INTRODUCTION
Fit exercise into
your busy schedule? That’s as absurd as
saying that there are eight days in a week. First, you’ve never exercised
before or regularly played
a sport. Second,
you’ve never been
into the fitness crowd
and third, you’re
far too busy
to even think
about exercise. In other words, You're just not into it.
Of course your
friends talk about it and rave about the latest fitness craze, but you’ve seen
it too often, some of them are on the “on- again-off-again” treadmill / stair
master mania, and you wonder why they haven’t shed the fat that they’re
desperately still trying to hide. Seeing what your friends go through and not
seeing any results, you cling to the notion that your total lack of interest is
justified.
You’re not
the least bit
inclined to engage
in these circus-like contortions or do those mindless
freestyle strokes in the water. That would only
encroach into your
already busy schedule
of juggling family, home
and career. These
three combined – husband/children/work are your
exercise.
Before tackling the idea of fitting
exercise into your busy schedule, it
might be better
if we start with the concept of self-assessment and then familiarize
ourselves with the
disease-prevention aspect of exercise.
Once you’ve
accepted the fact that exercise is good for your health, then you can consider
some of the ways you can include it into your life.
SECTION 1: ASSESSING PHYSICAL
DAMAGE AND ACCEPTING
THE IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE
Lifespan and Physical Appearance
The average life
span is 80 years, give or take a few years.
The truth is, a significant number of people look and feel 80 before
their time. They have:
sagging
dry skin unsightly
posture an uneven
and unsteady walk aching joints
If their
outward appearance is
bad, imagine what
the inside
machinery is like. Most likely, it’s even worse:
clogged blood vessels heart problems
mounds of sugar and fat parked in or around vital organs Conditions such as
diabetes, nervous tension, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease that
are silently brewing.
If fitness
authorities had it
their way, they’d
create legislation to make exercise mandatory as soon as a baby
leaves the cradle, not during the teenage years when obesity is likely to
strike.
But fitness
shouldn’t be associated with any age.
You can start at 10 or at 30 – even at 50 or 60. Fitness should not be
seen as the cure for an illness you already have, but as preventative maintenance.
Assessing Your Fitness Level
Brad King
and Dr. Michael
Schmidt in “Bio
Age, Ten Steps
to a Younger You”
have devised a
questionnaire for assessing
physical damage to a body as a result of no exercise. We will borrow some of their guidelines:
Start with the question, “How do I look?”
Do any of these answers
apply to you?
➢Am I overweight? Do I look like an apple
or pear? Do I have a spare tire?
Has my skin become excessively dry,
almost paper-thin?
Next, ask: “How do I feel?”
➢Do my joints hurt before or after any physical
exertion?
Am I constantly
worried and anxious?
Do I feel tired
and sluggish most of the time? Do I suffer from mood swings?
Last question, “How am I doing?”
Is walking and climbing stairs difficult?
➢Do I have problems concentrating?
Is running
impossible for me
now? Am I
unable to sit straight,
preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?
You’ve completed
your basic assessment. Note, however,
that other exercise or fitness gurus will have their own parameters or indices
for assessing your body’s overall state.
Turning You into a Fitness Buff!
After going
through the assessment
phase, you’re probably experiencing a “rude awakening”.
Slowly but Surely…
In
fact “slowly but
surely” was probably
what motivated Denise
Austin to come up with her popular
one-minute exercises.
She had two types of people in mind when
she designed the one-
▪ Uninitiated
▪ People on the go
It’s a quickie
society we live in; we want everything quick, especially exercise.
Benefits of Exercise
If you make
exercise part of your day, Denise Austin believes you’ll already experience
some noticeable benefits.
These include:
✓Waking up in the morning feeling refreshed
✓Walking with a gait
✓Having energy left at the end of the day
✓Feeling more optimistic about recreation
✓Sleeping more soundly at night
More Benefits of Exercise
The benefits
above are general.
Let’s examine the
more specific benefits of
exercise on specific parts of the
body, as described by Goldberg and
Elliot:
The average
ratio of total
cholesterol to HDL
cholesterol (good
cholesterol) is
about 4.5. If
this ratio doubles
or reaches 7, you
double your chances
of developing coronary
heart disease. You reduce that risk by as much as 50% if
your ratio is 3 or lower.
The lowdown on
cholesterol: not all cholesterol is
bad. You have the good one (HDL-1 and
HDL-2), the not so bad one (VLDL) and the harmful one (LDL).
To get your
ratios, divide the total amount of your cholesterol by your amount of HDL. The lower the ratio you have, the better.
