The Busy Fitness Pro

Posts Tagged ‘Heart’

Our health is the most valuable intangible asset we possess. Staying healthy throughout life is key to a more fulfilling, productive and happy existence.

Heart disease tops most lists as the number one health problem in the world. Thus, maintaining your heart health is crucial for your longevity and success and for the health of our society as a whole.

One way of keeping your heart healthy is providing it with enough aerobic training, or with so called cardio workouts, to keep it fit and in good shape. Cardio fitness trains your heart by giving it an extra load of work in supplying your body with oxygen.

Cardio fitness may include any type of physical exercises which trains your cardiovascular system, such as walking, jogging or swimming. When you work out your heart begins to beat faster, your pulse quickens and you start breathing deeper. Repeated exercise gives the heart extra training to stay healthy.

There are three key things responsible for the success and effectiveness of any cardio fitness routine. Those are: duration, intensity and frequency. So, before beginning a cardio exercise routine you should determine your workout goals and schedule. Remember, you should consult with your physician or medical advisor before beginning any training program or fitness regiment.

Let us start with the duration. Usually, one cardio fitness session may last 20 to 40 minutes. The duration greatly depends on your physical condition, your training goals and on the type and intensity of exercises you are doing.

If you are a beginner and only start with a light cardio session then your workouts may last no longer than 10 minutes. Determining the time of these sessions you should take into the consideration your present physical shape.

Avoid overloading your body and overstraining your heart during your exercise routines. Overstraining your heart will do you no good and may cause significant harm to your health and permanent damage to your heart and body. You may experience some discomfort in your muscles and joints as a normal process while your body acclimates to the new cardio fitness activities. However, if you feel any pain then postpone your next exercise session until after you have healed or consulted your doctor to ensure you have not pulled a ligament, tendon, or muscle.

Next, How Intense Are you?. For determining the intensity of your cardio fitness you should know your Maximum Heart Rate (Max HR). You determine it by subtracting your age from 220. For the beginners the HR during the exercises should not exceed 55% of the Max HR.

However, if you are in a good shape and have some experience in working out the intensity of your cardio fitness may come up to 65-85 percents of your Max HR.

Finally, What’s the frequency?. For attaining the best training results to improve your heart health, you should do cardio workouts on a regular basis. Three or four sessions a week is the optimal training frequency. You may also do your cardio daily while changing the type of activity you choose for your workouts. Remember that you must keep at it. No excericise program will be easy to keep up with, and you must make an concentrated effort to stick with the program.

Keeping in mind the three keys of cardio training you will help you heart stay healthy and attain excellent results through your workouts. Your can improve both the quality and prolong your life by keeping your heart healthy with regular exercise.

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So another year has gone by.  It’s hard to believe.  Did you notice that we are not getting any younger?  Each time another holiday season and New Year’s rolls around, it means we have another year under our belt.  The march of time continues…there is nothing we can do to reverse it…but it is in our power to slow it down.

Some older adults take the attitude, I’m just getting old and there is nothing I can do about it.  They don’t exercise.  They eat whatever they want, whenever they feel like it.  They may still smoke…despite decades of information on the hazards.  They don’t interact with other people on a regular basis.  Mind you there are a few that have the “just right” genetic make up and will stay as healthy as a horse and live to be 99.  They are the exception…not the rule.  For the rest of us baby boomers, doing nothing will shorten our lives and ruin the quality of life for the years we have left.

By the time you reach 50 you’d think you’d have made all the New Year’s resolutions you’d care to.  It’s actually very beneficial to take stock of your life once a year.  Review where you’ve been and where you’d still like to go.  Hopefully your 2008 Resolutions will include regular exercise.  By regular I mean the ACSM guidelines:

Can you make that kind of commitment to yourself?  You won’t regret a minute of it.  That regular exercise will help you feel better, as well as look better.  It will also strengthen your bones and increase their density.  It will lower your blood pressure and strengthen you heart.  It will help you sleep better and at the same time give you extra energy.  Surely you have 30-40 minutes/day that you can block out as “Your Time.”  That’s what exercise is…Your Time.  If you have the money, it’s worth the investment to either join a club or purchase equipment to workout at home.  I recently had a woman tell me that for her 55th birthday her gift to herself was a treadmill and a personal trainer.  She shared that it was the best money she’d every spent and worth every penny.  So what if your funds are limited?  Going to a mall and walking for 30-40 minutes is free.  So is going to a nearby school track (on a nice day).  A stability ball is a worthy investment of $30.  You can use it for sit ups…push ups…and sit on it to watch TV (which will continue to work on your core muscles).  Use the ball as a weight bench and add some weights…maybe cans of soup or chili?  For under $15 you can add on a rubber tube with handles.  These too will add resistance to your workout…which in turn will strengthen those muscles.  So a small budget is no excuse to skip a regular workout.

