Your Daily Dose

I recently wrote an article for where I work.  I spend a lot of time searching for articles that would relate and help the community I work it (it's one of the many duties I have to do for my job).  I also am the Co-Chairperson for our Employee Wellness Committee and with that job comes a blog and blog posting.  Lately I have been posting some of these articles I find and adding in my own lead in to the article then manipulating the articles to apply to the population I work in.  I got so fed up with manipulating other author's words (for example: if it was focusing on adults, applying the info to young adults and vice versa) that I decided it would be easiest to write my own.  

WHAT AN UNDERTAKING!  Not only was I trying to fit a ton of information into one short article but I also had to make it apply to most of the people reading it as well as take into consideration that VERY scholarly people would be reading my words, YIKES!  I had to make sure that (since it was in a blog) different words POPPED on the page and that it kept EVERYONE'S interest.  I think I spent more time fixing and manipulating the way the article looked after I wrote it than I did actually writing the darn thing.

Now I'm kinda proud of my article and don't want to just waste what I did!  I published the article on the blog and plan to put it out here where I work (for those not reading the blog) but now I want to do more.  So, I decided I would make it more public on my own PERSONAL blog and hope it helps my own friends and family who read my blog.  

So, with out further adieu... Here is my article, please let me know what you think. :-)

Cardiovascular Exercise or Energy Systems Development (ESD)

No matter what you call it there are less boring and more beneficial
ways to get your daily dose!

By
Kerri Rae, M.S., USAW

Over the summer I attended a session on Energy Systems Development or ESD.  This is a new word for the thing most commonly known as Cardio or Cardiovascular Exercise.  The reason for a wanted name change is because Cardio isn’t just for your ticker; it is for your entire body and mind.  By calling it Cardio tends to put such a simple and, dare I say, boring name on what can be done and what it can actually do for you and those around you!  Don’t worry, this article wasn’t written to help you change what you regularly call Cardio, it is actually about getting the most out of the time you put into your exercise sessions.

According to the American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org), the average healthy person should try to achieve at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity cardiovascular exercise most days of the week.  This exercise will help you in MANY ways but to link it to the name ESD mentioned above it will give you, your body and your mind more energy for your daily activities as well as the ability to do more for yourself and for others!  Unfortunately when someone says Cardio your mind automatically goes to sitting on a boring machine or running for a certain amount of time.  When you put it that way no WONDER so many people don’t get their daily dose.

Here are a few ways to make your daily exercise sessions more manageable:

GOING OUTSIDE – You can get outside anytime during the year and get a good dose of cardiovascular exercise.  During the Spring, Summer, and early Fall you can run, bike, walk, hike, swim, row (kayak, raft, canoe, etc), play with your kids or your pets, there is no end to what you can do.  When the dreaded winter season comes, everyone stops going outside… WHY!  Don’t let the winter weather stop your motivation, here’s a few ways to go outside and get your exercise:

- If you like to walk or hike try going snowshoeing, or cross country skiing.


- If you like to run, you still can in the snow.  You may not get as far as you would during the other seasons but there are more radical treads on shoes these days as well as shoe attachments just for this activity.


- You can also bike in the snow.  Similar to running outside, you don’t get as far but it’s still a great workout.  There are now studded tires to put on your bike for the season just like your car!


- For the more extreme sport junky you can try downhill skiing or snowboarding.  Less cardio with these activities but the muscle endurance you can build during the season is awesome!


- If you like playing with your kids or pets, play with them in the snow by making snow angels, having a snowball fight, play games in the snow like tag! How do you get the cardio benefit with these games you ask?  Well, everyone involved is running around as fast as they can and not getting anywhere while laughing the whole time at this lack of movement.  What a workout (HELLO Abs)!


- There’s also skijoring with your dog which combines cross country skiing and dog sledding.  Some local ski slopes allow this and even offer classes and races throughout the winter season.


