Medical Edge Newspaper Column

Activities Once You're Fit

May 23, 2008
Readers:
Walking briskly for 30 minutes a day is great exercise. But once you're fit — and if your doctor says it's OK — you can reap additional health benefits by trying to do any of the following activities a couple of times a week:

Interval training — This involves alternating bursts of intense activity with less intense activity. For example, try walking normally for about two to three minutes, then walking at a faster pace — or jogging — for about three minutes. Adding this too your routine has been shown to increase fitness, burn more calories, build muscle and lower blood pressure.

Adding hills — Similar to interval training, you periodically increase your cardio-vascular and muscular effort by incorporating hills into the route you follow.

Working a new activity into your routine — Whether it's yoga, swimming or using weight machines, this allows you to exercise less-used muscle groups — or to exercise fit muscles in new ways.

Taking a class or joining a group — An instructor or exercise partners may be able to inspire — or coax — you into putting forth a little bit more effort than you normally would.

Be careful to increase the intensity of your activity gradually. Adding too much at once can lead to pain, injury and discouragement.