Welcome back to my little corner of the blogosphere. Getting a really late start here today. It’s 2:21 AM. We’ll see how far I get. We were traveling today. Didn’t get home till 11. Then had to do a workout. Thought I wasn’t gonna make my step count, but somehow I made it with 546 steps to spare. Then I’ve been back and forth with posts and messages. My sister got admitted to the hospital and will probably be having surgery in the morning. She fell on black ice around two weeks ago, and found out today she has been walking around with a very serious hip fracture. To make matters worse it’s her birthday when she’s probably having surgery. Well this is the third day in a row I’m naming my blouse. Kinda fun seeing if I can come up with something. I’ m calling this “Tropical Garden”.

Love my jewelry and my FitBit combo with it. Since it had so many colors in the blouse I thought it looked pretty cool.

Ok, so let’s see where we left off yesterday. Next question:

HOW INTENSE?

The guidelines for adults focus on two levels of intensity: moderate-intensity activity and vigorous-intensity activity. To meet the guidelines one can do either moderate-intensity or vigorous-intensity aerobic activity or a combination of both. It takes less time to get the same benefit from vigorous-intensity activities as from moderate-intensity activities. A general rule of thumb is that two minutes of moderate-intensity activity counts the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity. (Interesting fact to know). For example, 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity week is roughly the same as 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity.

There are two ways to track the intensity of aerobic activity: absolute and relative intensity.

1) ABSOLUTE INTENSITY is the amount of energy expended per minute of activity. The energy expenditure of light-intensity activity, for example is 1.2 to 2.9 times the amount of energy expended when a person is at rest. Moderate-intensity activities expend 3.0 to 5.9 times the amount of energy expended at rest. The energy expenditure of vigorous-intensity activities is 6.0 or more times the energy expended at rest.

2) RELATIVE INTENSITY is the level of effort required to do an activity. Less fit people generally require a higher level of effort than fitter people to do the same activity. Relative intensity can be estimated using a scale of 1-10, where sitting is 0 and the highest level of effort possible is 10. Moderate intensity activity is usually a 5 or 6. Vigorous intensity activity is a 7 or 8.

The guideline for adults refer to absolute intensity because most studies demonstrating lower risk of clinical events( for example premature death, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, etc) have focused on measuring absolute intensity. That is, the guidelines are based on the absolute amount of energy expended on physical activity that is associated with health benefits. The table which is below this and I will give the link again for this article, uses absolute intensity. Refer to the table for examples of intensities. http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines/chapter4.aspx

When using relative intensity, people pay attention to how physical activity affects their heart rate and breathing. As a rule of thumb, a person doing moderate-intensity activity can talk, but not sing, during the activity. A person doing vigorous-intensity activity cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.

MUSCLE-STRENGTHENING ACTIVITY

Muscle-strengthening activities provide additional benefits not found with aerobic activity. The benefits of muscle-strengthening activity include increased bone and muscular fitness. Muscle-strengthening activities can also help maintain muscle mass during a program of weight loss.( another good point of information)

Muscle-strengthening activities make muscles do more work than they are accustomed to doing. That is, they overload the muscles. Resistance training, including weight training, is a familiar example of muscle-strengthening activity. Other examples include working with resistance bands, doing calisthenics that use body weight for resistance( such as push-ups, pull-ups, or sit-ups), carrying heavy loads, and heavy gardening( such as digging or hoeing).

Muscle-strengthening activities count if they involve a moderate or high intensity of effort and work the major muscle groups of the body: the legs, the hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms. Muscle-strengthening activities for all the major muscle groups should be done at least two days a week. ( I have to find a way to fit this in my schedule.)

No specific amount of time is recommended for muscle strengthening, but muscle strengthening exercises should be performed to the point at which it would be difficult to perform another repetition without help. When resistance training is used to enhance muscle strength, one set of 8-12 repetitions of each exercise is effective, although 2 or 3 sets may be more effective. Development of muscle strength and endurance is progressive over time. Increases in the amount of weight or the days a week of exercising will increase muscle strength.

Well this is going to take another day . I hope to conclude this series then . I hope you are finding it to be very informative. I learn something every time I am working on a topic.

Food for thought. Hope the week has been a great one. I’m gonna have to play catch up weight wise come the beginning of the week. Was away since Sunday and events all weekend. Keeping my workouts up is an absolute necessity. So keep on moving. Till next time , God Bless.

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