Topics Covered:
- Introduction
- Benefits of exercise
- Principles of exercise
- Components of fitness
- FIIT factors
- Warm-up and cool down
- Injury management
- Environmental considerations
- Women and exercise
- Children and exercise
- Elderly and exercise
- Exercise apparels
- Exercise program design
1. INTRODUCTION :
10 Rules to Remember:
Before you start exercise at home, remember these ten Rules –
(i) Human body is a complex machine. Two individuals would not respond alike to the same exercise or nutrition because of their peculiarities of genetics, age, sex, medical history, body composition, Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), emotional well being, etc.
Therefore, you have to experiment with your body and find the best exercise and nutrition solutions that suit you, so how start exercise at home?
You may get many small but useful tips from them, e.g., wearing underwear one size smaller or shoes one size larger than your regular size. Can make your long runs more comfortable; or, a banana before or during your exercise may provide wonderful fuel throughout your exercise session.
(iii) The subject of health and fitness is quite vast. Therefore, other aspects should also be taken care of.
For example, you may never realize that chronic sleep debt or mental stress might be restraining you from reaching your peak performance despite having an excellent exercise regimen and a balanced diet.
(iv) Know the basics of exercise and nutrition. But be bold enough to experiment with what you see around – without any prejudice. Many of the top world sports persons are vegetarian and practice Yoga, Tai chi, meditation to enhance their performance.
(v) Mind and body influence each other. Without the focus of mind, you cannot reach your peak training potential. ‘My mind is everything.
My muscles are pieces of rubber’ – Paavo Nurmi (all-time great distance runner, holder of 22 world records.) Similarly, the state of your body also affects your state of mind.
Try this next time – when you are depressed – put on your running shoes, run slowly for 40-60 minutes and your depression would vanish!
(vi) Give your body its proper place in your overall scheme of things. Don’t extol your body beyond what it deserves.
A body-centric approach may lead you to a disgusting obsession with your body and you may end up taking power performance drugs like steroids. A healthy body with a healthy mind should be our objective.
(vii) Don’t expect miracles overnight. Beware of all those books, machines and miracle foods claiming to give you a muscular body with six-pack abs within a week or month without any workout.
Fortunately, there is no alternative to intelligent and hard (and harder) work (outs)! Keep patience. Take no shortcuts. Generally, one reaches one’s peak potentiality after 40-42 weeks of persistent and scientific training, though benefits of exercise start to appear from the first week itself.
(viii) Be an intelligent investor. Invest more time and money for your health and fitness. Take out daily at least half an hour for vigorous exercise. This is the best Life Insurance Policy ever invented!
(ix) Never compete with others. Compete against yourself. By competing against others you may get into too much too soon trap and end up injuring yourself – physically, mentally and emotionally!
Physical health can be described as the smooth functioning of all our systems including nervous, energy, skeletal, endocrine, cardiovascular systems; it is not merely the absence of any disease.
Mental and emotional well being is the other important aspect of health.
Fitness, on the other hand, is one’s ability to meet certain measurable physical standards for a particular job, e.g., fitness for the army, college football team, etc.
You may be an impressive bodybuilder but in the process. If you have overburdened your kidneys with a high-protein diet, that is not a fitness with health. An intelligent person will never pursue fitness at the cost of his health.
Draw a bigger line:
Before start exercise at home, realize the importance of a healthy lifestyle, the next challenge is to keep yourself constantly on track. For this, you require a positive approach towards exercise. Sometimes exercise and nutrition are ‘prescribed’ as a complementary preventive, regulatory or curative medicine for certain diseases.
Many persons start exercise at home only after they are detected with some disease, e.g., diabetes or heart disease. They take exercise as a bitter pill. This is not the right approach to start exercise and like most of the New Year resolutions, this also will not take you very far.
I laugh at the ways suggested sometimes by health magazines and articles in newspapers for fat loss e.g., how to control your cravings for ‘good food. Even Gastric Bypass surgery is suggested! Don’t take up exercise ‘just to be fit. Adopt a healthy lifestyle as a celebration of life. Aim BIG. For example, aim to run a half marathon next year.
Once you start training for the half marathon, automatically junk foods, late-night parties or late morning sleeps will fast lose their attraction for you. Nutritious food and regular training sessions will replace your lethargic routine. Remember, aiming big is the only way to steer clear of small temptations in life.
It’s for everyone, everywhere The scope of this article has been deliberately keeping limited to bodyweight exercises which can be performed anywhere. You may like to do them with your partner. Once you have mastered the basics of exercise, you may also like to invest in a few sets of free weights. Buy dumbbells, bench, chin-up bar.
That’s all. Start exercise at home with whatever is available. But do start. Use stairs of hotels, do skipping in the room, do circuit training in your room. A space of 6' x 6' is big enough for exercise.
Knowledge is for action Learn the basics of exercise and nutrition. Learn more than the basics. And, apply the knowledge. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply.” - Goethe. Maintain a logbook to keep a record of your daily exercise regimen, nutrition and monitor your progress in fitness and well-being.
