Exercise! You hear it all the time, but it’s undeniable; the benefits of exercise are truly worth it. With such busy schedules it can be hard to find the time but try to schedule a few small slots at first and stick to it! In the long run you will create more time by avoiding the hospital or Dr.’s office. Exercise can also be a great meditation or planning time and it doesn’t have to cost anything. Whether it is the serenity of your time alone or the endorphin-rush from a powerful workout, treat yourself to some exercise today!

Physical Activity

What is considered Physical Activity? Physical activity can be anything that gets your body moving. Regular physical activity helps improve your overall health and fitness, and more importantly reduces your risk for many chronic diseases including Diabetes. There are certain general guidelines that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) outlines for all age groups. The CDC believes that doing two types of physical activity each week is essential to improve your health. The two types are Aerobic and Muscle-strengthening.

Types of Exercise

Aerobic exercise or "cardio" gets you breathing harder and your heart beating faster. Pushing a lawn mower, taking a dance class, biking to the store – all types of activities count. As long as you're doing them at a moderate or vigorous intensity for at least 10 minutes at a time. The CDC recommends two hours and thirty minutes of Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 1 hour and 15 minutes of Vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise or a combination of both. Moderate-intensity aerobic activity means you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat. One way to tell is that you'll be able to talk, but not sing the words to your favorite song. Vigorous-intensity aerobic activity means you're breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate has gone up quite a bit. If you're working at this level, you won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.

Muscle-Strengthening exercise is activity through repetitive action that promotes muscle development or regeneration. These activities should work all the major muscle groups of your body (legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms). To gain health benefits, muscle-strengthening activities need to be done to the point where it's hard for you to do another repetition without help. The CDC recommends that healthy adults do muscle-strengthening activities at least two times a week.

Getting Started

Sometimes it seems as if it is already "too late" to get into shape. The more out of shape you are, the harder it can be to take part in any activity. All is not lost. The most important part of getting started is getting started!

Ten minutes at a time is fine . . .

We know 150 minutes each week sounds like a lot of time, but you don't have to do it all at once. Not only is it best to spread your activity out during the week, but you can break it up into smaller chunks of time during the day. As long as you're doing your activity at a moderate or vigorous effort for at least 10 minutes at a time.

Now….. Make a Plan!

Decide to do it. Start out small, perhaps only one time this week. The key is to start. As you must do with many other things in life, schedule a time and stick to it. You are more likely to follow through with the plan if you treat it like any other scheduled task. Here is a basic schedule that you can adapt to your needs. Print a copy if it will help you to have it where you can see it every day.

For a printable version of this chart

Just work up from there. If you hang in there it does get easier. You may not see the pounds dropping off and you may feel the ache in your muscles but it does pass and you will begin to notice small improvements. You will thank yourself with less pain later for the time you spend now.