I ended last week’s column by addressing the best types of exercises for good health. I talked about aerobic or endurance exercises which are some of the most common type of exercises.
They are regular low to medium intensity exercise like using the treadmill in a gym, large group dance type exercises, swimming and rapid walking.
Today, I will continue talking about the best types of exercises for good health. Having talked about aerobic or endurance exercises I now move to Anaerobic or Power exercises. These are probably less popular.
They are resistance or power exercises. Most people do these exercises with weights, either free weights or resistance training machines.
These exercises focus on the big muscles of the body, the chest, the arms, thighs and so on. The exercises are done in rapid cycles of 10 to 15 turns.
The body does not have enough time to get the oxygen required to produce energy for the muscle contraction from the body’s sugar stores. So the body uses other source of energy such as fat or burns glucose incompletely.
The result is the production of acid in the muscles (in particular lactic acidosis). This is the reason that during these exercises cramps and pains is felt in the muscles. So if
you get cramps you are most likely doing anaerobic exercises.
These forms of exercise also burn fat and therefore reduce fat under the skin. These exercises are beneficial in producing myokines, which are muscle chemicals that help with repair of body tissues, they help keep sugar level low and keeps other body damaging chemicals down.
Some proportion of a daily exercise routine should include some power exercises. If you want to build and shape these are the exercises you want to focus on.
However they only give you healthy muscles, to get a healthy heart and lung you still need to do some anaerobic exercises.
Flexibility or stretch exercises – these focus on stretching muscles and tendons. They are usually good warm up exercise. They warm up the muscle to prepare the body for exercise; this reduces the risk of muscle injury.
However their greatest value to the body is that they help it to produce stretch fibres. One of the reason professional athletes age so slowly is because of the abundance of the stretch fibres.
It is the lack of the stretch fibres (collagen) in the body that lead to features of ageing such as wrinkles, stiffness of joints and limping.
These exercises are usually used at the beginning and the end of an exercise routine. They warm up the muscle and cool them down.
If you go straight into an exercise routine without warming up the muscle you are at risk of muscle injury.
The typical scenario, is the example of a Granddad who joins in a football match with a couple of young grandchildren, and cannot wake up the following working day, or old Madalas football match over the weekend that results in most of the middle and top management staff failing to come into work on Monday morning.
These types of exercises are part of dance routines such as ballet dance which is a popular type of dance. Make sure that a proportion of your work out includes stretch exercises; they will keep you young and your skin supple.
How can I begin to exercise more? Most people are convinced of the health value of exercise, but many feel they have either no resource or no time to exercise.
In fact both these excuse are a form of self appeasement. None of the exercises actually require belonging to a gym or any special equipment.
They also do not require allocation of special additional time. Of course if one can use a gym or build their own gym at home all the better, but it is not essential.
The question is also often asked, how do I start? The last time I did any exercises was, when I was in school.
Well the simplest place to start is at home in your own bed room, one easy way to do it is to allocate 15 minutes a day to exercise. Once you get into the routine you can increase to the level recommended for your age.
Begin by doing simple stretching exercises, either before going to bed or first thing when you wake up. Do the stretches for 5 minutes. The simplest is to try and touch your toes, as you do this more and more you will find more and more varieties of stretches.
Start and end with stretch exercises. The simplest endurance or aerobic exercises are trotting on one spot, or walking rapidly around your house.
Try and keep your pulse rate just below 100 beats per minute. If you have a pulse monitor you can use it, or you can measure your pulse between exercises.
You simply need a watch and the ability to feel your wrist and count the beats by placing your finger over the outer part of the wrist with your palm open.  Do these exercises for another five minutes. Then in the last five minutes you can then do the power or muscle strengthening exercises.
The easiest power exercises are pushups. This is where you push up your own weight.
Many women are reluctant to do power exercises, because they are afraid to begin to look masculine, however you will only begin to look masculine if your weight training involves the
lifting of heavy weights.
Once you have begun and are regular you will be able to vary your exercise routine more and more. You are likely to begin to invest a little more in your exercise routine to improve its quality.
However, what is important is to start with what you have which is just your body. You will be surprised and impressed at the impact it will have not only on your health, but your appearance and your mood.
The more physically fit you are, the better your mental performance becomes. Get yourself hocked to exercise; once you do you will never be able to stop.
In conclusion, the change of life style in Zambia has led to a decline in physical exercise. The adoption of a European life style has meant
that many of us do less than the minimum recommended level of exercise for good health. When we exercise, the body produce chemicals that help keep the body young, reduce un-health chemicals in the body and keep the sugar levels low. In the end all our body organs are healthy. Less than 25 per cent reach the daily recommended exercise levels.
Most of our children spend more time watching TV, than exercising. We will all be healthier, live long and look younger if we began to exercise at least for 15 minutes every day. We do not need complicated equipment to do this.
A simple routine that consists of at least three varieties of exercises which include stretching, brisk walk (endurance) and pushups (power exercise) will give us a healthy body.
Lets us all add a routine 15 minute exercise to our daily programme today.
(The author is Professor of Urology at the Copperbelt University he is also the Dean of the Copperbelt University School of Medicine. kbowa@yahoo.com. He is the Author of the popular motivational book “Making the Cut”)