Exercise and WLS lifestyle

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Posted by Blake Handley on May 13, 2010 at 9:06 am

My experience with exercise and fitness is from being a couch potato for years and years who tried to get off the couch and do something about my own weight by form an exercise group for Big Guys. For three years I worked intensively with trainers and fitness instructors in a program for overweight men. All of this is my own opinion as a person who tried to lose weight and get healthy. Dr. Amson recommends to many of his patients to exercise more. Whenever I went to Dr. Amson with my diet and lifestyle changes the thing he beats on the most is to exercise more.

So what is exercise? Healthy exercise is any activity that raises the participant’s heart rate to 65% of their maximum safe rate for a period of at least 20 minutes. This is a Target Heart Rate and it varies between a person’s age and their fitness level. Your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. Remember, you don’t want to hit this number. You want to be about 65% of it to get the most benefit of your exercise. You can do this by any consistent activity that takes your heart up to its target heart rate and stays there for 20 minutes at a minimum.

There are four kinds of exercise that can help you: Aerobic, Anaerobic (Strength), Flexibility and Recreational exercises. Aerobic is the one we think about most when talking about fitness and losing weight. It is those people who are out walking, jogging, and swimming. Aerobic exercise is when you are getting enough air in your system to keep on going. The traditional suggestion is that you can talk with a little difficulty. So if you are walking around and you can catch up on the gossip, or sing a little song, then you need to push it up a little more to be effective. If you can’t catch your breath or unable to talk then you are working out too hard – you are then doing anaerobic exercise.

Anaerobic exercise happens when your body uses up all the available air in your body. This is a good thing if you want to strengthen your body. When you do weightlifting, or spin cycling (which I hate) then you end up using all your air. This makes your muscles stronger and forces them to rebuild better than they were before. While it creates stronger muscles, it develops your fitness level differently. You will actually train your body to burn off fat while it creates more muscles. Speaking of muscles, that is where strength training comes in. Strength training is repetitive stress on a muscle group to actually break down the muscles. The cool part is that muscles rebuild themselves and when they do they make your body process fats and food differently. Basically the body will draw on itself to make its own energy. Men and women can do the same exercises in the weight room but it will appear differently on them.

: Image via Wikipedia

Flexibility is another form of exercise. Exercise is about movement. That is why it is hard to do sitting on the couch. The more you can move the better the exercise. I know it looks incredibly goofy but if you swing your arms when you walk, you will improve the benefits from your exercise. But to be able to swing your arms you need to have flexibility. Stretching your muscle groups will help. Activities like yoga and water workouts are great for

stretching.

The last type of exercise is recreational. Exercise should be fun. And that is where exercise comes into play. Baseball, playing games, going for slow walks, are all wonderful recreational exercises. It is not to likely they will make you any thinner or lose weight. But they get you moving and that is a good thing. Aerobic, Strength training, and flexibility are all part and parcel of the process to help you get out and move.

So why do this? Exercise has value prior to your surgery because it will make you healthier and more prepared for your surgery. After your surgery, you will need to keep exercising to help keep the weight off and maintain your new lifestyle.

I am planning on putting together a WLS based “Boot Camp” for us to meet and work out together in Victoria. If you live in Victoria and are interested in meeting two times a week for a one hour work out drop me a line and let’s see what we can do.

Blake