[attach id=233512 size="large"][/attach]
I have a feeling that a lot of you are just starting, or already have begun, an exercise regime as part of your 2013 resolution to get fit. I guessed that perhaps you could do with some help and advice regarding the myths surrounding what is good for you when exercising.
There is no doubt when it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, slow and steady works better than hard and fast. So let’s look at some of the myths.
The more intense the better. This is a myth. Mostly our aim is to try to burn off the 15 per cent of ‘spare’ calories. It seems to make sense that if we really go ‘for the burn’ in the gym, we will use up these calories.
However, intense exercise burns sugar when you want to be burning fat. To reach this aim, an energetic walk or slow jog for 45 to 60 minutes, on most days, will do the job far better than one or two intense sessions a week.
There is no doubt when it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, slow and steady works better than hard and fast- Kathryn Borg
This was proven in an experiment with 173 overweight women who had avoided exercise. Half the women carried out moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk, a cycle ride or aerobics for an average of three days and 176 minutes per week. After a year, they had lost more weight and had lower body fat levels than the rest who had been carrying out more vigorous exercise.
You can’t get enough. Another myth. The answer is yes you can, as anyone who has experienced muscle strain, or sport and exercise-related injuries has proved. These types of exercise are usually attributed to those who try aggressive exercise, especially when they are not fit enough to meet the vigorous impact on the body. One study of squash players discovered every one of them was suffering a back injury if they played every day.
Intense exercise is exampled by working out with the US Marines. A survey of 1,296 young men who had just completed their 12-week initiation training discovered that 40 per cent had some injury, mostly in the ankle or foot.
Strenuous exercise helps you lose weight. The final myth. After an hour’s exercise you have burned around 200 calories, the equivalent of a biscuit or two. Although you are usually told that aerobic exercise, like running, burns an enormous amount of calories, that idea is based on the highly simplistic intake/output model of calorie-based dieting. Which we all know doesn’t really work and only promotes yo-yo dieting.
Your resting metabolic rate accounts for between 60 to 75 per cent of your total daily energy expenditure. In other words, just being alive (including thinking, breathing and simple movements) uses up most of the energy we get from the food we eat.
Talking of which, another 10 per cent is burned up by digesting and absorbing the food we eat.
So the average person uses around 85 per cent of energy just by eating and carrying out basic functions. That leaves around 15 per cent we have some control over and even that amount can vary, depending on age, gender, hormones, genetic disposition, body temperature and, for women, the phase of the menstrual cycle.
To work out the true calories burned during vigorous exercise, you have to work out how much more you burned than normal, and that’s usually far less than the charts tell us.
So what’s the best exercise for you? Having eliminated ‘feel the burn’ intense exercise we need to look at the following:
Walking. This is the one most likely to fit into our regular daily routine. However, it is an exercise and not a stroll on the coast road saying hello to friends. So you need to set a pace that is faster than your usual walk. To give you an idea, you should be achieving around 100 steps per minute, or 3,000 steps in 30 minutes.
This can vary according to your age, fitness and gender. So an older woman could start out with a tempo closer to 91 steps per minute, while a man of similar age and fitness should aim for 92 steps. If you are just starting out, don’t walk at that tempo for more than 10 minutes; you can always build up to longer periods. Try to walk on level ground and wear good supportive footwear.
Swimming. This is a good option if you have a health problem or your joints won’t allow you to walk very fast. One group who really benefits from swimming is asthmatics. It helps increase lung volume while encouraging good breathing techniques and overall fitness. When a group of asthmatic children swam regularly for six weeks, they reported suffering fewer attacks and the attacks they did have were less severe.
Next week we will look at another type of exercise and answer the question: Is it too late to start exercising?
kathryn@maltanet.net