Exercise is Medicine-starting an exercise program

As a part of American College of Sports Medicine, I am very proud of how much progress the association made in Exercise is Medicine. Exercise is Medicine helps personal trainers to promotes physical activity through working closely with health care professionals. To anyone who are under the age 65 and without any chronic disease or condition trying to start an exercise program, Exercise is Medicine is recommending following steps:

1. Set aside time each day to exercise.
This is to help you to make your health a priority and a part of your schedule.

2. Choose cardiovascular activities you enjoy.
This step is to help you to learn to enjoy exercising, which will help you to keep on exercising.

3. Start with 10 to 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise daily.
This step is to help you to acclimatize to exercising. The duration can be increased every week by increment of 5 minutes until you reach 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per day for at least five days a week. More is usually needed for weight loss/weight management.

4. Incorporate strength training into your routine.
This step is to help you to preserve your functional strength and to optimize your health. Also, strength training is a crucial part of weight loss/weight management plan.

Barefoot running

There has been much debate about the benefits of barefoot running, and I ran into an article that summarized a research finding. According to this summary, initial mid-foot or forefoot contact seemed to have less shock attenuation than rear-foot contact, which may indicate less impact on the shock absorbing structures in the body, such as the vertebral disks (Dufek & Delgado, Sport Medicine Bulletin). The authors concluded that this could mean preventing or delaying some degenerative effects on these structures due to running but also commented that more research involving people with low back pain would be needed.
Although this research summary seems to favor barefoot running, I would recommend, for now, that each runner to research it further to see if running barefoot is the right direction to take. Alw

ChooseMyPlate.gov

We are so familiar with our food pyramid, grains, fruits and veggies, meat/dairy, and other sources all next to each other. This pyramid is an old news. Since 2001, the U.S. government has been promoting ChooseMyPlate.gov as the pyramid's replacement, and, truth to be told, it is simpler than the pyramid. The official logo of MyPlate is a plate divided into four sections: grains, fruits, veggies, and protein with a smaller portion for dairy (please see below for the picture). The website provides a lot of information and applications to help people reach their goal of eating better and/or losing weight. Check out the new site at ChooseMyPlate.gov!

Fitness myths

I recently read an article on reuters.com, dealing with some of the fitness myths. When I read the article, I was very surprised to realize that these myths were still prevalent in the public! Also, it made me think on the importance of our, personal trainers and other fitness professionals, roles as educators. So, I'm repeating what the personal trainers talked about in the article, in the hope that these myths will never waylaid the public ever again.

Myth 1: Weight training creates big and bulky muscles.
Fact 1: This is FALSE! It takes extra 3500 kcal along with weight training that involves almost daily, dedicated, and focused strength exercises to build one pound of muscle.

Myth 2: Cardio is the only way to lose weight.
Fact 2: This is not true. When strength training is combined with aerobic exercises, you burn off more calories than before not doing any strength training because our muscles require more energy than our fats. More muscles mean greater caloric expenditure. For more info, refer back to my previous posts on weight loss/management.

Myth 3: Lower intensity exercises are better than high-intensity exercises at burning fat.
Fact 3: High-intensity exercises require more glucose and ATP mobilization, which means greater energy expenditure than lower intensity for the same duration. To efficiently burn fat, it is recommended that you change your workout plans every 6-8 weeks or even as early as 4 weeks. This means mixture of exercises, both low and high intensity, is the best route.

Myth 4: Muscle turns into fat if you don't use it.
Fact 4: Muscle cells differ completely from fat cells. However, when people stop exercising, they still tend to eat the same amount of calories but not burning it off, therefore weight gain. Also, these people's muscles get smaller due to lack of stimuli.