Experiment with yourself. And see for yourself what really works for you. For example, you may observe after some time that your body requires a little longer recovery period. Or, your body system is not comfortable with dairy products.
Start exercise at home finally, set your focus right. Focus on fitness and health, not on the shape or weight of your body. As long as you have steady progress in health and fitness, you should not worry about your shape or weight. Genetically very few persons have been endowed with the potentiality of building a model’s physique.
However, this should not disappoint you. Look at the top sports persons in any field of sports to realize this truth. You will find that very few of them have a model’s physique, though all of them are supremely fit!
If you are constantly worried about your weight, I must tell you that ironically, a weighing machine is the most used though most useless equipment in a gym. If have any doubt you can simply read this article on Weight Management.
2. START EXERCISE BENEFITS:
These are the major benefits of start exercise at home –
(i) It delays biological ageing. Your ageing process is influenced by your genetics, environment and lifestyle. Let me explain that chronological ageing is different from biological ageing. For instance, all persons born on 05th February 1966 will inevitably turn 45 on 05th February 2011 (this is chronological age).
But not two of these persons will be of the same biological age at any given point in time! Interesting? This is because biological ageing is the ageing of our biological systems, i.e., cardiovascular, skeletal system, etc. Thus it is quite possible that the heart of a trained athlete of 60 may be biologically younger than that of a sedentary person of 30.
Next time when someone asks your age, ask him back – chronological or biological one?
Regular exercise delays the ageing process in the following ways – (a) As you age, there is a decline inefficiency of your cardiovascular system. By start exercise, especially aerobic exercise, your VO2 Volume; O2 – Oxygen; max – Maximum.) improves.
VO2 max refers to max (V – uptake of maximal oxygen and its utilization by your body. A higher VO2 max means –
(i) your heart’s capacity to pump blood is increased;
(ii) your lungs’ capacity to fill themselves with a larger volume of oxygen is increased;
(iii) your arteries and blood vessels can deliver more oxygen;
(iv) your muscles will utilize oxygen more efficiently. The net result of all these will be that you will tire less even at a higher intensity of activity.
(b) We lose about 0.2 kg of muscle per year during our 30s and 40s. This process of muscle loss is called sarcopenia. The rate of muscle loss may double up to 0.45 kg per year in people past 50 years2. Regular exercise, especially strength training, decreases the rate of muscle loss. Strength training contributes to strength gain at any age -
(i) It helps to prevent cardiovascular diseases, stroke, type II diabetes, cancer of the colon.
(ii) Low-intensity endurance training has a lowering effect in cases of high blood pressure.
(iii) It helps to increase HDL (High-density lipoprotein) and decrease LDL (Low-density lipoprotein). Lower LDL and higher HDL means a decreased risk of coronary heart disease.
(iv) It reduces total body fat and makes you leaner.
(v) It increases bone strength and is helpful in preventing those nasty bathroom hip fractures in advanced age.
(vi) It also strengthens cartilage, tendons and ligaments makes them more flexible and thus prevents injury.
(vii) It improves immunity against various diseases. (viii) It improves overall strength, endurance, flexibility, agility, motor coordination and balance.
(ix) Regular exercise improves brain power, gives lightness of body, decreases anxiety and depression, makes you confident and enhances the feeling of well-being. It gives you sufficient energy reserve to excel in your day to day life whether at home or at the workplace.
3. PRINCIPLES OF EXERCISE:
To design an effective exercise program, certain basic principles of start exercise at home must be followed. These principles are equally important for everyone, whether one is an elite athlete or a common exerciser. The basic principles of exercise are–
(i) Start Exercise and Maintain Regularity
Regularity means that all exercises for cardiovascular endurance, muscle strength and flexibility should be done at least 3-5 times a week at regular intervals. Regularity in exercise promotes better performance by allowing regular load and then adequate rest to exercised muscles.
A long gap between two exercise sessions may cause de-conditioning of muscles during which gains in strength, endurance or flexibility, lost. Moreover, injuries are frequent results of irregular exercise sessions because de-conditioned muscles are mindlessly subjected to the same (previous) training load despite their decreased strength in the meantime.
(ii) Start Exercise & Keep Progression
Progression means that there should be a gradual increase in intensity and volume of exercise. An increase in intensity means an increase in weight (in weight/resistance training) or an increase in heart rate (in endurance training).
Similarly, an increase in volume means an increase in the number of repetitions (reps)/sets or an increase in total duration (in endurance training). Stressing your system too much too soon may actually harm you.
It may cause overtraining and injury. Therefore, first, know your existing baseline fitness level and gradually go on increasing the load. It is always advisable to start with 2–3 weeks of gradual conditioning by doing light exercises before you graduate to a full-fledged exercise program.
