|
|
The 60 seconds summary: - Muscle strength training now takes its rightful place as just as important as aerobic exercise. The take home message is that if your exercise has to now only consisted of cardio then you need to add in some muscle strengthening using bands,weights or machines. - For several years personal trainers like myself have been persuading clients that easy to moderate cardio was not enough. If your heart and joints can take it, you need to have at least some intense cardio to make a real difference to your health and fitness. Now the ACSM and AHA are recommending 2 intensities for cardio: moderate 5 times a week (30 minutes each time); or alternately intense cardio 3 times a week (20 minutes each); better still mix moderate and intense cardio if you want. You could do moderate cardio 3 times in a week and intense cardio twice. Mixing moderate and intense is good (if there are no contra-indications such as a heart condition, or painful arthritis). - Intense cardio at least 20 minutes a session (more if you are able and want to). Moderate cardio can be as little as 10 minutes at a time built up to total 30 minutes a day but over time try to build up to at least 30 minutes in each workout session. - The guidelines introduce the concept of METS-Minutes per week to measure how much exercise you are getting (METS-Minutes should be in range 450 to 750 per week). What is a MET ? The abbreviation stands for Metabolic Equivalent. Sitting quietly with no stress is 1 MET. If you walk slowly that is 3 METs. As you speed up and work harder the number of METs increases. If you walk fast enough for it to be a 4 METs activity, then 4 METs x 150 minutes activity gives you 600 MET-Minutes. You could accumulate 600 MET-Minutes by doing a 6 METs activity for 100 minutes. By working harder you get the pain over faster! All of this has to be within the limits of what your body can take ! Read on to find the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (and the version for pregnant women). - For the first time stretching and flexibility is given prominence in that 10 minutes of stretching is suggested after most or all workouts. Balance training is introduced for older adults as a help in reducing and preventing falls even though balance trainng is a good idea for nearly everyone. I've been helping clients stretch and do balance exercises for several years. |