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Low-impact Exercises
If you polled 100 people and asked them if they’d like to be healthy, 99 would probably say “yes,” and the one who didn’t say yes probably misunderstood the question. It’s a basic tenet of humanity…We all want to be healthier than we already are. Unfortunately, for many people who suffer from arthritis or other medical conditions, working out with traditional exercises can be extremely painful. If you fall into this category, how do you get started toward the goal of improved health? When normal exercises are among the primary causes of knee pain, the answer is simple…low impact exercises.
There are a wide range of different exercises you can use to not only improve your cardiovascular health and physical fitness level, but also tune up your immune system in the process. Here are five possible candidates for workouts that you can do without incurring so much pain and soreness that you are unable to maintain the regimen.
1) Walking
Basic, simple, and doesn’t require any special equipment or workout space. If you prefer to remain indoors, you can utilize a treadmill machine. If you enjoy being outdoors, walking around your neighborhood or on the beach can help you keep the scenery changing so you don’t get bored with walking. All you need are some comfortable clothes like sweats, shorts or leggings, plus a pair of comfortable walking shoes. Take it slowly at first…start out with 5-10 minutes at a leisurely pace. As your body gets used to the exercise, you can simply increase the amount of time you spend walking to make it more challenging and continue to increase your body’s physical ability to handle the exercise.
2) Swimming
When it comes to low-impact exercises, swimming is about as good as it gets. In addition to not causing any stress on your feet, knees and other lower body joints, swimming can provide an outstanding cardiovascular workout. Check out your local public pool to find out if there are any scheduled times set aside for lap swimming, or if you live near the ocean or a lake (one that has been deemed safe to swim in), you can set your own schedule.
3) Body Weight Exercises
This category of exercises refers to weight training that uses your own body weight as the resistance to help build muscle strength. Push-ups are the most well known of the body weight exercises, but if you are unable to do standard push-ups, you can modify the exercise by doing them standing up and leaning against a countertop. Increase the angle as your body gets stronger, until you get to the point where you can participate in the trendiest of the body weight exercises…Pilates!
4) Water Exercises
Combined with swimming, you can use water exercises to achieve an all-around workout that can provide benefits to virtually every muscle group in your body, plus your cardiovascular system. By doing basic calisthenics in the pool, you can perform many of the traditional exercises without causing nearly as much stress on your knees and ankles. Most gyms with swimming pool facilities offer organized water exercises that are fun and extremely social in a group setting. They have water dance classes…even water Zumba!
5) Circuit Training
Circuit training is an outstanding, and completely customizable, way to combine cardiovascular and strength training. It also allows for a quality workout in a very short amount of time. Circuit workouts commonly have two individual circuits, each with six strength/cardio exercises that you perform in order, one right after the other, with little or no rest in between. Some of the individual execises that routinely make up circuit training are squats, lunges, walking/jogging, jumping rope, back extensions and more. Make sure you warm up with 5-10 minutes of light cardio and cool down with a stretch.
Having medical issues like arthritis shouldn’t prevent you from working toward a healthier body. Simply understand the limitations you have and work within those, and you’ll find that your fitness levels will continue to increase as you go along. It’s your life we’re talking about here…make it a healthy one!
Waging War on Self-Image
The battle over how women view themselves has been raging in this country, and throughout the world, for decades. On one side, you have the magazines, television and other media, who portray women as needing to look like a real-life version of a Barbie doll if they want to be considered attractive. On the other side are the academics, from nutritionists to psychologists, who are desperately trying to turn the tide on how women view themselves, for reasons ranging from physical health to mental well-being. It’s an uphill fight though, as the media has been entrenched for generations in bunkers of misconception. Complicating the issue is the fact that the media controls the information, and therefore the opinions, of the general public. How bad has the problem become? Try the following body-image statistics on for size:
1. According to official studies, the average American woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American fashion model is 5’11” tall and weighs 117 pounds.
