EXERCISE IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR MAINTAINING FITNESS, HEALTH AND WEIGHT REDUCTION The following table illustrates a plan to include in your daily or weekly exercise program Recommendations from the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine

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EXERCISE PLAN OF ACTION

WHY

 exercise?

Regular exercise builds strong muscles, bones and heart. It will help maintain good health  and help you stay physiologically younger than your chronological age. There are several health conditions listed on the Health Notes Page that can be cured or improved with regular exercise.

Pre-exercise

In order to prevent joint and/or muscle injury all exercise programs and sports activities must be preceded with a stretch and warm-up session. The warm-up video below provides recommended stretch and warm-up exercises.

Exercise

time

Experts recommend a minimum of 90 minutes per week of exercise. To start the 90 minutes may be walking, biking or dancing.  Start with 30 minute work-outs with 20 minutes of vigorous activity three times per week and build up to five per week. Plan to take at least one day of no exercise per week because your muscles need to adjust and rest. Make your exercise program fun by listening to up-beat music. Based on studies this will increase the rate of weight lost and give you incentive to keep moving.

Repetition

After a slow start, plan to ramp up your heart rate with speed walking, running, biking fast dancing, swimming or with exercise equipment that allows fast receptions. This will  decrease your chance of having heart disease or a stroke later in life. It will also burn calories at a faster rate which will help with loss of excess fat.

Strength Building

The objective is to replace the fat in your body with muscle and boost your metabolism.  The video below shows some strength building exercises that can be done at home with low cost exercise equipment. Dumb-bells and ankle weights can be purchased at most athletic stores and at Wal-Mart.

Protection

It is recommended to wear good comfortable athletic shoes, and braces over injured  joints while doing exercise programs or any sport. For walking or dancing it is recommended to use inserts to support your feet in addition to wearing comfortable. supportive shoes. Flip flops and high heels for dancing is may look cool but they do not support your feet or ankle joints. Take a look at the dance video below for a picture of the ankle joint.

Joints

 Build muscle groups around the injured joint's to relieve the stress of bone on bone.

 Shoulders: Exercise the shoulder joints by moving each arm 360 degrees as shown in the

                   video

 Elbows:      Exercise the elbow joints by lifting dumb-bells as shown in the video

 Hips:          Exercises for the hips are shown in the warm-up video

 Knees:       Strengthen the quadriceps with squats, lunches and steps. Start with light 

                   ankle weights and increase the ankle weights as you progress.

 Ankles:      Flex your ankles 360 degrees as shown in the video.

 Use the other exercises recommended by your Personal or Physical Trainer (PT)

Post work-out program

PT's call it  the cool --down

Let your body sink into total relaxation while lying on the bench. Deep breathing to take mind off of pain, think of something pleasant to overcome the brain negative function that goes with pain. One hand on chest and the other just above the navel take  deep breaths through the nose and exhale through the mouth for 5 receptions. Use an ice pack for 8-10 minutes on injured joints or muscles.

Repeat the breathing exercise and tense each muscle group starting with the feet and work up and while taking deep breaths as shown in the Strength Building Video.

Video to show how line dancing is a fun way to get exercise and to strengthen your joints.