If you are looking for a way to burn calories without putting too much stress on your joints, going for a swim could be a good choice of workout for you.  Due to the resistance of the water, impact on joints is low but effort level is high and you can burn up to 400 cal an hour doing vigorous lengths of your local pool.

Technique is important when swimming, so even if you can already swim it would be a good idea to get some lessons.  Many people, myself included, hate putting their head under the water, but I’m afraid if you swim along with your head held high you are putting your neck and upper back under a lot of strain.

Wearing goggles is an absolute necessity in my opinion for correct swimming and if you hate the feeling of water going up your nose, nose clips are inexpensive and easy to buy.  Properly kitted out you will not mind putting your head underwater and your swimming technique will improve accordingly, with little strain on your back.

The leg pattern used in breaststroke can also put strain on your lower back and sacrum; if you find this is a problem you will have to stick to front crawl and concentrate on mastering the challenging breathing pattern!

Exercising in water can work for if you are a poor swimmer or even if you cannot swim at all, as just wading through water at chest height involves effort and thus burns calories.  Aquaerobics classes are very popular and are an excellent form of exercising without strain; the instructor teaches from the edge of the pool so that the moves are easy to follow.

There is no complicated choreography to learn, and you will be surprised at how effective this form of exercise is, and how tired you are by the time the class has finished.  And best of all you need not even get your hair wet!  Aquaerobics is perfect for injury rehabilitation or for those who need to lose a lot of weight as the water takes much of the strain.

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Swim For It!

The most important rule in avoiding exercise injury is to be sensible.  It does not matter if you used to be 100 m sprint champion at school 20 years ago; if you suddenly decide one day to go out and sprint without any preparation you are more than likely to cause yourself an injury, from a pulled muscle up to and including damage to your ligaments!

Even a minor muscle strain can take up to three weeks to heal causing you pain and reduction in activity in the meantime, and major injuries involving ligaments can take up to two years.  A few preventative measures are a lot better than cure, and you will kick yourself if you get injured in this way as it is so easily avoidable.

It is important also to remember that we are all individuals with different body types, and some methods of exercising suit some body forms more than others.  There are three main body types, although most of us do not fit squarely into one box or another — after all we are human and infinitely variable!

Ectomorphs are usually small boned and narrow and may be tall with long gangly limbs.  Ectomorphs tend to excel at sports such as endurance running and are better avoiding physical contact sports such as football and definitely rugby.

Mesomorphs at the all-rounders of the exercise world and can usually adapt to most forms of exercise although may be too heavily framed for extreme endurance running.  Mesomorphs are athletic in build and have  classic “V”  or hourglass shape from shoulder to hip.  Most all-round athletes are mesomorphs and respond well to almost any type of exercise training; this is a most adaptable body type.

Endomorphs tend to be solid and square with a tendency to fat, although many endomorphs are extremely strong, as there is plenty of muscle under the blubber!  Shoulders are often narrower than hips and most endomorphs can be described as hefty.  Endomorphs have to work hard to keep fat levels low, but are extremely strong in terms of contact sports and a have a high power to weight ratio, so can be very fast in short bursts.

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Body Types And Injury Potential

Anything that causes your muscle activity to increase and your heart and lungs to work harder will count as exercise.  Even walking – in fact especially walking.  Walking has some amazingly good advantages when it comes to getting fit in that it is free, absolutely anyone who is reasonably physically sound can do it, and being out in the fresh air will do you nothing but good.

I have to admit that if I did not own dogs I would not go for a walk every day, especially in the winter when the rain is sluicing down in buckets from an icy, grey sky and a lazy wind is blowing.  A lazy wind may sound nice, but in Yorkshire it means a wind that blows through you as opposed to going round you, taking your breath away and chilling you to the bone in the process!

But even in the worst stormy winter days there is always something to see along the quiet tracks and fields that we’re lucky enough to live near. In the spring and summer, walking is pure delight, with something new to see almost every day, from the beginning of March when the first blossom starts to form, through to November when the last red leaves drop.

