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Exercise and Weight Control
Physical fitness is the ability to perform your normal, daily tasks with vigour and alertness and with enough energy in reserve to cope with emergencies. It is about having more energy with which to enjoy life.
Weight management is about the balance between intake and output. When your intake is higher, you gain weight, and when your output is higher, you lose weight.
> Benefits of Exercise
> Starting an Exercise Program
> Weight Reduction Principles
> Diets to Avoid
> Weight Loss Tips
Improvement in health and wellbeing
Inactivity has been associated with an increased risk of:
- Coronary Heart Disease
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- High Blood Pressure
- High Blood Cholesterol
- Osteoporosis
- Back Pain (80% of people suffer at some time)
- Certain Cancers (colon, breast)
Increased vitality and energy levels
Your body has an amazing ability to cope with and adapt to the challenges it faces. One of the responses of the body to an increase in energy output during the day (as a result of being more active) is that it improves its ability to make more energy! Hence, over time you have more energy to play with which means that you feel better, can play more, and have energy left over at the end of the day to do things you enjoy.
Reduction in stress and promotion of mental health
Stress is now considered the first or second major occupational health concern in most work environments. Exercise is one of the most effective ways to help manage stress as it gives you a break from the stress and pressure of life while releasing chemicals in your brain that actually make you feel better and cope with stress.
Control of body weight
The current statistics have revealed that obesity is at epidemic proportions: the majority of Australian adults are overweight or obese (64% adult males, 52% adult females). One in five or more children are similarly overweight. Obesity has widespread health consequences, so much so that the World Health Organisation has labelled it one of the top 10 health threats in the world today.
The prevalence of obesity has doubled in the past ten years and while our eating patterns have contributed to this, many believe that the trend in society for people to become more inactive has had the most prominent effect. Indeed, nearly everything about our lives has become more sedentary.
Starting out
- Begin your exercise program slowly. Your body could take a while to get used to the demands you are making on it.
- Start with a lower intensity of exercise that you can easily cope with and build up once you have lost some weight and are better able to cope with the higher intensity.
- Start by making some simple changes to your activity levels, for example, walk to the shops, walk up the stairs instead of taking the lift, do some gardening, walk the dog, etc.
Stretching is also important
- Stretching helps to increase the flexibility of the muscles and can help to reduce the chance of injury.
- Regular stretching would involve performing some stretching exercises at least 3 times per week. (see PDF file below)
> Muscle strength and tone are very important components of overall fitness. This can be gained through resistance training. > Muscle burns up 25 times more energy than fat and is therefore important in maintaining a good metabolism and managing body weight. It is also important for balanced and correct posture, disease prevention (eg. osteoporosis) and injury prevention.
Download a PDF file on exercises and stretches (497 Kb) for resistance training.
Resistance training is an extra help for weight loss
Performing some resistance training can be of great benefit for safe weight loss. How?
- Even sensible weight loss results in a loss of muscle mass. This leads to a lowering of the metabolism making it easier to regain the weight and starting us on a never-ending cycle of yo-yoing weight loss and weight gain.
- Muscle burns 25 times more energy than the same amount of fat! As you gain in muscle mass you will help your body to restore a healthy metabolism and maintain a healthy weight.
The will result in an increase in strength and tone of the body (but sensible training will not turn you into Hulk Hogan!)
- Resistance training helps to prevent the loss of muscle mass as we age, which leads to increased risk of falls, hip fractures, etc. and is not maintained by aerobic exercise.
Warm ups and cool downs are important
- They help us perform our exercise safely and smoothly, by allowing us to ease into the exercise session.
- Spend a few minutes doing something less intense before and after exercise.
- Do a few stretches during your warm-up and cool-down.
> While you may experience some mild discomfort or stiffness when starting an exercise regime you should never experience pain. If you experience pain during your exercise session have it checked out by your doctor.
> Exercise should be enjoyed not endured.
List of topics:
> Benefits of Exercise
> Starting an Exercise Program
> Weight Reduction Principles
> Diets to Avoid
> Weight Loss Tips
The above information has been taken from "The Healthy Weigh" booklet produced by the Adventist Health Department in the South Pacific.
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