✓Exercise prevents osteoporosis
28 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE
OSTEOPOROSIS. 80% ARE WOMEN. ONLY ¼ OF THIS 80% KNOW THEY HAVE
THE CONDITION AND ONLY HALF ARE BEING TREATED. THE ANNUAL OSTEOPOROSIS BILL TO THE UNITED STATES IS $14 BILLION.
STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT SUFFICIENT AMOUNTS OF CALCIUM AND REGULAR EXERCISE BUILD STRONG BONES.
WHILE GENETICS PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN DEVELOPING THE RISKS OF
OSTEOPOROSIS,
INDIVIDUALS CAN
CONTROL SOME FACTORS
THAT WILL HELP
PREVENT THE
PROBLEM.
PEAK BONE MASS IS ATTAINED IN YOUR 20’S.
STARTING AN
EXERCISE PROGRAM WHILE STILL YOUNG, EVEN IF YOU LIVE IN THE FAST LANE, WILL HELP YOU
AVOID BONE DISEASE.
✓Exercise prevents diabetes
People are still
debating how much exercise an individual needs, but for people with type
2 diabetes, exercising three
or more times a week improves fitness and blood sugar
levels. If you have type 2
diabetes and are
overweight, exercise done
with the following parameters would be of tremendous
benefit: intensity of 60%-70% maximal heart rate, with duration of 30 or more
minutes, 4-7 days each week.
There have been
hundreds of documented reports that reveal how people’s lives
have significantly improved
and the remarkable transformation that
their bodies experience
after they made
the decision to take ownership of their weight and fat problems.
In fact, Diane Rinehart (former Toronto
magazine editor and writer)
wrote in the Montreal Gazette on December
12, 2005:
“What we’re
hearing about…is waiting
times in
emergency and
operating rooms for ailments such as hip replacements, heart surgery and
amputations. That’s a shame because the
fact is, if we
dealt with obesity, we wouldn’t be facing the epidemics of heart disease, stroke, arthritis and diabetes that clog our hospital waiting rooms and OR’s.”
SECTION 2: HOW
TO INCLUDE EXERCISE
Feeling overwhelmed
by the amount
of time your
friends and colleagues spend in
the gym? Turned off by the idea of a
tennis game that entails not
only the hour-long
match but also
getting to the tennis
club, changing into a tennis outfit
and then showering afterwards?
YOU THINK, “THAT’S
ALMOST 3 HOURS
– THREE
HOURS I COULD
DEVOTE TO NURTURING MY CLIENTS
AND EXPANDING MY SALES TERRITORY.”
THE BAD NEWS IS, BEING
PENNY WISE AND
POUND FOOLISH DOES
NOT WORK IN
ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, ESPECIALLY WHERE FITNESS AND HEALTH ARE CONCERNED.
ARE THOSE
THREE HOURS WORTH
SKIPPING DURING A
GIVEN WEEK WHEN
YOU KNOW THAT YEARS OF OPTIMUM HEALTH CAN BE YOURS IF YOU HAD A POSITIVE
ATTITUDE ACCOMPANIED BY REASONABLE DOSES OF DISCIPLINE?
A Simple Exercise Program
INSTEAD OF
IGNORING EXERCISE ALTOGETHER, HERE’S A
SUGGESTION FOR INTEGRATING IT
INTO YOUR BUSY SCHEDULE. THINK OF EXERCISE
LIKE YOU THINK OF A MAJOR TASK IN THE OFFICE.
BREAK IT UP INTO
TINIER COMPONENTS.
INSTEAD OF
SPENDING TWO HOURS
IN THE GYM
OR IN THE TENNIS COURT
LIKE YOUR FRIENDS DO, ASK YOUR TRAINER TO DIVIDE YOUR WORKOUT
PROGRAM.
Suggestion A
30 MINUTES
FOUR TIMES A WEEK, I.E.:
20 MINUTES
CARDIO, 10 MINUTES WEIGHTS (1 MUSCLE GROUP, E.G. LEGS)
SUGGESTION B
30 MINUTES THREE
TIMES A WEEK
MON:
20 MINUTES CARDIO + 10 MINUTES STRETCHING;
TUES:
20 MINUTES WEIGHTS (2 MUSCLE GROUPS, E.G. BACK AND ABDOMINALS)
+ 10 MINUTES OF CARDIO.
WED:
20 MINUTES CARDIO + 10 MINUTES OF
WEIGHTS (TWO MUSCLE GROUPS, E.G. TRICEPS OR CHEST, BICEPS OR SHOULDERS)
Suggestion C
20 MINUTES 5 DAYS A WEEK. WEEK 1: ALL CARDIO
WEEK 2:
WEIGHTS
WEEK 3:
CARDIO ON MON/WED/FRI
WEEK 4:
WEIGHTS ON TUES/THURS
REPEAT THE ENTIRE
CYCLE WHEN YOU GET TO MONTH 2.
