Along with favoring nutrient-dense smile and half-smile foods, you can do something else that is nearly as fun as eating and is also beneficial for your overall health, appearance, and mood: move around a lot. Movement can take many forms: cleaning a house, gardening, walking, visiting a museum, playing sports, climbing trees, dancing, jogging, swimming, and just about anything else that requires you to move your large muscle groups: legs, arms, torso, and shoulders. Some movement is easy going, without too much strain, sweat, and increased heart rate. Walking and light housework are examples. Other activities involve raising your heart rate, pushing your muscles, and intense or quick movements. Playing sports and running a marathon are two examples in this category. Some physical activities are in between these two ends of the spectrum depending on how hard you exert yourself, such as gardening, fishing, or dancing.
All activities that involve movement are good for you on many levels, as mentioned above. Doing something is the right thing. If you love taking walks or kayaking, those are great ways to move your body. If you are an avid gardener or active babysitter, those are also good ways to keep moving. And, some people enjoy and are motivated to vigorously push the body, get the heart pumping, break a sweat, and achieve big goals in terms of exercise or athletics, and that is fantastic. This last category deserves some extra attention because many people have questions about exercise and physical fitness training, such as the following:
How much is the right amount?
How do I prevent getting injured?
How can I avoid boredom?
Do I need to eat differently than I normally do if I am very active?
Do I need to stretch before I exercise or after, or both?
Here we provide some introductory information about hyper-intensive physical activity, which may be termed “exercise,” “training,” “athletics,” “sports,” “working out,” and similar. Light and moderate activities that keep you moving and active do not usually prompt too many questions, so we leave you to learn about gardening and fishing on your own. (If you do have questions on such topics, you can send them to us.) So, our focus below is to cover the basics of exercise. This discussion has four parts: standard facts about exercise, advice and tips to help exercise work for you, introductions to popular exercise types grouped by location regimes or systems, and connecting exercise with eating, hydrating, and building muscle and bone strength.
Exercise is not always popular. Some people fear and hate it. Others have a love-hate relationship with it. Still others thrive on it and swear by it on a daily basis. At SFINE, we want to help our friends understand exercise in several ways: become familiar with the various types, receive some advice and tips on making exercise—any kind—work for you so that it is a positive activity and one you can be successful doing, and present connections between exercise and eating, building muscle, and hydrating.
STANDARD FACTS OF EXERCISE
Over 1/3 of Americans are obese with obesity disproportionately affecting non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanic adults.1 Obesity can lead to detrimental health effects, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.1 Aside from a healthy, balanced diet, exercise is a great way to prevent obesity and mitigate health risks. No surprise that exercise is widely popularized and celebrated, through races, events, sports games, and competitions, not only in the U.S. but also across the globe. U.S. presidents recognize the positive impact from physical fitness and exercise, and in 1983, declared May to be National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.2 Recently, new efforts have been raising awareness for the physical and mental health benefits from exercise. These benefits include a reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms, an improvement in mood and sleep, better management of weight and blood sugar, and lower risk for heart disease, just to name a few. Many of the benefits to mental health are attributed to endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals in the brain that are released during exercise and are known to reduce perceptions of pain and trigger happy and positive emotions. The more you get your body moving, the more endorphins are released!
Recognizing that moving the body yields enormous advantages, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lays out a few exercise recommendations. The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and 2 days of muscle strengthening per week.3 This exercise can be spread out over the course of the week, knowing that not many people have a free 150 minutes to exercise in a single day. On top of this recommendation, a proposed bill titled “Promoting Physical Activity for American’s Act,” planned to go into effect in 2028, would set physical activity recommendations at least every 10 years that follows current, evidence-based research and medical knowledge, and will include additional information for different population subgroups.4
Exercise comes in many forms, as alluded to above, yet current recommendations call for aerobic exercise and strength trainings. Aerobic exercise, also sometimes referred to as cardio, is any form of movement that increases your breathing and heart rate, including, but not limited to, brisk walking, jogging, running, biking, or swimming. Many sports also spike your heart rate and are a great cardio workout, such as soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis, racquetball, football, and cross-country skiing. The other recommended form of exercise is strength training, which include muscle-strengthening exercises that focus on the large muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms). People generally think strength training comes from lifting weights, but it can be achieved other ways as well. Using resistance bands and doing sit-ups, push-ups, or planks count, as well as more non-traditional strength exercises, such as heavy gardening, Pilates, yoga, boxing, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), or rowing. Many times, strength training can overlap with cardio! While exercise can seem daunting, as long as you are moving, increasing your heart rate, or strengthening your body in some shape or form, you are taking great steps to a healthier lifestyle.
