Health/Exercise Guide

Health/Exercise Guide
By: Umang Goel
Founder/Owner of Wellness Haven, Health, Wellness and Life Purpose Coach, Certified Yoga Instructor, with 2000 plus hours of instruction experience

This health/exercise guide has been created with you in mind. This is so you can educate yourself all about exercise and facts around exercise. This is to enable you to discover which type of exercise is best suitable for your needs and lifestyle.

The truth about Exercise:
The truth is that for many, exercise seems like a burden, a chore, something that many find too difficult and let go of it all together, inviting ill health. And yet many others have made exercise as a joyful part of their daily routine.

So how do we make exercise a joyful part of our daily routine?
By finding a health program that is right and suitable for us, that brings us joy and that suits our lifestyle.

Why should we exercise?
Simply put we exercise to keep ourselves healthy both physically and mentally. It can be both prevention and a cure. Inactivity can result in pain, stress, and diseases like cardiovascular diseases, deficient immune system, diabetes, osteoporosis, strokes and cancer. It is essential that we reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass and burn calories throughout the day every day.

Benefits of exercise:
• Healthy muscles, joints and bones.
• Strong immune system
• Increased flexibility, stamina and endurance.
• Decreased stress
• Increased energy
• Increased metabolism
• Healthy nervous system
• Productive sleep
• Overall well-being

Who should exercise?
Everyone! Yes everyone who is medically capable of exercising should exercise.
For older people strength training is important for bone density, for maintaining muscle mass

How often should we exercise to get the benefits?
- There is a minimum daily recommendation for exercise in order to maintain health: 30 minutes every day. This way you protect against heart diseases and other illnesses.
- Regular and consistent exercising 7 days a week (5-6 days with intensity and 1-2 days moderate to gentle.) at least 50-60 minutes most days of the week maximizes your benefits.
It is recommended that you take advice of a professional before you undertake any exercise especially if you have never exercised before for it needs to start gently and progress into more intense gradually. Too much too fast and too soon can also result in injury and ill health. Awareness is the key.

What type of exercise should we do?
It is very important that we find the type of exercise that will suit our temperament, as well as our life style so that we enjoy practicing health and so that it never feels like a chore.

It is also important to know what our body can handle no matter what the age or body type may be. For those who are not used to regular exercising, it is never too late to begin. Starting with gentle exercises and gradually progressing makes the transition into a regular routine easy and in time it becomes a healthy habit where you continue to progress in intensity and challenge.

Types of Exercise:
There are 5 main types of physical exercise and ideally a combination of all is needed to maintain good health:
1. Aerobics: These increase your cardiovascular and respiratory health by increasing the capacity of your heart and lungs by enabling the supply of oxygen rich blood to your muscles which allows the muscles to function at capacity. These are exercises that make you breathe faster and may be high joint impact exercises like running, jogging, kickboxing or low joint impact exercises like swimming, brisk-walking, hiking and fast paced yoga as well as through advanced slow paced yoga techniques!
2. Respiratory/Lung exercises: These also increase your cardiovascular and respiratory health by increasing the capacity of your heart and lungs by enabling the supply of oxygen rich blood to your muscles which allows the muscles to function at capacity. These are exercises that increase your lung capacity by enabling better breathing and not just fast breathing as through aerobics! These are yogic pranayama or controlled breathing exercises that are done consistently.
3. Flexibility and Stretching exercises: These enable full range motion of muscles, ligaments and joints. These are exercises that enable even breathing like Pilates and yoga!
4. Resistance exercises: These increase your muscle strength, increase bone density and help prevent osteoporosis. These are exercises that allow your muscles to lift, push or pull like weight-lifting and yoga where you exercise against your own body weight!
o Isotonic strength training: Here muscles shorten as they contract through exercises like crunches, sit-ups, flexing of biceps and triceps as in a gym or yogic strength training.
o Isometric strength training: Here muscles contract but the length remains the same through exercises like pushing against an immovable object like the wall as in a gym or yogic strength training.
o Eccentric strength training: Here muscles lengthen as they contract through exercises like going downhill or through yogic toe walking!
o Isokinetic strength training: Here muscles contract at an even speed through exercises like swimming where the arms move evenly through water or through yoga!
5. Internal Body system (immune system, endocrine system, digestive system) strengthening exercises: Here the internal body system becomes stronger and healthier by exercising the internal organs through yogic twists!

In addition to physical exercises one should do static exercises to enable complete mind-body relaxation through practices like yogic meditation and visualization exercises as well as laughter yoga.

Some other facts about exercise and nutrition:
1. Muscle definition comes only after fat covering the muscle has burned away and this can happen only through a combination of challenging routines as mentioned like cardiovascular as well as strengthening exercises to create a metabolic active (calorie burning) lean mass. Instead of trying to spot reduce one body part at a time (like waist, abdominals, biceps or triceps), it is smarter to work on all parts of the body for whole body exercises burn more calories as you use more muscle mass.

2. Body weight is not the best indicator of how effective your health program is. Instead of weighing frequently on a scale, it is wiser to measure your body fat and body mass index to get a baseline and then rechecking your progress. Muscle mass is denser and heavier than body fat, and those who exercise regularly start seeing benefits by noticing how clothes start fitting better, how the body starts having definition and tone, waist size decreases and body starts to have a shape.

