Training
Working out on a regular basis is necessary to stay in shape and to maintain good health, and exercise has a dramatic effect on body chemistry. What many people don’t realize is that exercise is the stimulus to create changes in the body, that’s the ideal outcome. But this stimulus is wasted if the lack of nutrition in the body has forced the body chemistry out of control and is incapable of acting upon the stimulus just created. Nutrition and exercise work hand in hand, and yet this simple premise eludes the vast majority of people seeking optimum health.
For optimum health, the body and the mind need to be routinely detoxified through physical activity, and specifically, through a self-monitored, diligent, and progressive training regimen. Intensity is compared to volume, and we analyze how to prepare for a good workout. Next we look at the benefits of metabolic training, examine the symptoms of overtraining, and identify the true essence of lifelong health and fitness.
Even professional sports athletes go to the gym and work with trainers, because they can gain an edge through the science of exercise. Controlled exercise in addition to sports develops greater strength and power, more flexibility and a higher level of aerobic capacity. Exercise also reduces the risk of injuries common to many sports.
Physical activity vs. exercise
Every day we all sit in trains, planes and automobiles. We sit at school and we sit at work. We sit when we eat, read, watch TV, play video games or when surfing the Web. Sitting has become our national pastime. Whether socializing with friends, cheering for our favorite sports team or waiting for the doctor, our posterior spends too much time parallel to the floor. Sedentary living adds to our burden of stress. It actually causes morbidity and increases mortality risk.
Storing energy (fat) without release spawns apathy and accelerates decay. It’s much better to be a biological conduit. Prolonged inactivity destroys the immune system, robs the body of vital capacity and greatly reduces human motivation. But when you fight the urge to do nothing and move your body, something wonderful happens.
Physical activity refers to any expenditure of energy brought about by bodily movement through the contraction of skeletal muscles. This includes a complete spectrum of activity ranging from low resting levels to maximal exertion.
Exercise is a component of physical activity
The difference between exercise and physical activity is that exercise is structured and designed specifically to achieve, maintain and improve physical fitness. The sole purpose of exercise is to improve our ability to perform within the context of optimum health.
Physical fitness is measured by strength and endurance of muscles, joint flexibility, body composition and cardio-respiratory endurance. All of these attributes change in response to appropriate physical conditioning programs and all are related to health. Exercise programs should be structured with these guidelines in mind. Optimum training means pursuing improvement in all of these areas, or at least maintaining a high standard of achievement.
The purpose of exercise is to maintain or improve health. We are all working toward the same goal, optimum fitness for life. Although perceived as exercise and considered by some as a viable alternative to working out, activities such as bricklaying, landscaping, construction labor, housework, farming and restaurant food serving are not true forms of exercise. Even playing your favorite sport, however intense, is not exercise, including competitive sports. Instead, these are all examples of physical activity.
Training for life allows an individual to explore the limits of their own body, but a fail-safe mechanism needs to be designed to protect us from damage and must be installed from the very beginning. Here is where Slimtronics comes in with our online exercise and diet platform.