(iii) Start Exercise and Maintain Balance
Balance means that an exercise programme must address all components of fitness, viz., endurance, strength, flexibility, speed, agility, etc. (See the section on Components of Fitness). However, there may be specific weightage on a particular component based on one’s training goal.
For example, a marathon runner may focus more on endurance training while a football player may train mainly in speed, agility and strength. But irrespective of one’s training goal, one has to maintain a certain basic balance among various components of fitness.
Start exercise at home, secondly, we have to balance between the upper body and lower body as well as between opposite muscles. For example, it is necessary to keep a balance between the strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings or between the biceps and triceps to avoid injury.
I have noticed many gym-goers focusing mainly on exercising their upper body (which can be shown off to others) and ignoring their lower body. This is not a balanced approach.
(iv) Start Exercise Variation
Start exercise Variation means (i) introducing different variations of an exercise and (ii) addressing muscle groups from various angles. If you stick to the same type of exercises for the same muscle groups for a period of time, you are bound to neglect certain other muscle groups in the process. This will result in the weakness of unaddressed muscle groups.
Exercise variation is also helpful for the overall development of a particular muscle group. Therefore, once in a while, add variation to your exercise program for maximal gain. For example, performing push-ups at various hand-widths (narrow, shoulder-width, wide) or in various positions (inclined, declined, flat) will address the related muscles more widely. Variation also helps us to fight monotony.
(v) Overload
By overloading, we mean frequently crossing the training threshold while maintaining the right form and technique. You cannot gain any further unless you challenge your body beyond its normal capacity. Start exercise at home without overload.
If you can do 20 push-ups today, overload yourself by doing further two more push-ups, then one more, and one more … till your muscles fail totally. The more you load your system, the greater will be your training gains.
If you continue with the same training load over a long period of time, your training gain will decrease due to the accommodation of your system to the present load. Therefore, the key to maximal gain is to overload your system. You may overload your system by increasing the intensity or volume of the exercise. Here, again, you should avoid the ‘too much too soon’ approach.
(vi) Start Exercise in Specificity
Specificity means designing an exercise program for a specific group of muscles/specific component of fitness (see the section on Components of Fitness) for a specific goal.
For example, a police officer may have a goal of overall fitness, but a weight lifter will train specifically for strength. Similarly, training for a distance runner will be more endurance-focused training.
However, one should go for specific training only after a general training on overall fitness. For example, a marathon runner, though specifically training for endurance, also needs strength and flexibility training.
There are certain basic exercises which will benefit all the beginners and their overall fitness will improve. It is advisable that you should first do the basic training in strength, endurance and flexibility, and then only go for your goal-specific training.
(vii) Recovery
Recovery means allowing your exercised muscles sufficient rest between two sets/exercise sessions. The body repairs and strengthens itself during rest. When you exercise a muscle, the stress of exercise causes (i) muscle tissue breakdown and (ii) muscle glycogen depletion (loss of energy store). Recovery time allows replenishment of energy storage and repair of broken-down muscle tissues.
During rest, period muscles grow stronger. Not allowing sufficient recovery time may result in overtraining (see the section on Overtraining) which may further cause (i) reduction in performance and (ii) injury. The duration of the recovery period may vary from 48 to 72 hours depending on the intensity and volume of training. Alternating a hard training day and an easy training day is also another way of recovery.
4. COMPONENTS OF FITNESS :
These are the major components of physical fitness ─
(i) Start Exercise with Cardiorespiratory Endurance
The cardiorespiratory system is the interrelated collective system of the heart, lungs and blood vessels. Cardiorespiratory fitness or aerobic fitness depends upon the heart’s ability to pump oxygen-rich blood to the working muscles and the utilization of oxygen by the working muscles.
Cardiorespiratory endurance training should always find a proper place in your exercise program and should be done 3-5 days a week, depending on your specific goal.
(ii) Muscular strength
It is the maximal ability of a muscle (or muscle group) to generate force. In simple words, it means the maximum weight you can lift during a single repetition. It is measured in RM (repetition maximum3 to test your upper and lower body strength respectively. Start exercise at home and slowly increase muscular strength.
(iii) Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle (or muscle group) to generate force repeatedly for a longer time. Although muscular strength and muscular endurance are related, they are not the same.
An example of muscular strength is a person lifting a heavy barbell during one maximal effort. In contrast, muscular endurance is illustrated by a person performing the maximum number of repetitions of Chin-ups, abdominal curl-ups, push-ups etc. Start exercise at home and steadily increase muscular endurance with resistance training.
(iv) Agility
Agility is one’s ability for quick start, quick stop, and quick change of direction. Agility is very important in games. A more agile boxer would save himself more from his opponent’s punches and land more punches on his opponent.
(v) Start Exercise Increase Speed
Speed is one’s ability to ‘explode’ (how to move fast) from one point to another point within the shortest time. This is an all-out effort.
