Exercising Moderation : No-Pain, No-Gain Workouts Aren’t Winning the War on Fat. The New Strategy: Safe and Steady
The ‘80s have been called the exercise decade. The most dedicated among us work out religiously to maintain physiques worth flaunting. Those less obsessive pump and jump so much that whole industries have been built around health clubs and workout wear. Sometimes it seems as though everybody has gotten physical--and in a big way.
But the image hardly matches reality. A new University of Michigan study of 20,000 adults reveals that only 18% of Americans between 18 and 65 engage in some form of exercise more than twice a week. Thirty-five percent exercise once a week at most, the study found. And an astounding 47% exercise not at all.
The study, written by Christine Brooks, an assistant professor in the university’s department of sports management and communications, is one of the most comprehensive looks at exercise habits in the United States in recent years. It shows that most Americans are far from the fitness goal set in 1980 by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, which aimed to have a modest 60% of the adult population doing some form of regular exercise by 1990. Add to that concerns over the generally poor nutritional habits of Americans, and it is clear--even amid a fitness boom--that something has gone wrong.
Ask people why they don’t exercise and they might say that jogging, walking and aerobics are boring. Or that they’re intimidated by the stronger, more beautiful bodies that surround them in health clubs. Or that they’re afraid of injury.
So fitness experts, research scientists and the medical community are changing strategy. High-impact aerobic exercise is out. The new emphasis is on moderation, motivation and safety. A little exercise performed consistently, the experts say, is better than none at all.
Dr. Steven Blair, director of epidemiology at the Institute for Aerobic Research in Dallas, says that many sedentary adults are discouraged from beginning any kind of fitness program because of misconceptions they’ve picked up from the media. “In this country, exercise has come to mean vigorous aerobic dancing or running marathons. That’s intimidating for someone who gets no exercise,” Blair says. “We need to get across a public health message that there is a form of exercise that suits everyone.”
Blair points out that “a couple of 15-minute walks each day will be of great benefit. These don’t have to be strenuous walks, just purposeful--to get some exercise.” He adds that by walking daily, the unfit are taking the first step toward becoming moderately active. And a perfect body--which might seem necessary amid the tights and leotards of aerobics classes--isn’t standard equipment.
Experts agree that once the sedentary start moving, it’s essential that they keep going, and that calls for self-motivation. “All it takes is a good pair of shoes to get out there and run,” says Harold Falls, professor of biomedical sciences at Southwest Missouri State University. “But after they’ve tried it for a while, many people say they don’t enjoy running or jogging, and they stop. Walking is good for low-fitness people and the elderly, but they complain that it’s inconvenient. We need to find ways to get people over these stumbling blocks.”
Even veteran exercisers must make an effort to maintain enthusiasm. An old but apparently overlooked concept is back in vogue: fun. Dr. Kenneth Forsythe, a West Los Angeles sports medicine physician and co-author of “Athletics For Life,” says: “People will incorporate exercise into their lives on a regular and sustained basis only when exercise becomes fun,” and what makes any workout program fun, he says, is variety.
In fitness circles, the word variety translates to cross-training . First associated with triathletes who needed to prepare for the running, swimming and biking segments of their competition, cross-training has been adopted by other athletes and now the general public. Skiers are alternately roller-skating, lifting weights and running before the first snow falls. Runners are swimming and doing low-impact aerobic dancing to reduce the chances of strain and likelihood of injury posed by a running-only regime. In the same way, beginning exercisers--who are swimming, riding stationary bikes or taking stretching classes--are diversifying their fitness program and avoiding the injuries that result from overusing muscles.
“Cross-training appears to cut down injuries because various muscle groups are strengthened by the different forms of exercise,” says Dr. John Pagliano, a sports medicine podiatrist on the teaching staff at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. “The development is much more balanced, so the risk of overuse injuries goes down.”
The ideal cross-training program includes activities that fall into different categories that work different muscles, providing stretching, strengthening and aerobic portions--sometimes all on the same day and sometimes on alternate days. The idea is to select a few exercises that you actually enjoy, and vary your workouts day to day so that you don’t burn out on any one of them. The following is a guide to some maximum-benefit, moderation-minded exercises that almost anyone can easily keep up and have fun doing.