So mood is raised, your skin gets a good dose of vitamin D from the daylight and you burn some calories as well.  Okay so strolling along admiring the view in summer isn’t going to burn that many, but when the wind is howling and all you want to do is get the walk over with and get home it is surprising how briskly you can stride out

Walking for an hour at a brisk pace that makes you feel warm,  slightly breathless and a bit sweaty will tone all your leg muscles, strengthen your leg bones and burn around 200 cal.  If you want to increase the toning effect of your walking, find a hill to stride up, which makes your thighs, hamstrings and butt muscles work much harder.  Walking does not have the same high impact stresses on the joints as running does, and is suitable for anyone.

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Is Walking Good Exercise?

As with warming up before an exercise session, it is just as important to cool the body down gradually when the exercise session has finished.  If you stop suddenly following an intense training session, the blood that has been diverted to make your muscles work harder will pool in these areas, especially in the lower body.

Pooling of blood should not harm you but may make you feel lightheaded and nauseous, so it seems sensible to bring exercise levels down gradually over 5 to 10 minutes so that your breathing and heart rate return to nearly normal, and then at this point finish with a stretching session.

In an exercise class the instructor will have been taught to cool the class down effectively; low impact moves will replace high impact,and the speed of the workout will slow.  If this is a Step or aerobics class the music beat will slow down and the class will be encouraged to take smaller steps, not lift knees as high as previously and so on.

Some classes will then move down to floor level for an extended stretching session that will take between 5 and 10 minutes in itself, and finish with one to two minutes of complete relaxation.  This is a very pleasant way to end a strenuous class and leaves clients refreshed and with a feeling of well-being.

Care should be taken to bring the class back up to standing gradually and safely as blood pressure, heartrate and breathing rate will all have reduced and there is a slight risk that some participants could be unsteady and feel dizzy.

The class should end with a minute of re-warm so that everybody’s brain becomes re-oriented before heading out once more into the bustle of the outside world.  Different instructors do things differently; most do some slightly amusing flourish to finish such as asking the class to do a Dracula pose or curtsey to one another.  Childish but good fun and has everybody laughing!

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Importance Of Cooling Down

I am asked this question a lot by clients who believe that warming up before increasing their exercise level is a complete waste of time.  On the contrary, I tell them, I feel that it is the most important part of the exercise session, as a gradual warmup prepares the body and the mind for the exertion to come.

The major objective of the warmup component of  any exercise session is to gradually raise your pulse rate and your body temperature and also to mobilise all your major joints.  During warmup the synovial fluid that surrounds each joint increases, which means that tight joints loosen — it’s very like introducing oil into the engine of your car.  Cold joints and muscles can be stiff and inflexible and if asked to perform intensively too soon, injury can easily result.  If you have ever watched an Olympic sprint you will know that the athletes involved often spend between 30 and 45 minutes warming up for a race that then lasts less than 10 seconds!

It is an established fact that most of the injuries to footballers (that are not caused by impact) happen within the first five minutes of a match.  The demands placed on the body playing football are great and hamstrings, thighs and calves can easily be torn if insufficiently warmed up.  This is disastrous for any top-level player as recovery and rehabilitation can take months.  Prevention is far better than cure in this case.

If you have any kind of physical limitation or conditions such as high blood pressure or asthma, gradual warmup is more important than ever.  Hypertensives should warmup steadily and carefully for at least 10 minutes; asthmatics may take even longer as the bronchial pathways need to open gradually.

I have low-level asthma myself and try to stay away from medication if at all possible which means I have to take my warmup very seriously.  On a cold day sometimes my warmup can take 20 minutes before deep breathing becomes comfortable.  To try and exert myself more before getting to that stage would be foolish in my case as it would promptly trigger an asthma attack and I would have to stop exercising altogether until my breathing had eased.  Usually however after 20 minutes I can increase the intensity of my exercise with no ill effects and my breathing stays comfortable and is neither tight nor painful.

So whether you are young or more mature, a new exerciser or an experienced athlete you should always build in 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning of your workout for your warmup and your body will thank you for it and perform better for you.

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Why Bother To Warm Up?