(vi) Start Exercise to Increase Flexibility
Flexibility can be defined as the ability to move joints through their full range of motion (ROM). Lack of flexibility training may shorten tendons and make them tight. Low flexibility is one of the major causes of injury. It is interesting to see some bodybuilders moving like ‘robots’ with their rigid limbs. This is because of their lack of sufficient flexibility training. Start exercise can only increase your flexibility.
(vii) Body Composition
Having the right proportion of fat and lean body mass is an important component of fitness. (Total body mass includes fat and lean body mass. Lean body mass includes everything other than fat, viz., bones, water, protein, minerals).
5. FITT FACTORS:
The acronym FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type (of exercise). It is important to keep these factors in mind while designing your exercise program. So start exercise from today.
Frequency:
It pays well to exercise the same muscle/muscle group frequently, 35 days a week, and to have two days off for recovery. While less than the required frequency will yield very marginal benefits, too much frequency may result in overtraining.
Intensity:
Intensity refers to the degree of effort. Start Exercise gradually increase intensity. The intensity in cardiorespiratory endurance is measured by heart rate. Low-intensity endurance training means training at a low heart rate. As the intensity of training goes up, heart rate also goes up.
Similarly, intensity in strength training refers to the load or resistance. Low-intensity strength training means training with low resistance or low weights. The intensity in this case is measured by the maximum number of repetitions, popularly referred to as RM (repetition maximum).
Thus 5 RM would mean that one can do a maximum of 5 repetitions with a particular weight. Higher the intensity lower would be the R M. (Naturally !)
Selection and progression in intensity will depend upon your exercise goal, before start exercise. For example, if your goal is to increase your muscular endurance, select a weight that allows you a 12+ R M.
However, start exercising at this intensity will have little effect on your muscle strength. To gain muscle strength you will have to increase the intensity that allows you 3-5 RM. Similarly, for cardiorespiratory endurance, the major part of your training should consist of building an aerobic base at low intensity.
But to reduce your race time you will have to increase the training intensity e.g., by including interval runs.
Also, follow the principle of progression while increasing your training intensity and avoid the ‘too much too soon’ approach.
Time (duration):
This is one of the most frequently asked questions – what should be the minimum or maximum duration of exercise for maximum gains? Well, the answer is – it all depends upon your training goal and availability of time. When you start Exercise do not exceed one hour limit.
On one hand, there are professionals who train 5-6 hours daily; on the other hand, there are executives who hardly find more than 20-30 minutes to spare for physical training.
If your goal is just to keep fit, and you have only 20-30 minutes, a circuit training consisting of one or two sets of muscle strength/endurance training. Of all major muscles/muscle groups may be the answer. But if you really want to improve your cardiorespiratory endurance or muscle strength or flexibility, you need to invest a little more time in training.
For good cardiorespiratory endurance, one requires to do at least 20-30 minutes of continuous training. This excludes the time for warm-up, cooldown and stretching. For muscle strength, one needs to perform at least 35 sets of the same exercise. Achieving the goal start exercise from today.
Total exercise time depends upon the number of repetitions, sets and recovery time taken between two sets. Similarly, each flexibility exercise also may require a minimum of 15-30 seconds, depending upon the type of stretch.
If you have to cut short your time on exercise, start exercise fast or do so on the total number of repetitions /sets, but never compromise on the recovery time. Rushing through the ‘rituals’ of all exercises hurriedly without allowing recovery may result in undue fatigue and injury.
Type:
There are different types of exercises e.g., walking, running, stair climbing, bicycling, rowing, swimming, etc. For cardiorespiratory endurance, free weights, resistance machines, freehand etc. For muscular strength/endurance; stretches, Yogasanas for flexibility. But start exercise with the lightest one.
The selection of a particular type or a combination of more than one type depends upon your exercise goal. For example, if your goal is to excel in running, focus on running; swimming is not going to help you much.
Likewise, for a discus thrower, cardiorespiratory endurance exercises may not be of much help; he has to focus more on strength training and flexibility training. Availability of resources maybe sometimes a crucial factor in the selection of a particular type/types of exercise.
6. WARM-UP AND COOL-DOWN:
(i) Warm-up
A systematic and sufficient warm-up is a must before start exercise session. Warm-up consists of a set of continuous exercises, which are done with a gradual build-up of speed to elevate the body’s core temperature till the point of perspiration.
The beginning of perspiration is a good indicator that we are sufficiently warmed up. During warming-up the temperature of muscles increases. A warmed-up muscle contracts and relaxes more quickly. Secondly, warming up also helps more blood flow to the muscles.
At the time of start exercise, more blood flow means the supply of more oxygen to muscles and hence more energy is available for exercise. Thirdly, our ligaments, tendons lose their stiffness and become more stretchable. Fourthly, our joints become more flexible.
All these prevent possible injury caused by the sudden load of high-intensity exercise caused by high speed or heavyweight. No warm-up session is complete without stretching. Some people start a warm-up session with stretching.
This is not a proper way to start. In absence of sufficient elevation of our core temperature, our muscles, ligaments, tendons would remain stiff. If we stretch them in this condition, we would make them more susceptible to injury.