AEROBICS
If there’s one activity that exemplifies the fitness movement of the ‘80s, it’s aerobic dancing. Ubiquitous celebrity exercise books, videotapes and movies such as “Flashdance” and “Perfect” seemed to start half the nation moving to an aerobic beat. By 1984, according to one survey, there were 24 million to 39 million participants in this country (though Brooks at the University of Michigan thinks that 17 million is a more realistic estimate).
Perhaps more revealing, the International Dance and Exercise Assn. reported that in 1985 about 5 million people started a regular aerobics program--but that 5 million others gave it up that same year. Dropouts complained of boredom and injuries. Another 1985 study showed that 43% of aerobics students--and a startling 76% of their instructors--sustained some injuries brought on by their own jumping and jarring.
Injuries were attributed to shoes, floors and teaching techniques. But as refinements in each area were made, injuries persisted, making it apparent that there was something wrong with the activity itself. Aerobic exercise aims to improve cardiovascular fitness (the heart and circulatory system) by raising and sustaining the heartbeat. The target pulse rate is achieved in high-impact aerobics by jogging, jumping or vigorous dance moves that are sometimes too much for the average American. Enter low-impact aerobics, in which one foot is always kept on the ground, the arms are almost constantly in motion, and most of the pounding of high-impact aerobics is eliminated.
Many health clubs and studios began adding low-impact classes to their schedules last year, and actress Jane Fonda, who built a second career on her controversial “go for the burn” exercises, brought out a low-impact version of her “Workout” video last fall.
It has been suggested that the vigorous arm thrusts of low-impact aerobics may eventually result in a new round of injuries. “The routines are still relatively new. The injuries haven’t started to surface yet,” says Karen Voight-Siegel, whose Voight Fitness and Dance Center in Los Angeles has offered variations on low-impact classes for the past four years. Blair at the Institute for Aerobic Research takes a wait-and-see view: “I’m not opposed to low-impact, but so far I’ve seen no conclusive studies about its values. Until we have data, I don’t see how people can be so positive about recommending it (over other forms of aerobics).”
Meanwhile, beating the boredom problem is another priority for aerobics instructors. One way to keep things interesting is to use balls, rubber bands, weights and other props that add resistance and variety to routines. And, as a diversion from the pervasive rock beat, themed music--such as Broadway sound tracks--is finding its way back to the workout room. Jacki Sorenson, who has been called the “mother of aerobic dance,” got exercisers moving to marches and show tunes in the late ‘70s. Now, the International Dance and Exercise Assn. is suggesting Caribbean music and intense percussion arrangements in addition to show music, according to the organization’s executive director, Kathie Davis.
WATER AEROBICS
The out-of-shape, the elderly, the obese and arthritics who want an effective alternative to aerobic dancing, running or cycling may find what they’re looking for in water workouts. Introduced years ago by swim teachers who recognized the cardiovascular benefits of a wet workout, aquatic aerobics are only now attracting a wide following. Kim Pye, an aquatic fitness specialist at the Structure House Center for Diet and Life Style Change in Durham, N.C., has been teaching water aerobics for seven years but says the biggest surge in enthusiasm has been in the last two--”just about the time stress injuries became increasingly evident from land aerobics,” she says.
Pye points out that cardiovascular activity in the water can be a “better, harder workout than those on land. Pushing and pulling against the water adds great resistance, but because your body is supported by the water, there is almost no risk of injury, especially to the joints.”
Although several universities have begun studies on water aerobics, the results are not in yet. Leroy Perry, a West Los Angeles chiropractor specializing in sports medicine, estimates that stress to the ankles, hips and knees is reduced by as much as 50% when exercise is performed in water.
Water-aerobics routines incorporate 25 to 35 minutes of cardiovascular exercise and about 20 minutes of muscle strengthening and toning, plus warmups, stretches and cool-down exercises. “The difference is that you can do these exercises no matter what shape you’re in,” Pye says. “People are submerged from the waist or chest down, so the overweight are far less embarrassed about their bodies. And because the water allows them to ‘give up’ 33% to 50% of their body weight, people who ordinarily can’t move are freed. The range of motion is greatly increased.”
“Walking and running in a pool keeps you in shape without unnecessary stress,” Perry says. “Fifteen minutes of running in the water is just as beneficial as 15 minutes on land,” he adds. Even though your effective body weight is lessened, the water provides resistance that intensifies each movement.
