Swimming With The Fishes
Swimming on a lake versus a pool is like the difference between skating on a pond or an indoor rink. Sure, the surface is the same but the experience is worlds apart.
“There’s something about swimming in a lake that’s so freeing,” says Kathy Speck of Rensselaerville. “One of the joys that I get is when you’re kind of floating around, you can watch the sky. It’s probably less swimming and more movement in this body of water that hugs you. Some people don’t like not being able to see in deep water. Unless I’m swimming in Loch Ness, I’m probably not worried about it.”
Swimming in a natural body of water does have its challenges — everything from lightning to leeches. Potential problems include wind, cold water, hypothermia, currents, poor visibility and natural hazards such as underwater rocks and stumps, says retired Red Cross aquatics manager Don Guertze of Bethlehem. It’s generally safest to swim in a guarded, roped-off area, such as the beaches at area New York State parks, he says.
“Open water can be disorienting,” he says. “There’s no reference point of where you’re going. You can very easily get off course.”
The Bethlehem Tri Club provides buoys, lifeguards and kayaks during weekly swims at Warner’s Lake in East Berne. Non-members who sign waivers can pay to participate.
The first time that club president John Guastella swam in open water, he panicked. “You don’t have the comfort of knowing that in 25 yards, you’re going to have a wall you can hang onto,” he explains. “In a pool, you still feel in control. The vastness kind of makes you insignificant.”
Now, he loves open-water swimming. “You train all winter in a pool, looking at a black line, going back and forth,” he says. “Then you’re outside, at one with nature in a lake. You get into a rhythm. All of your senses calm down. You kind of lose track of everything. It’s very peaceful.”
Club coach Fran Vincent of Bethlehem usually wears a wetsuit during open water workouts. Swimming gives her a sense of well being, she say
“I’m in my element,” she says. “One of the things I love is the freshness of the water. You have the wind and the waves, which makes it challenging for some people and intimidating for many. It’s kind of fun sometimes to see the fish. Visibility is certainly not as good as in a chlorinated pool. You’re sticking your head out of the water, looking at landmarks to know you’re going in the right direction. Sometimes you put your head in the water and you see nothing really, just the abyss. I think that’s kind of cool.”
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Doing swimmingly
Swimming benefits your whole body, says Don Guertze, a lifeguard and Red Cross safety instructor since the 1960s. “It is one of those exercises you can do at all ages,” he says. “It does not put impact on the joints. It allows you to exercise at your own pace. It gets all the body systems going. If you actually swim some distance, you get an aerobic workout.”
Swimming is one of the top two athletic activities in America, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. According to the CDC:
Aerobic exercise such as swimming for 2 and a half hours per week can lower risk of chronic illness and improve health of people with heart disease and diabetes.
Inactive non-swimmers are twice as likely to die as swimmers.
Aquatics are kinder to joints and muscles than higher impact land sports. Exercising in water helps reduce arthritis pain and broaden range of motion.
Swimming is a lifelong activity that helps women’s bone health after menopause.
Swimming can put you in a good mood. It helps the mental health of everyone from pregnant women to fibromyalgia sufferers.
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Crittenton Hospital’s Dr. Michael Yusaf of Rochester Hills Orthopaedics also recommends swimming as a safe low impact exercise for patients after joint replacement.
“Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular exercise because of the multiple muscle groups used at the same time,” says Yusaf. “It also helps to optimize blood flow to all areas of the body.”
Like with all forms of exercise, swimming is best performed after consultation with your physician and taking into consideration your own fitness level and long term goals.
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Walking and running are the most popular physical activities for American adults. But whether one is preferable to the other in terms of improving health has long been debated. Now a variety of new studies that pitted running directly against walking are providing some answers. Their conclusion? It depends almost completely on what you are hoping to accomplish.
If, for instance, you are looking to control your weight — and shallowly or not, I am — running wins, going away. In a study published last month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, and unambiguously titled “Greater Weight Loss From Running than Walking,” researchers combed survey data from 15,237 walkers and 32,215 runners enrolled in the National Runners and Walkers Health Study — a large survey being conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.
