WALKING IS NOT AN EXERCISE MODALITY

Have you ever notices that everyone seems to be exercising yet no one seems to be getting any results? We now have over two-thirds of the adult population overweight with one-third falling into the obese category. We also now have unheard of levels of diabetes, obesity and chronic health problems in our children and grand children.

Everywhere you look, you see ads for some new diet program, some new exercise gimmick and recommendations by movie stars for building strong bones AFTER they succumb to osteoporosis. Every doctor in the world recommends that everyone walks for exercise yet no one gets results that last.

What is wrong with this current scenario is people don’t understand their body or what it requires to stay healthy. If walking is all we need, everyone who walks (which is every body) would be in great shape and have no problems with weight control or physical fitness.

Why doesn’t walking qualify as an exercise? The simply answer is walking is simply how we get around as human beings. It falls into the category of “usage” and therefore does not elicit any response from the body other than using up some calories. It does not require any strength or muscle which is evident in the fact that everyone walks around in some fashion regardless of their age or physical ability.

For people that are extremely sedentary such as the extremely overweight, walking can be a starting modality to begin to use some calories. This does not come without a price though. The abuse that the body is put through far outweighs any benefits that may be derived and is the cause for most obese people giving up on their walking program.

Overcoming a sedentary lifestyle and attempting to rebuild a body that has been left to deteriorate over 3 or 4 decades is more difficult that rejuvenating a house that has been abandoned. Yet medicine and all the wonderful commercials we are all exposed to make it sound as simple as just thinking about living a more active lifestyle and taking up a walking program.

Our own ignorance of ourselves is our worst enemy and leaves us open to all the mis-information that surrounds us. To better understand what is needed, you need to know how your body responds to stress.
Your body’s basic function is adaptation to stress. This adaptive response is part of our survival mechanism and goes on every second you are alive. Your body does not recognize good or bad stimulation and adapts only to what it is presented with.

To most uninformed people, this adaptive process is known as aging and is considered inevitable in all of us. This fortunately is not true. The body’s adaptive processes produce positive effects if the stimulation (a.k.a. exercise) is greater than the current adaptive state. Read the last sentence again.

This statement about the body explains why no one gets results from their exercise attempts. The exercise modalities that people do simply fall within the current physical state of the body. They get tired, burn a few calories and eventually hurt somewhere due to overuse. Sound familiar?

What is the solution for all of us to achieve a proper maintenance level so we can age gracefully and live a pain free life? The solution is to address the largest biologically active in your body which are the muscles of your body. The muscles of your body don’t need aerobic exercise because this just makes them shrink even more. Your muscles need strength training so your body adapts by retaining muscle rather than getting rid of it.

This strength training needs to be progressive, however, which is a mistake that most people make. People that do perform weight training usually use only small weights that they can use with very little effort. Unfortunately, this type of weight training produces negative adaptation by the body.

In order to use weights that challenge your body, you need to exercise correctly, which is the other pitfall that most people fall into. Good exercise form requires complete positioning of the entire body rather than simply saying “I always use good form” as most seasoned exercisers say.

A simple way to identify whether you are exercising properly is the amount of response you are receiving for your efforts. I know this may sound strange, but you should be seeing response on a regular basis. There should be improvements in strength and muscle tone, decreases in body fat levels and increased energy.

An important recommendation is to understand that you do not have to perform countless hours of cardio training. Fortunately, your heart is the strongest muscle in your body and is built to work 24/7. Cardiac muscle is smooth muscle, not skeletal muscle. Skeletal muscle needs to be broken down so that the body rebuilds it stronger as I said previously. Your heart does not do well with being broken down. A good example is a heart attack which is an extreme breakdown of cardiac muscle.

A better way to address your heart function is to improve your spine position which is a prerequisite for proper breathing. Lack of proper breathing is the real problem for most people, not a weak heart. Another important step is to not smoke and maintain a proper diet that is rich in Omega 3 fats. This will go along way keeping your arteries clear which makes your heart work more efficiently.

Most activities that people do such as golf, tennis, cycling, running and walking produce little or no positive adaptation by the body, hence they fall into the “usage” category. All sport participation requires an effective maintenance program to offset the detrimental effects of participation. Getting older and leading a sedentary lifestyle as most people do also produces negative adaptation. This is why most people hurt and hurt more as they get older. The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way.

A properly performed strength training coupled with a properly performed full body stretching program is the minimum maintenance that every person should be doing. If you do this, a pain free life is yours to life and enjoy, while you pursue whatever activity you like to do. You don’t have to hurt and you don’t have to get old before your time. Your body wears out from abuse, not from aging as most doctors tell you.

Knowledge is the key so for more information about your body and how to maintain it with minimal time and effort, visit our website at www.yourbodyonline.com for our book/DVD, Your Body, Your Responsibility, exercise videos and other tools to help you learn about the body you are living in. Remember, you’re not getting older, your getting better.