Exercise

It is recommended you get 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, 75 minutes of high-intensity activity, or a combination of both will target various systems in your body. That is 25 minutes each day.

You also want to think about variety. When varying up your workouts it’s easier to prevent plateau or injury, but it also triggers different systems of the body. For instance, cardio is great for the cardiovascular system, but it isn’t the optimal workout for bones and joints. There you’ll want to incorporate some strength training.

The framework for exercise is built upon four pillars: stability, strength, aerobic efficiency, and anaerobic performance.

We want to be able to perform activities of daily living independently when we are at an old age.

Stability

Stability is truly the cornerstone upon which your strength, your aerobic performance, and your anaerobic performance relies. And when it comes to working on any of the other pillars, stability is critical for doing so safely.

Flexibility, moblility, and balance: yoga, tai chi, pilates, dynamic neuromuscular stability.

• Posture: improves posture, which helps organs, breathing, and even your digestion
• Stress reduction: promotes relaxation both physically and mentally
• Cardiovascular: increases blood flow
• Tension: physically releases tension in various parts of the body. For instance, some stretches may reduce heachache.

Strength

Strength means utilizing muscle to generate force. And if you are interested in living a long and healthy life and playing with your great-grandkids someday, then muscle mass should be a priority.'

Strength and resistance training helps maintain healthy muscle mass throughweight lifting, squats, lunges, pullups, pushups, dips, presses, medicine ball/kettlebell swings, ab workouts

• Muscle mass: as you age, muscle mass naturally decreases. Weaving consistent strength training into your regime slows down that trend. Muscle mass is also an important factor in maintaining healthy testosterone levels.
• Joints and bones: strengthens bone density and flexibility, which reduces the risk of fracture, joint pain associated with arthritis and other bone diseases, and osteoporosis (common in women).
• Weight management: helps your body burn calories more effectively, which in turn helps control weight and energy conversion.This also helps reduce risk and symptoms associated with unhealthy weight and inflammation: arthritis, back pain, obesity, heart disease, depression, and diabetes.

Aerobic Performance

Aerobic cardio workouts benefit your cardiovascular system. By increasing your heart rate and respiration, you are bringing oxygen into the lungs, stimulating your metabolism (which converts calories to energy), and brain function. Cardio includes: running/jogging, power walking, bicycling, swimming, hiking.

• Cholesterol: increases your HDL cholesterol, which then helps manage your LDL. As a result, this helps keep your arteries clean and void of plaque buildup
• Insulin: makes your cells and muscles more sensitive to insulin so you don’t need as much. Less insulin means less belly fat.
• Blood flow: when your heart pumps during a cardio workout, you are increasing oxygen and blood flow. Overtime, this activation of your heart will strengthen it and your overall red blood health.
• Immune system: activates your immune mechanisms to flush bacteria from airways, stimulate white blood cells to circulate faster, and even slow down the release of stress hormones.
• Bones: low impact and weight-bearing cardio like walking and swimming can help build bone strength and decrease risk of bone-related diseases
• Brain: serotonin
• Weight management: by controlling weight and keeping it at a healthy level, you lower your risk of diseases that are often associated with unhealthy weight: heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, stroke and certain types of cancer.

Aerobic performance or zone 2 is defined as the highest metabolic output/work that you can sustain while keeping your lactate level below two millimole per liter. This is the highest level of exertion that is effectively pure mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation before you start to net accumulate lactate.

Anaerobic Output

Anaerobic output or zone 5 training focuses on improving VO2 max.

High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a combination of fast and slow movement—high and low intensity. This type of exercise impacts your metabolism by making more “mighty mitochondria;” the power plants inside of your cells that burn energy. In short, HIIT is hitting your top capacity 45 seconds to a minute, then full recovery for two to three minutes (walking, etc.) then going right back at it.

• VO2: Your ability to burn calories is linked to how much oxygen you can consume per minute (referred to as VO2 max). If you have a very high VO2 max, you’ll have a very easy time losing weight. How do you get your cells to consume more oxygen? Not by breathing faster, but by making your cells smarter and fitter.

Exercise Routine

A typical week of exercise consists of:

• 3-5 bouts of strength training
• 4 bouts of zone 2
• 2 bouts of zone 5
• A little bit of stability every day