Re-Creation Through Recreation

from Alex Santa, Guest Services Intern Spring 2013

What motivated you at H3? Maybe it was the group classes, catching up with friends on a Thermal Walk™, or running a 5k for the first time in an unfamiliar wilderness. Whatever the case, you chose to enjoy your experience while being physically active.

Continuing these amazing feelings of confidence and self worth can also be felt outside of Hilton Head Health. Personally, I find it difficult to maintain a strict 1200 meal plan, prepare three gourmet meals daily, make time for at least one cardio group exercise and strength train every day. Consistency between H3 life and home life can be a challenge, but recreation is one area that everyone can control.

Finding things that you enjoy that happen to also be active calorie burning workouts will become part of your life with little force. Here are some tips that can make transitioning into a more enjoyable active leisure regime possible.

• Find a walking partner or support team. Friends and chatting help pass the time and create a more enjoyable duty.


• Challenge yourself through recreation. Set a goal and build your way up.  


• Create a goal that appeals to your interests but requires a commitment. Examples may include the following;




• Hike a new nature trail each week. Collect the trail maps and log your distance.


• Participate in a 5k each month. Record your time on the runner number banner and seek improvement with each consecutive race.


• Try a new sport or activity each weekend that involves healthy movement; kayaking, paddle boarding, Frisbee golf, trampoline jumping etc.




• Organize and design your personal activity pyramid. Choose activities that excite you. Visual reminders are an excellent tool for picturing your goals.

 

Social and Physical Activity Add Years to Life

Keep or make new friends and exercise, that’s the advice to increase longevity that comes from a new study published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) and discussed in a recent issue of the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter.

It’s not surprising to see that exercise made a difference, in fact it was the most important factor; but maintaining a rich social network was almost as important.

The Swedish study found that people over the age of 75 with a physically and socially active lifestyle lived an average of 5.4 years longer than their less active peers. Even at age 85 and older the “active” seniors lived an additional 4 years.

Deborah Rizzuto, one of the researchers commented, “Our research suggests that encouraging favorable lifestyle behaviors, even at advanced ages, may enhance life expectancy.” Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., Director of Tufts’ John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition  and Obesity Prevention, agrees pointing out that even well into your “golden years” exercise can extend your life and the greatest benefits occur in those who go from doing nothing to a little more than nothing.

If you look at the health of people along the whole spectrum, from very sedentary to athletes, the fitness graph isn’t a straight line. It turns out that the biggest jump comes from the bottom of the range; the less active you are now, the more benefit you get from adding even a small amount of exercise to life. The message is clear, it is never too late to exercise and anything is better than nothing.

While it may be challenging for some seniors to stay or become more physically active, staying socially active may pose even more of a challenge. Encouraging seniors to stay involved in church, community and family activities can help improve their health.

Taking the Extra Step

From Betsy Hood, Program Intern

Are you taking that extra step in your day? You may ask yourself, why take the extra step when I already workout? As we grow in a society that tends to make life’s tasks easier for us, we also tend to slack on the amount of physical activity we do. Therefore, we sometimes end up taking the easy way out. In the long run that can really add up. I would like to challenge you to think about how you could take that extra step in your day to not only increase your incidental activity (activity outside of working out), but to also help protect your health.

For most of us we feel like we run around constantly, whether that is to go get groceries, pick up the kids from school, or work all day. That does require movement, but think about this: have you ever sat in a parking lot and waited for the person in the front row to pull out? They just got to their car, still have a whole cart of groceries to load, but you’re supper excited because you’re going to get a front row parking spot. We have probably all been guilty of this a time or two, but in the time you waited to get your awesome parking spot you could have parked at the very end of the parking lot and walked in. Think about how many more steps you could have taken by parking at the end of the lot compared to the front row. Not to mention, you don’t run the high risk of door dings on your vehicle if you park way out in no man’s land. The extra step it took you to walk in and out of the store definitely adds up in your amount of daily activity. Your body is a machine that needs to be used, so don’t be afraid to use it.





 

What is the better choice?

As stated above, we live in a society that has made it easier to cut down on physical activity. For that matter, it is up to you to make a change. We’ve all heard the saying “every little bit counts,” so make it count! Every step and every minute that you have the opportunity to move do so. So your question may be; what else can I do to increase my incidental activity? Examples may include, but are not limited to:

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator


• Don’t just watch your kids/grandkids play, but play with them


• Bike or walk to work if applicable


• Get up to change the channel


• Sit on a stability ball at work instead of a chair


• Push mow the lawn


• Hand wash your car


• Get off the bus or taxi a couple blocks early and walking


• Clean the house


• Stand up and walk around while talking on the phone


• Cook dinner instead of going out or ordering take in


• Walk your dog

 All these ideas and more can help increase our fitness level and our overall health. So if every little bit counts, then it’s safe to say a lot of these decisions throughout your day can add up to make a huge difference. I challenge all of you to think about what you can do differently in your day to increase your activity level outside of working out. Remember to not always take the easy way out. Go out there and get moving!