Participants were asked about their weight, waist circumference, diets and typical weekly walking or running mileage both when they joined the study, and then again up to six years later.
The runners almost uniformly were thinner than the walkers when each joined the study. And they stayed that way throughout. Over the years, the runners maintained their body mass and waistlines far better than the walkers.
The difference was particularly notable among participants over 55. Runners in this age group were not running a lot and generally were barely expending more calories per week during exercise than older walkers. But their body mass indexes and waist circumferences remained significantly lower than those of age-matched walkers.
Why running should better aid weight management than walking is not altogether clear. It might seem obvious that running, being more strenuous than walking, burns more calories per hour. And that’s true. But in the Berkeley study and others, when energy expenditure was approximately matched — when walkers head out for hours of rambling and burn the same number of calories over the course of a week as runners — the runners seem able to control their weight better over the long term.
One reason may be running’s effect on appetite, as another intriguing, if small, study suggests. In the study, published last year in The Journal of Obesity, nine experienced female runners and 10 committed female walkers reported to the exercise physiology lab at the University of Wyoming on two separate occasions. On one day, the groups ran or walked on a treadmill for an hour. On the second day, they all rested for an hour. Throughout each session, researchers monitored their total energy expenditure. They also drew blood from their volunteers to check for levels of certain hormones related to appetite.
After both sessions, the volunteers were set free in a room with a laden buffet and told to eat at will.
The walkers turned out to be hungry, consuming about 50 calories more than they had burned during their hourlong treadmill stroll.
The runners, on the other hand, picked at their food, taking in almost 200 fewer calories than they had burned while running.
The runners also proved after exercise to have significantly higher blood levels of a hormone called peptide YY, which has been shown to suppress appetite. The walkers did not have increased peptide YY levels; their appetites remained hearty.
So to eat less, run first.
But on other measures of health, new science shows that walking can be at least as valuable as running — and in some instances, more so. A study published this month that again plumbed data from the Runners and Walkers Health Study found that runners and walkers had equally diminished risks of developing age-related cataracts compared with sedentary people, an unexpected but excellent benefit of exercise.
And in perhaps the most comforting of the new studies, published last month in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology and again using numbers from the versatile Runners and Walkers Health Study, runners had far less risk of high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol profiles, diabetes and heart disease than their sedentary peers. But the walkers were doing even better. Runners, for instance, reduced their risk of heart disease by about 4.5 percent if they ran an hour a day. Walkers who expended the same amount of energy per day reduced their risk of heart disease by more than 9 percent.
Of course, few walkers match the energy expenditure of runners. “It’s fair to say that, if you plan to expend the same energy walking as running, you have to walk about one and a half times as far and that it takes about twice as long,” said Paul T. Williams, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the lead author of all of the studies involving the surveys of runners and walkers.
On the other hand, people who begin walking are often more unhealthy than those who start running, and so their health benefits from the exercise can be commensurately greater.
“It bears repeating that either walking or running is healthier than not doing either,” Dr. Williams said, whatever your health goals.
For confirmation, consider one additional aspect of the appetite study. The volunteers in that experiment had sat quietly for an hour during one session, not exercising in any fashion. And afterward they were famished, consuming about 300 calories more than the meager few they had just burned.
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Benefits Of Swimming
Not only is it excellent exercise but the benefits of swimming workouts are great for people in all age groups. Due to the weightlessness of the body while in the water, swimming is especially beneficial for those with limited mobility, injuries, or those with arthritic joints.Crittenton Hospital’s Dr. Michael Yusaf of Rochester Hills Orthopaedics also recommends swimming as a safe low impact exercise for patients after joint replacement.
“Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular exercise because of the multiple muscle groups used at the same time,” says Yusaf. “It also helps to optimize blood flow to all areas of the body.”
Like with all forms of exercise, swimming is best performed after consultation with your physician and taking into consideration your own fitness level and long term goals.
