Aerobic fitness
AEROBIC FITNESS
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Aerobic fitness
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AEROBIC FITNESS |
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It's a big ask expecting to stay healthy without keeping yourself fit.
Your level of aerobic fitness is a good indicator of the condition of the system responsible for transporting oxygen to working muscles: - the heart, lungs and blood vessels. However, to restrict the importance of aerobic fitness to the cardiovascular system does it a grave injustice. On the contrary, your level of aerobic fitness is perhaps the best indicator of the health status of all the most of the important body systems.
Only 10 to 15 percent of people over the age of 30 years participate in sufficiently vigorous activity (of the huff and puff variety) each week to maintain reasonable level and reap the benefits of aerobic fitness.
According to the research, the stimulus to improving aerobic fitness is at least three vigorous aerobic sessions a week of at least 20 minutes a session. And if 20 minutes is good, 30 minutes is better and 40 minutes is best.
Along with time, the intensity of your aerobic exercise needs to be taken into account. They say that you need to get your heart rate to at least 60% of your maximum heart rate (MHR) to gain an aerobic training effect. 70% is probably more like it. 80% is achievable and sustainable for people in good aerobic condition and something worth aiming at. Maximum heart rate is said to be 220 minus your age.
The people I see who are in the best of health are those who have a vigorous aerobic training program, for 40 minutes on most days of the week. I see little evidence that ambling around the block for 10 minutes does much for the cardiovascular or any other system, or that it has much of an impact on lowering stress levels.
AERABYTES, WHERE
TIME MEETS EFFORT I've developed a new measure of aerobic training the aerabyte, as in a byte of aerobic exercise. If you're serious about becoming aerobically fitter, merely recording time, steps or distance is pointless unless effort is also taken into account.
AERABYTES = TIME X EFFORT (minutes) on a scale of 0 - 5,
where 0 is hardly worth getting out of bed for and 5 is flat out
Click through to the Aerabyte site to get the full drum on what the aerabyte system is and how you can use it to good effect.
Aim for a minimum of 600 aerabytes a week (APW). 800 is better and you'll keep yourself in pretty good shape. If you want to achieve huge gains in your aerobic fitness, aim at 1000 APW. As for the time it will take to get your 1000 aerabytes per week, this will depend on the amount of effort you expend in each workout. What's happened in our sedentary society is that people do not realise just how little activity they do. Unless you have a manual job, the quickest way to get your aerabytes is to exercise with vigour for 200 or more minutes a week.
If you're type 2 diabetic, if you're over weight, depressed or have high blood pressure you'd want at least 1000 APW a week to manage your condition.
INTENTION The road to hell is paved with good intention.
The likelihood of achieving your fitness goals will be increased if you write down what you plan to do at the beginning of each week. Write down what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, who you're going to do it with, for how long and what level of effort.
Break your exercise sessions down into manageable units, day by day, week by week, month by month. Click here to purchase a copy of the Aerobic Fitness Diary.
INSPIRED AND MOTIVATED TO BE FiT AND HEALTHY German philosopher, Neitzsche said, 'Learn to enjoy the things you need to do.' For many people hearing that sort of stuff is likely to provide cold comfort, and yet its probably true. One of the things we need to do in an affluent society is keep fit.
Click here if you want a list of the benefits that come with exercising vigorously on a regular and systematic basis. Few people ever got fit by ambling around the block for 10 minutes 3 times a day at half rat power. The fit ones got fit through the vigorous expenditure of energy, the vigorous injection of oxygen into their body and the vigorous stimulation of their various elimination systems.
So, as much as you may not like doing it initially, once you start to experience the benefits of a vigorous aerobic exercise program you'll be inspired and motivated by the results to keep going. Staying focussed on the benefits is a key to maintaining your exercise program. Start with the end in mind.
The corollary is that as soon as you start to become dysfunctional and dyseased you'll be able to recognise that something within your body is out of kilter and that it is highly likely that good working order can be restored by vigorous exercise (along with a better diet and mediation). Instead of (or as well as) a trip to the doctor, start exercising.
If you want to check whether you're on the way to becoming dysfunctional complete the Mind and Body Profile and the Health and Fitness Checkup.
When it's all boiled down you have to ask yourself the question 'Why do I want to be fit and healthy?' If you can't think of a good reason it's probably because you have plenty of reasons for being unfit and unhealthy! Stay in front of the TV. Buy more health insurance.
BREAK THE VICIOUS CYCLE - get on your bike If you're going to break the vicious cycle of inactivity you'll need all the help you can get. In particular you'll need to stay one step ahead of that part of your mind which says, 'Give up.'
It seems to be a tough assignment for most people to maintain the motivation to do the things they need to do to keep fit and healthy. The surgeries of the Western world are littered with people who either have never taken part in a fitness program or who started one and then gave it away.
Yet some people do manage to keep their level of motivation up and maintain a regular and systematic aerobic fitness program.
The seven pillars of aerobic fitness The foundation for a successful aerobic fitness program rests on seven pillars.
After you've done the initial fitness test send me an email and let me know how you went. Then, at any time over the next three months feel free to report back and let me know three things 1. whether achievement has matched intention 2. how much you've improved 3. how much better you feel.
So what is it that's holding you back? What is it that's stopping you from being a regular, systematic and vigorous exerciser? What is it that will cause you to drop out of any fitness program that you embark on? Is it Laziness p Ignorance p Stupidity p Attachment to a comfortable way of life p
EXERCISE FROM THE TOP OF THE HOURGLASS |
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