Health Redesigned Blog

There is an increasing trend of doing short, high-intensity workouts. These workouts are referred to as HIIT or high-intensity interval training. It’s a form of anaerobic conditioning (without oxygen) that can deliver faster results than other styles of training. HITT workouts include doing repeated short bursts of maximal intensity or high-intensity effort. They come in all shapes and sizes, with varying exercises. The number of sets and repetitions can also vary from workout to workout. Generally, workout sessions are short and sweet, lasting less than 30 minutes.

HIIT workouts were intended to supplement training. They were never designed to be your entire fitness program. I love HITT when it’s done properly. It can deliver amazing results. HITT can yield significant changes to body composition in a relatively short period of time. The biggest problem with HIIT workouts is the way they are executed. If you do intense workouts day in, day out, by the end of a month or...

You understand there are a ton of amazing benefits from exercising, but you may not be sure what exactly you should be doing. There are lots of different types of exercise programs out there, such as fitness classes, weight training, swimming, biking running, yoga, and pilates. New types of exercises and new fads are coming out all the time. What they all have in common is that they target components of fitness, giving you benefits specific to that exercise. Let’s explore the different components of fitness to give you a better understanding.

Cardiovascular

Cardiovascular fitness, also called cardio, is the heart’s ability to deliver blood to working muscles and their ability to use it. As you gain cardiovascular fitness, you’ll be able to work harder or faster with less effort. Some examples of cardiovascular fitness include walking, running, hiking, swimming and biking. What three activities (or more) will you try that will boost...

There are some days that I literally want to rip my hair out because of what people count as exercise. Walter works from home and would go up and down the stairs three times in the day, counting that as his exercise. He also thought that walking at the grocery store and shoveling his four-foot-long sidewalk once a week was exercise. I couldn’t convince him otherwise. These things are NOT exercise. They are activities.

Activity

Activity is any physical movement of the body that uses up energy. Most people count their activities of daily living (ADL) as exercise. These ADL’s are the things you need to do in the day like cooking, laundry, housework or yard work and often involve going up and down the stairs a few times in the day. General activity can also include taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking at the back of the parking lot so that you have to walk further.

Marina is a nurse on a busy unit. She works 12-hour shifts and is up and down the unit all day....