As an office worker, I have a sedentary job. I work from 8 am to 7 pm. When I got home, I had to collect my children from the babysitter and take care of them. As a result, I don’t have much exercise. I spent the weekend with my family and tried to catch up with sleep! How often should I exercise to stay healthy?
The US Department of Health and Human Services advises healthy adults:
Aerobics: You need to have at least 150 minutes (two and a half hours) of moderate aerobic exercise per week.
Or if you are doing a violent activity, you only need to do 75 minutes a week (ie 1 hour and 15 minutes).
You can also make a combination of moderate and strenuous exercise.
It’s best to distract these minutes or hours throughout the week, not just a lot of exercise every week.
Strength training: You also need to train all major muscle groups at least twice a week.
You can do this by using weight machines, dumbbells or your own weight, or by resistance activities such as boating and rock climbing in the water.
You should use a heavy enough weight or resistance level to make your muscles exhausted after repeating 12 to 15 repetitions.
Try to aim for 30 minutes of physical activity every day. If you need to lose weight, you should aim more.
If you want a rest day, you should extend your time by increasing your workout time.
God! I don’t know strength training! Is this necessary? I am a woman, I don’t want to develop big muscles.
If you are a woman, strength or weight training will not allow you to develop large muscles unless you take steroids or a special diet that consumes a lot of calories and a training program like a female bodybuilder.
Compared with physical males, women’s muscle mass is reduced and their strength is reduced by 30%. Men’s muscle mass is 60% to 85% higher than women’s.
We can’t grow muscles like men at all. (Unless we take anabolic steroids, this is not feasible, or go for special training and diet.)
For women or anyone, weight training will make you healthier and burn more calories in a day.
It will adjust your body and help reduce body fat, which will make the waist slimmer, the hips slimmer, and the arms and thighs very fit.
This is the goal of most women, right?
Let’s talk about moderate exercise. What does it mean?
Moderate sports include fast-moving (not leisurely walks), swimming and mowing.
Strenuous exercise includes running, aerobics, zumba, body fighting and all the busy dance activities.
But I really don’t have time. I work hard. When I get home, I have to take care of my children. I don’t have time to go to the gym.
You need to take the time to take care of yourself.
However, if you really don’t have time, you can do something in your daily life.
For example, you can climb upstairs several floors instead of taking the elevator. Reduce your sitting time. Try walking around the office and talking to people instead of calling.
Even if you simply work, it is good for you. For example, if you can’t walk for 30 minutes, at least you can do three quick 10 minutes. When your child is sleeping, try a 10-minute weight training.
The trouble for most Malaysians is that they don’t want to work hard and they eat too much. No wonder we are so obese.
Ok, we have determined that I don’t have time. What is the best calorie burning activity I can do when I can squeeze in?
The highest calorie burning motion you can do is the sprint interval.
You can run for two minutes at all speeds and then jog for a minute to “rest”.
Try to find the right one for you. Not many people are able to maintain this high-intensity exercise.
But it consumes more calories than a 30-minute steady pace because your body adapts to exercise.
Don’t let your body adapt to any repetitive movements. Replace your event.
The second high-calorie combustion exercise is Tabata training.
This includes 20 seconds of exercise (whether it’s push-ups, squats, etc.) and then a 10 second recovery. You repeat these eight times.
Others, in the order of calorie burning, are rock climbing, swimming (butterfly is the hardest), mountain climbing/biking (up, not down), jogging, skipping, boating and digging.