Therefore, the proper sequence of warm-up procedure would be to start with some easy slow body movements, gradually increasing the speed till the point of perspiration and then following it by stretching.
Start Exercise with a warm-up
(ii) General warm-up – It involves movement of the maximum number of muscles for overall warm-up. Slow jog followed by 20-30 meter sprints, cycling, skipping, climbing hill or stairs, etc. are a few activities for general warm-up.
(iii) Specific warm-up – Before loading a specific muscle with high-intensity exercise, it is advisable to warm up that specific muscle. For example, a slow jog will be good before starting a run. Light repetitions of bench press or a few push-ups will be helpful to lift a heavyweight afterwards.
The warm-up process may take slightly more time in cold weather. Better conditioned sportspersons are also likely to take more time. Nevertheless, warm-up is too important to be overlooked. Start exercise with a specific warm-up is recommended by experts.
(ii) Cool-down
Cool-down is the reverse process of warm-up. While warm-up may be compared to the pre-take-off run of an aeroplane, cool-down is like its taxiing after the landing. The same set of exercises used for warmup can be used for cool-down also.
It involves a gradual decrease in the intensity of exercise before stopping completely. Cool-down allows the increased heart rate and blood pressure to gradually come down to a normal level. The cool-down process should be concluded with stretching. In fact, stretching is more important during cool-down than during warm-up.
It helps to reduce blood pooling in exercised muscles and removes lactic acid build-up (which is the immediate cause of tiredness and discomfort). In absence of proper cool-down, we may feel discomforts like headache, nausea, cramps, at the end of intense exercise and stiffness of muscles, tendons subsequently.
7. INJURY MANAGEMENT:
Causes
99% of our injuries during exercise are the result of our own carelessness and violation of the basic principles of exercise.
Injury may occur due to incorrect form and or technique, ‘too much too soon’ approach, low level of experience, medical history, low fitness level combined with overtraining. So Start Exercise very carefully.
Apart from that inadequate recovery time, lack of proper nutrition, insufficient or no warm-up/cool-down, poor concentration, adverse environment, failure to understand warning signs of the body. Injury may also occur due to malfunctioning exercise equipment, cluttered gym, etc.
Injury Prevention
Before Start Exercise how to prevent injury know properly. Injury is largely preventable if we follow these guidelines –
(i) Purchase good quality equipment, training apparels including shoes.
(ii) Never ignore warm-up and cool-down.
(iii) Use proper form and technique.
(iv) Follow the basic principles of exercise. Start Exercise but keep in mind.
(v) Get the assistance of a spotter in case of lifting heavyweights.
(vi) Focus your mind on the exercise, especially during high-intensity exercise. The focus of mind not only protects you against injury but also enhances your performance.
(vii) Take sufficient precautions against the extreme environment (heat, cold).
(viii) Take proper nutrition. For example, lack of required protein may impair muscle growth and its repair.
(ix) Slight discomfort or agony during exercise is OK and desirable. However, any kind of joint or muscular pain should be treated as a signal to stop or slow down.
(x) When you resume exercise after a long gap, start exercise from a lower degree of intensity/volume and gradually reach the standard you had achieved when you had left training.
(xi) Avoid jerky movements in weight training. All movements should be at a controlled, slow, smooth pace.
(xii) Stop exercise at once on warning signs of dizziness, acute fatigue, mental confusion.
(xiii) Flexibility prevents injury. Do include flexibility in your exercise session.
(xiv) In case of long-duration (more than 30-40 minutes) exercise, hydrate yourself well at frequent intervals.
(xv) In case of an injury, don’t deny your injury. Discontinue exercise and seek proper medical help to avoid further worsening of the injury.
Management
In case of injury apply the principle of RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Rest – Give rest to the injured part. Ice – Apply ice to the injured area. Cooling by ice decreases swelling of the affected part.
Ice can be applied for 10-15 minutes at an interval of 30-40 minutes. Compression – Compress the affected area with a firm but not too tight elastic bandage. Elevation – During the first 24-72 hrs elevation of the affected part helps in checking swelling by reducing the blood flow.
Remember, RICE is a first aid only. Don’t hesitate to consult a doctor in case your injury prolongs.
Injury of any part of the body does not necessarily mean complete abandonment of exercise. Unless medically advised otherwise, one can exercise one’s unaffected body parts. For example, if your shoulders are injured, there is no reason why you cannot exercise your legs, abdominal muscles, forearms.
Read: How to do RICE treatment
Overtraining
Start exercise early but not overtrain yourself. Overtraining is generally caused by our ‘too much too soon’ approach to exercise. Inappropriately high levels of intensity or volume of exercise, or both combined together, and insufficient recovery time lead to overtraining.
