Types of exercise
Before we dive into the different types
of exercise, I would like to clarify something about exercise.
There is an important difference between physical activity
and exercise that is explained completely on the "exercise
information" page. Exercise is physical activity
that is focused on a particular part of the body to improve
its performance.
This information will help you tremendously,
especially if you need to increase the amount of exercise
that you get. Maybe you grit your teeth and tell yourself
that "this time you're going to stick to an exercise program
no matter what!" but time after time you fall down and you
can't get up!
If you are in that condition, I highly
recommend that you read the exercise
information article first, or at least right after this
one!
Okay! There are four main types
of exercise that train and develop different parts the body:
- Exercises to improve muscle
strength
- Exercises to improve joint
and muscle flexibility
- Exercises to improve endurance
and stamina (cardiovascular) and
- Exercises to improve your balance
and ability to move quickly
Since each of these kinds of exercise
each focus on improving a particular function of the body,
you'll get the most benefit from engaging in some of each
kind. Let's take a look at the different types of exercise
and what they do for your body and level of physical fitness.
Types of exercise: Muscle strength
training
Strength training is also known
as resistance training. Until a couple of years ago, I thought
that strength training was the same as body building! Boy,
was I wrong and having that false idea caused me to miss
out on an extremely effective type of exercise.
Body building is actually a specific
sport where the goal of the participants is muscle definition
and shape.
Weight lifting is also a sport
with the goal being the amount of weight lifted. You can
watch weight lifting competitions in the Olympics.
Strength exercises improve
the strength of your muscles. Every physical movement that
we do uses muscles and muscle groups. If your lower
back has ever been achy, if carrying heavy objects around
or walking any distance is an effort, the main cause is
weak muscles.
Muscles naturally weaken as we
age if we don't use them. Muscles support the body in several
ways. One of the most obvious ways is posture. People with
good posture have strong muscles! Without muscles, we'd
look like a slug.
Doing some regular strength
training will help to reverse weakened muscles and alleviate
pain from muscles and muscle groups that have lost their
strength. As you strengthen the muscles in your
body, your stamina also improves.
Strengthening your muscles requires some
resistance to the muscle/muscle group - for example, like
the opposing force you get when you arm wrestle. (Arm wrestling
is a great stress buster and it's fun - not that I do it
all the time!) Any type of weight can be used for resistance,
from weight machines like a Bowflex® or the kind at
gyms and fitness centers, resistance bands (those "giant
rubber bands") and dumbbells (hand weights), to simply your
own weight, as in push-ups.
Types of exercise: Flexibility exercise
"Flexibility" comes from the word
"flex," which means to bend, like at the elbow or contract,
like a muscle (get shorter in length.) Flexibility
exercises improve the range of motion of joints and muscles.
Stretching is one of the types of exercise that improves
flexibility.
Think about it for a second. If
your joints and muscles didn't have much flexibility, you'd
move around like the Tin Man of "The Wizard of Oz!
Exercises that improve flexibility
improve your ability to move naturally, improve your posture,
your ability to breathe more deeply and naturally and it's
one of the types of exercise that improves your circulation
and alleviates the muscle tension that accompanies stress.
Types of exercise: Stamina and
endurance - cardiovascular exercise
"Cardiovascular" is practically
a household word, but what does it really mean? Well, "cardio"
refers to the heart and "vascular" refers to the blood vessels.
Cardiovascular exercise
improves how well your body gets and uses oxygen
(see the article on metabolism
for more information) by improving the ability of your lungs,
heart and blood circulation to deliver it to all the cells
in your body, especially muscle cells.
Cardiovascular types of
exercise improve your ability to engage in physical activity
for longer periods of time because they increase
the ability of the lungs and heart to get oxygen to the
large muscle groups that are used during physical activity.
There are many types of exercise
that improve your cardiovascular system. "Aerobics" became
very popular during the 1980's as the main focus of the
"fitness" craze then. I still get a mental picture of Olivia
Newton-John in a head band and leg warmers, heh heh heh!
The word "aerobic" means
"with air" and actually refers to "aerobic metabolism,"
not exercise. Aerobic
metabolism is described in the article on metabolism.
When you see "aerobic exercise" it really means "cardiovascular
exercise.
"Aerobics" refers to any repetitive,
fairly low intensity exercise involving large muscle groups.
Aerobics improve the ability of the heart and lungs to
provide oxygen to the working muscles.
Examples of other types of exercise
that improve cardiovascular functioning are brisk walking,
swimming, cycling and climbing stairs.
Types of exercise: Balance exercises
We don't hear too much yet about
exercises to improve balance but newspapers such as The
New York Times and the International News Herald ran articles
in January 2008 about preserving the sense of balance with
these types of exercise.
Here's a link to the article in
the International News Herald, which describes
the issue of balance quite well and includes a few exercises
for balance: International
News Herald: Health & Science article on Preserving
the sense of balance
As you have probably figured
out by now, all four of the main types of exercise contribute
to improving your health and your level of physical fitness.
It's essential to start incorporating
the different types of exercise into your life on a gradual
basis, noticing how your body responds (a little soreness
at first is normal but it should not be severe and it does
go away as you improve your physical fitness).
I've recently discovered and
have been doing mini
trampoline exercise - wow! It actually incorporates
all four types of exercise into one activity, and it's
fun and easy.
Mini trampoline exercise is
called "rebounding"
- and the benefits are extensive. It's a super good
form of exercise to form a foundation of your physical
activity in life!
Most importantly, pick a
variety of exercises that you will enjoy! If you
slowly blend the different types of exercise into your life
and you like them, it will motivate you to continue.
From my own experience, I know
that just a little bit of each of the different types of
exercise makes a noticeable difference and you can
feel improvements, even if "small," pretty much right away.
Those improvements motivate me even more and it gets easier
and easier to continue. I get to the point where
I am craving physical activity and exercises and the good
feelings I get from regular exercising.
That really helps when you need
to "get back into it" after dropping out of your physical
activity routine. It's easier to get started again (at the
right level, usually you need to cut back from the last
time you were exercising regularly) because you have the
memory of how good you feel and you've "been there" at a
starting point before.
So if you're just starting out,
rest assured that if you start at the right level, choose
activities that interest you and are enjoyable so you do
them regularly, you will be rewarded with more energy, more
stamina and an increased ability to enjoy your life without
your attention getting stuck on how "out of shape" you are!
Cheers!
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