Quality Exercise
Quality Exercise for Good Health
“Take Control of Your Health Naturally”
Is There Such a Thing as Bad Exercise?
All exercise is good for your health, right? I have recently found out that is not the case. There are several factors that go into deciding what exercise is good for your particular health and what you are trying to accomplish. Studies have repeatedly shown that high-endurance training, such as running for an hour at a time, puts extraordinary stress on your heart. While stressing a muscle usually makes it stronger, extremely high stress can have the opposite effect. When it comes to your heart muscle this is probably not the result you want. High levels of oxidative stress and inflammation can cause damage to the heart tissues leading up to triggering a cardiac event.
Quality vs Quantity
The key to quality exercise for good health is not measured by how long you workout but by the quality of the exercise that you actually do. Our mindset is programmed to think that someone who jogs for 1 hour gets a better workout than someone who does a 20 minute workout. However, a 20 minute workout that incorporates high intensity, multi-level exercise, with proper recovery and stretching can provide just as much or more.
Diversity and Intensity
Functional exercises involve training the body for the activities performed in daily life. These include exercises like squats, planks, lunges, knee lifts, jumping jacks and sit ups. These incorporate the diversity and give you the dimensional training that your body needs. When you exercise in multiple planes, (frontwards and backwards, side-to-side, and rotational) it allows you to target muscles from all angles so that you don’t develop imbalances. Imbalances can promote injury. This also adds efficiency to your workout by allowing high intensity interval training thus cutting down on time needed to complete your workout.
Recovery and Stretching
Recovery time is as important as the actual workout itself. High intensity workouts absolutely require recovery time. As your intensity increases, you typically need to decrease the frequency of your workout to ensure your body has time to repair and recuperate between sessions. For this reason, it is NOT recommended to do high intensity exercises more than three times a week. Over-exercising can sabotage your fitness efforts. In the case of over exercising, your body will go into an elevated stress response mode which keeps your cortisol levels elevated. Cortisol, also known as “the stress hormone,” is secreted by your adrenal glands and is involved in regulating your insulin, glucose levels, and controlling inflammation. Elevated cortisol will cause your body to store fat instead of building muscle. For this reason it is important to listen to your body and get the important rest that is needed to recover.
It is also important to not overlook the importance of stretching at the beginning and end of each workout. Stretching works with your body’s natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. Stretching also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for activity.
Remember:
Quality exercise for good health includes high intensity, multi-dimensional exercise with proper stretching and downtime.
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6 Comments
Sethu
A great post! You really have a strong point. I worked out with the mindset “the more the better”. I was unaware about quality in exercises. As you said, I thought all exercises are good for health. This article helped me to rectify my mistake and view exercise in a different perspective.
No more long hours of workout, I’m now focusing on short and quality exercises.
Thanks for the article 🙂
Angela
I know that’s what I always thought too! “No pain, No gain!” I have started the shorter, higher intensity workouts with much more success. Let me know how it goes. I would love to hear about your progress. Thanks for the post.
Dustin
Staying in shape has got to be one of the most frustrating endeavors we face. As you said, there are just so many variables, and it’s hard to know which one you’re screwing up if you’re not getting the results you want.
I look forward to reading your blog so hopefully I can get it right.
Angela
It’s tough. Especially when you take into consideration age, gender, and health. Listening and understanding how your own body works is one of the most important things anyone can do when it comes to accomplishing good health. Everyone is different.
Darren Pitman
I stumbled across this article, as I am currently trying to incorporate regular exercise into my life now that I am in my early 40’s. Some really useful advice here, and I shall be reading more of your content to find out more! Just out of curiosity, what exercises can be good for losing belly fat for a man?
Angela
Darren,
Your body will lose fat wherever it wants to as you can’t make it lose fat in a particular place first. However, you can target particular muscle strengthening. Focus on core strengthening exercises for abs and your back. Yoga is an excellent core strengthener! It is a lot harder than it looks.