Neglect of proper nutrition is another significant factor that contributes to this phenomenon. One important sign of overtraining is that despite regular training, gains are stopped at a point and even worse, performance starts to decline. Other psychosomatic symptoms of overtraining are –
- Chronic muscle soreness/ joint pain, unduly nagging fatigue
- A stress-induced injury like tiny fractures
- Lack of enthusiasm for work out
- Lack of concentration
- Irritability
- Sleep disorders
- Decrease in lean body mass (decrease in muscle mass)
- Decrease appetite
- Lowered immunity level
- Frequent cold-like symptoms
- Altered blood pressure
- Altered resting heart rate (RHR)
An increase of more than 5 beats per minute above your normal may be an indication that you have done too much exercise on the previous day. So, the next day either do little training or simply take a rest.
8. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Start Exercise in Heat
It is important to maintain our body’s normal range of core temperature (36.1° - 37.8° C). Any excessive variation on either side of this range may affect our training performance and if not regulated, it may lead to injury also.
During excessive heat (which may be caused by outside temperature or by the high intensity of the exercise itself), our body starts sweating for cooling. However, sweating as a cooling mechanism of the body has certain limitations.
Start exercises in heat can boost your stamina twice. But know your training limit, It may save your life.
For example, during long bouts of exercise, as the body’s water contents deplete, the rate of sweating also declines and it becomes less effective as a cooling mechanism. Similarly, the cooling effect of sweating also depends upon the relative humidity of the air.
Higher the air humidity, less will be the sweat evaporation (as air is saturated) and consequent cooling of the body will be less. (Recall the experience with desert coolers during humid months). Thus, it is quite possible to feel more uncomfortable to run at 35° C on a humid day than to run at 40° C on a hot but dry day.
Start Exercise in excessive heat may cause heat cramps (muscle cramps in arms, legs or abdomen). Dehydration (symptoms like fatigue, dizziness, rapid pulse rate, weakness), heat exhaustion (weakness, excessive sweating, low blood pressure, dizziness). Besides this heat stroke (high body temperature, rapid pulse, stoppage of sweating, mental confusion, disorientation, hallucinations).
Children and elderly persons are particularly more susceptible to heat-induced injuries as their body has less sweating capacity.
Heat-induced injuries, if not treated on time, maybe fatal. Therefore, once the symptoms appear, exercise should be immediately stopped and medical help should be taken.
Heat-related injuries may be prevented by-
(i) drinking water before and during exercising in the sun;
(ii) drinking appropriate sports drinks to maintain electrolyte balance in the body;
(iii) avoiding exposure to excessive heat and doing exercise during the cooler part of the day
(iv) wearing light, porous clothes that promote fast sweat evaporation;
(v) reducing the intensity and volume of exercise. On humid days, it is advisable to exercise at a lower intensity. Take time to acclimatize to hot days.
Start Exercise in Cold
Mildly cold winter mornings are probably the most enjoyable part of the year to train. However, the problem starts in extreme cold when the body heat loss is greater than body heat production.
This condition may occur due to either extreme cold or insufficient clothing or very low intensity of exercise. Exposure to severe cold may lead to hypothermia, frostbite or dehydration. Wind worsens the situation during cold.
Here again, children and the elderly are more susceptible to risks of cold-related injury as their body cannot produce metabolic heat that effectively.
Exercising during cold is a good idea to retain one’s normal range of core body temperature. However, once the exercise is stopped, exposure to sweat-soaked clothing may lead to hypothermia.
Therefore, it is advisable to (i) Start Exercise with low intensity to avoid excessive sweating; (ii) wear porous clothes to allow maximum sweat evaporation; (iii) change into a set of dry clothes immediately after the exercise. Do not forget to change socks and undergarments. Wearing a tracksuit throughout the exercise session is not of much use.
Once you are sufficiently warmed up, start exercise, remove your tracksuit and exercise in normal one-layer apparel to allow sweat evaporation. Once you stop exercising, again wear the tracksuit to keep your body warm.
Cold related injuries can be prevented by wearing suitable multiple layers of clothing. Multiple layers of thin clothing are more effective in retaining heat than single thick-layered clothing.
A good amount of heat loss occurs through the open head, neck and hands. Therefore, these exposed body parts should be properly covered. In extreme cold, wearing an additional pair of socks and undergarments will be helpful.
Our subcutaneous fat is an excellent insulator against cold. This makes skinny models (who have very low-fat mass) more vulnerable to cold-related injuries in comparison with others who have normal % body fat.
Another interesting thing about the cold is that for its maintenance our body utilizes more carbohydrate and fat than in summer. So, winter is a good time to work out hard, eat heartily and still be in shape!
Start Exercise in High Altitude
At high altitudes, our performance decreases mainly due to the presence of less oxygen. Before start exercise, therefore one should take 34 weeks time to acclimatize by progressively increasing the intensity and volume of exercise.
If not sufficiently acclimatized, one may get a headache, nausea, loss of appetite, sleep disorders, etc.
Pollution
When pollution level is very high outside, it is better to exercise indoors. Pollution is more harmful if you are doing serious endurance training as it involves breathing through the mouth.
