Originally posted by Liz
I am reading the book Oprah wrote with her trainer, Bob Greene, the one that was real popular several years ago. His theory on exercising is interesting but discouraging! He said to kick your metabolism in gear you should exercise in the morning and then it will be higher all day.
There is more and more coming out that supports this. By the same token, wouldn't it make sense that the same would be true if you did your exercise in the evening? However, of course, then you'd be "revved-up" while you were trying to sleep. Hmmm... My wife and I do our Vinyasa class on Tuesday nights -- I wonder if we have a pattern of insomnia that night.
In yoga, there are traditionally different practices for morning and evening, the morning practice being more intense, while the evening being more recuperative.
Also you know the thing that came out not too long ago that exercising 3 days a week is good enough, he says no way. Three days will make you healthier but if you want to burn fat and permanently increase your metabolism you need to exercise a minimum of 5 days a week and preferably 6-7 for 20 min.-1 hr. AND at a high enough intensity that you sweat.
Yeah, well that's one person's view. From what I've read that's a bit more extreme than reality, but only a very little bit more: Perhaps he's just writing to motivate, figuring if he says do 6-7, people will be more likely to do the 4-6 that they really need to do.
The average I've seen from the sources I trust is 3 days per week of cardiovascular, minimum, plus 2 days per week of strength training, minimum. (That's for women. For some reason, it seems as if there is far more information about this for women these days than for men. Grrrrr....) So the aforementioned sweating is 3 days per week, at least 20 minutes in the target heart rate range of 65% - 80%. That translates to at least a 40 minute work-out for me, since you don't just jump up to 65% and you don't go from 65% right into the shower. You need to warm up and cool down.
Like I said I thought this was all very interesting but discouraging because I know I don't have it in me to exercise that hard that often.
That's what I thought too. Do some role-playing with yourself. Imagine that you're 10 years older and you've just gone through a MRI and the neurosurgeon is pointing out all the black spots on your spine, giving the year he anticipates doing the surgery to correct each disc he expects to rupture. You (I think by now you realize I'm talking about myself
) say, "How can I prevent this?" He says, "You can't." After you get over the shock, he lets you know that you may be able to delay them by years if you get to a healthier weight and building up your back muscles.
If you aren't worried about degenerative disc disease, insert your favorite weight-related affliction above. Look around at the members of your family and imagine how your chosen affliction will affect them.
And so on...
Of course, actually going through that is an incredible motivator. But it's probably best to avoid it if you could.
The point is that there is nothing about being diagnosed with DDD that made me better able to exercise -- if anything, the opposite is true. (And if you surf the web and start reading some DDD forums, you'll see what I mean -- I've never encountered a more negative, doom-and-gloom group of folks online.)
I helps to recognize that:
(1) Exercising is as important as eating; if you don't eat anything you know what happens...
(2) Exercise doesn't have to be mind-numbing; there is such a variety of exercises, and myriad ways to engage in them.
I'm going to post a challenge right now.... consider it....
