There are three reasons to get and stay fit.
The first is to look good in a t-shirt and jeans. The second is for the health benefits. This includes promoting longevity and decreasing the chances of heart disease. It’s to make you more resilient. The third reason is to condition for a sport or recreational activity. This includes improving the 10 components of fitness: Cardiorespiratory endurance, strength, stamina, power, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility, speed, and body composition.
If reason #3 is your motivation it will satisfy reasons #1 and #2, in case you were wondering.
According to the American Heart Association adults should get at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) a week of moderate intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes (1.25 hours) of vigorous aerobic activity. It’s best to divide this into five 30-minute sessions of moderate exercise spread throughout the week or 4 days of 20-minute vigorous exercise. Moderate exercise is exercise that you can do while talking. Vigorous exercise is exercise that is difficult to talk while doing.
For strength, 90-120 minutes is recommended. That’s two days a week of 45-60 minutes of exercise that should work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.)
If you’re currently doing aerobic exercise (“cardio”) but no strength work or you’re doing strength work, but no cardio, it may be time to modify your routine. For best health results you need both. Make no mistake. You must enjoy whatever activities you choose to stay fit. If you don’t enjoy them, you won’t do them. Better to do anything than to do nothing.
Clearly, there are various ways to approach this. The common aerobic exercise modalities include walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, and using the elliptical. The common strength building modalities include strength machines, free weights (barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells), using bands, and calisthenics (using your own body weight).
Decide what fitness means to you. For me, fitness is increasing my aerobic capacity to do Brazilian jiujitsu several times a week, being able to perform my job for hours without taking a break, and having the energy left for the expected as well as unexpected in my day-to-day life. It means having the strength for my job, my recreational activity, and whatever else life may throw at me. I may have to carry a heavy object. I may have to carry or drag a person. (I know three people who happened upon car accidents where occupants had to be dragged out of burning cars.) The attacks on New York City 25 years ago always remind me that fitness may make the difference between life and death. On September 11th, 2001, there were people who never walked a flight of stairs and found themselves in the position of having to walk down the stairs from 80 floors up because they were unable to use the elevators. Some of them had to hold a co-worker while negotiating the stairs. Strength and aerobic capacity.
For some, fitness may not be that dire. Some just want to be able to keep up with their children or grandchildren. They may have to place their heavy carry-on in the overhead bin. They may have to walk with luggage through a massive airport. They may decide to go hiking while visiting friends.
In any event, sometimes life forces you to become an athlete. Life doesn’t always ask permission. It doesn’t always issue a warning. The question is, when life forces you to be an athlete will you be prepared?
In the beginning of this article, I gave three reasons to get and stay fit. Reason #3 was to condition for a sport or recreational activity. What if you trained for athletic performance even if you don’t play a sport? How beneficial would it be to train for strength and cardio in a way that would also develop speed, power, stamina, coordination, balance, flexibility, and improved body composition?
Strength and cardio training for an athlete is often referred to as “General Physical Preparedness. “General physical preparedness isn’t just for athletes. It’s for everyone. You never know when you’ll need it.
About the author: George is the lead flexologist at StretchLab South Sarasota. Before moving to Sarasota, he owned a strength and conditioning facility in New York. He is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a retired NYPD detective.
