WHY IS EXERCISE IMPORTANT?

• Regular physical activity, especially moderate to vigorous levels, lowers your risk of cancer.
• Excess body weight and weight gain during your adult years can increase your risk for certain cancers such as breast, colorectal, endometrial, and kidney.
• Exercise lowers your blood pressure, which reduces the risk of a range of cancers including bowel, lung, skin, and kidney.
• Exercising regularly can stabilize insulin and certain hormones that are linked to cancer.
• Exercise helps build a strong immune system to better fight off colds, flu, and precancerous cells.
• Movement releases endorphins – those amazing feel-good neurotransmitters that improve mood, reduce pain, improve sleep, and boost libido.
• Exercising with other people increases your accountability and leads to less isolation and depression.

TYPES OF EXERCISE

Every body is different.

We’re all  doing the best we can to juggle everything in life, including what we put into our bodies and how we move them. There are a million different ways to sweat, so find the movement that feels best to you and stick with it.

Cardio

Cardio exerts our muscles and gets our heart pumping. Our body operates like a machine – blood carries the fuel (oxygen and nutrients) to our engine (the heart). This type of exercise demands more power from our heart and lungs, making them, as they say, “harder, better, faster, stronger”.

So whether you’re lying on a couch or running a marathon, an athletic heart more efficiently pumps blood and delivers fuel to your cells. This builds our ability to handle stress, improves stamina, and lowers chances of injury and disease.

Types of Cardio

• Running – Known side effects include sexy calves and happy hamstrings.
• Biking – This low impact exercise moonlights as a mode of transportation and leads to a sexy bod.
• Swimming – All you need is a swimsuit and water, speedos welcome.
• Walking – A trail, the mall, a treadmill – it all counts.

Cardio Do’s

• Warm up & cool down, this should include a good stretch to end your workout.
• Drink lots of water!
• Easy does it. Gradually increase the intensity or distance of your workout.
• Schedule your workouts like you would a meeting.

Cardio Don’ts

• Don’t binge. 5 workouts on Saturday doesn’t make up for a week of excuses.
• Don’t forget to breathe or you won’t last very long.
• Don’t go too hard too fast. It’s better if you last.
• Don’t forget to take a day of rest. Your muscles need time to repair and rebuild.

Flexibility & Stretching

Flexibility refers to the range of movement in our joints and muscles. Our muscles are like rubber bands designed to expand and contract as the body moves. By engaging in activities that lengthen muscles, like yoga and stretching, we can build this maximum range of motion and increase our overall flexibility. Bendiness brings many benefits to our health; it allows us to be nimble and resistant to injury, it creates elasticity in our arteries to bring fresh blood to every inch of our muscles helping us sleep deeper and feel brighter. If we don’t take the time to stretch, our muscles become brittle and tight. This leads to injury. Stretching is like shutting down your computer at the end of the day – you know you should do it, but it’s easy to blow off.

Types of Flexibility Exercises

• Yoga – A Bowflex, chill pill, and Thai masseuse all in one.
• Stretching – Stretch it, stretch it real good.

Flexibility Do’s

• Slowly inhale & exhale as you stretch to the point of tension.
• Hold each stretch for 30 seconds or longer so that your muscles have time to remember just how long they can be.
• Relax. This is supposed to feel good.

Flexibility Don’ts

• Don’t stretch a muscle that isn’t warmed up. An easy 5-10 minute warm-up will do the trick.
• Don’t be a masochist, stretch until you feel tension not pain.

Source: American Cancer Society; Centers for Disease Control & Prevention; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services