The best exercise program has two primary characteristics: It promotes your health and it's fun to do. Exercise does not have to be a chore. On the contrary, it can provide some of the most pleasurable moments of your day, once you make it a habit.
Physical Activity and Exercise for Health and Fitness
Physical activity can be defined as any body movement carried out by skeletal muscles and requiring energy-standing up, walking down the hall, carrying a child and so on. The term exercise is usually meant for planned, structured, repetitive movement of the body designed specifically to improve or maintain physical fitness. To develop fitness, a person must perform a sufficint amount of physical activity to stress the body and cause long term physiological changes.
Duration
A total duration of 20-60 minutes is recommended; exercise can take place in a single session or im multiple bouts lasting 10 or more minutes. The total duration of exercise depends on its intensity. To improve cardiorespiratory endurance during a low- to moderate-intense activity such as walking r slow swimming, you should exercise for 45-60 minutes. For high-intensity exercise performed at the top of your target heart rate zone, a duration of 20 minutes is sufficient. It is usually best to start off with less-vigorous activities and only gradually increase intensity.
The Warm-Up and Cool-Down
It is always important to warm up before you exercise and to cool down afterward. Warming up enhances your performance and decreases your chances of injury. A warm-up session should include low-intensity movements similar to those in the activity that will follow. Examples of low-intensity movements are hitting forehands and backhands before a tennis game and running and a 12-minute mile before progressing to an 8-minute one. Some experts also recommend warm-up stretching exercises for flexibility after the general warm-up and before intense activity.
Cooling down after exercise is important to restore the body's circulation to its normal resting condition. When you are at rest, a relatively small percentage of your total blood volume is directed to muscles, but during exercise, as much as 85% of the heart's output is directed to them. During recovery from exercise, it is important to continue exercising at a low level to provide a smooth transition to the resting rate.