My dog Sofie LOVES to play catch with snowballs.  She also loves to play tag or hide and seek in the snow (she’s mostly white so she wins at hide and seek on a daily basis).   I laugh at her constantly while she tries to run AS FAST AS POSSIBLE in the snow.  Then when she hits the icy parts she’s like Bambi on ice, hilarious.

INCREMENTS THROUGH OUT THE DAY  – If you enjoy your workouts inside or outside but don’t have what you think is “enough time” one way is to get moving and get in your daily dose is to break down your time into “manageable” increments (10, 15 minutes) throughout your day of walking, running, taking the stairs, jumping jacks, etc.   You can also do this with a mix of daily activities and gym machines.  If you have already completed so many minutes during the day of exercise and just have to get your last few minutes in, you can go into the gym to finish off your daily allotment.  This split does work well for some, but not for others due to time, access, etc.

ONE CARDIO SESSION EACH DAY – Another option is to perform your daily cardio in one large session but this session DOES NOT have to be boring!  The main excuse I hear for NOT achieving the daily dose of cardiovascular exercise is because people find it boring to sit on one machine and pump out so many minutes of cardio.  That’s obvious when I walk around here and people are just pedaling away with no resistance and no change, staying on the same machine for the entire time they are at the RFC.  I would dread cardio too if that is how I spend my time! To tell you the truth, if you find it boring then SO DOES YOUR BODY!
Insider tip: If you sit on one machine – the same machine every time – not really doing much and not changing anything, going with the flow and letting the machine propel you, the machine is doing all the work and you are not receiving any of the benefits.  By letting the machine do your work, you are basically wasting your time.   Also, if you are on the same machine every time you come in for the same amount of time working hard or hardly working, you still are not achieving what you actually could achieve in the same amount of time.  It’s frustrating isn’t it.
So, to help you out with achieving all the results you can achieve by doing cardio in one large chunk, here are some simple ways to get you to your daily dose of cardio more efficiently and without the boredom:

- Jump on ANY machine you choose and decide if you are going to spend 5, 10 or 15 minutes on it then get moving.  Every minute/2.5 min/5 min change the resistance OR the incline (if available) and don’t be afraid to get those numbers up there.

• After you complete your allotted time on that machine move to a second machine and do the same thing, then a third.
• Next time you come in for your cardio session do not repeat the same pattern, pick new machines and a new pattern!
  
  

- Similar to above you will pick your machine and the allotted time for the machine.  This time you will pick two resistances – a low and a high and do 40/20 incremental splits. Start with your easier, lower resistance for 40 seconds and then turn up the resistance to higher resistance and work to speed up your feet for the next 20 seconds.  This can also be done for 30 second splits, 20/40 second splits (20 seconds easy, 40 seconds hard), or 1 minute splits.


HEART RATE MONITORING – The final element to every successful exercise program is Heart Rate monitoring.  You want to try and get your heart rate into its working heart rate range while you are exercising.  This should be anywhere between 50 and 70% of your maximum heart rate depending on your exercise activity level.  Here’s a link my former boss and friend at the University of Idaho put together to find your most accurate working heart rate range:  http://www.campusrec.uidaho.edu/Wellness_TargetHeartRate
If you are just starting out on a program or on a NEW program with heart rate monitoring try and get your heart rate up to around 50-55% and keep it up there for 15-20 minutes during the first few days of your new program.  If you are more advanced try to get your heart rate to at least 55% or 60% for the entire 25-30 minute exercise session.

Again, when you are more advanced try working within the range, don’t just get to the lower end of the range, vary it.  Start off in the lower end of the range and work into the upper end for a bit.  You can also try doing the 40/20 sec split intervals where your heart rate is in the lower end of the range for 40 seconds, then the higher end of the range for 20 seconds.

As you can see, there is no END to what you can do when it comes to
Cardiovascular Exercise or Energy Systems Development.

To My Friends Reading This Article: Your task is to try something new each day (and every week following)!  Every day you go to get your daily dose of Cardiovascular Exercise do something new and keep your body guessing.  This way you will continue to receive those benefits you are working towards without wasting any of your time!