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Lee recommends that people aim for that first level — 30 minutes of moderate activity a day — and then ratchet things up if they can.

you may find that half an hour a day of moderate activity simply won’t work - at least not as effectively as you might like.

we all know people who seem to eat whatever they want and never gain an ounce while others struggle continually to control their weight

Looking like a swimsuit model.

How much aerobic exercise you need to burn fat and look fitter will depend on your metabolism, weight, diet and just how toned you want to be.

Any exercise is better than none,

More and more people are starting to recognize physical activity as one of the most promising means to prevent cognitive impairment and dementia.

The study was published Wednesday appears in the July issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The women reported on their participation in regular physical activity as teens, at ages 30 and 50, and in late life. Their cognition was evaluated using a standardized test, and those who performed well below the average were classified as cognitively impaired

People who were active at teen age had a greater reduction in their risk of cognitive impairment compared to any of the other ages,

Physical activity can be fun and engaging, and we have to convince people of that in order to prevent some of these diseases of old age

Using data from Statistics Canada's National Population Health Survey, the researchers tracked 683 Canadian adolescents ages 12-15, who were interviewed twice a year until they were ages 24-27.

This is a critical period, as the changes in physical activity during the transition from late adolescence to early adulthood represents the most dramatic declines in physical activity across a person's life

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found the rate of decline in physical activity was greater for men than for women, who showed only a modest 1.7 per cent decrease in their overall activity levels

"It may be that girls experience the greatest declines in physical activity earlier in their adolescence

Helps control weight. • Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints.

Specific Health Benefits of Exercise

Heart Disease and Stroke.

physical activity can help prevent heart disease and stroke by strengthening your heart muscle

High Blood Pressure

can reduce blood pressure in those with high blood pressure levels.

Noninsulin-Dependent Diabetes

reducing body fatness, physical activity can help to prevent and control this type of diabetes.

Osteoporosis. Regular weight-bearing exercise promotes bone formation and may prevent many forms of bone loss associated with aging.

Psychological Effects. Regular physical activity can improve your mood and the way you feel about yourself

help you to better manage stress.

boosts bone density and strengthens tendons,

Weight training vs. body building

Weight training focuses on improving musculoskeletal strength and total fitness

Fitness, not superhero

Middle- and high-school students should train to increase their strength and improve their physical fitness

good teen weight-training program focuses on toning muscles with lighter weights and a high number of repetitions.

Be responsible

Teens should be supervised at all times while strength training, and should always use safe equipment.

Start slowly

should begin slowly and increase gradually.

shouldn't be increased too soon or by too much.

emphasize proper technique

Two to three sessions a week on alternating days should be enough to strengthen and tone muscles.

Size matters

"Programs for teens often rely on free weights, such as dumbbells and barbells; rubber tubing; and calisthenics, such as abdominal curls."

Focus on the individual

should be individually designed for each adolescent

Make it fun

should be noncompetitive and fun

Stay active

Conditioning exercises should be part of an active lifestyle that includes plenty of other physical activity.

should feel comfortable with the weight-training program and look forward to it.

"Participating in a wide variety of physical activities helps teens stay balanced, trim and physically healthy."

Be active while watching TV.

Involve the whole family. Take group walks before or after dinner. Play catch. Ride your bikes.

Get your dog into the act. Take daily walks with Fido or Fluffy.

try playing a video game like "Dance, Dance Revolution." You'll burn calories and get to work on your moves at the same time, all in the comfort of your home.

try other video games geared to fitness such as "Wii Fit" or "Wii Active."

include activities and games so that you concentrate more on the fun than you do the exercise.

Pickup Game

purchase a basketball hoop, soccer net or hockey net for the home

You don't need to be a professional to try to shoot a few hoops

Workout Research

Your library can be a wealth of interesting workout ideas and programs that you can try so you never feel trapped into one workout program.

You may even find that you have a passion for a certain type of exercise, whether it's yoga, kickboxing, aerobics or something else

Friend Support

Talk one of your friends into exercising with you at home each day after school.

Make it a standing date that you meet up several times per week for exercising, and make a rule to not cancel on each other.

give you the final push that you need to become active and healthy.

While it is technically possible to train for a marathon and weightlifting competition at the same time, it is doubtful you will do well at either one, and run the risk of injury secondary to over-training. If your goal is general strength and conditioning, a few weightlifting training sessions a week and cardiovascular exercise on your off days will improve strength, power and health. If you wish to do well at one activity, you need to specialize. If you go for a limit run the day before a weightlifting meet, you are going to be too tired and sore to lift very much. If you snatch and clean heavy the night before a race, you are going to be stiff, sore and slow, so only you can determine how much of each.

Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate).

alculate your activity level. For a week or so, keep an activity journal and use a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you burn while sitting, standing, exercising, lifting weights, etc.

Keep track of how many calories you eat.

Add it up

Hitting the snooze button Get up 10 minutes early and go for a brisk walk (calories burned: 100)

mainly made up of protein. However, p

What is protein? How much protein do we need? Is it possible to eat too much protein?

mainly

Proteins are made up of smaller units called amino acids. Our bodies cannot manufacture nine of the amino acids, so it is important to include all these amino acids in our diets.

Our protein needs depend on our age, size, and activity level.

