Be Smart with Fitness and Exercise – Doing too Much too Quickly Can Lead to Injury, Failure

The experts all agree: Exercise can certainly improve your health and help you look better, feel better, and sleep better.

In fact, the benefits are so obvious that the surgeon general advises adults to engage in a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate activity each week and prescribes an hour of activity a day for children and teenagers.

Local experts also tout the rewards of getting in shape and staying fit, which can be accomplished in a wide variety of ways.

“Exercise helps people maintain a healthy body weight and increases the efficiency of their heart. It optimizes metabolism, reduces blood pressure and helps people control their blood sugar and maintain their muscle mass and bone health. It can also affect mood,” said Elizabeth O’Neill, assistant professor and program director for Applied Exercise Science at Springfield College, explaining that regular exercise can help people feel good about themselves and lead to self confidence.

Mark Shumway agrees. “Exercise relieves stress, helps the heart, and increases energy and stamina,” said the owner of Total Transformation Fitness & Weight Management in Hampden.

However, many adults who hope to become fit or lose weight set themselves up for injury or failure — or both — by setting unrealistic, unobtainable goals.

Shumway’s clients range from 5 to their 90s, and he has worked with a 95-year-old for 12 years who is in optimal shape and leads a very active life. But he said it’s not unusual for him to meet with adults who expect to lose 20 to 30 pounds and get in shape in a short period of time through extreme measures, which include severely limiting their food intake and pushing their body to do more than it can handle.

“People who have been sedentary often wait until a week before their vacation starts or an event to start exercising,” he told HCN. “But getting in shape and losing weight takes time. You have to eat the right foods and start exercising slowly if you want to avoid injuries.”

O’Neill concurred. “Even athletes can overdo it, and the risk of injury increases if you do too much too quickly or exercise at a high rate of intensity and don’t allow enough time for your body to recover,” she said.

They and other fitness professionals agree that people should schedule a visit with their doctor before starting an exercise regimen, especially if they have health problems. And O’Neill said this step is particularly important for men over age 45 and women over age 55.

“They need to make sure there are no counter-indications,” she explained. “If the person has been sedentary for a long period of time, they may have gained weight or developed a condition such as high blood pressure since their last office visit.”

She added that it can be helpful to know your fitness baseline before you begin.

“Health clubs sometimes offer free evaluations and can help people determine their baseline. Or they can simply go out and walk a mile and see how they feel,” she explained. “They should notice whether they get winded and how long it takes them to recover as well as how sore they are the next day.

“Muscle soreness is an indication that your body is trying to repair itself,” she went on. “A small amount of soreness is OK, but an extreme amount means you overdid it. If you are sore after walking a mile, you are not very fit.”

The American College of Sports Medicine, (ACSM), says one of the primary goals of an exercise program should be to develop and maintain cardiorespiratory fitness, which can be achieved through aerobic exercise. Changing the intensity of your program can result in gains, and can be accomplished by increasing the grade on a treadmill, the pedaling resistance on a bicycle, or by switching to a uphill route if you exercise outdoors.

O’Neill says the ACSM tells adults to strive to get to the point where they can exercise at a moderate level of intensity for 30 to 60 minutes five days a week or engage in intense exercise 20 to 60 minutes, three days a week.

“Once you achieve the five-day goal, you can add a day of vigorous activity,” she suggested.

Although cardiovascular fitness is important, strength training should also be incorporated into a weekly routine, because it builds and maintains muscle mass and helps reduce bone loss. However, using proper form when lifting weights is critical, and experts advise hiring a trainer for a few sessions to learn the correct stance for different moves.

“If you try to learn to lift dumbbells by watching a video, you won’t know if your back is rounded,” O’Neill said, citing an example of a way in which someone can get hurt.

She also warns people to be vigilant when engaging in extreme programs such as Cross Fit, because the workouts can include high-intensity aerobics combined with complex, Olympic-style weight-lifting moves.

“If you become fatigued, your form may start to falter and you can get injured,” she noted. “A program like Cross Fit can be exciting and motivating, but knowing when to stop is important; people need to listen to their bodies to avoid injury.”

Shumway added that it’s important to take a day off between weight-lifting sessions. “Muscle is broken down each time each time you lift and the only way to rebuild it is to give it time to repair,” he said, adding that people who don’t want to go to a gym or lift dumbbells can use their own body weight to gain strength by doing squats or push-ups.

But regardless of what type of exercise a person undertakes, their routine should never begin without warming up, then stretching.

“It’s important to warm up first; otherwise it’s like pulling a rubber band out of the freezer and trying to stretch it; the rubber band will snap, and people can pull a muscle or end up with a setback,” Shumway said, noting that he advises clients to warm up for five to 10 minutes and stretch for five minutes. “You also shouldn’t use the scale to measure your progress, because muscle weighs three times more than fat. People may gain weight as a result of strength training, but lose inches on their body and find their clothes fit better.”

Motivation is a key factor in maintaining fitness, and apps have been developed to help people stay on track.

“Some allow you to compete against friends or earn points by exercising that can be donated to charities,” O’Neill said. “Others have built-in GPS systems. You plug in your location and the distance you want to walk or run, and it gives you options for different routes.”

There are also apps with videos that show how to target and exercise different muscle groups, and ones with interval timers that can be set and programmed to go off every 30 or 60 seconds, so people know when to change what they are doing.

Finding an exercise partner is another strategy to help people stay on track. “It provides you with an accountability factor,” O’Neill said. “Paying a personal trainer can also be a good option because it can help people save money down the line in healthcare costs.”

Finding time to exercise can be difficult, but it can be integrated into your day.

“Get up earlier in the morning and take a walk. Then walk again during your lunch break and after dinner,” said O’Neill. “Exercise doesn’t have to be vigorous, and includes things like gardening that involve squatting down and standing up. If you do something you enjoy, you are more likely to stick to it.”

She also suggests telling your children there will be no TV on certain days of the week and finding physical activities to do with them that are fun. “Go on a hike or find a hilly route to walk,” O’Neill said.

Shumway agrees, and says the morning is an ideal time to exercise because it “jump starts your metabolism, so you burn more calories efficiently throughout the day.”

But whether you choose to work out in the morning, afternoon or evening, it will take time to get into shape and stay that way.

But experts across the nation agree it’s a laudable goal with priceless benefits. “Exercise can enhance your life and lengthen it,” Shumway said, adding, again, that it needs to be done properly.