareness. Basic
body awareness is the initial strengthening and stretching
required to make a safe transition to a more active lifestyle.
You can accomplish this through resistance training, swimming,
yoga, tai chi, and other activities which build upon you
level of fitness gradually and focus on deep breathing and
core stability. Please consider the following web
sites for further information.
Jim
and Phil Wharton
A great place to learn about stretching. They have
a video and three basic books which are useful to all people
interested in living healthier.
Fitness
Products - Fitness Wholesale
Good prices for the things you might need. I recommend
the exercise balls and resistance tubing. The site
caters to those who already know what they need an why they
need it. For the novice, find a certified
professional for advice.
Juan
Carlos Santana
One of the most highly respected professionals in the video
industry.
Yoga
Yoga Journal
Consider Living Yoga and Yoga Journal Products. Consider
the Yoga Journal magazine. These are only very basic
recommendations. If there is a local Yoga center,
go there, take a class and follow the recommendations of
your instructors with regard to videos.
Tai
Chi
Find a local center and take classes. Your instructor
can help you find videos.
Swimming
Go to your local YMCA
and take a class!
If
you can find a local center to take regular classes that
is best. If you find it too difficult with your schedule,
make the effort to take one class per month and do the rest
via video at home. Once you have spent six months
working six days per week on basic stretching, yoga,
tai chi, swimming, etc. you will have developed a solid
foundation from which to build into a more active lifestyle.
by
Philip
Carpenter Lee
ACE Certified Personal
Trainer
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
AAAI/ISMA Certified
Pre and Post Natal Instructor |
The
Components of Physical Fitness
Physical
fitness is the ability to function effectively in physical
work, training, and other activities. The more physically
fit a person is the more energy they have remaining after
a task is performed. That task could be running to
catch a subway train, carrying groceries up five flights
of stairs, or holding a baby until she falls a sleep.
A physically fit person also responds better in emergencies
which is one of the main reasons military, police, and fire
fighting professionals stress physical fitness as part of
their career.
Cardiorespiratory
Function
The ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to
supply fuel during sustained physical activity.
Muscular
Strength
The amount of force generated by a muscle in one short maximal
contraction.
The ability of the muscle to generate the maximum amount
of force.
The greatest (maximal) amount of force a muscle or muscle
group can exert in a single contraction.
Muscular
Endurance
The ability of the muscle to perform repetitive contractions
over a prolonged period of time.
The ability of a muscle or muscle group to perform repeated
movements with a sub-maximal force for extended periods
of times.
Flexibility
The ability to move a joint through the full range of motion
without discomfort or pain.
The ability to move the joints (for example, elbow, knee)
or any group of joints through a range of motion.
Ranges of motion differ from person to person, but a qualified
physical therapist can evaluate your flexibility.
Certified professionals
use your flexibility baseline measurements at the beginning
of a program to help determine the effectiveness of that
program.
Body
Composition
The weight of adipose (fat) tissue divided by the total
bodyweight times 100 yields the body composition expressed
as the percentage of fat. A 200 pound person with
20 pounds of fat has a body composition of 10% fat.
The leanest female athletes are about 8% fat while the average
American female is about 23% fat. The leanest male
athletes are approximately 6% fat while the average American
male is about 15% fat. The types of tissue considered
in body composition are those that contribute significantly
to weight: muscle, bone, and fat. Several methods
for determining approximate body composition have been designed
through research. Underwater scales, electronic bio-impedance
devices and fat calipers are the most common.
Bone
Density
The
thickness of the bone tissue. Osteoporosis is a condition
characterized by the progressive loss of bone density and
thinning of bone tissue. Regular exercise increases
bone density and helps prevent or improve Osteoporosis.
References
1. Health
and Fitness Instructor's Handbook by Howley and Franks:
Human Kinetics 1997, Third Edition
2. Department
of the Army Field Manual 21-20, 1992
The
Principles of Exercise
Balance
An exercise program is balanced if all the components
of fitness are addressed. The emphasis of a particular
program considers the needs of the individual. A person
caring for a child needs flexibility and strength to prevent
injury. A marathon runner needs cardiovascular fitness
and endurance to complete the race.
Specificity
Tissues
adapt to the load to which they are exposed. If you
only run as your form of exercise you will only see gains
in leg strength and cardiovascular endurance specific to
your training. To develop the body you must specifically
train the body in the manner in which you desire gains.
Overload
When
you place a load on the body which is higher than the load
to which it is accustomed the body will attempt to adapt
to that load over time and become stronger. The body
grows stronger when allowed to properly rest after the activity.
Without rest the body will wear out and breakdown.
Similarly the principle of Reversibility
says that the body will also grow weaker when not exposed
to overload. "Use it or lose it!"
Progression
In order to continue making gains the body must be progressively
exposed to greater and greater demands. Properly designing
a progressive program is essential to improvement and injury
prevention. The program must progress gradually to
allow the body time to adapt through proper rest, but it
cannot progress so slowly that there is no longer any overload.
Variety
This
principle is essential to the mental aspect of training.
While the muscles and cardiovascular systems are only concerned
with balanced, specific, progressive overload; the person
needs variety in order to succeed. Variety is achieved
through changing exercise venues, exercise partners, and
the order of exercises. Cross training also helps
vary a program. Variety includes small weekly variations
(microcycles) and larger changes every six to twelve weeks
(mesocycles.) Annual programs (macrocycles) determine
the overall plan for variety. Periodization is an
approach to exercise planning in which microcycles, mesocycles,
and macrocycles are the fundamental concepts. A baseball
player competing in more than 200 contests per year needs
a different schedule of periodization than the football
player who competes in about 20 contests per year.
Each has different goals during different parts of the year
which are reflected in the well designed exercise program.
Regularity
Without
regularity fitness goals cannot be achieved. The minimum
standards for exercise regularity are set forth by the American
College of Sports Medicine (ACSM.) For improvement
of cardiovascular fitness and body composition, the ACSM
recommends performing physical activity three to five times
each week for 20 to 60 minutes at a time. The activity
should involve the large muscle groups (e.g., walking, running,
cycling, and swimming). The level of intensity (target
heart rate) for this physical activity should be at least
55% to 65% of your maximum heart rate (MHR.) You can
estimate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age
from 220. You can also quickly determine if your intensity
is too high by taking the "talk test"; if you
cannot maintain a conversation with your exercise partner
while exercising, then your intensity is higher than 65%
of your MHR. The ACSM
also recommends that you include muscular strength and flexibility
training in your exercise program.
Recovery
Gains
in muscle size, strength and endurance are achieved during
rest. All components of fitness need rest and recovery
to improve. By stressing the muscular and cardiorespiratory
in alternate workouts one system can recover on the day
the other is working hard. In the split routine
certain muscle groups rest on days when the other group
is specifically stressed. Since it is impossible to
completely isolate muscles even a split routine requires
days off from strength activity. Periodization also
allows for the athlete to take certain weeks off from the
main form of exercise. A marathon runner might take
one month off from running at the end of the season and
focus on flexibility and muscular strength. The same
runner might also take a two week total vacation from all
exercise activity on an annual basis. When you have
earned it, a vacation is a great way to enjoy the benefits
of being fit and training hard.
References
1. Health
and Fitness Instructor's Handbook by Howley and Franks:
Human Kinetics 1997, Third Edition
2. Department
of the Army Field Manual 21-20, 1992
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