Health Topics for Exercise and Fitness

Smoking Cessation

Exercise essentials

Regular exercise is the key to a healthy body. Essential types of exercise include aerobics, strength building, and stretching. Before starting any exercise program, get a medical check-up and then work with a certified exercise leader to learn how to exercise safely.

Aerobic exercises include walking, jogging, running, hiking, cross country skiing, cycling, swimming, and aerobic classes. These exercises improve the health of the lungs, heart, and blood vessels and they burn lots of fat calories for weight control. Adults should get at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise most days of the week, preferably daily. (Children need at least 60 minutes a day.) Doing less than this will minimize your health benefits. Moderate aerobic exercise is generally defined as requiring about as much energy as walking 2 miles in 30 minutes. Warm-up and cool-down times are added to this.

Strength building exercises include weight lifting, circuit strength training, and calisthenics. These exercises help burn fat calories and increase the lean tissues in the body. The more lean muscle tissue you have, the more work you will be able to do. This leads to burning more fat calories and controlling body weight in an ideal range. Warm-up and cool-down exercises should also be done before and after strength building exercise to prevent injury and soreness.

Stretching exercises help keep the muscles and tendons from getting too tight. As a result, the joints move more easily and the person can do house work, gardening, and recreational activities without pain. Stretching can be included as part of the warm-up and cool- down exercises done before and after hard work.

Warm-up exercise prepares the body for more vigorous aerobic or strength training activity. Start out walking slowly and then gradually increase the pace over a 5-minute time period. If you cannot walk, try easy cycling or other activities at slow, easy paces. This gives the body time to increase blood flow to the working muscles and joints and prepare them for harder work. Following the 5-minute warm-up, stretch the muscles in the legs, arms, and torso for about 5 minutes. This increases joint range of motion and improves the flexibility of the muscles and tendons.

Cool-down exercises are safe ways to gradually stop hard work. Never stop suddenly after vigorous aerobic or strength training activities. Walk slowly for about 5 minutes to gradually decrease the body's heart rate and blood flow. This puts less stress on the heart and is safer for your health. If you cannot walk, try easy cycling or other activities at slow, easy paces. This gives the body time to decrease the blood flow safely.

Following the 5-minute cool-down, stretch the muscles in the legs, arms, and torso for about 5 minutes. This increases joint range of motion and improves the flexibility of the muscles and tendons that might be tight from the hard work that was done in the middle part of the exercise session. Following the essentials of exercise can help you safely participate in any type of activity. Try many different exercise programs to prevent boredom and work all the muscle groups in the body. Make exercise fun. This will help you burn calories and control your weight.

Last Reviewed: 2005

Disclaimer: This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information provided is intended to be informative and educational and is not a replacement for professional medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.

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