Tennova Healthcare Highlights Best Exercises for Good Health
11/9/2017
Stand in a supermarket checkout line, and you’ll be bombarded with dozens of different messages about the “best diet” and the “best exercises” to lose weight, gain weight, get stronger and stay healthy. How do you choose the right plan?
To help you evaluate and select the right workout routine for you—based on your specific needs and goals—fitness experts at Tennova Healthcare have sorted through the latest “best advice” to provide tips for your total health.
According to a recent report from Harvard Medical School, the following exercises can help you get in shape and lower your risk for disease: swimming, strength training, walking, Tai Chi and Kegel exercises. The team at Tennova Health & Fitness Center in Powell agrees with these choices, not only because of the credibility of the clinical sources, but also because they are appropriate for virtually every age and fitness level.
“This is an excellent list of activities that nearly everyone can benefit from in building and maintaining overall health,” said Katherine DePersio, ACSM-CPT, a certified personal trainer and fitness coordinator at Tennova Health & Fitness Center. “If you have any specific goals or physical limitations, we recommend discussing your fitness routine annually with your primary care physician.”
In addition to the general list above, fitness experts recommend the following “best” exercises for unique needs and body parts. A personal trainer can coach you or you can find instructional videos online to ensure you use proper form. Be sure to check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program.
- Lower Body. If you don’t have severe knee pain, or restriction around the use of your knees, the best exercise to ensure long-term lower body strength is squats. Be sure your knees don’t extend out past your toes, and try to “sit” on an imaginary (or real) chair. Go slowly, and gradually increase your reps
- Upper Body. If you are able, the best upper body exercises are yoga’s downward dog and upward dog poses. These poses increase strength and flexibility. Plus, using your own body weight, they can give you a nicely toned back, arms and shoulders.
- Cardiovascular Health. Most experts now agree that an hour a day on the treadmill or stair climber is not the best way to achieve heart health. Interval training has quickly become accepted as a safer and more impactful way to optimize cardio-fitness. Use the exercise of your choice (e.g., walking, running, cycling). The goal is to push yourself to maximum exertion (where you’re barely able to talk), hold it there for 30 seconds and then move at a restful pace for two minutes. Repeat the cycle for a total of 10 minutes to start, working up to 20 or 30 minutes, three times each week.
- Knee Pain. The best way to work through and eliminate knee pain is to strengthen the other, larger muscles around the knees. If you suffer from knee pain, squats are probably not advisable. Do a supine hamstring stretch to lengthen and release tight hamstring muscles, and static quad contractions to gradually strengthen the quadriceps muscles without further strain on the knee joint.
- Lower Back Pain. Try the cat cow stretch to massage/stimulate not only the spine, but also the pelvic muscles and other critical parts of your body’s core. Follow it up with a set of glute bridge exercises to loosen tight hips and engage quad muscles that support the lower back.
- Neck Pain. Our increasingly sedentary and digital lifestyles are leading to an epidemic of neck pain and forward head posture. Neck retraction exercises have a number of variations easily found online, and are a good way to strengthen the muscles that support your head.
According to DePersio, studies have shown that working with a personal trainer on a regular basis (two or more times a week) can offer results faster than exercising on your own.
“A personal trainer can work with you to develop a safe, effective program to help you reach your specific goals—whether it’s losing weight, training for a particular sport, or regaining fitness after illness or injury.”
Tennova’s certified personal trainers offer expert instruction, education, and motivation to help you reach your fitness goals, and provide valuable advice to help prevent injury.
“You choose how often or when you work with a trainer, whether it is a single session or an ongoing relationship,” DePersio said. “We offer one-on-one training or buddy sessions for you and a friend, as well as group sessions throughout the year.”
For more information about Tennova Health & Fitness Center, call (865) 859-7900 or visit Tennova.com/health-and-fitness-services.
About Tennova Healthcare
One of the state’s largest health networks, Tennova Healthcare includes 16 hospitals and more than 115 physician clinics. The combined network has approximately 2,600 licensed beds, 2,800 physicians on the combined active medical staffs, and 9,000 employees, with more than 70,000 admissions and 465,000 emergency department visits each year.
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