Exercise: How Much is Enough?

As I mentioned Saturday, you can dramatically improve health and mobility even into your eighties with a minimal strength training program. That raises the question of how much exercise is enough.



There is no simple answer. Perhaps a better question would be “How much exercise is enough to ….? If you’re specific about your exercise goals, the answers are pretty clear.



To Burn Calories

Any exercise you do, every move you make – from fidgeting to rolling over in your sleep – burns calories. The more calories you want to burn, the more you must move. Further, you can boost your calorie burn for each minute of exercise by building muscle mass.



Think of your body as a car which burns gas. Your fat cells are the car’s gas tank. Fill the gas tank with gasoline (stored fat) and it just sits there until the car requires fuel. More muscle gives your car more horsepower and, as you know, muscle cars burn more fuel.



To carry the analogy one step further, the fat in your body does not burn calories. Like gas in the gas tank, it just sits there waiting to be burned. The only sense in which it makes you burn calories is that a heavier car requires more fuel to lug the heavier load. When you overload your car, you can't wait to get home and unload because of the strain the load is placing on the engine, the shocks, the transmission ... Think about it.



Tags: antiaging tips, exercise, burn calories