Aerobic means “in the presence of oxygen”, and if you exercise aerobically  this is defined as doing some activity which means the body needs more oxygen for an extended period of time.  This is a very complicated way of saying that aerobic exercise is any form of sustained exercise like walking, cycling or swimming.  The fitter you are, the higher the intensity of your activity can be and the longer you can carry it out for.

Exercising aerobically has many benefits including conditioning your heart and lungs to work more effectively, and also burning fat.  Exercising aerobically also improves your muscle tone and increases the ability of a muscle to keep  working sub-maximally for longer.

So what does all this mean that the average person?  It means that doing some form of aerobic exercise on a regular basis is very good for you and will make your heart work more efficiently and your respiratory system more capable of working harder for longer without you becoming breathless and stressed.  The same goes for your muscles and, since any form of exercise requires fuel, fats and carbohydrates are taken from your body’s stores to be used to sustain the activity, resulting in overall fat loss.

The mistake most unconditioned people make when they decide to start exercising in an effort to lose weight is that they try to do far too much too soon.  The spirit may be willing but the body is probably fairly flabby!  The most important thing to do first, especially if you are a man over 40 or a woman over 50 and unused to regular exercise, is to get a checkup from your doctor to ensure that there is no reason why you should not exercise.  Your doctor will probably be delighted by your decision to exercise and will encourage you.

The next thing is to find an activity that you like.  There is no point telling yourself you will go swimming regularly if you detest water!  If you feel you would like to go to an exercise class, the chances are that there is one fairly close to you as many good aerobic classes are held in local church halls.  This is a good way to start as it means you will get guidance from a qualified instructor on how to warm up and exercise correctly and safely and any good exercise class will also teach you how to stretch your major muscle groups at the end of the workout.

An hour’s worth of sustained aerobic activity can burn between 200 and 400 calories as well as making you fitter and stronger and feeling much better, so it’s well worth taking up some form of aerobic exercise.

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Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise

Whenever you do a workout you should stretch all major muscle groups after your cooldown while your muscles are still warm and flexible.  Some schools of thought also believe that you should do a quick stretch after your warmup as well, but the jury is out on that one; if you want to stretch following your warmup make it reasonably quick, don’t push it too far and don’t bounce, as your muscles won’t yet be fully warmed up, and stretching a cold muscle doesn’t do it any good!

I believe post-exercise stretching is just as important as warmup and cool down as over time it will improve the range of movement in all of your joints, which will improve your general flexibility.  How flexible you are is usually down to the individual; some people are naturally more flexible than others and those who have trained as dancers or gymnasts are hyper flexible – in other words they have too much flexibility in the joints, resulting in lengthened ligaments and the risk of problems with joint stability in later life.

Others just seem to be naturally stiff; footballers and horse riders for example famously have short, tight hamstring  due to their activity and positioning.  Yes, their hamstrings will be good and strong but they should specifically work on lengthening them as short, tight hamstrings can pull the pelvis downwards thus causing strain on the lower back.

Inflexible muscles are more likely to be injured when asked to perform an extreme or accelerative movement, such as a spurt or a speedy change of direction during sport.  Ideally, training for these sports should include exercises that take muscles through the full range of movement, thus keeping the muscle the correct length, and scientific research has proved that more flexible athletes perform better at their particular sport.

For the non-athlete merely working out in the gym, stretching is just as important as it keeps the body balanced, reduces strain and also feels very good, thus promoting a feeling of well-being following a workout.

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Why Should You Stretch?

Health and fitness are words that often go together,  but have you ever wondered about their definition?  The concept of health for example was defined by the World Health Organisation just after the Second World War as being ” a complete state of mental and physical and social well-being, not just the absence of disease” .

Fitness on the other hand is not quite so easy to define, as the concept applies differently to different people; in a marathon runner fitness is defined as the ability to run 26 miles in just over two hours, whereas for a mature adult fitness may be the ability to walk a mile in 25 minutes.  This gives us two separate definitions of the term fitness; functional fitness which is the ability to carry out everyday tasks efficiently and without breathlessness or pain, and sports specific fitness which is the ability of the body to function at a high level for as long as necessary to complete the activity.

