How to keep fit and healthy

How much do I need to do to keep healthy?

Physical activity not only contributes to wellbeing, it is essential for good health (DH 2004). Increasing physical activity levels in the population will help prevent or manage over 20 conditions and diseases. This includes coronary heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and obesity. It can help to improve mental health.

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/11917/38983/38983.pdf

Luckily, the benefits of health can be achieved in 30 minutes of at least moderate activity on 5 to 7 days of the week. You can break these minutes into smaller chunks - for example, a short walk in your coffee or lunch break - so that keeping active is part of your everyday life. By keeping active, you can lower your risk of developing a serious condition such as coronary heart disease, stroke or Type 2 diabetes  by up to 50%.

Do you know how fit you are?  why not take this simple test - http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Fitness.aspx?Tag=Lose+weight

In order to improve fitness, you will need to work a bit harder (terned as "vigorous" exercise) where you get out of breath, and you are conscious that your heart is beating strongly. However, you should still be able to hold a conversation!  This type of exercise will challenge your heart and lungs, which in turn will improve your cardiovascular system.  Ideally, it would be good to push what is known as your "threshold" - where you feel a little more challenged, slight heaviness or burning in the leg muscles and a somewhat pained expression on your face....the good news is that this pushing of your fitness can be done in short bursts of around 10 - 30 seconds, with around 1-2 minutes of recovery.  So think about going for a run, and then speeding up over a short distance, or running up steps or a small hill. Of course, as this challenges your heart, you should take advice from your Doctor about the suitability of this type of exercise if you have not been active in the past 6 months. If you are not sure, then you are welcome to come and talk to the gym instructors that we have on duty, or even think about booking a Personal Trainer to advise on your level of exercise, and possibly do a short fitness test on you.

How to:

  1. Stretch Effectively
  2. Work on you Abs
  3. Improve Core Strength
  4. Help Back Pain
  5. Lose weight
  6. Gain Muscle
  7. Eat Well