Healthy You Article – January 16, 2009

Let’s Get Physical!
By Mary Perkins – Wellness Center Manager

Maintaining your health is the greatest gift you can give to yourself and your family. There are some health issues that are out of your control, but others, like healthy eating and getting daily physical activity, are two areas that you can strive to improve upon and maintain.

As daily demands change from one stage of life to another, with responsibilities to school, work, family, and friends, physical activity needs are often put on the back burner. In the “2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans,” the Center for Disease Control (CDC) suggests that all adults should be striving for 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, or 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous activity, each week. In addition, muscle strengthening activities should be done at least 2 times a week. These activities do not need to be done all at once to be beneficial. According to the CDC, any activity done for at least 10 minutes at a time will help you on your way to healthy living.

Moderate Aerobic Activities
Moderate aerobic activities make your heart beat faster and can make your heart, lungs, and blood vessels stronger. The intensity of moderate aerobic activities should be such that you can talk while you do them, but not sing the words to your favorite song. Among these might include: ballroom and line dancing; biking on ground level with few hills; canoeing; general gardening (raking, trimming shrubs); sports where you catch and throw (baseball, softball, volleyball); tennis (doubles); using your manual wheelchair; walking briskly; water aerobics.

Vigorous Aerobic Activities
You will know if you are doing vigorous aerobic activities if you can only say a few words without stopping to catch your breath. One advantage of participating in vigorous aerobic activities is that you only need to do them for half the time of moderate aerobic activities. These types of activities might include: aerobic dance; biking faster than 10 m.p.h.; fast dancing; kickboxing; hiking uphill; jumping rope; martial arts; race walking, jogging, or running; sports with a lot of running (basketball, hockey, soccer); swimming fast or swimming laps; tennis (singles).

Muscle Strengthening Activities
The CDC recommends that muscle strengthening activities be done at least 2 days a week. All major muscle groups should be addressed including legs, hips, back, chest, stomach, shoulders, and arms. Activities might include: lifting hand weights (canned goods and bottled water make good substitutes); push ups (on the floor or the wall); sit ups.

It’s never too late to start
The body was designed to move. It’s never too late to start adding physical activity to your daily routine. It doesn’t matter how old or how unfit a person is, or how long one has been inactive. Physical activity need not be strenuous. If you have been physically inactive for a very long time, start slowly. Make small 10-minute goals like walking out to your mailbox and back three times a week, or lifting soup cans in each hand for 10 minutes twice a week.

How do I build up more physical activity?
Do a little more each time. Once you feel comfortable, do it more often. Then you can trade activities at a moderate level for vigorous ones that take more effort. You can do moderate and vigorous activities in the same week. Chart your goals for the week and write down any physical activity you do lasting longer than 10 minutes. Blank charts are available at The Wellness Center or can be mailed to you upon request.

What’s the big deal about physical activity?
When you are not physically active, you are more likely to:
*Get heart disease
*Get type 2 diabetes
*Have high blood pressure
*Have high blood cholesterol
*Have a stroke

Some benefits to increasing moderate intensity activity each week:
*Be healthier
*Increase your chances of living longer
*Feel better about yourself
*Have less chance of becoming depressed
*Sleep better at night
*Help you look good
*Be in shape
*Get around better
*Have stronger muscles and bones
*Help you stay or get to a healthy weight
*Be with friends or meet new people
*Enjoy yourself and have fun

Increase physical activity slowly
If you do not currently engage in regular physical activity, you should begin by incorporating a few minutes of physical activity into each day, gradually building up to 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity activities.

If you are now active, but at less than the recommended levels, you should strive to adopt more consistent activity, shooting for 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity activity on five or more days of the week, or 20 minutes or more of vigorous-intensity activity on three or more days of the week.

More information
For more information on physical activity recommendations visit http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/recommendations/adults.htm

North Country Hospital’s Wellness Center offers an inexpensive, social opportunity to increase your physical activity. Classes offered have trained instructors who will help you to get started and encourage you on your path to physical fitness. It is never too late to start a class. Classes are going year-around and all are welcome. There are classes for cardio health including indoor cycling, several levels of dance classes, and kickboxing. Stretching and strength-building classes include yoga, Pilates, and senior fitness. Call The Wellness Center to register for a class or to be put on the mailing list for the winter brochure. It’s never too late to start increasing your physical activity level one step at a time.

"HEALTHY YOU” is a weekly column prepared by health care providers and staff at North Country Hospital and Health System. For information or to suggest a topic for this column, please call Mary Perkins, Wellness Center Manager, 334-3226, or email mperkins@nchsi.org.