Do I need exercise ?
Do I need exercise ?
Answer of the question, ‘do I need exercise’ is always yes. Even if you are not a fatty guy who is struggling to shred some fat from stomach area or other parts of the body.
Usually we encounter two types of arguments: one, exercise is not essential for me because I do a lot of physical activities everyday and the other type of argument is, ‘yes I know exercise is beneficial for health, but I don’t have time to do exercise’.
Remember none of the arguments are acceptable. Regular exercise will increase your life expectancy, exercise will add some years to your life; that is, you will live longer to see the beautiful world and to spend more time with your beloved ones. Before discussing about effect and necessity of exercise I want to write some words about those who are engaged in physical activities as part of daily life or professional life.
For those who are leading an active life without exercise
Sedentary lifestyle is harmful. But if your professional life includes a lot of physical activities, you keep yourself busy in housework and never sit idle you can claim exercise isn’t essential for you. With healthy diet you can expect a healthy life. But regular exercise will have some positive effects on you. These positive effects include: better immune system, controlling blood pressure, improved mood, feeling more energetic. Exercise also helps you to combat depression, chronic diseases, reduces risk of cancer, dementia or memory loss, diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease and most importantly exercise will make you happier and smarter. So, even if you are physically active, I can say, you should do some exercise. Because of your physically active daily life you may need less exercise. How much exercise you need depends on what you need or what is your goal which may include staying healthy & living longer, for recreation, preparation for competitive sports or for looking good by flattening stomach. So besides your everyday housework and other daily activities your goal decides how much and what kind of exercise you will need.
I don’t have enough time for exercise
Now come to the second most common argument, ‘finding time for exercise in this busy life is almost impossible’. Actually finding time for exercise isn’t an issue at all. Many people overestimate exercise requirement. It is commonly said that exercise of 30 minutes a day is enough, even 10 minutes will have some positive effects. Don’t forget that something is better than nothing. May be you are saying you can’t even find 30 minutes a day. I can assure you even 10 minutes walk will bring some benefit. Instead of your car, try to use bicycle or walk for transportation, instead of elevators climb stairs. At weekends find some time for swimming, jumping ropes or dancing. Please note that instead of continuous exercise of 30 minutes, exercise of 10 minutes three times a day is also helpful. But continuous 30 minutes is better.
When your goal is to flatten stomach by reducing belly fat
When your goal is to lose weight by burning fat from your body and you want to get rid of your fatty stomach your exercise pattern will be different. At the same time your food consumption must be in accordance with calorie chart.
I know you don't like to do much exercise. We all know exercise is good for health, but still we remain lazy and pass our days without any exercise. Exercise is important for two reasons. First, we need to burn some extra calorie by exercise, and second if you have some fat already stored in your body especially in stomach, then unless you do at least stomach exercise, it would take long time to remove those fats form your stomach.
If you don't like to do regular exercise and you are not that much over weight then you can do either stomach exercise or 'Long walk'. Many people think running is the best option for losing fat, since you run you will lose lot of calorie, so the process will break your fat and you will start to become slim. Actually this is not true. For running the giant muscles work, they take calorie form carbohydrate not from fat.
But if you walk, not for 5/10 minutes, longer, like 40+ minutes then your body will start to break the stored fats. The muscles which need to work for walking are lean muscles, which draw their energy from fat not from carbohydrate. So that is why a marathon runner has lean muscles not giant muscles. So walking will do the trick for you. You have to at a good pace though, and each time at least for more than 40 minutes, because first 20/30 minutes body tries to use the carbohydrate for energy, afterwards it starts to break fat.
So if you don't like exercise, you need to walk at least 4 days a week. And do some belly exercise in your bed that would be sufficient.
You need to know about CME to lose fat efficiently
CME is the abbreviation of cardiometabolic exercise. From our experiences we see that walking is easier than running. Similarly various exercises have various level of effect. For example 30 minutes of moderate exercise is equivalent to 15 minutes of intense exercise. So you need to know the effects well. To understand the effect a term ‘cardiometabolic exercise’ (CME) point is used widely. I am giving a chart below. When your goal is to lose weight by burning fat and you want a flat stomach your target should be 300 CME points. CME point below 150 isn’t healthy.
Activity |
Pace |
Duration |
CME points |
Daily activities |
|
|
|
Carpentry |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
100 |
Mowing lawn |
Pushing hand mower |
30 minutes |
200 |
Pushing power mower |
30 minutes |
145 |
|
Raking lawn |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
130 |
Sexual activity |
Conventional, familiar partner |
15 minutes |
25 |
Stair climbing |
Moderate, up stairs |
10 minutes |
100 |
Moderate, down stairs |
10 minutes |
30 |
|
Washing car by hand |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
100 |
Recreational activities |
|
|
|
Aerobic dance |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
200 |
Biking |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
250 |
Calisthenics |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
130 |
Golfing |
Pulling clubs |
30 minutes |
145 |
Jogging |
12 minutes/mile |
30 minutes |
200 |
Jumping rope |
Moderate |
15 minutes |
200 |
Skiing |
Downhill or water |
30 minutes |
200 |
Cross-country |
30 minutes |
315 |
|
Swimming |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
230 |
Tennis |
Doubles |
30 minutes |
160 |
Singles |
30 minutes |
200 |
|
Walking |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
135 |
Yoga (Hatha) |
Moderate |
30 minutes |
130 |
Also read:
- Walking or Running?
- AB Workouts for Women
- Abs Workout for Men at Home
- Abs Workout for Women at Home
- Ab Exercises for Beginners