Check out Lisette’s post on using a Fitbit as encouragement to add more steps to your day.

Regular Jogging Shows Dramatic Increase In Life Expectancy

There had been some debate over the years about whether jogging was beneficial or potentially hazardous to your health.  However, on Monday Dr. Peter Schnohr, the chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, showed that undertaking in regular jogging increases your life expectancy by 5-6 years.  At EuroPRevent2012, an event organized by the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, Schnohr told delegates that the study’s most recent analysis showed that between one and two-and-a-half hours of jogging per week at a “slow or average” pace delivers optimum benefits for longevity. 

"The results of our research allow us to definitively answer the question of whether jogging is good for your health," said Schnohr, who is chief cardiologist of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, speaking in the "Assessing prognosis: a glimpse of the future" symposium. “We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases longevity. The good news is that you don't actually need to do that much to reap the benefits."

The ideal pace can be achieved by adhering to the “talk test.”  While exercising, you should be able to talk in short sentences but not tell a long story or sing a song.  Dr. Schnohr commented that “you should aim to feel a little breathless, but not very breathless.”

In addition to helping you live longer, jogging will more importantly help you live healthier.  The study went on to show that jogging improves oxygen uptake, increases insulin sensitivity, improves lipid profiles (raising HDL and lowering triglycerides), lowers blood pressure, reduces platelet aggregation, increases fibrinolytic activity, improves cardiac function, bone density, immune function, reduces inflammation markers, prevents obesity and improves psychological function.

So let’s get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather with a short jog!

Cleaning for Exercise

Today's post is from Ariel Wynne, a current Program Intern from Long Island.

The days are getting longer and the weather is getting warmer, which means it’s time for spring cleaning! All that dust and mess has been building up all winter and it’s time to throw open the windows and scour the house getting ready for spring. Any sort of moderate activity is beneficial for your health—and if you combine 30 minutes of cleaning with your regular 30 minute aerobic exercise, you will have easily incorporated a whole hour of physical activity into your day helping you each your weight loss goals!

1. Be safe. Your safety is our main concern so make sure you’re lifting with your legs when you’re moving furniture or heavy boxes around and keep your core tight to prevent slouching.

2. Be strong. Strengthen your legs while cleaning. Do squats while you’re doing laundry, lunges while vacuuming, and calf raises when you reach up to clean those cobwebs out of the corner. To work your arms, scrub your shower with big circles and take small rugs outside and beat them with a clean broom rather than vacuuming them.

3. Be thorough. Leave no surface unclean. Make sure you get under the couches and beds, and dust those top shelves even if no one sees them. Also, make sure you move quickly; the more intensely you clean, the more intensely you workout—and of course the faster you’ll be finished.

4. Lastly, have fun! Turn on some music and boogey while you work. It will make the time go faster and you’ll burn extra calories dancing around.

Still think chores won’t give you a good workout? Thirty minutes of walking at a brisk pace will burn about 150 calories. Vacuuming for the same amount of time will burn 123, laundry will burn 133 and trimming shrubs will burn 155 calories! The moral of the story, you’ll burn comparable calories and have a clean house to boot.  Happy cleaning!

Friday Fitness: Work-OUT!

 



As many of you know, I generally do not watch much television. However, this past Tuesday evening, as I prepared to sit down early in efforts to watch The State of the Union Address on NBC, The Biggest Loser was on. This episode particulary caught my attention because one team (the “black team”) had been denied access to the gym. Particpants on the black team displayed a demoralizing distrust. The idea that they would be able to lose comparative weight at the next weigh in was daunting. The black team despartly feared the red team had a much greater advantage: the GYM.

Friday Fitness: It’s Never Too Late To Get Back In The Game

Hat tip to our avid reader Katha Kissman for finding this one!  Watch the vid and then read the commentary below.



Sure the point of the video was to show how exercise helps aging adults avoid disease.  But, we already knew that!  I think there was a more important lesson.  The Tigerettes aren’t exercising, they are PLAYING!  Exercise to me means drab elastic sweatpants, monotonous treadmill training and physical torture generally endured under solitary confinement.  Let’s spend some time this upcoming weekend playing.  Find a lonesome friend or loved one and kick, throw or shoot a ball.  Hell, who needs a ball, you can tag, race, swim, jump or crawl to a calorie burn.  But for God’s sake, stop sensationalizing exercise and start playing!