Best way to exercise

achtunglady

Hi, i am a bit confused as to the advice of how long you should exercise per day and how many days you should do it, on the one count ive heard 30 minutes of exercise per day, three times a week,(doing it on alternate days to give the body time to recover) or 45 minutes a day every day?

I like exercising but hate that stiff aching feeling after a good old work out, but maybe i'm not warming up properly. What do you do to warm up and how long for and is cooling down after exercise good as well and again what do you do to cool down.

I cannot ride a bike,(problems with ears so cant balance) but have an exercise bike and also have the wii fit.

Any ideas gladly welcomed.

achtunglady

Oh to add i would like to lose about 3 stone through exercise and get rid of my mummy tummy.

lucylucky

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/healthy_living/fitness/daily_howmuch.shtml

If you want to lose weight and tone up you will need to eat less exercise more and target the specific area you want to reduce, i.e. your tummy.

iceicebaby

30 mins 3 days a week is fine as a minimum. The stiff feeling you experience is due to not stretching out after exercising properly

welshdent

The aches are a sign that your body is working hard and thus achieving the aims
If I dont ache after exercise I know I havent done enough

Eric_Pisch

welshdent wrote: »

The aches are a sign that your body is working hard and thus achieving the aims
If I dont ache after exercise I know I havent done enough

its a sign you are not warming up warming down / stretching properly

Tinkabell25

i think everyone is different but my job and lifestlye is a quite sedentary so i know to lose weight i have to up my game. I'm trying to climb a lot of stairs and parking further away so i have further to walk each day. I've also started using my OH' exercise bike in front of the tv as often as possible for around 30 mins each time. I think do as much as you can as often as you can and you'll be ok. If all else fails-go for a walk, we've started going for walks in the evenings every now and again, it's actually quite refreshing!
Good Luck!!
Tink x

welshdent

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

its a sign you are not warming up warming down / stretching properly

NO its not. It CAN be. But If you havent exercised for a while or if you are doing a new exercise that utilises different muscle groups then no amount of stretching and warming up and down will stop that happening. Believe me I have tried!

When micro tears occur in your muscles due to exercise then clearly they need to be repaired. The repair process involves inflammation as markers and inflammatory mediators etc flood the area ... resulting in .... pain. Just a couple of links here but none of the articles I have read seem to think pain is solely due to improper warming up and cooling down. If it were as simple as that then no one would be having problems would they? A danish study commented that stretching has found that "indicating that passive stretching after eccentric exercise cannot prevent secondary pathological alterations."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9764443

others

http://fitness.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_causes_sore_muscles_after_exercising

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070522223506AAfaaCz

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/sore.htm

jenniewb

Where weight loss is concerned, exercise helps, but what you eat/how much you eat matters much more.

The government recommends 20 mins of exercise (incl. walking) every day. In addition to this you could do 30 mins or an exercise class (usually 30-45 mins by the time you've done the class warm up/cool down) 3 times a week which could help but as I say, its what you eat that counts more.

jenniewb

welshdent wrote: »

NO its not. It CAN be. But If you havent exercised for a while or if you are doing a new exercise that utilises different muscle groups then no amount of stretching and warming up and down will stop that happening. Believe me I have tried!

When micro tears occur in your muscles due to exercise then clearly they need to be repaired. The repair process involves inflammation as markers and inflammatory mediators etc flood the area ... resulting in .... pain. Just a couple of links here but none of the articles I have read seem to think pain is solely due to improper warming up and cooling down. If it were as simple as that then no one would be having problems would they? A danish study commented that stretching has found that "indicating that passive stretching after eccentric exercise cannot prevent secondary pathological alterations."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9764443

others

http://fitness.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_causes_sore_muscles_after_exercising

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070522223506AAfaaCz

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/sore.htm

You are correct, its not just the lack of warm up-cool down and stretching which can create DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) but it is a very common one and important to point out as it is so very common and can cause injury- its also very preventable if you follow warm-up, cool down and stretches appropriately.

Other pains can be things like injury and forming too many of the micro tears you mention. Soreness can be normal to some extent but if its something your getting every time and its lasting more then a few days then I'd really see if you can get some professional advice as unless your heavy training, it sounds like your body is not repairing as well as it could or you could have an injury.

PS, not sure what you meant by passive stretching but I read http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/the-7-types-of-stretching-1095025.html that to mean stretching without putting any real effort in- ie not feeling or pushing at the stretch, Stretching properly takes some concerntration to hold the pose and "breathe" till the pinch of the stretch eeeks itself out. Passive stretchiong (I am assuming) would be something without any real "oomph" and so I'd agree with the study that this type of stretching would be pointless.

Maybe try Dynamic or Static stretching? (Isometric ballistic are my fave though- get advice with these ones, they are easy to get wrong and cause yourself problems.)

welshdent

Jen I was being a little flippant about aching all the time ;-) I do train a lot though considering I work full time. I love it :-) I do 2 weights sessions a week with a personal trainer then 2 or 3 cardio which at present is spinning but thats because I have a knee injury from rugby and the rugby is only just coming back to pre season now. I only ache for at most 2 days after and it's only my target muscle groups from my weights sessions. My pt is a believer in challenging muscle groups so tends to
Change my programme after about 4 weeks. The first sessions after the change I notice it more. Also when upping my max weight or increasing reps I notice more discomfort but it only lasts a few days. My point to the op was that aches should not be seen as something to put you off. After a long time off exercise you should embrace them because it shows it's working :-). My point to the poster re stretching was that the aches are not to do with a failure to warm up and down. I find that's more to do with the more taumatic muscle tears and strains. Hard to explain dynamic stretches on here. One I have used is to stand up bring your knee and bent leg to your chest and flick your leg out in front in to a kind of lunge