The Fitness Motivation Monitor
May 2007
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Hello everyone, and Happy May!
I hope that the warmer temperatures have literally put some spring into your step, and brought you outside to exercise more. This is a wonderful time to revive those fitness and weight management goals from January, and focus on completion in the second half of the year. Just remember your sunscreen and water bottles wherever you go. If you want to try a new cardio activity with no or low impact to it, check out the list of activities at the end of this newsletter. Whatever you may decide, be sure to have fun and enjoy and let me know how you’re doing!
Best of health,
Katie Katz
On the April 13, 2007 television showing of ABC’s 20/20, Jim Karas, author of the book, The Cardio Free Diet, drummed up a lot of controversy with his claim, "Cardiovascular exercise kills a weight loss plan, your internal organs, your immune system, your time and your motivation." Fitness trainer Karas says that cardio does not burn the calories we think it does, is hard on the joints and increases our appetites. He says three, 20-minute, heavy strength training sessions will get your body in bathing suit shape in 6 weeks.
Challengers say that the evidence is overwhelming for cardio. Dr. Richard Weil of St. Luke’s Roosevelt hospital says, "We know that 30 minutes of cardio exercise five days a week is associated with 40%-50% reduction in cardiovascular disease and decrease in hypertension."
"From running and walking, to swimming, elliptical cross-training, biking, Stairmaster, and rowing -- to name a few -- the physical benefits of cardio exercise abound", explains Len Kravitz, PhD, and senior exercise physiologist for IDEA Health and Fitness Association.
The benefits of cardio exercise include:
- Reduced risk of heart disease
- Improved blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels
- Improved heart function
- Reduced risk of osteoporosis
- Improved muscle mass
"The American College of Sports Medicine and the CDC recommend, for health, that adults should accumulate 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week," says Kravitz, who is also a coordinator of exercise science at the University of New Mexico. "And to improve cardiovascular endurance, they recommend 20 to 60 minutes on three to five days per week."
Confused? Before you change your routine, beware of such sensationalistic claims like that of Jim Karas. The fact that one can lose weight by doing strength and resistance training and minimal cardio is old news. However, to say that cardio "kills" a weight-loss plan is simply a headline grabber. If you have ever seen the physique of an endurance athlete, you would know that cardio hardly makes someone fat. Cardio training may have been over-emphasized over the last decade, but that doesn’t mean eliminating cardio altogether.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Klem, M. L., et al.,1997), says that successful weight losers report expending approximately 2800 calories per week in physical activity. While every extra pound of muscle built from strength training burns an extra 35 calories a day, 30-45 minutes a day of heart pumping cardio burns 5-10 times that amount depending on your fitness level and intensity of exercise. Bottom line, the consensus in the scientific community for weight loss and good health is still to combine cardio and strength training along with flexibility training and balanced nutrition.
Strength training is a critical component for most everyone’s fitness program. But did you know that besides the added muscle you get that burns calories even when you want to be a couch potato, many people report that strength training expands their psychological well being?
In a study at Boston University, psychological and behavioral adaptations in response to 12-weeks of strength training were examined in 42 medically healthy but sedentary older adults. Psychological measures included evaluations of mood, anxiety, and physical self-efficacy as well as cognitive functioning. The results of this study indicated that both high and low intensity strength programs were associated with marked improvements in physiological fitness and psychological functioning. Specifically, subjects in the strength training programs increased overall muscle strength by 38.6% and reduced percent body fat by 3.0%. Favorable psychological changes in the strength-trained subjects included improvements in positive and negative mood, trait anxiety, and perceived confidence for physical capability.
In a world full of stress and anxiety, it’s nice to know that just a few days a week of strength training can make us feel grounded while helping keep our physiques fit and toned. Exercises that include several large muscle groups can keep the workout short and effective while providing that feeling of confidence and empowerment. For example, the lat pulldown works your biceps and triceps while working your back muscles. Another example would be a lunge. While working your gluteals, you are also working your quadriceps and hamstrings.
1. Stand: erect with a neutral spine and feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Action: Take a long step backward landing on the ball of the foot and bend the rear knee to a fencer's lunge position; lower to less than 90 degrees of knee flexion. Pause, then return to the starting position. Maintain neutral spine throughout the movement. Repeat with the other leg.
A common error in executing the backward lunge includes dropping the head and shoulders forward. To help prevent this, keep the chest lifted over the top of the hips and look straight ahead with neck in neutral position. Another common error includes lowering the knee beyond 90 degrees of flexion. To help prevent this, lower the body and stop before the upper leg becomes parallel with the floor. Still another common error includes forward trunk lean with heel lift of lead leg. To correct for this, keep the weight over the back portion of the foot rather than the toes; raise the arms to shoulder height to counterbalance.
10 Cardio Exercises for No or Low Joint Impact
For healthy exercisers, impact activity like jogging or step aerobics is good for you. Impact exercise helps build strong bones and helps prevent osteoporosis. However, too much impact exercise can create stress injuries that will halt your exercise program indefinitely. Cross training your cardio program by alternating days of impact exercise with non-impact exercise maximizes your benefits while minimizing injuries. Below are ten popular examples of no or low impact exercise to mix and match with your high impact cardio programs. Find the ones that motivate you to move!
- Elliptical Trainer
- Bicycle/Spinning
- Slide Boarding
- Rollerblading
- Swimming
- Walking
- Stair Climbing
- Ice Skating
- Rebounding
- Low Impact Aerobics
For more info about Katdance Fitness by Phone, email: kblumkatz@verizon.net,Or call 410-757-8830
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