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Is it Better To Walk Or Run
Walking and running are the most popular physical activities for American adults. But whether one is preferable to the other in terms of improving health has long been debated. Now a variety of new studies that pitted running directly against walking are providing some answers. Their conclusion? It depends almost completely on what you are hoping to accomplish.
If, for instance, you are looking to control your weight — and shallowly or not, I am — running wins, going away. In a study published last month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, and unambiguously titled “Greater Weight Loss From Running than Walking,” researchers combed survey data from 15,237 walkers and 32,215 runners enrolled in the National Runners and Walkers Health Study — a large survey being conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.
Participants were asked about their weight, waist circumference, diets and typical weekly walking or running mileage both when they joined the study, and then again up to six years later.
The runners almost uniformly were thinner than the walkers when each joined the study. And they stayed that way throughout. Over the years, the runners maintained their body mass and waistlines far better than the walkers.
The difference was particularly notable among participants over 55. Runners in this age group were not running a lot and generally were barely expending more calories per week during exercise than older walkers. But their body mass indexes and waist circumferences remained significantly lower than those of age-matched walkers.
Why running should better aid weight management than walking is not altogether clear. It might seem obvious that running, being more strenuous than walking, burns more calories per hour. And that’s true. But in the Berkeley study and others, when energy expenditure was approximately matched — when walkers head out for hours of rambling and burn the same number of calories over the course of a week as runners — the runners seem able to control their weight better over the long term.
One reason may be running’s effect on appetite, as another intriguing, if small, study suggests. In the study, published last year in The Journal of Obesity, nine experienced female runners and 10 committed female walkers reported to the exercise physiology lab at the University of Wyoming on two separate occasions. On one day, the groups ran or walked on a treadmill for an hour. On the second day, they all rested for an hour. Throughout each session, researchers monitored their total energy expenditure. They also drew blood from their volunteers to check for levels of certain hormones related to appetite.
After both sessions, the volunteers were set free in a room with a laden buffet and told to eat at will.
The walkers turned out to be hungry, consuming about 50 calories more than they had burned during their hourlong treadmill stroll.
The runners, on the other hand, picked at their food, taking in almost 200 fewer calories than they had burned while running.
The runners also proved after exercise to have significantly higher blood levels of a hormone called peptide YY, which has been shown to suppress appetite. The walkers did not have increased peptide YY levels; their appetites remained hearty.
So to eat less, run first.
But on other measures of health, new science shows that walking can be at least as valuable as running — and in some instances, more so. A study published this month that again plumbed data from the Runners and Walkers Health Study found that runners and walkers had equally diminished risks of developing age-related cataracts compared with sedentary people, an unexpected but excellent benefit of exercise.
And in perhaps the most comforting of the new studies, published last month in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology and again using numbers from the versatile Runners and Walkers Health Study, runners had far less risk of high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol profiles, diabetes and heart disease than their sedentary peers. But the walkers were doing even better. Runners, for instance, reduced their risk of heart disease by about 4.5 percent if they ran an hour a day. Walkers who expended the same amount of energy per day reduced their risk of heart disease by more than 9 percent.
Of course, few walkers match the energy expenditure of runners. “It’s fair to say that, if you plan to expend the same energy walking as running, you have to walk about one and a half times as far and that it takes about twice as long,” said Paul T. Williams, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the lead author of all of the studies involving the surveys of runners and walkers.
On the other hand, people who begin walking are often more unhealthy than those who start running, and so their health benefits from the exercise can be commensurately greater.
“It bears repeating that either walking or running is healthier than not doing either,” Dr. Williams said, whatever your health goals.
For confirmation, consider one additional aspect of the appetite study. The volunteers in that experiment had sat quietly for an hour during one session, not exercising in any fashion. And afterward they were famished, consuming about 300 calories more than the meager few they had just burned.
....................................................................................