As you know, our mouth, unlike our nostrils, does not have any natural filter against pollutants. Therefore, select a time and place for start exercise where the pollution level is relatively low.
It is relevant to mention here that the quality of indoor air – whether inside your house, office or gym – is an important issue. Moisture, pets, dust mites, materials used in household furnishings, e.g. Mattresses, curtains, carpets, etc. are some of the major sources of poor quality indoor air.
These may cause minor allergies and may aggravate respiratory problems. By providing proper ventilation, allowing sunshine to enter into the room, regular cleaning of furnishings, replacing carpets with hard surface tiles (which are easy to clean), regular cleaning of air conditioners, coolers etc. we can reduce the pollution level indoors.
9. WOMEN AND EXERCISE:
As men are generally bigger than women in size, their greater strength compared to women’s is mainly due to their larger size and hence greater muscle mass. There is no difference in muscle response of men and women and both can benefit in the same manner from a similar exercise programme.
Generally, women are more flexible than men. Women have 25% smaller heart and 25-30% less lung capacity than men. A smaller heart means that it would have to work more to pump the same amount of blood.
This combined with less lung capacity implies that women will fatigue faster than men. But this holds good only when we compare a woman with an equally trained man. This should not, however, give men a false sense of superiority over women. A well-trained woman can beat an untrained/under-trained man in all aspects of physical fitness.
Women can start exercise during menstruation. Pregnant women also can start exercise, though with medical advice. Vigorous activity does not have any adverse effect on women’s reproductive organs or menstruation.
There should be no undue concern about the post-partum (after delivery of a child) fitness of women unless there have been other medical complications associated with it. There are many top ‘mother’ athletes in all sports and games.
As regards apparels, proper sports bras are advised for women to prevent any damage to their breasts tissue during exercise causing prolonged jarring of breasts (e.g., in long-distance running).
Similarly, men are also advised to wear properly fitted underwears/supporters during such exercises. Some women, especially long-distance runners, may experience menstrual irregularities. A possible explanation for this is a temporary sharp decline in estrogen production which is linked with a fall in body fat below a certain level.
Low-calorie intake and other nutritional deficiencies may be some of the other factors causing menstrual irregularities. However, it is a temporary phenomenon and with the restoration of normal fat percentage, normalcy is restored.
Many women fear that strength training would make them too muscular and give them a ‘manly’ look. This fear is unfounded as the muscle size of a woman cannot increase much beyond a point.
Women (as well as men) who are obsessed with weight control, often rely more on cardiovascular exercise combined with a low-calorie diet. They ignore strength training and flexibility training. Such practice is against the basic principles of exercise. Avoiding strength training will deprive women of all its related benefits, viz., strengthening of muscle, bone, ligaments, tendons, etc.
Bigger muscles help in weight control as they increase the RMR of the body. Higher RMR means more caloric expenditure. Low calories intake decreases RMR and thus decrease the rate of weight loss.
There is another misconception that strength training would turn fat into muscle. It is impossible as these two are quite different. Strength training increases the size of muscles fibres, not fat cells.
It is scientifically proved that Start Exercise in the morning time is more helpful than rest of the day.
10. CHILDREN AND EXERCISE:
Start exercise with moderate strength exercise, e.g., Push-ups, Pull-ups, squatting does not affect children adversely. It does not blunt their growth. It rather helps them to perform better in their school sports. However, intensive strength training involving heavy weights is not recommended for children on two grounds–
(i) They may overtrain themselves without realizing its adverse implications and (ii) they may not follow the correct form and technique making themselves more vulnerable to injuries or deformities caused by repetitive use of wrong technique over a period of time.
As far as endurance training is concerned, studies suggest that children should not train intensively before age 18. Hard training before this age may result in their early burnouts.
Intensive endurance training combined with a low-calorie diet may further cause damage to them. Therefore, it is advised, once they are mature, they can train hard. Speed training is more advisable for children. They should be encouraged to participate in a variety of games and sports for overall fitness and normal growth.
11. ELDERLY AND EXERCISE:
Start exercise is beneficial at any age. It is never too late to start exercise. And there is no reason to stop it at any age. Look at Baba Fauja Singh (born 1911), who set up a marathon world record of 5 hours 40 minutes in 2003 in the 90 plus age category.
He rediscovered his passion for running at 81. Manohar Aich (Indian bodybuilder) born 1912, nicknamed ‘Pocket Hercules’, the first Mr Universe (1952) from India, was another example of what the elderly can do.
WHO (World Health Organization) recommends that older adults should engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity 5 days per week. In fact, there is no specific advice for the elderly other than for anyone else.
Whether adult or elderly, the only point to remember is – follow the basic principles of exercise. The elderly should have a thorough physical examination before starting intensive strength or endurance training.
Older adults must realize that with age their age-predicted maximal heart rate (APMHR or MHR) declines.
APMHR = 220 – age.
