Separating Myth from Fact
Myth: If you exercise, it does not matter what you eat.
Fact: If you exercise, it matters even more what you eat.
Myth: If woman lift weights, they'll get "bulky."
Fact: Resistance exercise helps woman create lean, toned bodies.
Myth: Aerobics is better for shaping up than weight training.
Fact: To transform your physique, you must train with weights or resistance training.
Myth: A certain number of sets and repetition gets the job done.
Fact: High-intensity effort produces the best results.
Here are a few guidelines about what type of exercise and fitness training works best to help you to get fit, increase your strength and, if necessary, lose body fat.
1. Best Form of Cardio-Aerobic Training
Walking and swimming are probably the best type of aerobic exercise to raise heart rate and improve cardiovascular and respiratory function.
Take a brisk walk for at least 30 minutes per day, but don’t overdo it.
A regular swim also provides a range of heart and breathing improvements.
2. Best Type of Strength-Training Exercise
Using free-weights, in combination with a range of weight machines in your local gym, is probably the best type of resistance or strength-training program (anaerobic exercise). If you can't get to a gym, and prefer exercising at home, combine hand-weights with exercises in which your muscles work against gravity: such as,
crunches (to strengthen abs)
press-ups or push-ups - to work the triceps (upper-arm),
pectoral muscles (chest),
latissimus dorsi (back and shoulder)
as well as the abdominal muscles - and chin-ups.
Weight-bearing aerobic activities, like:
• running,
• tennis,
• squash,
• football,
• and plyometrics will also improve muscular
strength and endurance.
3. Best Type of Exercise for Weight Loss
Aerobic activity is the best type of exercise for weight reduction.
Any continuous aerobic exercise, sustained for longer than 20 minutes at the correct heart-rate, 130 beats per minute, will burn fat.
Research at the University of the Orange Free State’s Sport Science Department proved that if you exercise at a heart rate of higher than 138 beats per minute, you are burning carbohydrates and not fat, which cause you to be lethargic and tired the next day.
Although aerobic exercise is very important for fat burning, résistance training are just as important, thus you can combine the two types of exercise.
4. Best Type of Exercise if you’re Very Overweight
If you suffer from serious obesity, swimming or water-aerobics is probably the best and safest type of fitness workout.
Swimming has two benefits.
First, it is a non weight-bearing activity - meaning, your body weight is not supported by your legs, there is therefore less risk of muscle or joint strain.
Second, swimming is high in resistance because moving limbs through water is 12 times harder than out of water, so it benefits muscle strength and endurance.
• How do I Burn Body Fat and why must I exercise?
To begin with, (about the first two minutes of exercise), the body cannot get enough oxygen to supply the heart and muscles which need to work faster than normal.
So the muscles are forced to rely upon non-oxygen sources of energy (anaerobic) located inside the muscle itself.
If you exercise continuously for longer than about 2 minutes, your muscles are powered by more glycogen (stored blood-glucose) which comes via the bloodstream from the liver.
After about 20 minutes of continuous exercise, the body's stores of glycogen become exhausted, and the body starts using stored body fat for fuel to power the muscles.
This process of fat metabolism occurs in the presence of oxygen.
This is how sustained aerobic exercise helps to burn fat and thus causes weight loss.
• Aerobic Exercise
As stated, aerobic activity is probably the best type of exercise for weight loss.
Any continuous aerobic exercise, sustained for longer than 20 minutes at the correct heart-rate, will burn body fat and help you to lose weight.
• Strength-Training
Aerobic training is only part of the picture. Effective weight loss over the long-term requires you to raise your resting metabolic rate (how fast you burn calories while at rest) so that you can continue to burn extra calories when your workout is over.
Although aerobic exercise raises metabolism, strength-training is also very important for this.
So the best weight loss exercise program alternates aerobic training with resistance training.
• How Exercise and Metabolic Rate Affect Weight Control
Muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat tissue:
meaning, it requires more calories to sustain it. So, in simple terms, the more muscle you have, the higher your basic metabolic rate and the more calories you burn while at rest.
That's why strength-training (the type that builds muscle) is so useful for weight loss, especially as we get older.
5. Best Type of Exercise for Fitness Rehabilitation?
Swimming is also very good for rehabilitating muscles, joints and bones, after suffering injury problems or strains. Training in water imposes far less stress on the body than regular physical activities.
6. Best Exercise Routines for Pregnant Women?
The best type of exercise to perform during pregnancy is low-impact, low or non weight-bearing exercises, including:
- Pre-natal aerobics, yoga or Pilates classes.
- Swimming (excellent for Moms-to-be).
- Walking, steady dancing or steady hiking.
- Stationary cycling, stepping.
In general, the less strenuous and stressful the exercise, the better it is likely to be for pregnancy.
So, workouts involving sudden jerk-like movements, or over-stretching, or intense exertion, or excessive weight-resistance, are likely to be too risky for the health of you and your baby.
Exercise Tips:
- Try not to eat anything for at least 4 hours prior to exercise, because you want to burn fat and not carbohydrates.
- Warm up for at least 5 to 10 minutes prior to your actual exercise training, to prevent sprained muscles. Stretching is a good vorm of warming up.
- Also remember to kief down for at least 5 to 10 minutes after your exercise program.
- Try to exercise for at least 3 to 4 times per week, to gain maximum health advantage.
- Also try not to exercise for less than 30 minutes at a time and try to do your utmost best. While you are exercising, otherwise you are wasting your own time.
WARNING:
If you are very overweight or if you suffer from any ailment, please
consult with your medical advisor or physician before continuing on
any exercise program.
To exercise often is a lifestyle with much môre advantages than disadvantages.
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