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 Balanced Fitness Program - Aerobic Conditioning
Last month we looked at the “Balance Wheel” as a way to measure the quality of your lifestyle, and from that you were able to address the areas that you felt you needed to work on. Still using balance as a guide, we can now look at your fitness program and how important it is to have a balanced approach to your exercise routine.
A balanced fitness program should encompass cardiovascular training, strength conditioning and flexibility. But since I’m a “cardio junkie”, we will look at aerobic conditioning first. In my opinion this should be the foundation of any fitness routine because your heart feeds the rest of the body and it should be efficient at doing this. The only way to improve cardio fitness is to exercise above your resting state into different training zones. But for the average fitness program, we are looking at getting people to move above 60% of maximum safely. Remember that cardiovascular fitness refers to the ability of your heart, lungs, and arteries to deliver oxygen to your working muscles which allows you to perform work over a certain period of time.
Cardio training creates a stronger heart, more powerful lungs and toned muscles. With this increased oxygen utilization you increase aerobic enzymes that are found in the muscles. And with more aerobic enzymes in the muscles, you have more fat burning going on and eventually more fat loss. But you have to remember that this takes weeks and months to happen. This is why it takes time and effort to work up to higher aerobic levels of fitness. And what is most important to realize is that this is all reversible when you turn back into a couch potato. YOU HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT WITH YOUR FITNESS.
To summarize, the more aerobic an exercise is, the greater the effect it will have on your aerobic enzymes, cardiovascular fitness, and metabolism, and ultimately your body fat.
So what is a good aerobic exercise? First and most important, you have to like what you are doing, as well as it being safe and easy on your body in the beginning. Later you can work your way up to a more intense aerobic exercise level.
Power walking (or in my case, trekking up mountain trails) is my favorite way to walk. Power walking is a good starting point and decreases the chance of injury. It is convenient and can be highly aerobic when performed correctly. Most of my clients are walkers. A new and an excellent way to combine a cardiovascular and a muscular toning program is Nordic Walking with poles. For information on this new way to walk safely call 604-984-7773 or checkout www.urbanpoling.com for the benefits of nordic poling.
But there is walking, and there is power walking—and unfortunately most people are doing it wrong to get the results they want and need to reach their goals. YOU HAVE TO MOVE OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE AND INCREASE THE INTENSITY.
If you are power walking consistently, your pace should increase, making you go faster. And when you go faster your cardiovascular system is getting stronger, reviving up your metabolism, and you have found the secret to losing body fat
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