Exercise -- An Important Part of Everyone's Healthy Lifestyle:
Exercise should be a part of everyone's healthy lifestyle. For people with metabolic syndrome, exercise is so beneficial that it is actually an important part of medical treatment.
To begin, your exercise program should be:
- physician approved and monitored
- frequent, if not daily
- activities you enjoy
The Two Main Categories of Exercise: There are two main categories of exercise -- aerobic and anaerobic. Both types are important parts of an exercise program for metabolic syndrome. It continues to be important even if you have developed diabetes and/or heart disease.
Aerobic Exercise: Aerobic exercise is low intensity muscle activity, which allows muscles to use oxygen to break down glucose (sugar). Glucose is the fuel that creates the energy needed for activity. Breaking down glucose "aerobically" (that is, with oxygen) is a highly efficient way to obtain energy for muscle work. Available fuel means aerobic exercise often can be performed for long periods of time.
Activities Considered Aerobic: Typical aerobic activities are brisk walking, jogging, swimming and biking. These are activities that are continuous and last longer than three minutes because they do not over-exhaust the body.
Aerobic Exercise will Help to:
- Decrease blood pressure
- Decrease resting heart rate
- Improve insulin action in the muscles. Your muscles will become better at using the insulin that has become a problem with insulin resistance. Your insulin and blood sugar levels will go down.
- Increase levels of HDL or good cholesterol.
- Increase cardiac output, which means more blood moved with each heartbeat.
- Decrease resting respiratory rate, so your lungs don't work as hard.
- Increase blood flow to your lungs, helping your heart, brain and tissues to get more oxygen.
- Burn calories, which increases weight loss.
Anaerobic Exercise: Anaerobic exercise is muscle activity that is so sudden and intense that the muscles are required to break down glucose without using oxygen. Anaerobic exercise is brief and of a high-intensity (such as lifting heavy weights or sprinting). It usually lasts less than 3 minutes at a time because the muscles cannot work for very long without using oxygen. The capacity to perform anaerobic exercise allows animals (such as us) to engage in sudden bursts of activity without having to wait for oxygen to be delivered to the working muscles for use.
Why Anaerobic Exercise Is Important: These types of activity do not strengthen the heart, but they do strengthen the muscles. Stronger muscles improve your metabolic function increasing your metabolic rate. This helps you to keep your weight down. Anaerobic exercise also will improve insulin sensitivity in your muscles, improving problems associated with insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. The resistance that builds muscle has the added benefit of building and strengthening bone.
Examples of Anaerobic Exercise: Climbing the stairs or quickly running are examples of the short burst of energy involved in anaerobic exercise. Interval training is another example of effective anaerobic exercise. An example of this would be to walk for 2-5 minutes and then pick up your pace or jog for 30 seconds, and return to a walk for another 2-5 minutes. This can be accomplished with bike riding and swimming as well. Lifting weights is another good type of anaerobic exercise.
What Are the Differences in Terms of Fat Burning: Your exercise program should include all large muscle groups to be effective. Studies recently have suggested that you burn more fat when you perform lower intensity exercises like walking. This is true during the initial exercise period. However, after the walking is over, you don't continue to burn fat for very long (about 2 hours). With a good anaerobic exercise workout, you can continue to burn fat for up to 18 to 24 hours afterwards. In addition, you increase the metabolic efficiency of your muscles, increasing your metabolic rate 24 hours a day -- as long as you continue to follow your program.
As indicated at the beginning of this article, it is very important to get your doctor on board at the beginning of your exercise plans. Alhtough I have made mention of jogging, bicycling and weight lifting, it is highly recommended that you start out modestly. Walking is an excellent and generally safe exercise. Gradually you can increase your workout time and your intensity, branching out into more vigorous and venturesome activities as you are able.
For more information see: Sources:
For more information see: Sources:
- Doctor's Senior Exercise Aerobic versus anaerobic. [online]. Accessed January 21, 2007.
- University of Michigan Health System - Sports Medicine Advisor. Starting an exercise program. [online]. Accessed January 21, 2007.
- Youngren, J.F, Keen, S., Kulp, J.L., Tanner, C.J., Houmard, J.A. & Goldfine, I.D. (2001). Enhanced muscle insulin receptor autophosphorylation with short-term aerobic exercise training. American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism. 280:3, E528-E533.