Weight loss/management...my spiel (part 14)

Now to exercise. Exercise is very important part of this weight loss/management; exercise helps people to keep weight off, lose weight, improve their mood, improve their bodily functions, etc. All these benefits will help you to stay motivated, to feel better, and to be healthy and well. The general workout program for weight loss, which I recommend, is warm-up (5-10 minutes), strength training (2-3 days per week), cardio (30 minutes when combining with strength training and 60 minutes by itself), and cool-down (5-10 minutes). For example, warm-up for 5-10 minutes, strength train for 30 minutes, do cardio for 30 minutes, and cool-down for 5-10 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, warm-up for 5-10 minutes, do cardio for 60 minutes, and cool-down for 5-10 minutes. In this example, you would get the weekend off, which does not mean that you should be a couch potato. You should do something fun during those two days, like hiking, swimming, or playing a sport. Keep active!

Weight loss/management...my spiel (part 13)

For more nutritional information/guidance, find a local nutritionist or a health fitness/health care professional for help.
You got the nutrition part down pat. What about exercise and physical activity? Before you decide to engage in any exercise regime, make sure you talk to your doctor, especially if you have any health problems or concerns. This ensures that your doctor knows about your conditions and keep track of your improvement; who knows? You may be able to decrease the dosage of medicines you take or even better, get completely off of them.
After you talk to your doctor, consider keeping track of your activity throughout the day for one week, just like you would do with your food diary. Let's call this activity diary. In your activity diary, you should write when you move, how long you stay sitting, how you feel when you move/not move, etc. According to research studies, lack of physical activity, which usually means sitting for too long, increases your chances of developing heart diseases EVEN IF YOU ARE EXERCISING. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not stay stationary for more than one hour; you should try to get up from your place/chair every hour, even for one minute and move your body (stretching, doing some squats, push-ups, etc).

Weight loss/management...my spiel (part 12)

To make this a bit more complicated, BMR is a great measure of what you need if you are staying in bed and not moving at all; however, it does not take into account your digestion and activity, so to accurately measure your caloric need for a typical day, I recommend that you see a fitness or medical professional.
Going back to the simple math of calories in and calories out, you need 3500 kcal deficit in order for you to lose 1 pound of fat. Since most people cannot lose 3500 kcal per day, it is generally recommended that you go for 500 kcal deficit per day and accumulate 3500 kcal deficit by the end of the week. However, not all those 500 kcal deficit should come from food. About 200-300 kcal deficit should be from food and the rest from exercising/physical activity. This ensures that you get adequate food to not be overly hungry.

Weight loss/management...my spiel (part 11)

To continue on my thought on nutrition, I would personally recommend, before you do a food diary, to find out your basal metabolic rate (BMR). BMR tells you the very minimum calories you need in order for you to survive. As I said before in my footnote, people who do not meet their BMR may lose weight but lose their health too; this is due to the fact that our body begins to break down muscles (which we really need) and hold on to our fat, thinking that we are in a "starvation" mode. In a word, our body is quite efficient in preparing for disaster, and eating less than our BMR calories make our body to go into this mode. The result: higher body fat percentage, which is not ideal way to lose weight. Unless you are under a physician's supervision, it is generally recommended that you eat more than 1200 kcals per day.
After your BMR is measured, try to write and keep a food diary for one whole week. This diary should include when you eat, what you eat (the nitty gritty), how much, and even how you are feeling. To count the calories, a program provided by choosemyplate.gov can be used. This will help you to realize if you are overeating, if you eat more on certain times during the day, or if you are eating without realizing that you are eating. Also, by keeping track of food, you will become mindful of what and when you eat, helping you to cut those unnecessary calories.

Got stress?

Almost everyone I know, including myself, live in partnership with their stress. Stress seems to be our life-long companion. I just had a couple of days of stress and know the toll that stress has on me. There are many many ways to relieve stress. However, one stress relief technique that I often use is exercise. During exercise, my mood lifts and sometimes my pains, both physical and mental, go away. Why? There is probably more than one reason, which endorphin is one of them. Endorphin, which is a morphine-like chemical released in the body, binds to opiod receptors in our body and deadens our pain. This also leads to a feeling of euphoria, possibly due to relief from pain. Either way, exercise perks me up!