Complete Fitness Program

FITNESS TRACKA

¡	Contact

¡	Benefits of fitness

¡	Complete workout

¡	aerobic fitness

¡	Strength workout

¡	Flexibility workout

The Fitness Tracka is an Excel spreadsheet which you will be able to download and install on your computer - and keep track of your workouts and several key health measures, like your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose etc.

Here are the things you'll be able to keep track of:

•	Date - at the end of each week you'll be able to look up your date and see whether you have exercised enough!

•	Duration of your workout

•	Heart rate - while you're training. If you've got a heart rate monitor you can record the average heart rate at the end of your workout. I aim to get my heart rate over 140 as quickly as I can and then maintain it at that rate or higher for the rest of my workout.

•	Effort, on a scale of 1 - 5. See below for the Aerabyte scale. Not keeping track of your effort is like taking a pill without a dosage.

•	Aerabytes - see below

•	Steps - if you use the stepper

•	Kilometres or miles if you walk, run, cycle, swim ...

•	Calories - a useful measure for those wanting to eat more and still stay thin!

•	Glucose - for those who are diabetic or pre-diabetic. If you're not too far gone you may well be able to keep your blood glucose at a reasonable level. I'm keen to do a study to find out how many aerabytes you need to get a week to maintain your blood glucose at a reasonable level and if it matters whether you train with a high rate for a short time or a low heart rate for a ling time. I suspect that getting 1000 aerabytes a week is about right.

•	Cholesterol - you may find that regular doses of exercise are better for you than regular doses of Lipitor.

•	Blood pressure - systolic and diastolic. If you want to manage your blood pressure I'd advise you to also get the relaxation MP3.

•	Weight - you'll lose weight if you burn more fat off.

•	Situps

•	Pressups

•	Squats

•	Gym - you can tick the box when you go to the gym

•	Meditation - that's cool!

My suggestion is that you start off with your aerobic workout, do your strength training and then sit down in the chair for 10 minutes and meditate.

If everyone did that regularly doctors would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs and playing golf on Wednesday afternoons.

Here's good, better and best for your aerobic workouts.

GOOD	BETTER	BEST
4 sessions a week*	5 sessions a week	6 sessions a week

20 minutes/session	30 minutes/session	40 minutes/session

120 beats/minute	130 beats/minute	140 beats/minute

400 aerabytes/week	600 aerabytes/week	800 aerabytes/week

* If you're overweight, diabetic, (type 2), get headaches and feel tired all the time, have a low libido, sleep apnoea, have an elevated blood insulin level, have high blood pressure, have elevated cholesterol and various stages of coronary insufficiency, or are depressed I recommend you train twice a day. These are the symptoms of general metabolic disorder. They're telling you you're not in great shape. If you've got any of the symptoms of general metabolic dysfunction, 8 sessions a week would be good, 10 better and 12 best. Too much you say? Well not if you want to fix up the body system dysfunctions caused by lifestyle neglect. You can mask the symptoms with a pill, but you can treat the underlying metabolic dysfunction with exercise, a better diet and stress management techniques. You can vary the sessions, some hard, some easy, some long, some short.

If you've been sedentary for years, before you embark on your aerobic fitness program it would be wise to get yourself checked out to make sure you're not going to keel over after the first couple of minutes of your first activity session.

AERABYTES

An aerabyte is a byte of aerobic fitness activity.

AERABYTES =	TIME	x	EFFORT
	(In minutes)		(on a scale of 1 to 5 and matched against heart rate.

	On the effort scale, '1' is hardly worth getting up for and 5 is going hard - but not flat out.

To calculate the number of aerabytes you've used up in a workout, multiply the actual time (T) in minutes by the level of effort (E), rated on a scale of 1 to 5.

Whilst you can make a subjective assessment of effort, it's highly recommended that you use the heart rate guide below. Get yourself get a heart rate monitor and measure the intensity of your work-outs with greater precision. If you're diligent in your training, over the weeks and months you'll notice an improvement in your fitness and on your level of aerobic fitness. ie, the fitter you are the longer you will be able to maintain your heart rate at a higher level.

A minimum of 400 aerabytes a week (APW) is good, 600 is better and 800 is best. Once you start getting 600 or more aerabytes a week 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 (in fact if you have any of the myriad symptoms of general metabolic dysfunction) you'd want at least 1000 APW a week to manage your condition. (Now I can't prove this, yet, but I'm waiting for some bright young smart alec from one of the sheltered workshops for the academically gifted to volunteer to do a study. There could be a PhD at the end of it for the successful candidate and a diabetes free life for the subjects.)

Points	Effort rating	Heart-rate guidelines in beats per minute *- for a 40 year old -**
1/2	Half rat power	<100 BPM
1.	Too easy	100+
2.	Moderate	110+
3.	Vigorous	120+
4.	Hard	130+
5.	Very hard	140+

*The figures have been derived from the formula; maximum heart rate = 220 – age. For a 40 year old person the maximum heart rate is said to be about 180 BPM.

Now click here and you'll be taken through to the spreadsheet.

John Miller