Walking Benefits
Walking can be a great way to start a consistent fitness regimen and get disciplined if you’re struggling. Many are frustrated initially by jogging and — honestly — if you’re new, it can sometimes feel like going from 0 to 60 in two seconds flat. Consider walking easing into activity and you’ll still reap the benefits, including boosted energy, a healthier heart, improved mood, weight maintenance, and more.
Even the busiest people can fit in moderate walk breaks in during work hours. (Little to no sweating involved means no need to shower, right?). Instead of zoning out in front of the computer with vending snacks at lunch time, get some air and take a half hour to hour stroll outdoors. A 150 pound woman can burn between 100 to 250 calories, depending on speed and duration in this amount of time. What’s better? You can usually find someone to join you and even form new friendships!
Just like with running, all you need to walk is yourself, a good pair of shoes, and a path (or treadmill). It’s yet another budget-friendly option with no gym required. As a result, there are fewer excuses not to get out there are be active each and every day. The current recommendation is 10,000 steps per day, which is around 5 miles.
Walking can be performed year-round in a variety of interesting environments. If strolling the sidewalks isn’t exciting for you, consider heading to a local nature or hiking path. Walk barefoot on the beach on your vacation. In the winter, try out snowshoes (a lot of parks rent them) or keep pace on the treadmill while reading a magazine or watching TV at the gym. No matter where or how you walk, you’ll be boosting your circulation, flushing out toxins, and improving your cardiovascular system.
Walking is also a fantastic option for runners looking to supplement workouts on cross-training days. In fact, many runners have admitted to me that they are relatively inactive outside of their running programs — and even a short walk each day might better replace a half hour on the couch. Walking works different muscle groups and stretches and loosens tight muscles, too. It’s lower impact and can be a great transition activity after injury or burnout..
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Ten Benefits of Nordic Walking
Nordic walking is an enhanced form of natural walking using special poles designed to engage your legs and upper body providing a total body workout. Research has shown that whether or not you have health considerations, Nordic walking helps to improve your physical functioning in many ways.
Widespread in Europe and becoming popular in Canada since the mid nineties, Nordic walking is suitable for people of all ages and abilities and can help with rehabilitation of injuries and chronic conditions.
Unlike hiking poles which are used for stability, Nordic walking poles have small rubber boots or paws on the bottom that the walker pushes against to propel forward, resulting in great upper body benefits.
Easy to learn and simple to do, however proper instruction the first time out will help ensure you are getting the most from your technique. Consider joining a group or working with an instructor to learn about the proper placement of the poles to achieve the optimal effect on your upper body muscles.
Benefits of Nordic walking include:
Improves your posture, balance and co-ordination which is beneficial and safe for those with peripheral neuropathy in the feet.
Activates your core muscles and improves core and trunk strength which is beneficial in reducing lower back pain and improving bladder control.
Improves lymph system function and reduces incidence of lymphedema onset (It is also safe for people with lymphedema provided a compression sleeve is worn during exercise)
Increases your upper limb range of motion and muscle endurance, especially after breast cancer surgery.
Provides a full body workout involving 90% of all muscles in the body.
Increases upper body muscle usage by 95% compared to walking without poles.
Increases your heart rate and caloric expenditure without making you feel that you are working that much harder. The perceived exertion is similar to that of normal walking, but you burn 30% more calories.
Maintains whole-body bone density which is extremely important to reduce your risk of osteoporosis.
Reduces joint stress, especially in the knees, feet and hips - important for anyone with arthritis, painful hips or knees, and other conditions where pain has prevented them from walking in the past.
Improves heart and lung function, overall physical capacity and fitness. Nordic walking is a great way to improve your cardiovascular functioning, which has been shown to be important in long-term cancer survival and prevention of recurrence of some cancers.
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Walking Makes a Body Good:
What is the main single flaw that makes your body less than idea? Most of us would answer “body fat.”
And as research has shown, regular exercise can reduce body fat. You can’t target a specific area of your body to spot reduce. But as you continue to exercise, the firming and toning of underlying muscle makes those specific areas look better proportionate.