Frequency and Intensity
IDEALLY, YOU SHOULD
GRADUALLY INCREASE THE FREQUENCY OR INTENSITY, OR BOTH.
BUT IF YOU’RE BUSY, AND DEFINITELY
CAN’T SPARE MORE
THAN 30
MINUTES A DAY, THEN INCREASE
YOUR INTENSITY. THIS MEANS IF YOUR
CARDIO INVOLVES THE TREADMILL, TAKE THE NOTCH UP 1 LEVEL (IF YOU STARTED WITH LEVEL 3, GO ON TO LEVEL 4 ON MONTH 2).
FOR YOUR
WEIGHT TRAINING, IF
YOU STARTED WITH
5-POUND WEIGHTS, GRADUATE INTO 7.5 POUNDS IN MONTH 2. AND THEN ON THOSE DAYS WHEN YOUR DAY IS
NOT FILLED WITH MEETINGS, TRY TO STAY AN EXTRA 5-10 MINUTES.
BE REALISTIC
WITH YOUR GOALS, ESPECIALLY WHEN
YOU’RE JUST STARTING. INCREASING
FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY
TOO SOON CAN
OVERWHELM YOU, MAKING YOU WANT
TO GIVE UP.
Variety is the Spice of Life
ANOTHER WAY TO
INTEGRATE EXERCISE INTO A BUSY SCHEDULE IS TO VARY THE FITNESS ROUTINE.
VARIETY PROMOTES
INTEREST IN MAINTAINING
YOUR WORKOUT SCHEDULE. WITHOUT VARIETY, BOREDOM SETS IN, CAUSING YOU TO
DROP OUT.
Walk before you Run…
IF YOU’RE
AN ABSOLUTE BEGINNER,
A FULL
BLOWN WORKOUT WHICH INCORPORATES CARDIO, WEIGHTS, AND FLEXIBILITY
MAY SCARE OR DISCOURAGE YOU.
THE IDEA IS TO
START WITH SMALL STEPS.
DO ONE
EXERCISE SEGMENT AT A TIME.
BESIDES, VERY
FEW PEOPLE CAN ACCOMPLISH A TWO-HOUR WORKOUT MORE
THAN ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK.
ANOTHER WAY
OF DOING IT
WOULD BE TO
INTEGRATE YOUR FAVORITE
SPORT (SWIMMING, CYCLING OR WALKING) DURING
THE WEEK AND
AN ACTIVITY LIKE YOGA.
Time Management
IF YOUR SCHEDULE
GETS YOU UP AND RUNNING BEGINNING AT 6 IN THE MORNING UNTIL 6 IN THE EVENING, THIS DAY
REPRESENTS 12 HOURS. THERE ARE 24 HOURS IN A DAY
AND WE’RE NOT
RECOMMENDING YOU GET UP AT 2 IN THE MORNING TO DO YOUR EXERCISE.
BUT YOU COULD GET
UP HALF AN HOUR EARLY AND USE THE EXTRA TIME FOR SOME TYPE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. IF YOU DO THIS THREE TIMES A WEEK, THAT MEANS YOU
GET 90 MINUTES OF
EXERCISE EACH WEEK.
ONE EASY WAY TO DO
THIS IS TO DO YOGA IN THE MORNING (IT REQUIRES ONLY A MAT AND
COMFORTABLE, LOOSE CLOTHING),
OR TURN
ON THE JANE
FONDA CD/DVD, OR BUY A
TREADMILL (THE FOLDABLE ONES) THAT YOU CAN JUMP INTO AS SOON AS YOU
WAKE UP.
ANOTHER TIME MANAGEMENT
TIP: NOT ONLY DO BUSY MANAGERS HAVE BACK-
TO-BACK MEETINGS, THEY ALSO HAVE
LUNCHEON AND DINNER MEETINGS TO MEET WITH CLIENTS.
ASSESS EACH CLIENT. DO ALL OF THEM REALLY NEED TO BE WINED AND
DINED? IS AN HOUR LONG MEETING ABSOLUTELY
NECESSARY? CAN’T A DEAL BE NEGOTIATED ON THE PHONE?
SEE HOW MANY
MEETINGS YOU CAN CANCEL OR SHORTEN. THEN FIT YOUR FITNESS PROGRAM INTO
THOSE SLOTS THAT
HAVE BEEN FREED
UP. HOW ABOUT THIS: INSTEAD OF GOING TO LUNCH WITH CLIENTS
EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK, WHY DON’T YOU SCHEDULE LUNCH MEETINGS FOR SAY
MONDAY AND TUESDAY? THIS WAY YOU CAN
INCORPORATE A FITNESS
ROUTINE FOR WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY
AND FRIDAY FROM 12:00 TO 1:00 PM.
