Get Fit With Exercise
August 27, 2008
There are numerous ways in which regular physical exercise makes you feel better, such as, giving you more energy during the day and helping you sleep better at night. It also boosts the mood and thinking powers, helps control the weight in a fun way, and is a key element in controlling high cholesterol.
While, aerobic exercises like running, swimming or brisk walking get the heart pumping faster, helping to lower total cholesterol and raise HDLs, new research indicates that strength training and mind / body stretching-type exercises, such as, Yoga also help keep cholesterol levels within the safe and healthy zones.
Advantages of Aerobics
Any exercise that gets your heart rate up, makes you breathe a little faster, and brings colour to your face and sweat to your brow helps lower cholesterol levels. Aerobic exercise can lower total cholesterol and LDL slightly, but its best effects tend to be in raising HDL cholesterol and lowering triglycerides.
In fact, just one aerobic workout produces an increase in HDL levels and a decrease in triglyceride levels, changes which last for 48-hours, which means you need to exercise at least every other day.
Your target should be to burn off an extra 1,200 to 2,000 calories per week, or about 300 to 500 calories per exercise session. For most people, this translates to doing about 30 to 60-minutes of moderate-intensity activity daily, including brisk walking or walk-jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing or even housework, such as, vacuuming or mopping. You don’t have to do it all at once; if you can’t find a long block of time. Why not just do three to six 10-minute spurts of exercise.
Muscle Moves
Some studies indicate that working out with hand weights, resistance tubing or bands, or doing muscle-strengthening exercises, such as sit-ups, push-ups and leg squats, may help lower cholesterol levels and improve the ratio of LDLs to HDLs. However, resistance training for just a few days a week certainly improves overall muscle strength and endurance, and that means you’ll be more likely to exercise without getting winded or tired as easily.
The Bonus Of Mind / Body
Exercises that encourage gentle stretching and focusing on breathing, such as yoga, Pilates and tai chi, not only improve your cholesterol levels but also clear your mind, enhance your balance and strengthen your whole body. A recent review of 32 studies on yoga performed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that yoga helps reduce blood pressure, body weight, blood sugar and cholesterol levels. In one of the studies, people who took a four-day yoga programme and practiced yoga at home saw their LDLs and triglycerides go down and their total cholesterol fall 30 mg / dL on average after just 14-weeks.
The ideal workout for your mind, body and especially your heart may well be a combination of all of these types of exercise. Try going for a brisk walk one day, lifting weights the next and taking a tai chi or yoga class the third day.
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