2) By the time they turn 13 years old, over 50% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This figure increases to over 75% by the time that girls reach seventeen.
3) One out of every four college-aged females suffers from an eating disorder.
4) Nearly 12.5 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2008. Women had nearly 11.4 million cosmetic procedures, 91% percent of the total.
Starting to get the picture?
It is a vicious cycle, and one that is difficult to break, given the male-dominated media and long-established stereotypes. The issue is compounded further by the fact that young men are also exposed to those same media-driven stereotypes, making them want to find a woman who fits those established body-image benchmarks. Look a certain way, act a certain way…you’re not even supposed to wear comfortable shoes, as you’re often expected to wear high heels.
How to change the trend?
Women need to understand that changing self-image begins on the inside, with how each woman views themself. Self-esteem begins with a healthy dose of reality… You have to establish your own standards of beauty, rather than accepting the one that the media hands you. You need to clearly define who you are, as well as who you want to be. That standard needs to be based on health and wellness-related standards, rather than physical appearance alone.
The long road back from misguided and misapplied self-image is possible. It requires that you say no to the system and try to change the way you perceive your body. Too often it seems that beauty is a competition with other women instead of a nice gesture to ourselves. Make beauty about gestures, rather than a competition. When we understand that we all can be beautiful, even when we ditch the heels for a pair of comfortable sandals, then we start to win the war on self-image. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing indeed!
Four Steps to a Swimsuit Spring
As we head into Spring, you are probably already thinking about spending time at the beach, or relaxing by the pool. Once that plan settles in, maybe a small moment of panic ensues…”How am I ever going to get into my swimsuit?” It’s a natural part of the seasonal cycle, where we put on “a few” extra pounds over the winter, due to the holiday seasons and general winterizing that our bodies go through.
No worries though…there is plenty of time for you to shed those extra inches and pounds, to ensure that you not only are able to fit into that swimsuit, but look amazing once you’re in it! The answer isn’t to go on some extreme dieting that makes you miserable. The key is to make a few healthy adjustments to your diet that are simple to implement into your daily eating. Here are 4 easy-to-follow diet tips designed specifically to help you lose those winter pounds.
1) Don’t Deprive Yourself of Your Favorite Foods
This is where many people who are trying to lose weight go wrong. They cut out certain foods that they really enjoy, just because they aren’t the healthiest foods. Then we get angry and unhappy because we aren’t eating the foods we like, and the diet goes South in a hurry. Instead of cutting out those “not entirely diet-friendly” foods and snacks, try reducing the amount of those foods that you eat. If you love chocolate chip cookies, and usually grab a half-dozen to snack on, try only taking 2-3 cookies instead. This will keep your brain thinking ”I’m getting what I want,” while you are actually reducing the amount of the unhealthy snacks that you consume.
2) Keep Healthy Snacks in Your Kitchen
Tie this in with the first point above. By keeping healthy snacks that taste good in your kitchen, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to eat healthier on a daily basis. Keep lots of fruits and vegetables on-hand, and particularly, fruits that you consider “treats” like strawberries, cantaloupe, pomegranates, etc…
3) Set a Cut-off Time at Night for Eating
So many of the weight problems that we experience have less to do with “what” we eat and more to do with “when” we eat. By setting a “no more eating” curfew a couple of hours before you go to bed at night, you’ll avoid the late night snacking and give your body time to begin digesting the food before you go to sleep. Taking a nice casual walk after your last evening snack will go a long way toward expediting the digestion process as well.
4) Substitute Water for Sodas or Alcohol
It’s OK to occasionally have a glass of wine or a cocktail, and it’s even semi-OK to have the occasional soda, but by taking the majority of those empty calorie beverages out of your diet, you’ll increase the speed with which your body metabolizes the sugars in your system and make all of your other weight loss and dieting efforts pay off more quickly.
There are some good tips to get you started. Even if you aren’t the type of person who considers healthy eating on a regular basis, you should give it a little thought now. Remember, your swimsuit is calling…
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