ADVICE AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS IN EXERCISE
As exercise may be dreaded for some and hard to stick with for others, here are a few tips to get yourself motivated to start and stick with exercise!
Start slow and steady. If you haven’t exercised in months, or years, don’t assume that you’ll be able to easily run a 5k or complete a 10-mile hike. That’s asking for injury and setting yourself up to get frustrated and have a negative attitude towards exercise. Start small, and work incrementally up to whatever your goal may be. As long as you start, and stick with something, it will get easier, and soon you’ll find yourself being able to up mileage, time, speed, repetition, or incline for whatever workout you choose.
Find the right time of day. Not everyone is a morning person, and not everyone is a night owl. Working out in the morning and working out in the evening, the two most common times to exercise, each have benefits and downfalls. Morning workouts can get you in a healthy mindset for the rest of the day and jumpstart your productivity, as well as make you feel like you’ve “gotten your workout for the day out of the way.” Because exercise is known to improve mental acuity and performance, a morning workout can help you excel at your upcoming tasks for the day, whether in school, at work, or at home. Research has shown, in particular, that high-school students perform much better academically—both class work and tests—following some form of exercise.5 However, morning exercise requires you to get up earlier than you would otherwise, which may not be for all. Evening workouts are a great way to decompress or release stress after a long day at school or work. Evening workouts can revitalize you after a hard day and give you more freedom and flexibility for a longer workout if desired, than in the early hours. However, some people feel like working out too close to bedtime makes it harder for them to fall asleep, as exercise in general gives people more energy. All that being said, you know yourself best, so find the best time of day that works with you and in your schedule to exercise. Don’t force yourself to work out before school/work if you hate waking up early, and don’t force yourself to work out too close to bed if you go to sleep early just so you can spend more time at the gym. To start and maintain an exercise routine, pick any time of day (even noontime), and going for 20-30 minutes is better than nothing! Everyone is different, so find the time of day and duration that works best for you.
Find company if you need extra motivation. We all know it’s sometimes hard to motivate yourself to get up and move if all you want to do is relax on the couch. Therefore, you might do well to grab some friends and make exercise into a social activity where you can motivate each other. If the thought of solo running sounds horrible, skip the running and go do something with a partner to make it more enjoyable. If you are a naturally competitive person, play competitive sports or join a league to surround yourself with others who can help motivate you and hold you accountable for showing up for the team. Working out, cardio, and strength training don’t need to be solo activities if you don’t want them to be.
Seek workout advice from the right people. We all have people in our lives who try to get you to do something that deep down you know isn’t right for you or isn’t “your jam.” As social-media posting, influencing, and blogging are becoming ever more popular, you may find people who recommend certain workouts, even if they are poorly designed, ineffective, and potentially dangerous. If you ever find yourself questioning if something is right for you, always check with your doctor, medical provider, physical therapist, or certified trainer. For more information on how to seek out the best workout advice for you, explore Everyday Health’s article, What Makes Someone an Expert in Fitness and Exercise.
Recognize your pain level and type. Exercising can lead to good pain and bad pain. Sometimes exercise can wear and tear your body, leading to discomfort and soreness, so being able to distinguish between good and bad pain is critical. Good pain is generally perceived as a “burn” in muscle groups you are working out. This burn is short lived and should go away after you stop exercising. Similarly, working out can leave you feeling fatigued, which is normal, but a good fatigue makes you feel somewhat excited and can make you want to feel that way again. Fatigue that leaves you exhausted and doesn’t resolve after days leads into a bad pain, where you are hurting your muscles in an unhealthy way that can cause more serious health problems. Other forms of bad pain, which can happen if you work out muscles too fast or too strenuously without enough warmup, are sharper pains or soreness that lasts days. When working out, be wary of your limits. Stretch before and after exercising (following expert advice on stretching). Recognize what feels good and what does not. Feeling bad and experiencing bad pain are not only unsafe, but these can also turn you away from exercise altogether.
Know your body and your limits. Each person is different. We all have different bodies and different workout desires. When starting to work out, you need to know you body and your limits. Similar to recognizing your pain, you should know what, if any, underlying health conditions or injuries you have. Don’t exercise in a way that will exacerbate any underlying muscle, joint, or bone problems just because you want to stay active. Another option for exercise is always “just around the corner,” so find the one that works for you to ensure that you are preventing potential injuries or chronic pain. For instance, running is known to be hard on the knees. So, if you have bad knees, try another form of aerobic exercise, such as cycling, swimming, or using the elliptical machine.
