Thursday Daily Dynamic/Healthy Living – The how often and how hard of exercising

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I think it is high time to take off from where we left our discussions last time regarding exercising. Don’t you?

The chat we had was all about cardio vascular exercising, that exercise that makes you sweat.

Just to recap;

“Cardio” is the short and modern term for cardiovascular exercise that replaced the word “aerobics”. Some also refer to it as strength-training exercising. Cardiovascular is any exercise that utilizes oxygen for a primary source of fuel

We discussed the following three points;

• What is cardiovascular exercising?
• The benefits of cardiovascular exercising?
• For how long must I exercise?

Today we are taking the next two questions head on!

• How often must I exercise?
• How hard should my workout be?

How often must I exercise for?

The reputation of your workout will depend on;

• your fitness level
• your time schedule
• your exercise plan and
• the reason why you are exercising

When we discussed “how long must I exercise” I told you that you must start slowly. There is no difference to “how often must I exercise”. Start with at least three times a week and work your way up to more frequent exercises per week.

The most important thing for me is too listen to your inner self and your body.

If you are working out 3 times a week for 30 minutes and

• you are comfortable with it
• you have found the time for it
• you are not doing more than what your body can handle
• you are losing weight if it is your goal, then so be it!

If you are working out 6 times a week for 60 minutes and

• you have found the time for it
• you feel great about your exercising
• you are losing weight at a rapid speed it is fantastic!

How hard should my workout be?

It is your body and you are the one who is in control of it. In the beginning, depending on your fitness level, you will start off slowly but as discussed in the previous question if you are serious you will quickly get to four or more days a week with 60 minutes an exercise.

When you are at this stage it is time for you to look at the intensity (strength) of the exercise. This is then also the most important factor if your goal is weight loss as it relates to how many calories you are burning.

It is also important that you monitor yourself to make sure that you are working at a pace that is not only comfortable for you but also challenging.

The following perceived exertion scale will help you in monitoring your intensity.

The intensity of the workout all depends on how long you exercise. If you do not have a lot of time to exercise you will raise the intensity of the exercise. If you have time on hand you will look at keeping the intensity low so that you can keep it right through the workout without wearing yourself out.

You can also vary the intensity of the workouts through interval training. I found interval training the best exercise for burning calories. This was something I learned many years ago from Bill Phillips, Body-for-LIFE program.

But what I like most about interval training is that it is not boring. If I have to walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes at the same pace I will get pretty bored and ten to one will not return the next day and neither the day after that.

A good example of interval training is when you walk from one lamppost to the next one, then you sprint to the next one and then walk again. In other words, you alternate your exercise from slow to fast and repeat the process.

Slow ➜ Fast ➜ Slow ➜ Fast

Interval training is exciting as you are in control of it and it is unbelievable how quickly the time goes past if you have to break it down into sessions. We all know how to eat an elephant… Bite for bite.

Next time I will discuss interval training more in detail.

Keep on exercising!

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