Exercise Information

Learn about exercise, how to lose weight and how to get fit and healthy. Our exercise category offers exercises for weight loss, cardio and strength training, flexibility, yoga and aerobics workouts. We also provide information on weight training, bodybuilding, and wheelchair exercises.

Although our listed exercises are mainly for persons with disabilities and health conditions, such as arthritis and osteoporosis, many can be performed by anyone wishing to get and stay fit. Most adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week.

Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health. It is performed for many different reasons. These include: strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, and weight loss or maintenance. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent diseases of affluence such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health and helps prevent depression.

Proper nutrition is at least as important to health as exercise. When exercising, it becomes even more important to have a good diet to ensure that the body has the correct ratio of macronutrients whilst providing ample micronutrients, in order to aid the body with the recovery process following strenuous exercise.

Exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body:

Aerobic exercises, such as cycling, swimming, walking, rowing, running, hiking or playing tennis, focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance.

Anaerobic exercises, such as weight training, functional training or sprinting, increase short-term muscle strength.

Flexibility exercises, such as stretching, improve the range of motion of muscles and joints.

Active exhalation during physical exercise helps the body to increase its maximum lung capacity. This results in greater efficiency, since the heart has to do less work to oxygenate the muscles, and there is also increased muscular efficiency through greater blood flow. Consciously breathing deeply during aerobic exercise helps this development of the heart and lungs.

If you spend long hours in a wheelchair you know it can lead to uneasiness and be very uncomfortable, which is true for anyone who is disabled. Keeping the body moving as much as possible in your wheelchair should be a regular part of your daily fitness program. This should be a priority no matter what your disability. Doing regular wheelchair exercise will help you increase your strength, flexibility, improve your mobility, strengthen your heart and lungs, and help you control your weight.

Proper rest and recovery are also as important to health as exercise; otherwise the body exists in a permanently injured state and will not improve or adapt adequately to the exercise. Hence, it is important to remember to allow adequate recovery between exercise sessions. It is necessary to refill the glycogen stores in the skeletal muscles and liver.

Exercise and Fitness

Information Regarding Exercise Information

No Time to Exercise? New Exercise HIT Involves Exercising Less! - The new exercise HIT: do less - The usual excuse of "lack of time" for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology.

What you Eat After Exercising Makes a Difference - Many of the health benefits of aerobic exercise are due to the most recent exercise session (rather than weeks, months and even years of exercise training), and the nature of these benefits can be greatly affected by the food we eat afterwards, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Using Exercise Stability Balls at Work - Using a stability ball as an office chair strengthens core muscles, similar to the use of a backless chair or stool; the freedom of movement from a stability ball also may decrease confined or constrained body postures that frequently occur at workstations.

Exercise Good for Lymphoma Patients - Lymphoma patients who received the exercise intervention reported significantly improved physical functioning, overall quality of life, less fatigue, increased happiness, less depression and an improvement in lean body mass.

Abdominal Exercises for Back Pain and Psoas Muscles - To improve psoas functioning, a different approach to abdominal exercises than the one commonly practiced is necessary. Instead of "strengthening," the emphasis must be on awareness, control, balancing and coordination of the involved muscles - the purview of somatic education.

Physical Inactivity Poses Health Risk to Americans - Physical inactivity poses greatest health risk to Americans, research shows. Leading exercise scientist points to increasing evidence that sedentary lives can be deadly. As many as 50 million Americans are living sedentary lives, putting them at increased risk of health problems and even early death, a leading expert in exercise science told the American Psychological Association today.

Effective Ways of Promoting Physical Exercise - A study published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine has found that of six interventions promoting exercise in adults in Australia, encouraging the use of pedometers - simple step counting devices that can be used as a motivational tool - and promoting physical activity through mass media campaigns are the most cost-effective in terms of the money spent for the health benefits they result in.

Safe Exercise for Migraine Sufferers - Many patients who suffer from migraines avoid taking aerobic exercise because they are afraid that the physical activity may bring on a serious migraine attack. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now developed an exercise programme that can improve fitness among migraine sufferers without aggravating this painful condition.

Walking and Biking to Work - Attitudes and Obstacles - According to researchers with Kansas State University's Physical Activity and Public Health Laboratory, active commuting, walking or biking to school or work, can be an easy, effective and efficient way to integrate physical activity into the daily routine.

Knee and Hip Replacements - Exercises After Surgery - During your rehabilitation process from either a hip or knee replacement, you will have been presented with a host of exercises to complete to assure your success. The exercises should be presented in an orderly fashion taking into consideration the date of surgery, your overall medical condition and age.

Exercises to Strengthen Pelvic Floor Muscles - Your pelvic floor muscles, as well as those of your abdomen, are important in helping to keep things moving so that your body is able to efficiently remove waste material. There are many factors that can weaken these muscles and this can lead to incontinence.

Exercise Reduces Depression Improves Self Esteem in Overweight Children - Less than an hour of daily exercise reduces depressive symptoms and improves self esteem in overweight children, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. The study included 207 overweight, typically sedentary children ages 7-11 randomly assigned to either continue their sedentary lifestyle or exercise for 20 or 40 minutes every day after school for an average of 13 weeks.

Moderate Intensity Walking Means 100 Steps per Minute - The benefits of moderate physical activity to general health and well-being are well known. It is recommended that people engage in 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity, equivalent to 30 minutes each day 5 times a week.

Using an Exercise Ball for Fitness - Many people owe their fitness and health to exercise balls, including some people who suffer from muscular dystrophy and as such have balancing problems. That is not the limit of the exercise ball's usefulness however. The exercise ball is an excellent home exercise and fitness accessory and can be used to build muscle as well as improve their endurance.

Accessible Fitness Enhances Abilities - O'Lone developed a self-taught rehabilitation program that helped him regain the full use of his legs and overall body strength. Months of work - work that included walking a treadmill every night until he dropped into bed exhausted - helped him literally get back on his feet. "People said, 'You're overdoing it.' But every day I got up and I felt my legs come back, stronger and stronger."

Yoga Aerobics and Pilates Fitness Routines - Exercises and lessons in Yoga, Aerobics, and Pilates fitness routines for individuals with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Yoga and Pilates which have, both been gaining in popularity over the last decade are two mind–body exercise interventions that address both the physical and mental aspects of pain with core strengthening, flexibility, and relaxation. There has been a slow evolution of these nontraditional exercise regimens into treatment paradigms for lower back pain treatment.

Exercising Programs For People With Disabilities - The benefits of working a consistent exercise program in someone’s weekly routine are the same for the disabled as they are for anyone else! You will be able to control your weight, increase your strength and mobility, reduce pain, maintain your independence, uplift yourself, and literally lengthen your life.

Older Runners Postpone Disability - A study from Stanford University in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that older people who run and participate in other aerobic activities are less likely to die young than people who do not run. Non-runners were more than three times more likely to die young than runners, but that is not the exciting news. The more important finding is that older men and women who exercise regularly are far less likely to suffer any form of disability than people who do not exercise.

Wheelchair Exercises and Fitness - If you spend long hours in a wheelchair you know it can lead to uneasiness and be very uncomfortable, which is true for anyone who is disabled. Keeping the body moving as much as possible in your wheelchair should be a regular part of your daily fitness program. This should be a priority no matter what your disability. Doing regular wheelchair exercise will help you increase your strength, flexibility, improve your mobility, strengthen your heart and lungs, and help you control your weight.

Link to "Exercise Information on Disability Exercises" - http://www.disabled-world.com/fitness/exercise/