VARIOUS TYPES OF POPULAR EXERCISES CATEGORIZED BY LOCATION REGIMES
As mentioned above, the CDC recommends pairing cardio (aerobic) exercise with strength training. Sometimes thinking of the right exercise to get you started can be hard, so here we provide a brief overview of various types of popularized, and maybe not-so-popularized, cardio and strength exercises or programs. Some of these can be done anywhere, others are more tailored for a workout studio or gym, and a few require proximity to nature. However, these categories are flexible, and exercise within each are usually the most popular way to complete them, but some can be done at home or elsewhere with the proper equipment. With endless opportunities, you should be able to find one or more program/approach/method that matches your lifestyle.
Exercise done anywhere and for everyone: Below are a couple forms of exercise that can be completed anywhere, from the city to the mountains, and suburbs and rural areas in between. These workouts require no to minimal equipment, are neither technical nor demanding of a high level of skill, and can be great ways to just get out there and get moving without having to commit to purchasing classes (as explained below).
- Running: As long as you have some tennis shoes, anyone can run! It can be done within a city, in a park, on trails, at the beach, or on a treadmill. Running is not everyone’s forte or favorite, and many people have trouble getting into running, especially since it’s generally a harder and more sustained cardio workout than X, but it’s truly one of those exercises that can be completed anywhere and at any time.
- Brisk walking: A more toned done version of running, brisk walking is a great way to slightly elevate your heartrate. It can be completed anywhere, as with running, and doesn’t require any equipment. It’s also easier on the knees, as the repetitive pounding of running can be bothersome or cause injury in some people.
- Biking: Biking, or cycling, requires a bike and a helmet, and can be casual, such as biking around the neighborhood, or more extreme and adventurous, such as mountain biking. Done within urban and rural environments, biking is a great way to combine cardio and strength training, and it can even be a heart-healthy and environmentally friendly way to commute to work or school.
Exercise classes popularized in a studio or gym: These are classes that gained popularity through studios or gyms although have recently become more accessible to those who want to work out at home. They generally involve taking a class led by an instructor who is an expert in the specific form of exercise and can be great ways to combine strength and cardio. These classes are usually moderately expensive (unless done at home), as they involve attending a class at a studio or requiring equipment and specialized gear. Most of the classes below are 45 minutes to 1 hour in length.
- Spin or cycling classes: Spin or cycling classes involve riders on stationary bikes in a studio with an energetic instructor leading them through “flat roads,” “hills,” and gear changes all to the beat of music. The classes are an intense cardio workout and hard on the legs, but most also include a segment that is dedicated to arm work with light weights. Popular spin studios include SoulCycle, Flywheel, City Cycle, Cyclebar, and Peloton.
- HIIT classes: HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training, classes involve short bursts of high-intensity activities or exercises followed by short periods of rest, active recovery, or lower intensity exercises. HIIT can take on many forms, such as HIIT with weights, cardio HIIT, or tabata, which is X, and can be tailored to specific muscles groups. Sometimes HIIT workouts are incorporated into other classes or trainings, or can be coupled with running, brisk walking, or biking. One specific HIIT workout that is popular is Orangetheory, which is intended to spike your heart rate and combines floor/weight exercises, treadmill running, and rowing.
- Yoga: Originating in India, yoga has been around for many centuries, unlike many of the aforementioned classes based on new ideas about how best to move the body and science-based physiological theories. Yoga focuses on physical, mental, and spiritual strength, involves mind and body exercises, and requires an awareness of your breath and posture. Coming in different forms and practices, yoga is individualized, and the practice is what you make of it. While nothing is technically required to practice yoga, most people use a yoga mat and often blocks for lifting body parts, rolled towels for support, and straps for limb extensions..
- Pilates: Thought to be similar in many ways to yoga, Pilates is another low-impact exercise that aims to improve strength and posture, with emphasis on building core strength. Pilates can be done without equipment (usually on a yoga mat as well) or can be done on a reformer. Reformer Pilates uses a reformer machine that aids strength and stretching exercises and usually provides a more intense and dynamic experience than mat Pilates.
- Barre: Barre is another low-impact exercise focusing on short rounds of small movements to tone and strengthen the entire body. A ballet barre is utilized, as well as other props, such as small weights, resistance bands, and a small exercise ball. Barre classes usually work all large muscle groups, including abs, arms, legs, and glutes. Popularized barre studios include Pure Barre, FlyBarre, and Barre3 to name a few.
- Weightlifting: While weightlifting is an Olympic sport and generally thought of as lifting a bar with weights on each side over your head, it can also take on other forms. Weightlifting in general involves using weights outside of your own body weight (dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine bells, barbells, and other machines) to strengthen and build muscle. This workout is usually self-led and generally requires a gym with proper equipment. It can be social as well, and often people lift weights with a “gym buddy.”
