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Cardiovascular Exercise Principles and Guidelines: Part One
Cardiovascular Exercise Principles and Guidelines: Part Two Total Fitness: Total fitness is our ability to properly function with alertness and appropriate energy levels over the course of our normal daily activities... More Fitness
Fitness is the capability of the body of distributing inhaled oxygen to muscle tissue during increased physical effort.Fitness affects your overall physical and mental health: (1) the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health (2) soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment: to have one's health; to lose one's health.
When we talk about good physical fitness we are relatively speaking of good physical condition; being in shape or in condition as with a body builder, basketball player or runner. We may not reach the good physical condition of a competitor in sports but we should strive to obtain a level of fitness to maintain our physical and mental health.
To increase our physical fitness we have increase our physical activity which has three important keys:
Flexibility – The measurement of the achievable distance between the flexed position and the extended position of a particular joint muscle group is called its "flexibility", but this is more properly called its range of motion or range of movement. Flexibility ensures the range of motion in joints, prevents injury and ensures we can do those everyday tasks such as bending to pick up stuff and reaching over our head with less discomfort.
To increase our range of motion we should perform range of motion exercises. As with all exercise activities the amount you can do depends on you physical condition when you start. The old saying “no pain, no gain” applies to range of motion exercises, but if after exercising your pain last for more than two hours, you’ve probably exercised too much.
Strength/resistance training – We need strength and resistance training to build muscle tissues. These muscles are needed to do all physical feats such as lifting, pulling, walking and running.
Strength and resistance training improves and maintains muscle fitness, increases bone density, mobility, and agility, and decreases obesity As with any physical exercise program you should warm up first. This could be a period of range and motion exercises.
To build muscles you must use some type of weights or resistance. This can be as simple as a can or two of beans form the cabinet or a rope tied to the door handle. Start with weights that are light enough that can lift them with little or no discomfort. These should be lifted through a complete range of motion and with good posture. When you become comfortable doing your exercise with a certain weight, then increase the weight to the next level. Your exercise should include the chest, shoulders, triceps, biceps, abdominal, quadriceps and legs. You should exercise at least tow times per week.
Stamina/endurance– To improve our stamina or endurance we must do cardiovascular exercises such as walking and running. Start with walking at a slower pace at a time or distance that you are comfortable with then increase the pace and distance or time. If you follow this plan three times per week you will soon be running not walking. > |
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