Ester Marsh column: 2017 is only 19 days away
Published 12:05 am Monday, December 12, 2016
Thursday, my son Andrew and I are flying to the Netherlands to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. He moved the party from Dec. 8 to Dec. 18 so my son could attend since he is still in high school. Then, to top it off, I get to spend Christmas with my family for the first time in 28 years! I have been home almost every year but never for Christmas.
Needless to say, I am super excited! Don’t worry, I will be back before the new year and I will get to exercise plenty since my mom is the “fitness queen” of the Netherlands at age 82! Many of you are waiting to start your exercise program in 2017. But, many of you are exercising now since it can help prevent weight gain through the holidays and definitely help you deal with holiday stress better.
When you exercise, try to incorporate the following:
The five components of fitness: 1. cardio 2. strength 3. strength endurance 4. flexibility and 5. body composition. When you look at a workout plan, you want to include each component. Cardio is an aerobic activity (with oxygen) such as walking, running, swimming, cycling or any aerobic group exercise which is designed to strengthen the heart and lungs. Strength is a type of physical exercise specializing in the use of resistance to contract the muscles, which builds the strength and anaerobic (without oxygen) endurance and size of the muscles. Typically, it involves low reps (no more than 10-12) with higher weight. Strength endurance is the ability to execute repeated contractions over a period of time. This is aerobic and anaerobic, and eventually your muscles will fatigue to a point where you have to stop. It typically involves lower weight with high repetitions such as 20-30 repetitions.
Flexibility speaks for itself; it is a measure of range of motion around a joint or multiple joints. Flexibility is needed in everyday life for things such as getting in and out of bed, the car, tying your shoes and so on. You should stretch each main muscle group most days of the week and hold the stretch for 30 seconds or sets such as 2 times for 15 seconds or 3 times for 10 seconds. It’s better to be warmed up before you work on flexibility; for example, warm up on the treadmill or bike for 10-15 minutes. Stretch so that there is some discomfort but absolutely no pain. Quality of life is considerably enhanced by improving and maintaining a good range of motion in the joints. We have two awesome Techno Gym pieces which purely work on flexibility, and many of our members are routinely working with them because of how easy they are to use. You can see if you get more flexible since the equipment shows your degree of flexibility. And of course, there are still two TRUE stretch “cages.” So no more having to get to the mat on the ground to do flexibility exercises.
Body composition is the body’s relative amount of fat to fat-free mass. You are what you eat — if you eat too much fat and/or calories, you will carry too much fat.
Each year we try to come up with new ways to get people motivated and continue to stay motivated to exercise and lead a healthy lifestyle. As I have mentioned many times before, it’s not easy to start and continue to lead a healthy lifestyle. That’s especially true in this country where it is cheaper to chose from the dollar menu versus fresh fruits, vegetables and meat products. When my 15-year-old nephew Enzo came here this summer and I asked if he wanted to live here, he said (and I am translating it into English): “ I want to but it would be very hard to eat healthy here. My mouth dropped to the floor! A 15-year-old young lad noticing that it’s easier and cheaper to buy unhealthy foods versus healthy foods…
We have stepped up our collaboration with Novant Health and added a program for Parkinson patients. After their initial assessment with Novant Health they “graduate” to classes at our JF Hurley YMCA and are led by specialized personal trainers. We also have a new program for patients who have gone, or will go through, bariatric surgery called “Bodies in Motion” to get you started to a newer you!
Many people are so much more successful when they join a group exercise class whether on land or in the water since they build special relationships in their classes. You should see all the Christmas parties that are going on at the YMCA with classes getting together to celebrate the holidays with their new and old friends! If you are one who loves classes or would like to try them, we have over 35 water exercise classes and 80 land exercise classes with any level of fitness and intensity.
I believe this will get you going! As my dear friend Ann Cogin said when we opened in 2003 at our new facility on Jake Alexander Boulevard, “If they can’t find something to do at the YMCA they won’t find it anywhere!“
Merry Christmas from the Rowan County YMCA staff to all!
Ester H. Marsh is health and fitness director for the JF Hurley YMCA.