Exercise Articles

Fitness for All: At-Home Workouts for Adults and Kids

Since many parents are spending more time at home with their children (thanks, pandemic) and lots of gyms and fitness centers remain closed, we need to find different ways to get those workouts in at home… with our children.

Here are some of the best ways to include your kids in your workouts, keep them busy, and have fun as a family, too.

• Walking – it seems simple enough but getting out in the fresh air and logging some miles around the neighborhood may be just what you and your family need to help break up the daily monotony and workout at the same time.
• Dance it out – nothing is more fun than cranking up the music, kicking off your shoes and having a good old fashioned dance party with your kids. Teach your kids all of your favorite moves and be prepared to learn some of their favorites, too.
• Plank competition – who doesn’t love a little friendly competition? Especially when it’s a healthy competition. Set a timer, start planking and the last person planking wins!
• Yoga – nothing is more relaxing than spending some time getting centered and going through the yoga motions. Kids and adults alike can both do yoga, and you can always modify the positions as necessary.
• Hopscotch – this childhood classic never gets old. Get outside, draw your squares, grab a rock and get down to business. You will have so much fun hopping with your kids that you will forget that you are working out.

 You can pretty much make any activity an at-home workout for you and your kids. Creativity is key and make sure to have some fun.

Fitness for All: Physical Activity for Diabetes Sufferers

Being physically active is a good idea for everyone, but it is especially important for people with diabetes. According to experts with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “being active makes your body more sensitive to insulin which helps manage your diabetes.”

Other additional benefits include maintaining a healthy weight, losing weight, sleeping better, improving your memory, lowering your blood pressure, and feeling happier.

For those that suffer from diabetes, experts say that the goal is to get approximately 150 minutes of exercise each week. One way to do this is to get about 20-25 minutes of exercise each day, including about 2 days of a full-body workout – or using as many body parts as possible that you can during your workout.

Some great ways to get your 20-25 minutes per day include:

• Walking briskly
• Doing housework
• Mowing the lawn
• Playing a sport
• Swimming
• Biking
• Dancing 

All these activities work your larger muscles, increase your heart rate, and make you breathe harder which are all good for you and important goals for fitness.

As with any exercise program, be sure to consult your doctor before starting physical activity. Your doctor can also steer you towards activities that are the best for you.

Fitness for All: 10,000 Steps a Day: Where did it come from?

Whether you are an avid fitness guru or just your “Average Joe” you have no doubt at some point in your life heard that the key to being healthy is getting in your “10,000 steps” daily.

But have you ever wondered why 10,000 steps? And is it working? Or is it just causing us unnecessary stress?

Here is what the experts say…

Back in 1965, when the Summer Olympics was held in Tokyo, Japan, a local professor was working on coming up with the best way to fight obesity and heart disease. He calculated that walking 10,000 steps a day – or the equivalent of 5 miles – would translate into a 20% increase in calories burned for the average person.

The professor, Yoshiro Hatano, then came up with a pedometer-like device called the Manpo-kei, to encourage people to get up and moving during the Olympics when fitness was on everyone’s mind.

The popularity of the pedometer and taking 10,000 steps continued in Japan and has since spread to the U.S. and other countries, becoming the standard that World Health Organization (WHO), the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) still follow today.

While 10,000 steps a day might be an achievable goal for some, experts note that everyone’s fitness ability is different and their steps per day should be adjusted accordingly.

One way to figure out the number of steps that would work for you is to track how many steps you normally take in any given day, then set an achievable goal based on your baseline steps. If you are a person who typically gets in 5,000 steps a day, then shoot for 7,500. Already reaching 10,000 a day? Why not try for 12,500? Even though this theory has been around for decades, there is no need to stress yourself out about reaching this daily goal. Just take it one step at a time.

Fitness for All: It’s Swimming Season

With the warm weather comes the opening of public pools and home pools and people break out the bathing suit for another season of swimming. For many people, swimming is a good way to wind down after a long day.  But others are using swimming as another means of exercise and they are finding that exercise in the spring and summertime can be fun!

Swimming is an excellent way to lose weight and strength train all the while enjoying the beautiful outdoors.  

Exercise experts recommend swimming as a form of exercise because of the great cardiovascular workout you get from swimming.  It is considered a great aerobic exercise because by definition it is an action that maintains an elevated heartbeat for a minimum of 20 minutes. 

You can simply add swimming to your pre-existing aerobic workout to help switch things up and keep your workouts fresh.  Alternate days that you decide to use swimming as your cardio for that day, so you don’t get bored with any one workout.

Like any exercise, you should also start any swimming workout routine by stretching first. You may not realize the affect swimming has on your entire body until it is too late, so be sure to stretch appropriately before you begin. Then start off slow by swimming strides and gradually increasing your speed in the pool.  This will help to elevate your heart rate at a safe pace and help you to last longer during your workout.

Swimming, and using swimming as your key workout, is more about endurance than quickness.  Experts suggest starting out swimming laps for approximately 20 minutes for women and 30 minutes for men.  You can begin to increase your time as necessary and as you continue your workout over the course of weeks or months. 

Again, this will prevent you from getting too tired, too sore, wore out or disappointed in your swimming workout. Try out different strokes when you are swimming, too.  Do some laps using the breaststroke, then switch up and do the backstroke, or even the doggy paddle.  Each swimming stroke using a different variety of muscles and therefore will give you the best overall workout.