By ROY LOVE, D.C.
Studies show that exercising with groups or participating in activity with groups has a more dynamic effect on your health than exercising alone. The diversity of the exercise that you do is also important from walking, to dancing, lifting weights with a group like boot camps, Zumba, pickle ball, to everyday tasks of yardwork gardening and cooking.
The gold standard everyone should try to accomplish is 150 mins of aerobic exercise a week with two sessions of weight training a week.
Aerobic exercise, with a goal of 80% of your healthy max output of your heart. Take 220 minus your age times .8 and that gives you your target heart rate. Check your heart rate while exercising or buy a watch HR monitor. They are very reasonable and accurate.
Now another simple measure for whether you’re exercising and getting your heart rate up is if you were walking and talking and you feel it difficult to talk normally without a breath, say walking up a big hill and you really can’t talk easily. That’s hard enough work for exercise that will have a cardiovascular effect. Check your heart rate and I bet you’re near your 80 percent goal.
In Dan Buettner’s book The Blue Zones Solution he shows how to implement lifestyles and diet changes which he has observed in the healthiest people in the world, who live healthy lives into 80-100 years. In almost all of those populations they do not have a workout routine, but their daily activity adds a lot of physical work to their lifestyle. They walk hills in Sicily, in Sardinia and in Okinawa. There are hills available everywhere! They walk to the market to buy their groceries. They work in their garden and more important than anything they have a strong social fabric which ties them together while they are active. They socially make food, they eat dinner together and they actively walk and do exercise as part of their lives. The more social components you put into your exercise the healthier it is for you.
There are lots of opportunities to do that in our communities. There are walking groups that are established in State College, i.e. Tuesday evening, Boal City Brewery that meets at 6 p.m., Silver sneaker classes, pickle ball groups, morning and evening walkers, running groups, etc., etc.
If there isn’t a walking group, start one, start with a friend and put a sign up in Bellefonte, State College or Philipsburg, start one day a week. You’d be surprised at what you’ll talk about and how many things that you are more like your neighbor than not like them. And I bet you’ll develop new friends. I guarantee during that walk there will be a few chuckles, laughter and might even be a conversation about some of the hardships in a co-walkers’ life that you can help out from just being there for them.
So take the simple steps to become a healthier you, enjoy it with neighbors and future friends, for added benefit. It will help you to be healthier and add inter connectivity to your life and community.
Be a conversation about some of the hardships in a co-walkers’ life that you can help out from just being there for them.
So take the simple steps to become a healthier you, enjoy it with neighbors and future friends, for added benefit. It will help you to be healthier and add interconnectivity to your life and community.
