Showing posts with label do we need exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label do we need exercise. Show all posts

How Much Exercise Do We Need?



For many Americans, trying to find the time to exercise is a constant challenge. The stresses of everyday life often lead many people to fall short of their workout goals. It is no secret that living an active lifestyle leads to better health, which is why you should you learn how to increase the efficiency of your workouts. The best place to start is by identifying your fitness goals, which might include cutting body fat, strength training or increasing your body size. 

Maintaining Your Health
If your workout goals are to maintain your overall health, there are some very simple guidelines you can follow from the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association. The AHA provides workout guidelines for cardiovascular health and lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure. The guidelines are as follows:

• Cardiovascular Health- At least 150 minutes per week of moderately intense aerobic workouts and a minimum of two days per week of intense strength training. The AHA recommends you break up your aerobic workouts into 30 minute cycles five days per week.

• Lowering Cholesterol and Blood Pressure- A minimum of 40 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity three or four times per week.

The Mayo Clinic recommends that you do strength training at least two time per week and to target all your major muscle groups. The recommendation also includes performing a single set of 12 to 15 repetitions for each of your muscle groups. The Mayo Clinic's recommendation for cardiovascular health is the same as the recommendation from the American Heart Association.

Moderate aerobic workouts include taking a brisk walk, swimming or working in your yard. Vigorous aerobic activity includes running, dancing, interval training and cardio sessions on workout equipment such as elliptical trainers and treadmills.

Cutting Body Fat
If your workout goals are to get your body looking lean and trim by cutting fat, then you will need to increase the intensity of your exercises. You should concentrate on training your whole body at a minimum of three to four times a week. Your workouts need to include large movements that expend a lot of energy. You need to allow adequate time for your body to recover so it can restore all that lost energy. Give your body a full day of recovery or include some light aerobic activity in between your intense workout sessions.

Training for Size and Strength
If you want to bulk up and increase your body strength, you need to exercise at least four times per week using the three most common strength training workouts, deadlifting, bench pressing and squatting. You will need to include heavy sets in your training regimen, so do not forget to give your body adequate recovery time. Make sure that you do not go overboard when you train for size and strength. If you work out too much, it could have an adverse effect on your body and keep you from your fitness goals. Some signs of overtraining include lack of sleep, lowered strength, an increase in body fat and water retention.

The amount of exercise you need all depends on your workout goals. If you just want to live a healthier lifestyle, the workout recommendations from the Mayo Clinic and the AHA combined with a proper diet should be more than enough to reach your goals.