Page 61 - CAO 25th Ann Coffee Table Book

most important. Why do we have to exercise?
There are four points about exercise: Frequency, intensity, nature, and duration. I want to talk about the
three most important:
1. Frequency – how much
2. Intensity – how hard
3. Nature – what kind of exercise
In a nutshell, 150 minutes of moderate intensity every week. If you want to know if you are exercising at moderate or vigorous intensity there is a talk test. If you can sing while exercising, you are not exercising. If you can talk while you’re exercising but not sing, it is moderate exercising and if you can’t talk it’s vigorous exercising.
The best kind of exercise in the world is THE ONE YOU CAN DO. Science tells us that there is no better exercise than the one you can do at the right intensity. You might prefer gardening, swimming, etc., as long as you do it at the right intensity.
Now let us get to the WHY? If you don’t exercise you will experience loss of muscle, a decrease in your metabolic rate and increased fat accumulation. Resistance training increases muscle mass and your metabolic rate and reduces fat accumulation.
A month ago I bumped into a guy who told me that he lost 53kg in eight months. He is a Manchester United fan and he could not afford to buy the shirt and accessories from overseas and decided to buy it at one of our local South African stores. But, when he tried on the XL shirt and saw himself in the mirror, he cried and said ‘no further, I must do something about my weight.’ Eight months later, he wore an XL Man United shirt and it rocked his world. That was his WHY. Of course, his why is different from mine; we all must find our own WHY.
LetusdoafewteststoseeifyoucanfindaWHYyou don’t know about. We will start with our resting heartrate. Feel your pulse. You should have a steady pulse just
below your wrist. Count the number of beats you feel in 15 seconds. Then multiply that number by four and that is your average beats per minute. What is significant about this? Simply this, your heart has to beat five litres of blood through your body every minute and a healthy and efficient heart will do that at about 55 beats per minute, while an inefficient one will do it in 85 beats a minute.
Now you are going to test your active heart beats per minute. Okay, let’s get up. Stand up, legs together, bend forward and touch your toes. No one is looking, this is just between you and yourself. Okay, after you have done that and had a little stretch, you may sit down.
So, how does your flexibility have any bearing on your risk of a heart attack or stroke? A study conducted two years ago and published in the American Journal of Physiology found a strong correlation between your ability to stretch beyond your toes (granted in a seated position) and arterial stiffness. The stiffer you are the stiffer your arteries are and arterial stiffness is a precursor to heart disease. If you are 40 years or younger this test does not work.
Do you ever wonder if red wine is good for you? Science says it depends on your age. If you are 40 or younger the risk of drinking red wine outweighs the benefit but if you are older than 40 the benefits outweigh the risks.
Okay, back to the stiffness thing. Healthy, flexible arteries can handle an increase and decrease in blood pressure. Now, what can one do about arterial stiffness? YES, exercise! Exercise delays the onset of arterial stiffness which means the time to start exercising is not next week, next month or when you’re starting to get out of shape. The time is today. You can’t reverse arterial stiffness, but you can prevent it from increasing.
Blood pressure, which is also linked to aerial stiffness, is something we all need to know about. WHY? Simply because South Africans have the highest incidence of high blood pressure in the world for any country at any
time in history. What’s more, only a third of those with high blood pressure are positively diagnosed. Therefore, two-thirds do not even know that they have it. Of the third that knows, only a quarter are properly treated. Thus, nine out of ten people with high blood pressure have no idea they have it. This is a national crisis because high blood pressure is a silent killer. There are no symptoms; indeed, in 50% of cases the first symptom is a heart attack that is usually fatal. I share this with you not to scare you, but to terrify you!
So, is there anything we can do? Yes, exercise once again. Every time you exercise, your blood pressure drops for the next 13 hours. It is so effective that a joint report by Harvard and Stanford Universities found that it is comparable to medication. They thus coined the phrase “exercise as medicine”.
Let’s talk diabetes. Simply put, when we eat, the food travels to our stomachs and should be absorbed into our blood stream. Once absorbed, insulin, which is produced by your pancreas is the key and unlocks the sugar and transfers it to your cells where it is used for life and energy. However, if you are diabetic your pancreas doesn’t produce enough or no insulin, resulting in high levels of sugar flowing through your blood that cannot be transferred to your cells for life and energy. The test for diabetes involves the following questions:
1. Are you under 40? 0 for under 40, 1 for 40-49, 2 for
50-59 and 3 for 60 or older.
2. Are you a woman or a man? 0 for woman, 1 for man. 3. Does a family member have diabetes? 0 for no and 1
for yes.
4. Do you have high blood pressure? 0 for no and 1 for
yes.
5. Are you overweight or obese? – normal weight 0,
overweight 1, obese 2, extremely obese 3.
6. Are you physically active? 0 for no; if yes, subtract 1
point.
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