McDowell Fitness Center

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Three Things Every Exercise Program Should Have:

1. What you should know to design a safe and effective exercise program
A complete fitness program must include aerobic exercise, muscular strength and endurance conditioning, and flexibility exercise. Aerobic exercise does good thing for your cardiovascular system and is an important part of weight management. Muscular conditioning ca n improve strength and posture, reduce the risk of lower back injury, and is also important component of a weight management program

2. Aerobic exercise can be as simple as walking
Walking is a weight-bearing aerobic exercise. So are jogging, rope skipping and dance-exercise. Aerobic exercise is any activity that uses large muscle groups in a continuous, rhythmic fashion for sustained periods of time. There are also non-weight-bearing aerobic exercise, such as bicycling, stationary cycling, swimming and rowing.

Keep the pace comfortable. A very important aspect of your exercise program is the intensity. You should exercise at a comfortable pace. You can measure your exercise heart rate to check the intensity of your exercising, or you can take the "talk test."

To measure your heart rate, take your pulse as soon as you stop exercising. Count your heartbeat for 10 seconds, then multiply that by six to convert it to a one-minute heart rate. If you keep your exercise heart rate with in a range of 55 percent to 80 percent of an estimated maximum heart rate (220 minus your age), you ‘re doing well.

The talk test is easier to accomplish, Just exercise at a pace that allows you to carry on a conversation while you’re exercising.

How often should you exercise? Three to four days of aerobic activity is fine for general health maintenance. If you’re trying to lose weight, aim for four or more days a week, being sure you take off at least on day a week.

How long should you exercise? Work up to 20 or more minutes per session for general health maintenance. For weight loss, gradually work up to 45 minutes or longer at low to moderate intensities in a low- or no-impact activity.

3. Strength conditioning gives you a choice

Pick calisthenics, free weights or machines. Just be sure that your strength training includes exercise for every major group, including the muscles of the arms, chest, back, stomach, hips and legs.

Start with a weight that’s comfortable to handle and keep it up for eight repetitions. Gradually add more repetitions until you can complete 12 repetitions. For greater strength conditioning, add more weight and/ or more repetitions, in sets of 8 to 12, when the exercise becomes easy.

Stretch for Flexibility. Proper stretching involves holding a mild stretch of 10-30 seconds while you breathe normally. Always warm up before you stretch. Like strength conditioning, Flexibility exercises should include stretching for all the major muscle groups.

One last thing to remember… Always check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program, especially if you’re over 40, or have cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes of a family history of heart disease.

Circuit Principles

Select at least one exercise for each major muscle group.
Spend 30-60 seconds on each exercises.
Select several different aerobic activity – stationary skiing, biking, running in place or aerobic dance, etc.
Alternate weight lifting with anaerobic activity.
Allow 15 seconds to change from one activity to another.
Do 1-3 circuits, depending on your condition.
Don’t left heavy weights, but a weight you can do 8-12 times.
When that weight becomes easy, go to the next level.

Basic Principles

Number of Exercise: You should do at least 8-12 reps – Strength, using all muscle groups.
Frequency: Two to three nonconsecutive times per week.
Sets: one is sufficient
Resistance: 70-80% of max. resistance. One way to find out is to experiment until you have found a weight that you can left at least 8 times. Last 3 should be somewhat hard.
No. of Reps: 8-12 for upper body – When 12 is reached increase to the next level (no more than 10%) 12-17 for lower body- when 17 is reached increase to next level (no more than 10% increase). This is called "progressive resistance."
Lifting Speed: Slow to moderate, two seconds for the lifting and four seconds for the lowering.
Order of Exercise: Slow to moderate, two seconds for the lifting and four seconds for the lowering.
Order of Exercise: Usually you want to do upper body, lower body, upper body, etc. This gives the exercised muscle a change to recover.
Range of Motion: Full range when possible.

More questions: Call or stop by McDowell Fitness – Located below the Shelby Co. Medical Center – 755-4344