A BRISK WALK INSIDE
OR OUTSIDE THE OFFICE BUILDING, A QUICK SWIM IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD HOTEL
POOL, A PILATES COURSE IN
THE RECREATIONAL CENTRE, LIFTING DUMB BELLS WHILE ON THE PHONE? ANY OF THESE EXERCISES IS BETTER THAN NO
EXERCISE. YOUR GUIDING
PRINCIPLE SHOULD BE TO MOVE, MOVE, MOVE AS FREQUENTLY AS YOU CAN MANAGE IT.
Cubicle Fitness
JUST AS
ERGONOMIC EXPERTS RECOMMEND
THAT OFFICE WORKERS TAKE
THEIR EYES OFF THEIR
COMPUTER SCREEN EVERY
HOUR OR SO, FITNESS
EXPERTS ARE ADVOCATING GETTING UP
FROM YOUR CHAIR AND TAKING A BRISK WALK UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS.
WHEN YOU FEEL THE
NEED TO TAKE A BREAK, OFFER TO PICK UP SUPPLIES FOR YOUR COLLEAGUES, TAKE THE MAIL
DOWNSTAIRS INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR THE TROLLEY, OR THINK OF SOMETHING YOU COULD PUT IN
YOUR CAR INSTEAD OF WAITING UNTIL
5 PM. THAT WAY, YOU FORCE YOURSELF TO GET UP FROM YOUR
SEAT AND WALK FOR A FEW MINUTES.
IF YOU LOOK INTO
THE PRIVATE OFFICES OF SOME PEOPLE, YOU’LL SEE DUMB BELLS, MATS AND
ELASTIC BANDS – THESE ARE
CLUES THAT THEY
ARE DOING SOME EXERCISE WHILE ON THE JOB – A GOOD AND
HEALTHY PRACTICE TO ADOPT BY BUSY INDIVIDUALS WITH HECTIC SCHEDULES.
Family Exercises
ON THE
WEEKENDS WHEN YOU
JOIN THE FAMILY
IN THEIR ACTIVITIES, TRY
TO INTEGRATE EXERCISE INTO THESE ACTIVITIES: IF THE CHILDREN ARE INTO CYCLING, JOIN THEM
FOR BIKE RIDES.
ARE THEY
OFF TO THEIR
SWIMMING LESSONS OR SKATING LESSONS? SEE IF YOU CAN SIGN UP IN THE ADULTS
SECTION, OR TAKE A WALK
OUTSIDE THE RECREATIONAL CENTER WHILE WAITING FOR THEM.
Chores Burn Calories
WHO SAYS
YOU CAN’T BURN
CALORIES WHILE DOING
HOUSEWORK OR GARDENING? TAKE A BREATHER
FROM YOUR HECTIC SCHEDULE AND DEVOTE SOME DOWN
TIME TO TENDING
TO YOUR LAWN, TRIMMING YOUR
ROSE BUSHES, SCRUBBING THE
KITCHEN AND BATHROOM FLOORS, ETC.
Walk, don’t Drive!
PARK YOUR CAR FAR
AWAY SO YOU CAN WALK TO THE FRONT DOOR OF THE OFFICE, TO THE
ENTRANCE OF THE
MALL, TO THE DOCTOR’S
OFFICE AND TO
THE POST OFFICE.
SECTION 3: BUSY TRAVELER?
YOU CAN
FIT EXERCISE
INTO YOUR
TRIPS
Hopping in and
out of planes is exercise enough, you say.
But that’s not the kind of exercise that will condition your heart, make
your reflexes and joints more fluid, keep your sugar levels in check or stop
mood swings.
NOR IS IT THE KIND
OF EXERCISE THAT WILL MAKE YOU EUPHORIC AFTER A GOOD CARDIOVASCULAR SESSION. YOU NEED TO COUNTERACT THE EFFECTS OF JET
LAG, ARTIFICIAL AIR
IN PRESSURIZED AIRCRAFT
CABINS AND SKY
FATIGUE. SUZANNE SCHLOSBERG SAYS,
“Sometimes your travels help you recognize how humdrum your workout routine has become. At home, it’s easy to fall into a rut – to use the same weight machines in the same order, week after week, month after month, simply out of habit. But a trip may take the routine out of your routine. You may have no choice but to try new strength exercises or jog in the pool instead of swim laps. And you might find these new pursuits so enjoyable that you add them to your fitness repertoire at home.”