And it turns out research shows that walkers are a step ahead of many other exercisers in the fat blasting department. A recent study at the exercise physiology labs found that treadmill walking burn more body fat than rowing or stationary cycling.
So walking is a great for fighter, if you stick with it. Studies show that the rate of fat burning increases for all types of exercise, after the first 20 minutes. That means that for fat loss, a one-hour walk is better than three 20 minutes walk. The average walker burns about 200 calories on a brisk 20 minute walk, and 50 % of these calories come from fat. Beyond those first 20 minutes, the percentage of fat calories burned escalates to 70.
Once you have four or five 45 minutes to hour-long walks worked into your weekly schedule, how else can you use walking to improve your look?
Walking
Maintaining good posture can make a big difference in how you use muscles. As your shoulder and spine straighten, your tummy flattens and your bottom sides under your torso. You also allow your body to work with gravity, not against it, so you don’t tire as easily and you are less susceptible to upper or lower-back strain or neck pain. When you walk tall, you are straighten the muscles in your abdomen, back and buttocks, too, which will enhance toned-up look.
While you are walking, place your thumb on the bottom of your breastbone and your little finger on your navel. Now lean slightly forward to bring your breastbone and navel one-quarter to one-half closer, keeping your head erect and spine straight.
The slight repositioning of your breastbone changes your body’s center of gravity, aligning your upper body squarely over your pelvis and tilting your body slightly forward, so you don’t ask your lower back too much.
Muscles
Health walking has several advantages over regular walking when it comes to tightening your tummy buttocks or upper arms, when you strengthen your legs as you plant your heel, you use more muscles than when you run.
This takes the same effect but you get usage of additional muscles. The result is more toning of the affected muscles.
To shape your calf muscles, we suggests learning to push off with the balls of your feet, because you end up working your calf muscles that way.
And if you pump your arms like a sprinter, bending your arms at the elbow and swinging them forward aggressively you can tone your upper arms and back muscles.
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Swimming is an Exercise
Exercise instructions:
Outward Leg Swing (tones thighs, hips, shoulders). Stand with back against poolside, hands holding gutter. Raise left as high as possible with leg straight; swing leg to left side. Return by pulling leg vigorously to right. Repeat with right leg.Toe Touch (legs, chest). Stand in waist-deep water. Raise left leg, bringing right hand toward left foot while looking back and extending left hand toward rear. Return to first position. Repeat on opposite side.
Legs together (thighs):
On back with legs together, hold on to gutter. Spread legs as far as possible, and then pull together vigorously.
Bobbing-legs sideward (legs, buttocks):
Stand to waist-to-chest-deep water; take breath, Submerge with left legs in squatting position, right leg extended sideward. Exhale as you shove off bottom. Reverse position of legs and inhale while out of water. Repeat alternating legs sideward.
Bobbing-high (upper, middle and lower body):
In water one to three feet over head, squat, hands out to side, palms down. Pull hands sharply to thighs and do a frog kick. Inhale at peak height, then drop, exhaling, until feet hit bottom, squat, jump upward, pulling arms downward in a breaststroke position and shoot to surface with arms and shoulders out of water.
Legs raiser (abdomen, arms, legs, shoulders, upper back):
Start by lying on back. Scull continuously while bringing left knee to chest until left knee is almost parallel to water. Then straighten left leg overhead. Return left knee to bent position and then assume starting position. Repeat exercise with right leg.
Before starting your workout, warm up by doing light conditioning and stretching exercise such as calisthenics. Begin slowly, and then increase your pace gradually. Since most swimming activities cause the back to be hyper extended, include this exercise in your warm-up: stand with your legs apart, extending your hands over your head, reaching as high as possible After approximately five to ten second, bend forward and down, flexing your knees. Hold this position for about 20 to 30 seconds, then repeat.
Perform all these exercises in sequence. The workout schedules have been organized so that you shift from an activity using one set of muscles or type of stress to an activity involving a different set of muscles or type of stress. The intensity of the workout also changes, with periods of physical work alternating with recovery periods. To get the best results you should workout daily or at least to four times per week.
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