American has a weight problem. The latest research shows that more than 60% of the population is overweight and in need of more physical activity. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) say we all need to be participating in aerobic and strength training exercises several times a week to get back in shape. Doctors are particularly worried about young people spending too much time playing video games or watching TV. As parents, we need to set a good example for the children so that they want to seek an active lifestyle so that their lives are not at risk in the future.

The CDC report lists specific guidelines for people who want to become more active. You can choose a mix of moderately intense aerobic activity or vigorous aerobic activity plus strength training to meet their goals. If you do a moderate activity like walking then they require 150 minutes per week but if you choose a vigorous activity like playing tennis or basketball they require at least 75 minutes per week. The more you do the better but consider the CDC requirements as the bare minimum. When it comes to strength training strive for at least two days a week working out the major muscle groups of the body. Three days would be even better but remember to give your muscles plenty of time to rest between workouts and do not work the same muscle groups on back to back days.

The report identifies a number of activities to choose from to fill the requirements. You could choose just one of them or a combination to meet the total time commitment. In addition to walking, moderate aerobic activity includes riding a bike on a flat route, water aerobics and even pushing the lawn mower. If you are looking for a more intense aerobic activity, then running, swimming laps and jumping rope will qualify. When you increase the intensity of your workout you achieve the health benefits from exercise twice as fast.

The CDC sets the 75/150 minutes of aerobic activity and 2 days of strength training requirement as the minimum and encourages people to go even farther for greater health benefits. The report challenges adults to step up the intense aerobic activity to 150 minutes a week or moderate activity to 5 hours per week to improve your health. Strength training should be increased to three or four days assuming you are letting the muscles get an adequate amount of rest in between.

Lifting weights is the most common form of strength training according to the CDC but there are other accepted activities like working with resistance bands or performing push ups or pull ups. When you do exercises like the pull up your body is serving as the weight that you are lifting and the same goes for push ups and sit ups. Even yoga qualifies as a muscle training activity when done properly. Holding the positions in yoga tones the muscles and improves your flexibility which will help prevent injury.

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Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: physical activity, physical activities