Two Tube sports science expert Sarah Hughes gets some tips on how to start a fitness programme from DCU exercise physiologist Prof. Niall Moyna.
Okay, so it’s pretty easy to talk about what we should be doing, and of course why we should be doing it, but it’s a totally different story when it comes to actually doing something about it. Prof. Moyna has explained how important it is to get active, and here he has some tips on how to bring fitness into your lifestyle .
How can people get started?
Niall: The first step in starting a programme is very important. It mainly depends on your current health status, current level of fitness, and body weight. The following advice assumes you have not been physically active for some time and give ways to get started.
Start slowly
• Do a form of activity that you enjoy
• The activity should be incorporated into your life
• It shouldn’t involve large changes to your daily routine
Build it up slowly over time
A common mistake is to go from doing nothing to trying to do too much, then losing interest, getting hurt or giving up.
• Set realistic targets.
• Someone who has not exercised in a long time, is overweight or obese could not be expected to start and keep up an exercise programme involving 30 min of continuous moderate to high intensity exercise
• They could, however, start off by walking for say 5 minutes per day. This would result in 35 min per week and 140 min per month of physical activity that they were not getting before.
• Once they can do 5 min per day, every second or third day they should add an extra minute. It’s amazing how quickly they will get up to 20 – 30 min per day effortlessly.
What activity would you recommend to beginners?
Niall: Any form of activity that involves large muscle groups, for example, walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, football, squash etc. will stress your heart, lungs and muscles.
• You should note that usually you have to cycle twice as long as you would walk, and three times as long as you would run to burn the same number of calories.
- So 10 minutes of cycling burns around the same number of calories as 5 minute of brisk walking
- 15 minutes of cycling burns around the same number of calories as 5 minute of brisk walking
• It’s a good idea to alternate activities each day for variety and to prevent boredom.
• Exercise with a friend or group of friends. Commit to a time and place. Ensure it involves an activity that the group enjoy and once again that can easily fit into your lives.
• You don’t always have to go to the gym. Simple, home-based exercises, that don’t involve any exercise equipment, can be found on the internet.
• Weight bearing exercises (e.g. skipping, running, weight-training, racquet sports) are activities that are known to maintain optimal bone health, reduce body fat, increase muscle strength and lean-body mass.
• Maintaining strength and muscle and reducing body fat should be a key element in any lifestyle fitness programme.
What about those who feel they are too busy to fit exercise into their day?
Niall: The main reason given for not doing regular exercise is lack of time. Most people have busy lives so it’s up to people to find a place for physical activity in theirs.
It’s important to find a way to seamlessly include activity into your lifestyle.
• Walk to school. If it’s too far, get dropped five or 10 min from the gates.
• Get off the bus to and from work a stop early. After a month get off two stops early. In this way you will easily accumulate 10-20 minutes of walking on most days of the week.
• Use the stairs instead of the lift or escalator.
• If your job involves sitting for long periods of time, make a conscious effort to stand up every 30 minutes or so.
It’s not rocket-science, it’s just about finding simple ways to integrate activity into our lives
What intensity should beginners exercise at? Is there a specific heart rate zone they should be in?
Niall: Monitoring your heart rate zone is only necessary if you want to be an elite athlete, not if you want to be physically active to improve your health.
There is evidence that when people self-regulate how hard they exercise, they select an intensity that leads to health benefits.
When people self-regulate their exercise, individuals tend to select an intensity that is somewhere between a level that they think is fairly light to somewhat hard.
Don’t worry about your heart rate or whether or not you are in a specific heart rate zone. We tend to subconsciously use our breathing rate to self-regulate our physical activity. Remember the last time you walked up a flight of stairs and you were out of breath. You didn’t know what your heart rate was but you were certainly aware of your breathing rate.
People who exercise at their preferred intensity usually pick a level that they enjoy. Often, when exercise is prescribed using target heart rates it results in people exercising at an intensity that they don’t enjoy, often causing them to give up.
Don’t get caught up in whether you are burning carbohydrate or fat, burning calories is the bottom line. A good guide to remember is that you burn about 100 calories for every mile you walk, jog or run.
Remember doing something is always better than doing nothing. The benefits of exercise can be achieved at any age! Even men and women over 80 years of age can have significant improvements in cardiovascular fitness and strength in response to regular exercise. So we have no excuse!
