Working Out Not Just For The Young at Heart

BY WENDY TARLOW, OWNER FITNESS TOGETHER – FORT LAUDERDALE

Is working out for only the young, buff-guys/gals or for the rest of us who would still like to look like one of them? Exercise does more than make you look great in your clothes or on the beach. It is one of the main ways of protecting your health and your heart, of lowering your cholesterol and of raising those endorphins that everyone’s talking about. “Fitness is absolutely the most powerful predictor of deaths from heart disease and other causes,” says Rita Redberg, MD, a cardiologist from the University of California, San Francisco, and the science advisor for the American Heart Association’s Choose to Move program.

Regular exercisers have proven to have up to a 50% lower chance of having a heart attack or chest pain and a lower risk of other diseases, as well. People who exercise regularly from three to five times a week live longer, feel better and, of course, look better. Even smokers improve their overall health by exercising.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when it comes to protection from heart disease, being fit might be more important than being thin, particularly for women. In a recent project conducted by the University of Florida and Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, research on some 900 women revealed that those who were at least moderately active were less likely to develop heart disease and related illnesses than women who were less active, regardless of their weight. We all know that not working out is extremely damaging.

There are a number of obvious benefits to exercise.

• Weight loss or weight maintenance
• The lowering of blood pressure and cholesterol
• Heart rate reduction which reduces the overall demand on the heart.

Exercise is the single best prescription a doctor can give you, once they have given you the green light to take on an exercise routine. Exercise influences your total health profile, not just cardiovascular health.

The most recent government guidelines recommend 60 minutes of physical activity daily, but just getting started for most people is the hard part. Ten, twenty or thirty minutes is not a bad place to start. It is never too late to start exercising, no matter how old or out of condition you are. If you have not seen a doctor for a while, then be smart about how you approach a new exercise program. Get cleared by your physician.

I love that the majority of the new clients that I am seeing start out by saying that they want to feel better. Yes, weight loss is still the main goal, but people nowadays seem to recognize that quality of life is the most important benefit to gain from a high-quality exercise program.

Fitness Together – Fort Lauderdale, 1759 East Commercial Blvd., The Shoppes at 18th & Commercial. Call for your free Health & Fitness Consultation. 954-491-7988