- Climbing: Climbing has become extremely popular in recent years. Climbing can be done outside (as mentioned below), but can also be accomplished at designed climbing gyms with rock walls. Indoor climbing is more accessible and social than outdoor climbing and uses a wall with artificial rocks and ledges. With a squishy floor to fall back on, indoor climbing is fairly safe and a great way to strengthen large and small muscle groups. It is enjoyed by children and adults alike.
- Martial arts: Martial arts includes many sports, usually of Japanese descent, that require alternating between attack and self-defense. Martial arts sports include, but are not limited to, aikido, judo, karate, taekwondo, jujitsu, kung fu, krav maga (originating in Israel), and boxing, and are completed against a partner.
- Zumba: Zumba is an aerobic dance workout with Latin-inspired music and moves. Meant to boost your heart rate and approach exercise in a fun way, Zumba is great on your joints and generally considered low-impact. Classes are usually led through the gym or a studio, but online Zumba routines can be found to be easily done at home.
Exercise in nature: Connecting with nature has great mental health benefits and can also have great physical health benefits. At times, nature may not be accessible to us, but if it is, it can provide an incredible environment to burn calories and stay active. If you live close to mountains and foothills, or even large parks, you can take advantage! Popular forms of cardio exercise completed in nature in warmer weather include hiking, trail running, mountain biking, rock or mountain climbing, and canoeing or kayaking. People who live close to the mountains can also get great exercise in the snowy winter months through downhill skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. While not an incredibly intense form of exercise, yard work and gardening can also be great ways to enjoy local nature and the benefits of being outside.
Exercise requiring a court, field, or pool: Sports, including but not limited to, soccer, basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis, pop tennis, pickleball, racquetball, football, lacrosse, hockey, field hockey, swimming, and water polo, are a great way to work out! Many people loves sports as their primary form of exercise, as they are great cardio, can strengthen and tone muscles, and require teamwork and some healthy competition, which can motivate people to work out. Many athletes who play sports frequently can be prone to injury, so it is important to stretch before and after games and discuss any special conditions with a medical doctor, who may refer you to a specialist.
CONNECTIONS BETWEEN EXERCISE AND EATING, HYDRATING, AND BUILDING MUSCLE AND BONE STRENGTH
Exercise burns calories and fat, tones muscles, and strengthens and maintains healthy bones. The more you exercise, the more calories you burn. As alluded to in our article on eating a healthy and balanced diet using MyPlate as a guide (live link to MyPlate article), recommended daily intake for calories and portion sizes can change based on how much you exercise. If you are an avid exerciser, burning hundreds of calories each time you work out, you may have more flexibility in your diet for the number of calories you consume. While the more you exercise, the more calories you can consume, you should still try to stick with a balanced diet, ensuring you eat food from all the food groups. Eating a plentiful and wide variety of fruits and vegetables can improve your stamina, endurance, and performance while exercising. Protein is important for keeping your muscles strong. As you work out, proteins in your muscles can break down, and without proper replenishment, you can lose muscle mass. Protein consumption should be regular throughout the day, as well and in larger quantities if you find yourself working out more. Grains, a great source of carbohydrates, provide natural fiber and fuel your body with energy. You may hear athletes say they are “carbo-loading” the day before a big race or event. This refers to eating a larger-than-normal quantity of grains, which increases the body’s reserves of glycogen, a chemical that stores energy. More grains means more carbs, which increases levels of glycogen, storing more energy, and allows us to perform for longer while taking part in sustained exercise.
Hydration is critical when exercising! To cool us off, our bodies sweat when we are working hard. Sweating releases body fluids as it evaporates off our skin, which can leave us dehydrated. Dehydration leaves us feeling tired, dizzy, and lightheaded, and it can be dangerous if left unattended. To reduce symptoms of dehydration, make sure to drink plenty of water and other fluids (sports drinks such as Gatorade and Powerade, teas, and fruits with high water content) after working out, and throughout the day in general.
CONCLUSION
Exercise is important for everyone, no matter your starting point! Find the right exercise that works for you and stick with it. The more you move, the healthier you can be. That being said, it is important to take days off, relax and recover, and stretch regularly to prevent injury and keep your body strong.
References
- CDC. Obesity is a Common, Serious, and Costly Disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published May 17, 2022. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
- President’s Council | health.gov. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/presidents-council
- CDC. Move More; Sit Less. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published May 3, 2022. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
- Kind R. Text – H.R.2094 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act. Published March 22, 2021. Accessed May 26, 2022. http://www.congress.gov/
- Ratey J. Spark Bibliography. Published January 10, 2008. Accessed May 31, 2022. http://www.johnratey.com/sparkbib.php