Do you Know what It Means to be Fit? -Part 2

                                                                                         

Heart disease can be potentiated by stress as during stress the adrenaline secretion forces the blood vessels to narrow which increases blood pressure and venous return to the heart, thereby increasing demands on the heart and leaching cholesterol out of the tissue into the blood supply. Stress can maintain the activity in the reticular activating system or RAS, elevating coronary disease risks and the tendency to react with anger. Exercise can reduce the risks if managed correctly.

The endorphins, which are naturally occurring chemicals of the morphine family, are secreted in response to aerobic exercise which is exercise continued for a reasonable time. The runners' high, that feeling of elation and pleasure from exercising strongly, and mood can both be produced or improved by aerobic exercise. The risks of coronary heart disease can be reduced by the regular performance of this type of exercise to the right level of difficulty. Some exercise, such as the competitive sudden bursts of activity in squash, can increase the levels of stress and thereby be unhelpful.

Beginning Aerobic Exercise It's easy to start things like exercise but very difficult to keep things up and all too easy to fall into the traps or encounter barriers. It's really helpful to consider some process of planning so we are not knocked off course too easily before we get started. Defining our goals is useful. What are we aiming for and how will we know when we have achieved them? It is not clear what being fitter means in reality and if we do not make our goals clear and define the likely obstacles before we begin we are at increased risk of failing from injury, uncertainty or lack of motivation.

The setting of a clear goal is a first and vital point in the successful planning of an aerobic exercise programme or indeed any activity beyond the most simple. Vague goals are not useful and good goals might be to run continuously for 40 minutes, lose two stone, swim for a mile or cycle for an hour without stopping. Your goals will likely be different but they should be precise enough so that the targets for achievement are clear, you can measure your success against them and that they could just as easily be followed by someone else. The business method of comparing your goals against the SMART standard is useful to see if they are specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time limited. This will make success more likely to occur.

After deciding the goals are SMART the next choice is the form which the aerobic exercise will consist of. Swimming is an obvious good candidate as there is little or no bodily stress due to the support of the water and aerobic training is easily achieved. Cycling can be good in the absence of hip, knee and low back pain. Jogging or running is easy to perform but imposes significant jarring stresses on the body and may not suit all, making fast walking a good choice especially if you are starting off at a lower level of fitness to start with.

These problems can be overcome and the most successful is to use pacing to control the start or the increase in exercise. Finding out your tissue tolerances for running is essential if you are to be able to set your training at a safe and effective level. We have to know what our tolerances are or we will overdo things and suffer injuries and pain. If we guess our capacity we will make mistakes which will compromise our progress. Pacing is a simple concept but a difficult skill to learn, covered in another article.

If you are going to choose a fitness activity it is very important that you enjoy that particular type of exercise, as if you are advised to take up gym work and you hate going to the gym you might attend for a while but are very likely to let it lapse as it's not what you really want. Choose a training activity which you like and can keep up over the longer term as fitness takes months to develop for the best outcome. And once you have developed it you need to maintain it against the obstacles and challenges which will occur.

About the author:
Jonathan Blood Smyth, editor of the Physiotherapy Site, writes articles about Physiotherapists, physiotherapy, physiotherapists in Manchester, back pain, orthopaedic conditions, neck pain and injury management. Jonathan is a superintendant physiotherapist at an NHS hospital in the South-West of the UK.

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