The most common goals to do exercise are (from special Eurobarometer march 2010 ):
- To improve your health 61%
- To improve fitness 41%
- To relax 39%
- To have fun 31%
- To improve your physical appearance 24%
- To control your weight 24%
- Others
As you can see the most important reason to do physical activity for most of the people is to improve their health. So what should I do to improve my health?
Health is a tree with many branches, but the most important, in my opinion, are:
- Physical activity.
- Eating.
- Emotional state.
You should take care of all these branches.
- What kind of physical activity I should do to improve my health:
- Cardiovascular endurance or aerobic exercise. Go for a walk, jog slowly, ride your bicycle, roller skating, swimming, dance, hiking... These activities will improve your aerobic capacity and will make a big difference in your health. Try to do aerobic exercise almost everyday for at least 30'. Try to put your heart rate between 120 and 150 heartbeats per minute. (try to be active everyday, walk, take the stairs...).
- Strengthening your muscles. I will explain how in upcoming posts.
- Stretching your muscles.
- Try enjoying the time you are working out.
- Eating. This is a very controversial subject. I will try to give you some very single and accepted tips:
- You should avoid (or at least try to eat a little of them):
- Sugar (cakes, cookies, ice-cream, sweets, candies...)
- Salted snacks.
- Food which has too much fat (fried food, some meats, some sauces, some cakes...).
- Sodas. The best way to hydrate yourself is drinking water.
- You should eat more:
- Fruit and vegetables.
- Different kind of whole grains and legumes.
- Fish and "white" meat (chicken or rabbit instead beef or pork).
- Emotional state. This is a very deep issue but if you exercise yourself and if you take care of your eating you will feel better. Try to take care of your relationships and to be more balance.
You can take a look of this pyramid.
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