Fifteen Tips on Exercise that you can use

Let us recapitulate a few essential points about the role, aims, targets and methods of exercise that should keep you fit and well. In case you have missed the previous columns, here are the key points:

1. Exercise comes next only to food as an essential component for ensuring good health and longevity.
2. It tones up the heart, lungs, muscles and joints. People who exercise regularly have healthier hearts and tend to live longer.
3. People with diabetes, obesity and fatty liver can do very well with exercise. Aerobic exercise improves insulin sensitivity, brings down blood sugar levels, help burn extra fat and prevents clogging of arteries of the heart with cholesterol
4. The type of exercise that is good for the heart is called cardio-vascular or aerobic exercise. It involves movement such as brisk walks, jogging, cycling, swimming, treadmill or playing outdoor games.
5. A good point is to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI). It should be between 20 -23 for Indians. If it is more than 23 you are overweight and need to shed weight.
6. The amount of exercise should be adequate to obtain good results: at least 30-40 minutes a day, most days of the week and should achieve a heart rate of 70% of the Maximal heart rate for that age.
7. Muscle building exercise like weight lifting or bull-worker is called isometric exercise. People above 40 years should avoid this form.
8. Choosing the right exercise should take into account your body needs, your personality type as well as the opportunities and circumstances where you live
9. While brisk walking is a good exercise, you should assess the safety of this form from traffic and crime in your locality.
10. If you are not a very determined person, an exercise regime which has to be undertaken by you alone, often does not sustain. A group activity may be more sustainable.
11. Games have the additional advantage over walking and running, in that it provides entertainment and challenge too.
12. You must take into account your special problems and limitations when choosing the right exercise. People with knee pain, for example, should avoid weight bearing exercise.
13. Joining a gymnasium or fitness centre works well for many. It shelters you from the extremes of weather, provides a variety of methods and instruments to work on, and is safer than walking on city roads in dark hours.
14. Aerobic exercise improves your basal metabolic rate, making your mind sharper and more alert. Students preparing for examinations will find their learning abilities to be enhanced if they leave their books and work-out for half an hour,
15. Keep changing the type of exercise from time to time. Variety adds that extra bit of interest to help you sustain it for all your life.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 16th March, 2014.