Friday, August 6, 2010

Uncle Sam Wants You To Get Healthy

The Government is really trying to get people moving!

Health care is an issue right now. Insurance rates are rising. One way of improving the situation is to improve the publics' health.

Exercise is one of the primary ways to improve health! The government is completely aware of this fact.

Their website explains the new requirements for weekly exercise www.health.gov/paguidelines

The old 30 minute daily rule is now being replace by a weekly amount of exercise. 150 minutes of weekly exercise is the minimum.

It can be split up into 10 minute sessions twice everyday, three 50 minute sessions per week...they give a variety of ways to divide the time.

Having the time spread out is the best way. Doing it all in one or two days is not wise! They do not recommend that.

The goal is to make it easy for people to get their aerobic exercise in. They also recommend two to three strength training days per week. Those must be done on non consecutive days! You need 48 hours of rest between sessions. Your muscle build on your rest day!

They don't give a time allotment for the strength training. It needs to be under an hour. It should be at least 15 minutes.

The government site goes on to say that for the best health improvements, 300 hours per week is needed. I would totally agree!



They state that some of the exercise needs to be vigorous. They say that one minute of vigorous activity equals 2 minutes of moderate activity.

That's a bit confusing. How much of the time needs to be vigorous and how much moderate? Does that mean I can do less time if it's all vigorous?

I suggest two to three non consecutive days of at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise which could be jogging, aerobic workouts (examples:kick boxing, dancing, step workouts ) or playing active sports. That can be split in two 10 minute sessions.

The rest of the minutes can be used walking, doing tai chi, ballroom dancing, riding an exercise bike at a slower pace, anything that gets you moving but doesn't get you extremely winded.

If vigorous exercise is not possible for you just doing the moderate exercise will be helpful!

Children and adolescents need one hour per day of aerobic activity. That's 420 minutes of weekly aerobic activity. Three hours of that needs to be vigorous.

It's a great website to stroll through.

It's helpful to keep learning about exercise so you're inspired to do it. Out of sight out of mind! It's easy to think "I'll get to that tomorrow".

Keep visiting my blog because I'll keep you posted on all the new stuff and the old stuff that works. I'm here for you!

Your fitness expert,

Lynn    www.getrealfit.org

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