In addition to exercise…you need to commit to making healthy food choices…EVERYDAY. Stick to fresh fruits and veggies and limit your carbohydrates and fats.  Note I didn’t say “eliminate” carbs and fat…I said “limit.”  They can be excellent sources of energy, just consume them sparingly.  A good rule of thumb is to shop the perimeter of the grocery store and stay out of the aisles in the middle…as much as possible.  The outer walls is where you’ll find your produce, eggs, protein and dairy.  The majority of it is unprocessed and much better for you than the junk food lurking in the aisles of your grocery store.

You need to get enough sleep…at least 8 hours a night.  Planning regular social events are important to your emotional health.  Check into a class or group that you’ve always dreamed about attending.  Belonging to these classes or groups is about the time spent with other people socializing…as much as it is about participating in the activity.

There is at least ONE MORE resolution I’d like each of you to make.  Select something that you’ve always wanted to do or try.  Write it down and after it write…”will happen in 2009!”  Somehow putting it in writing makes it seem more real and you’re more likely to stick with it.  Plan to go skydiving…or backpacking…or snowboarding…or anything that challenges and excites you.  Once a year we need to tryout something new.  If you’ve never done that before…make 2008 the year to start!

Here’s to a healthy and happy New Year’s!

Technorati Tags: Attitude, Baby Boomer, Baby Boomers, Blood Pressure, Bones, Decades, Density, Eating, exercise, Extra Energy, Fifties, Fitness, health, Heart, Holiday Season, March Of Time, New Year, Older Adults, Quality Of Life, Resolutions, Sleep, Stock, workout

It is easier to motivate others than it is to motivate yourself. Do you know why? You are able to look at things from a different light. You can step back from a situation and see things for what they really are because you aren’t the one wearing the rose colored glasses. Go to motivational speaker for more information.

You may not know exactly how you can motivate someone, but you may want to think about the person’s feelings before you try to give them a heart-felt push. You do not want to sound nagging when you are only trying to be encouraging. It is easy to give someone your opinion, however, it’s not always so easy trying to figure how to say it.

The first tip on how to motivate others is to take out the negative and reinforce a positive note. You do not want to sound like you are tearing into your friend or loved one. You just want to give them some support to go for the things that they enjoy.

If you are dealing with someone who seems to have no direction, you may want to think about asking him or her questions about their future. Support begins with a nice long chat and if you two can understand each other, then you two should be able to have a good solid and strong relationship needed to motivate.

The second tip is to listen. When you are being asked to give your support, you will need to not judge. You will need to give the person some advice, but that does not mean that you have to take what they are saying to extremes. The key is to listen.

If you strongly disagree with the person, you should ask them to see your point of you and then make your points about your view, but not the way that it should be. When you stop giving orders and start talking about the way things make you feel, then you both will begin to have a healthy relationship and motivation will only come from a healthy relationship. Refer to motivational speaker for more information.

Sometimes you are going to be asked to give your support or blessing and you are just going to have to give it regardless of rather you like it or not. If you are giving your support to a friend or family member you may want to think about what your words may do to your relationship. Motivation could be something that makes or breaks a friendship or relationship. You may end up losing the person’s respect if you continue to try to control instead of helping out.

Lastly, you are going to have to think about the reason why you want to motivate the person. Most of the time it is because you truly care about them and you don’t want to see them go to a place that is unhealthy. You may be trying to give your support in orders of controlling, of saving, or of love.

The last think that you can ever do is try to motivate someone in the name of control. You may just need someone to talk to about it because no one can control anyone. You have to give someone room to choose, however, if they are being destructive, you may feel the need to control to save them. This is when you take professional advice and support them to seek new ideas.

You will want to make sure that whatever reason you are supporting someone is out of love. You not only need to motivate the person, but you have to care about the person for them to turn their life around or reach their goals. Visit motivational speaker for further information.

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