Another common idea is that because heart attacks and other cardiac events occur more frequently in the morning, people who are at increased risk should exercise vigorously only in the afternoon.However in a 2007 scientific statement, the American Heart Association said cardiac events during exercise were relatively rare.

Research shows later in the day, when our body temperature and muscle strength are at their peak tends to be best for exercises that require substantial physical effort. But skill-based exercises, or ones that require fine motor control, are better performed in the morning.

Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing you’ve done something disciplined and good for you

Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental acuity—a benefit that lasts four to ten hours after your workout ends. Exercising in the a.m. means you get to harness that brainpower, instead of wasting it while you’re snoozing.

Assuming you make exercise a true priority, it shouldn’t be a major problem to get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier—especially since regular exercise generally means a higher quality of sleep, which in turn means you’ll probably require less sleep.

When you exercise at about the same time every morning—especially if you wake up regularly at about the same time—you’re regulating your body's endocrine system and circadian rhythms. Your body learns that you do the same thing just about every day, and it begins to prepare for waking and exercise several hours before you actually open your eyes. That’s beneficial because:  Your body’s not “confused” by wildly changing wake-up times, which means waking up is much less painful. (You may even find that you don’t need an alarm clock most days.) Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc. Your metabolism, along with all the hormones involved in activity and exercise, begin to elevate while you're sleeping. As a result, you’ll feel more alert, energized, and ready to exercise when you do wake up.  Many people find that morning exercise has a tendency to regulate their appetite for the rest of the day. Not only do they eat less (since activity causes the release of endorphins, which in turn diminishes appetite), they also choose healthier portions of healthier foods.  People who consistently exercise find, sometimes to their great surprise, that the appointed time every morning evolves into something they look forward to. Besides the satisfaction of taking care of themselves, they find it’s a great time to plan their day, pray, or just think more clearly—things most of us often don’t get to do otherwise.  Exercising first thing in the morning is the most foolproof way to ensure that other things don’t overtake your fitness commitment, particularly if you have a hectic family life. (It’s so easy to wimp out in the evening, when we’re tired or faced with such tasks as rustling up dinner and helping with homework.)  More than 90% of those who exercise consistently have a morning fitness routine. If you want to exercise on a regular basis, the odds are in your favor if you squeeze your workout into the a.m.  Non-morning people can always trick themselves in the a.m. Having trouble psyching yourself up for a sunrise jog? Do what I did—tell yourself that you’ll still be so fast asleep that you won’t even remember—much less mind!  

My fear is that typical, normal Americans, upon learning that all their efforts to fit at least some exercise into their busy schedules are, after all, laughably inadequate, are going to throw up their hands in sheer frustration and disgust and say, "Screw it, Tillie. Pass the remote and open a bag of Cheetos." I suspect this is true because, well, that was very nearly my reaction to this report.

f you can engage in vigorous exercise for an hour a day without making yourself crazy, disabling yourself with orthopedic issues, losing your job, or instigating a divorce, then by all means do so. But if you are a mere mortal, then at least try to go for a walk every day. Twenty minutes of moderate daily activity won't make the pounds melt off or give you the same body composition as Lance Armstrong or the Williams sisters, but it will make a real impact on your cardiovascular health.

The ectomorph has a fairly easy time losing fat so they will will generally not need to do as much cardio for fat loss. Two or three times per week should be plenty. An ectomorph trying to gain muscle may need to lay off cardio training completely in order to have enough recovery energy available for their body to even build muscle. Once or twice a week should be the maximum cardio frequency. Even weight training may need to be less frequent (two or three times per week) in order to see results

Moderate-intensity cardio training, such as jogging or swimming, will need to be done a little less frequently. This type of training requires more energy both to perfom and for your body to recover from. A person trying to lose fat can generally perform four to six moderate-intensity sessions per week at around 20 to 30 minutes each. A person trying to gain muscle should reduce this amount to two to three sessions per week.

This type of hard training should be done less frequently than the more moderate forms of cardio as it is much harder for your body to recover from. If you are training for fat loss, you should do at least two but no more than three high-intensity cardio sessions per week. If you are training for muscle gain, once or, at the most, twice per week should be the limit.

High-intensity training is extremely effective for fat loss as it not only causes you to burn a lot of calories during the activity, it also raises your metabolism for a long time after the activity is done.

This would mean an ectomorphic person looking for muscle gain and doing low-intensity cardio training could do cardio two days a week at a minimum to maintain cardio capacity while trying to gain muscle.

Plyometrics is a protocol used to develop strength, speed and power for various types of sports.

Plyometrics require your muscles to contract while overcoming a lengthening phase and producing maximum strength in the shortest amount of time. According to Denis Knowles of Coachr.org, the faster a muscle is stretched, the greater the power output during the contraction phase of the muscle.

Hansen states that to perform faster and with greater strength and speed, stretching helps to elongate your stride or ability to move.

Stretching should concentrate on elongating your muscle overall and focus specifically on the sport you engage in. This is for two purposes: passive stretching elongates your muscles and helps them warm up and also cool down from everyday activities and training.

Second, dynamic stretching related to your sport works on the elastic properties of your muscles and connective tissues.

Dynamic stretching works on your nervous system that coordinates movement, power and strength so you can produce more power, strength and speed.