Many jobs require you to sit behind a glowing computer screen for eight hours a day, and the most exercise you might get is a walk to your break room for a cup of coffee or standing to stretch your stiff back and legs. This sedentary routine makes an exercise regimen involving your whole body that much more necessary. Regular exercise helps you live a more active lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight. Workouts should integrate the basic components of physical activity to provide you with an effective exercise regimen.
The Importance of Physical Activity
The current inactivity level throughout the U.S. puts both older and younger Americans at risk of poor health. Increasing your physical activity level not only helps you maintain your weight and prevent obesity, it also lowers your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Children and adolescents should perform at least one hour of physical activity per day, while adults should engage in 30 minutes of moderate intensity level activity per day.
Key Components of Exercise
The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports states, "Physical fitness is to the human body what fine tuning is to an engine." This statement outlines the importance of physical activity and how it improves the performance of our heart, lungs and muscles. Your exercise regimen should include four key components of physical activity that focus on every muscle and fiber of your body to maximize performance: cardio respiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility.
Full Body Workout
Include moves from each basic component of physical activity in your workout to exercise your entire body. You must perform a minimum of two 20-minute sessions per week that involve the use of free weights to improve muscular strength, and perform exercises such as situps, pushups and pullups for a total of three 30-minute sessions per week to increase your muscular endurance. Three 20-minute bouts of continuous activity such as jogging, swimming, cycling, rowing or jumping rope will improve your cardio respiratory endurance, while 10 to 12 minutes of daily stretching will increase your flexibility.
Circuit Training
Circuit training is a full body workout that focuses on improving your cardiovascular endurance while increasing strength. Not only does it help you burn calories and fat, you will continue to burn calories even after you have stopped exercising thanks to the circuit's high intensity level workout. A circuit workout involves all four basic components of physical activity, allowing you to achieve maximum body performance and keep your body running efficiently.
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