There’s no doubt that health and fitness go together, as being reasonably functionally fit is essential to good health.  Without regular exercise the body softens and weakens, fat levels increase and heart and lungs begin to lose their efficiency.  Staying functionally fit is a challenge in itself as the less fit you are, the less inclined you will be to try and get fit, as it simply seems to be too much effort!

The benefits of fitness are inarguable.  Yes, you can be healthy and not be fit, but before too long your health will start to deteriorate, and it is well known that being overweight and unfit makes you far more likely to suffer from heart disease and some forms of cancer.  The fitter you are the more likely it is that you will be healthy and remain healthier for longer, although excessive exercise over long periods has been shown to be nearly as damaging to health as no exercise at all.

You can’t go far wrong with the old-fashioned concept of regular amounts of work, rest and play.  Work moderately,  rest moderately,  exercise regularly and enjoy yourself and you have all components for a long and healthy life.

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What Is Health And Fitness?

That depends on your concept of pain!  Exercising can be mildly uncomfortable and should make you warm, sweaty and slightly breathless, but unless you are training for competition I do not believe you should exercise until it really hurts.

For general toning when you are working out with weights or using the fixed resistance machines in the gym, the guidelines are that you should do two to three sets of 12 to 15 reps with a heavy enough weight that the last few reps are a challenge.  Rest for about 30 seconds between sets, but no more.

I have seen people sitting there in the gym supposedly resting between sets while texting on their mobiles or nattering to a friend for up to 10 minutes at a time.  What a waste of time!  And it also annoys me because they are taking up a machine that somebody else, namely me, is waiting to use.  I feel like telling them to go away and analyse their friends’ relationships in the cafe instead!

At one time people thought exercise had to hurt to be doing you any good; friends used to tell me proudly that after their new gym class they hurt so much the next day that they couldn’t walk.  That’s a bit too intense, people!  If you exercise at that intensity when you’re not used to it you’re liable to hurt yourself.

During exercise your body should be put under pressure but not unduly stressed.  And don’t be surprised if you attend the same intensive class the next week and you don’t feel the same muscle aches and pains the day afterwards.  It does not mean that the exercise hasn’t worked, just that your body has adjusted to it.

The worst muscle soreness occurs when you do something that your body is unaccustomed to.  For example you can be a regular gym-goer and never be sore the next day, but if you then choose to go horseriding for two hours and you haven’t ridden for 10 years,  you are most certainly going to walk like John Wayne for the next 3 days!

The rule here is exercise regularly to moderate intensity and then increase the intensity gradually over the weeks as your body adapts. This way, you will get excellent results and hopefully avoid injury as nothing puts you off exercising faster than pain.

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Does Exercise Have To Hurt?

A common excuse I get from people for not exercising on a regular basis is I can’t afford to buy any at home exercise equipment and I certainly couldn’t afford an expensive gym membership.

Well, that may be true even though a lot of good equipment isn’t very expensive.  To be honest you can get a fantastic full-body workout without buying a single piece of exercise equipment and therefore not having to spend a penny.

Before exercise gadgets became so popular primarily because of the outrageous claims some equipment manufacturers gave people are now brainwashed into thinking it’s impossible to get fit without spending a small fortune on equipment.

It’s perfectly possible to keep fit using by just your own body weight.  You could for example do press ups and squats.  Between press ups and squats you use almost every single muscle in your body either directly or in a stabilising role.  Add to that 20 minutes of brisk walking a day and you have a very good and effective exercise regime which costs you nothing but time.

So although exercise gadgets like the Shake Weight can make your workouts more interesting and varied they are not essential.  So don’t use the I haven’t  got any money excuse any longer.  Even the 20 minute walk a day will give you surprisingly good results with very little or no impact to your joints.

If however you have a few dollars to spare I’d recommend employing a Personal Trainer for a few weeks just to show you how to do the body weight exercises safely and in good form.  It doesn’t take very long to learn these simple and effective exercises and once you see the great results you can get you’ll wonder why you didn’t try them before

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Help I Can’t Afford To Buy Exercise Equipment