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For example, you might try using a Nautilus
®
bike for a scheduled, moderate level workout for 20 – 30
minutes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (see the intensity monitoring section for further
details on how hard to workout). On the other days, you might try going for a leisurely stroll 10 minutes in
the morning and in the evening (or whenever you can fit it in).
Whatever you do, just make sure you get your body moving, and your heart and lungs pumping for some
period of time every day.
Muscular Strength
is training your muscles to remain strong using resistance such as Nautilus
®
strength
machines, dumbbells, elastic tubing or your body weight. In the past decade, we have learned that
building or maintaining muscular strength is extremely important for a balanced fitness program. And it is
especially important as we get older.
We have learned through a variety of studies that those individuals who just train aerobically (without
strength training) do maintain their cardiovascular endurance over the years, but they generally lose
lean muscle mass as they get older. However, those individuals who combine strength training and
cardiovascular training can maintain their lean body mass as they get older. What this means is that if
you just do cardiovascular activity, your body will naturally lose muscle mass as you get older, and that
means that you will actually get “fatter” as you age, unless you incorporate strength training.
We have also learned that consistent strength training helps maintain bone and muscle mass as we get
older. For women, strength training (along with cardiovascular training) may also protect against post-
menopausal bone loss and osteoporosis in their later years.
And strength training is not complicated. It is recommended that you do 8 – 12 repetitions of 8 – 10 major
muscle groups at least 2 days a week. However, you don’t have to do all these exercises at once. You
can break them up into shorter workouts throughout the day. For example, you can do just upper body
exercises in the morning, and your lower body exercises in the evening. Or, you can alternate strength
exercises with cardiovascular exercise (often known as circuit training) by switching back and forth
every couple of minutes.
Flexibility
is being able to bend, reach, twist and turn with comfort and ease as we perform daily tasks,
play or exercise. It is perhaps the most ignored component of fitness, but certainly the easiest one to
incorporate into our daily lives because it can be done anywhere and almost at any time.
To maintain your flexibility, you simply need to stretch. This could be as simple as reaching for your
toes, or reaching overhead when you wake up in the morning. Or maybe you enjoy it so much that you
would be interested in trying the Nautilus
®
yoga workout video. You can even incorporate stretching into
your strength training workouts by stretching the muscles you have used immediately after you have
completed your exercise set.
Like cardiovascular training, it is recommended that you stretch every day. However, you do not need
to create a formalized program. You can simply make sure that you stretch your major muscle groups
EXERCISE & FITNESS GUIDELINES
