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| Stories & Feedback |
| Earn 10 Bonus Points! |
| 240 Points Already Earned |
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The Challenge: Week 5
5/1 - 5/7 |
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| Cardiovascular Exercise |
Our Healthy Activity Challenge for this week is focused on the amazing health benefits of physical activity, especially cardiovascular or aerobic exercise.
"If exercise could be put into a pill, it would be the single most prescribed medication in the world"
- Dr. Robert Butler, National Institute on Aging
Cardiovascular exercise is any activity that elevates the heart rate and breathing for a sustained period. Most experts suggest that we get at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise most days. Oh sure, you say, who has the time?
Do It in "Chunks"
The good news is that it doesn’t have to mean sweating in a gym or going for a three-mile power walk every day. We now know that we can break up our exercise into three 10-minute "chunks" of moderate activity each day, and get similar health benefits as with more rigorous 30-minute workouts.
Do Something You Enjoy
Now that you’ll be getting Challenge points for stepping up (or keeping up) your physical activity, we hope you’ll look for ways to walk more or engage more in other activities you enjoy, like playing a sport, taking a bike ride, dancing, gardening, cleaning your house (well, some people enjoy it!), or playing with your kids. Just do things that get your heart rate up for at least ten minutes at a time and aim to accumulate about 30-minutes of cardio every day.
And remember, cardio exercise makes us smarter, reduces stress, and improves our mood!
Week 5 Healthy Activity Reward Points: Earn 3 points for each day that you get at least 30 total minutes of cardiovascular exercise each day, as long as you get at least 3 days of exercise per week. (No credits if you don’t do at least three days of 30 total minutes of cardiovascular exercise per week!)
Week 5 Extra Credit: Earn 5 points for doing at least 30 total minutes of cardiovascular exercise 5 days this week. |
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Synergy for Good Health
As we mentioned last week, fruits and veggies contain nutrients and substances that work synergistically to deliver huge health benefits to all of our bodies’ systems. And synergy doesn’t just apply to eating. It applies to all the healthy behaviors we are illustrating in the Challenge. So far we have also focused on water, strength training, deep breathing, good fats, and now cardiovascular exercise – all things that work together synergistically to help our bodies function optimally.
For instance, when we engage in cardio exercise (week 5), we also reap the stress-reducing benefits of deeper breathing (week 3). Deep breathing brings more oxygen into our lungs and drinking sufficient water (week 1) allows us to more efficiently transport the oxygen from our lungs to all of our cells that need it to survive. All these healthy behaviors are linked in our bodies and minds and each one builds on the other to produce that awesome synergistic effect.
So, each week, give the Challenge a try. If it is something you can incorporate into your life on a regular basis, great! If it’s not, that’s OK. Just do as many of the positive things we recommend as you can. Every little bit helps . . . and 1+1=3 (or more!)
Alton
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