Therefore, know your training heart rate (THR) and start exercise within the limit. The body of the elderly takes more time to adapt to increased intensity and volume of exercise. It implies that your progress may be slower and your recovery period may be longer.
12. EXERCISE APPARELS:
Clothing
Clothing should be comfortable and should not restrict any movement of the body during exercise. A good quality non-cotton T-shirt or sleeveless undershirt and gym shorts are best in warm weather.
Start exercise with light, porous clothing such as ‘fish net’ vests allow sweat to come on their outer surface and evaporate quickly, thus promoting faster heat loss from our body. (Such T-shirts and shorts are available in local markets and also in almost all brands, e.g., ‘Climalite’ (Adidas), ‘Dri fit’ (Nike) etc.).
On the other hand, cotton T-shirts become soggy (heavy with water) after absorbing sweat and make a layer that prevents adequate heat loss from our body. The recommendation for polyester vests/T-shirts might sound strange, as we have always been advised to prefer cotton clothes.
Yes, cotton clothes are preferable for their sweat-absorbing quality when we have to sit in the office where we do not sweat much, but polyester/nylon clothes are preferable during exercise for their faster heat loss facilitation quality.
Light-material sleeveless vests/shorts are easy to maintain, as they hardly require any ironing. They can be daily washed after one use (unlike track lowers, which are generally washed after 2-3 or even more useful).
We should also not forget about the decency of our wears. During winter, clothing should be both insulating and ventilating.
It is better to wear more than one layer of clothing than to wear single thick clothing. Up to 40% of heat loss may take place through the head, neck and hands when uncovered. Therefore, in case of extreme cold, the head, neck and hands should be well covered.
Wear Perfect Shoe
Choice of appropriate shoes can prevent one from many running-induced injuries. There are hundreds of varieties of shoes available in the market in different price categories.
While money is a factor, one should not save money on shoes only to later spend more (money as well as peace of mind) on the treatment of injury! Therefore, the choice is very clear – invest a reasonable amount of money in the purchase of good shoes.
Enjoy an injury-free running or buy a cheap pair of shoes, injure yourself and then go on spending more money on treatment of your injury! Generally, while buying shoes, keep the following points in mind –
(i) Try shoes in the afternoon. The size of the shoes should be slightly larger than your normal use of conventional shoes. (Buy 9½ -10-No. running shoes, if you generally wear 9-No. shoes). This is because your foot swells during the day and during running.
(ii) When trying on shoes, wear socks in which you will run. Also, try on both shoes, as our feet slightly differ in size and shape.
(iii) Shoes must have proper arch support and heel cushioning.
(iv) Feel the seams inside for ensuring that they are smooth.
(v) Shoes are not to be used for running after approx. 800-1000 km of running.
(vi) The width of the toe box should be sufficient to allow easy toe movement inside
(vii) Shoes with extensive toe box netting material allow faster heat loss through evaporation of sweat.
(viii) Never ignore the quality of socks. Cushioned socks function as additional shock absorbers during running. Start Exercise with proper pairs.
13. EXERCISE PROGRAMME DESIGN:
Before Start Exercise design your workout plan properly for optimal results, any fitness training programme design must take care of (a) basic principles of exercise, (b) FITT factors and (c) major components of fitness. This can be better understood by the table given below –
In case of a 5-day regimen, in the first week Monday, Wednesday and Friday may be kept for cardiovascular fitness and Tuesday and Thursday for muscle strength /endurance. Saturday and Sunday may be the rest days.
In the next week, the training days are flip-flopped, i.e., muscle strength/endurance can be done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and cardiovascular on Tuesday, Thursday and so on.
Stretching should be done in every training session, during warm-up, during exercise (between two sets) and during cool-down. Earmarking number of days for strength or endurance training depends on your training goal. If you are primarily focusing on strength, you may like to devote four days to strength training and two days to endurance training, and vice versa.
Here are some other important tips for an effective exercise programme design –
- Firstly, decide about your specific goal.
- Keep in mind the total availability of time.
- Never skip warm-up / cool-down for lack of time. If you do not have enough time, better for you to reduce the number of sets, rather than reducing the warm-up session.
- If you resume your exercise after a long layoff (due to illness, job engagement etc.,) start from a lower intensity/volume so as to condition yourself before you reach your pre-lay off level. This will save you from injury.
- Monitor your progress. If you have reached your training plateau or your performance is declining, then redesign the exercise programme.
- Keep scope for occasional games and sports for variety and freshness.
- Include Yogic breathing, i.e., Pranayam in your exercise routine.
In final words ''The clock is ticking. Are you becoming the person you want to be???''
I hope you really enjoy this article How to Start Exercise at Home for Beginners. To summarise it you have to remember the 10 rules of start exercise journey. Then know the benefits and components of exercise.
Before start, your exercise warm-up is mandatory to make it a habit and do not skip cool-down stretch. Know how to prevent injury and RICE treatment.
And how to plan your workout routine without any help.
If you have any doubts or queries please share your thoughts in the comments below...
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