3. Body fat loss and not muscle loss is critical to your health; if you just diet and not exercise, a lot of weight loss could be muscle tissue and not fluid.

4. A simple rule of thumb for losing weight: Burn more calories by exercising intensely, consistently and daily than what you are gaining by eating!

5. Instead of anti-depressants for depression, anxiety and panic attacks exercise, eat right and have healthy and happy relationships so that happy chemical/hormones are released inside the body with proper functioning of the endocrine system (system of glands):

• Serotonin: secreted by pineal gland in the vertebrate brain regulates mood, prevents depression, and makes you feel happy. It is released in the body through exercise, being exposed to sunlight, and eating the required amount of carbohydrates.
• Endorphins: secreted by pituitary gland and the hypothalamus reduce anxiety and sensitivity to pain and make you feel happy. It is released in the body through exercise.
• Dopamine: secreted by nerve cells enables mental alertness, focus, concentration and the lack enables bad mood! It is released in the body by eating protein rich foods.
• Ghrelin: secreted by cells lining the stomach and the pancreas reduces stress and enables relaxation. It is released in the body when we are hungry! Eating the right amount at the right times, that is never making the stomach full completely enables production of ghrelin!
• Phenylethamine: results in the beautiful feelings at the threshold of wonderful relationships. It is released in the body by eating the right amount of chocolates since it is a part of cocoa beans.
• Oxytocin: secreted by pituitary gland enables happy feelings of love. It is released as a result of tender loving touch and is especially powerful with women are bonding with their babies. Stress is an inhibitor to the release of this hormone.

6. 4. An exercise plan should be pain free because it may be a sign of exhausted muscle or torn ligament! Discomfort on the other hand is acceptable in a challenging workout. An exercise plan should be such that it is sustainable in the long run, and not something that you do for 2-3 months and then quit for you could not sustain it!

7. 4. In any exercise program when the body consumes additional oxygen through correct breathing, it burns calories as it comes to its original state.

8. The core includes the whole midsection – front, back and the sides. Crunches impact all three parts but very little on the deeper muscles groups. Instead when we mix crunches with planks and twists as in yoga, it impacts the entire core!

9. Quick, few-second- rests between exercises as is done in yoga proves to be very therapeutic to the body.

10. 75 to 150 calories of protein and carbs is essential before you exercise. Exercising with a starving body will start using muscle tissue to produce the carb and this is very ineffective as this carb gets in your blood raising insulin level which fights against fat burning.

11. Over time even the most stubborn and problematic body areas become lean if you stay in a disciplined and structured exercise routine as well as cut your calories by following an effective nutritional diet.

12. You need not skip a day in between workouts unless you are working out with intensity every day! Those who work out with intensity every time need to give time in between for the muscle and soft tissues to repair.

13. Do not work-out with a tired body!

How do I fit in exercise on a busy schedule?
Do you find yourself with an excuse for not exercising?
- I just do not have the time
- My children are very young and I have to be constantly with them
- I exercise as I run around my children
- My daily schedule does not permit me to find time for exercise
- I have other more important things I need to do
- I am already overweight and unable to do anything
- I will do it when I have more time in the future
- I can’t afford

Even the busiest people, who understand health, exercise regularly because they understand the criticality of an exercise routine. Health conscious people do not allow any barrier to stand in their way; they leave themselves no choice but to exercise. Not exercising will create problems you may not even be aware of. Don’t get to the point that your doctor has to force you to exercise as a result of a medical condition that has left you no choice! Don’t get into a situation where some years down the road you are forced into thousands of dollars in medical bills instead of some structured finance today towards investment in your health.

- Wake up early and exercise before other members of the family wake up
- Fit it in your lunch hour
- Fit it after your children (who can stay home without supervision) have been brought home and cared for after school
- Fit it by asking your spouse for help for your “me time” and honor him with the same by alternating days with him.
- Visit a health place with your family. Some places allow children.
- Brisk walk on days when you can’t be in a health place and even better do it with your family members – children can bike! Take your dog!
- Take the stairs at every opportunity.

Do not procrastinate on your health; join a health studio or hire a private coach to come to your home or go to them. Take time out for your health. Give yourself a health gift. When you are healthier, have more energy, you will be able to take care of your loved ones much more effectively and without complaints.

At Wellness Haven, we believe in low joint impact exercises that are a combination of all the above mentioned types, so that you do not have to go to different places to complete your health needs and we achieve it through complete yogic practices:
- slow yogic stretches
- slow and fast paced sun salutations
- aerobics through advanced yoga techniques that create body heat, faster breathing and faster heart rate
- creation of happy chemicals inside the body through yogic twists and laughter yoga
- strengthening yogic exercises using our own body weight as well as through the use of low weight dumb-bells, sand bags, straps, blocks, ball and against the wall
- momentary relaxations in between exercises
- complete relaxation through shavasana, yoga nidra and visualization techniques
- meditative techniques
- controlled breathing exercises
For more information on Wellness Haven Health program visit us at: http://wellnesshaven.yourcoachsite.com/

With YOU in YOUR Health,
Thanks,

Namaste,
Umang Goel
Founder/Owner/Certified Yoga Instructor with 2000 plus hours of instruction experience/Rehab Yoga Therapist/Health, Wellness & Life Purpose /Author/Writer at Wellness Haven, LLC
phone: (925)819-6327
email: umang@wellnesshaven.com