Shape up!

Expert offers tips

for a more fit 2008
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

For those making New Year’s resolutions to get more exercise, the key to fulfilling dreams may be rooted in the simple reality of daily routine.

David Nieman, professor of health and exercise science at Appalachian State University, has followed trends and studies over his 30-year career and has seen fitness fads come and go.

While some of his experience is collected in nine textbooks on health, fitness and nutrition, other tips are basic, but connected by the evolution of approaches to staying fit.

Nieman said in the 1950’s, big-muscled body builders touted the benefits of weightlifting and muscular fitness, which held sway until the late 1960’s, when aerobics took a much broader approach to health, focusing on raising the heart rate and involving more portions of the body through exercises like swimming, cycling or running.

The goal at that time was to increase heart rate and boost overall blood flow.

In the 1990s, fitness philosophy embraced another change as research showed the benefits of muscle-building in tandem with aerobic exercise, with muscle mass helping offset conditions such as osteoporosis and helping people engage in the tasks of daily life. That has led to the current “total fitness” approach, but there’s more to being fit than merely logging time at a machine.

Even though research has provided the basic key to good health, that doesn’t mean people embrace it.

“Only a minority of Americans are willing to engage in a structured exercise regimen,” Nieman said. “Maybe 15 percent actually follow a structured exercise program of weightlifting and aerobics.”

Many people believe they can get enough physical activity by blending small workouts into the course of the day, such as taking stairs instead of the elevator or parking at the far end of the lot and walking to the destination. While those endeavors burn a few calories, they don’t reach the recommended threshold of beneficial circulation and accelerated heart rate.

”The minimum here and there really doesn’t work,” Nieman said. “It has to be at least 10 minutes a day, three times a day. The optimum is an hour a day, which is a lot more than we thought.”

The need for increased physical activity is evident in certain statistical trends. More than a third of adults report they are not physically active, a group that is twice as likely to develop heart disease. Nearly 60 million Americans are obese and 41 million are estimated to have pre-diabetes.

Even moderate physical activity can substantially reduce risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers such colon cancer.

According to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, regular activity can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, head off osteoporosis and obesity, and reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and arthritis.

Physical activity is even more critical in children and teens, who should get a minimum of one hour of exercise a day. The percentage of overweight children and teens tripled over 20 years and more are being diagnosed with diabetes.

Only one-fourth of all high school students report getting the minimum-recommended level of physical activity — about the same amount that reports watching television four hours a day or more.

The gap becomes even more critical to the health-care system because those youth generally grow up to more sedentary as adults.

People planning to jump into an exercise regimen should take basic precautions, following the general principle of “starting slow.” Anyone with health concerns, such as a history of heart trouble, high blood pressure or arthritis, should consult a physician before engaging in rigorous activity.

Nieman said the major barrier to those who have unrealistic expectations is they don’t factor in the amount of time exercise can take from their daily routine.

“You need to make a commitment to it,” Nieman said. “Just as you set aside time to sleep and eat, you should take time to exercise. It’s like medicine, and it has multiple benefits.

“The number-one reason for not exercising is a lack of time. People should find something they can put into their schedule that they know they can follow. If it’s too onerous, they give up after a week or two.”

To that end, Nieman offered tips on creating a simple program that is more than just a half-hour grind-and-grunt.

“You can work in three 10-minute walks,” he said. “Most people have time to do that. It has to be something they want because they are convinced exercise and health are worth it.”

Nieman presented a metaphor in which a person is being chased by a rampaging bull. Nieman said if the person saw the bull as a symbol for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, then the person would run from it. Besides, the benefits are holistic and not just bound in muscle.

“The main reason people give for exercising is that it makes them feel better mentally,” he said. “They have more pep, less anxiety and depression. That keeps most people going on a day-to-day basis.”

Those most successful in sticking with a regimen are those who add more to the workout than just a self-improvement motive.

“People who want to get fit might join a club,” he said. “Then it’s a 15-minute drive, 10 minutes to dress, a half-hour workout and then a shower, and all of a sudden, an hour’s gone. People quickly figure out that’s too much.”

Strategies to make working out more convenient also have their pitfalls, as the plethora of dusty exercise machines lined up at any rummage sale will attest. The error in many cases, Nieman said, is that simply buying the equipment doesn’t instill the necessary motivation.

“If you buy a treadmill, that’s very boring for most people,” he said. “You can watch television while riding an exercise cycle, but the bottom line is you’re going nowhere.”

He said European communities have networks of walking and cycling trails that make it convenient for people to work physical activity into the day by letting the exercise serve a practical purpose.

“They get exercise while accomplishing something at the same time,” Nieman said.

The National Institutes of Health said people can achieve “moderate amounts of physical activity” through ordinary household tasks such as washing and waxing a car for 45 minutes or more; gardening for 30 to 45 minutes; pushing a stroller for 30 minutes; raking leaves for 30 minutes; or shoveling snow for 15 minutes.

“Exercises at home, in the long run, help you feel a lot better because you’re doing something,” he said, mentioning his own hobby of collecting firewood on his property.

Another positive approach is to engage in socially oriented physical activities.

Forty-five minutes of volleyball or touch football will give adequate daily exercise, along with 30 minutes of shooting basketball, social dancing for 30 minutes, swimming laps for 20 minutes or jumping rope for 15 minutes.

“Play exercise is fun,” Nieman said. “I guarantee you people will hang in there longer than they would otherwise.”

Exercise doesn’t only improve health — it often boosts self-image, as it can burn 100 to 200 calories per day. However, while exercise can stave off weight gain, most dieting plans are based on the concept of lowering caloric intake.

Though trail systems, expansion of fitness centers and development of more parks and athletic fields, local governments can play a role in making exercise more convenient. Easy access and improved opportunity can limit the time restraint that keeps most people on the sofa, but in the long run, people must find the fuel for motivation within themselves.

And the long run begins with a single step, then the next, for 10 minutes.