A word of caution from Perry, whose patient list includes Olympic swimming gold medalist Murray Rose, former athlete / actor Alex Karras, tennis player Tracy Austin and Jane Fonda: Eliminate the breaststroke and butterfly stroke. The former can put too much pressure on the sciatic nerve and lower limbs, and the latter can strain the back, he says. “Stick to the crawl and the backstroke.”
WALKING
For generations, mothers have been telling children to walk, not run. Now fitness experts and the medical community are giving the same advice. Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger of Stanford University School of Medicine, who studied the exercise patterns of 17,000 middle-age and older Harvard alumni, reported last year that those who walked and climbed stairs regularly outlived their sedentary counterparts by two years. More surprising, Paffenbarger’s study found that people on a vigorous fitness regime, such as running, were not in significantly better health than those whose exercise consisted only of regular, moderate activity, such as walking. The study went on to say that major health benefits came from only 2,000 calories burned off by exercise per week--which for the average person translates to five 30-minute, purposeful walks a week. In other words, a walk that doesn’t even cause you to break a sweat can improve your fitness without the risk to knees, shins, calves and ankles posed by running or aerobic dance.
Makers of athletic shoes are going after the new walkers’ market with gusto. Reebok, the $300-million sport-shoe manufacturer, recently bought Massachusetts-based Rockport, which last year had sales of about $80 million, mostly in walking shoes. “We haven’t seen the same explosion in walking that we saw, for instance, in aerobics, but more and more people are incorporating walking into their exercise routine,” says Angel Martinez, vice president of business and development for Reebok.
As word has spread about walking, clubs have sprung up across the country. Participants vary from senior citizens to teens. Walking, says Blair of the Aerobic Fitness Institute, is for just about everybody. And starting off with a perfect body is not a requirement.
Aerobics studios such as the Voight Fitness and Dance Center now offer classes in walking. At 7:30 a.m., about 25 people march up an incline on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, covering as many as four miles in an hour. Each walker strides at his own pace.
Some maximize their walking workouts with guerrilla-style bandoleers that crisscross the chest with as much as 20 pounds of weight. Others strap on five- or ten-pound ankle and wrist weights or carry Heavyhands or Hanteens, which are D-shaped one-pound weights. Others get more out of their walking workout by carting their infants and toddlers.
BIKING
Ten-speed and stationary-bike riding, which burns about 300 calories per half-hour, is a longtime favorite cardiovascular exercise. Many communities have bike paths, and most people have access to a garaged bike waiting for someone to clean off the cobwebs. An important component of cross-training, cycling can easily be made a part of a regular program that is paced according to ability.
For those who want to avoid the risks of riding on the open road, stationary bicycling provides the same benefits in the comfort of home or health club. Pedaling stationary bikes that have adjustable resistance mechanisms gives riders the same workout as riding land bikes across various terrains.
Mountain biking, which requires a high level of skill and fitness, is a fast-growing sport. The fat-wheeled little bikes with straight-across handlebars take riders through hills and valleys--far from automobiles, pedestrians, dogs and stoplights. Equipment ranges in price from about $200 to more than $1,000, and protective headgear is de rigueur , but many bike shops rent gear, so you can try before you buy.
WEIGHT TRAINING
Images of Victoria Principal and Cher, flexing for health club advertisements, and the emergence of body-building stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger have led many people to equate fitness with weight-room prowess. But weight training, which is not generally considered an aerobic exercise, is a means of toning or enlarging muscles and building strength and endurance. Combining aerobic activity with weight training is an effective way to develop overall fitness and a well-defined body. As a component in cross-training, it enables a person to work muscle groups that aren’t affected by their specialty sports or other workouts. For example, runners and cyclists whose legs are strong use weights to work their upper bodies.
Improperly using Nautilus machines or free weights can be a waste of time--or can cause great injury--so a new kind of coach has been introduced: the personal trainer who accompanies you to the gym. In the past their clients were usually body builders or movie stars, but now these specialists, who charge about $30 to $100 an hour, teach all kinds of people how to lift weights at home or in a club. “The personal trainer translates scientific information” about exercise physiology into each person’s workout, according to Dr. Irving Dardik, founding chairman of the U. S. Olympic Sports Medicine Council. Many specialists agree that everyone should have some instruction before embarking on a weight-training program.
