Walking test that everyone should pass

If you’re middle-aged or older, a 10-minute walking test can give you and your doctor a pretty clear picture of whether you are at higher risk of dying during the next few years compared with other people your age, according to a large new analysis of data showing that cardiorespiratory fitness is intimately linked with the risk of dying of just about any cause.

However, you probably won’t get this exercise test unless you ask for it.

The exercise stress test –or, in medical parlance, the graded exercise test –measures your cardiorespiratory fitness, or how well your heart, lungs, muscles, and blood vessels work together to use oxygen and produce energy. There are several ways to do the test, but it basically involves walking or running on a treadmill at progressively steeper inclines or faster speeds under medical supervision.

It has been known for decades that cardiorespiratory fitness is a key factor in mortality risk, with more-fit people surviving longer than the less-fit, said Dr. Timothy Church, director of preventive medicine research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Fitness is just simply as powerful a risk factor as there is,” he said.

But primary-care doctors don’t include it in a patient’s workup along with blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and so on, he said.

It’s expensive, it’s not easy to do, it requires special equipment, and physicians these days don’t even have time to talk about exercise in general, let alone do exercise tests on everybody,” Church said.

But they probably should, according to the authors of a major review of the medical literature on fitness and mortality risk published this week in Journal of the American Medical Association. Health.com: Knowing your mother’s health history can lower your risks

Satoru Kodama, of the University of Tsukuba Institute of Clinical Medicine in Ibaraki, Japan, and colleagues looked at 33 studies dating back to 1980, including a total analysis of about 200,000 people, and came up with an important number that could encourage doctors to use cardiorespiratory fitness testing in their patients.

That number, in metabolic equivalent units (METs)– which basically measure how much work your body can do — is 7.9. This fitness level roughly equates to a 50-year-old man being able to walk “continuously” at four miles an hour during the test, or a woman of the same age walking at three miles an hour.

Kodama and his team found that people with cardiorespiratory fitness levels below 7.9 METs were 40 percent more likely to die during the next few years and 47 percent more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular event than people with fitness levels at 7.9 to 10.8 METs. Compared with the fittest individuals, who had cardiorespiratory fitness of 10.9 METs or more, the least fit people were 70 percent more likely to die and 56 percent more likely to have a cardiovascular event.

Mortality risk in general dropped by 13 percent for every additional MET of fitness, while cardiovascular risk dropped 15 percent, said Lee W. Jones, an associate professor in the department of surgery at Duke University who studies fitness and cancer mortality. “That’s major stuff.”

Although people probably think that cholesterol levels, weight, and blood pressure tell them everything they need to know about their fitness, he said, the influence of your heart and lung function is actually separate from these factors — although becoming more fit will cut your cholesterol levels and reduce your blood pressure.

People who move from couch-potato status to moderate fitness –something they can accomplish by walking 30 minutes a day five days a week — will see the most substantial survival benefit from increased cardiorespiratory fitness, said Church.

But everybody could stand to get a little fitter, and the fitter you are, the greater the benefit, said Jones. “People always ask me how much exercise they should be doing,” he said. “My answer is always the same: more.”

MikeZume_walking step by step to fitness and weight loss, join my today and everyday.

Please consult your physician before starting any exercise or weight loss program.
Your physician is your very best resource.

ZumeWalking for Weight Loss

One of the best ways to lose those love handles is walking and if you wantt to shed those unwanted pounds try walking to work. Here’s a great article from Detroit News written by Tali Arbel titled, “6 Ways You Can Put a Little Exercise Into Your Work Day.”

Stressed at work? You need some exercise! But if working out after or before the job isn’t working out, make your desk a gym, says the Mayo Health Clinic, which offers these ideas on how to incorporate exercise intooffice life:

1. When you need to talk to a co-worker, get up and walk to other desks and offices rather than calling or using instant-messaging.

2. When walking to and from work — or at any time during your day — make sure you move quickly.

3. Instead of a coffee break, take a “fitness break.” Go on a walk, do some stretches or even try a few easy muscle-building exercises with equipment you can store in your desk, such as resistance bands or small hand weights.

4. See if you can find others who want to increase their activity level to join you on a lunchtime stroll. Regularly-scheduled exercise with a group makes you more likely to stay involved, according to the Mayo Clinic, and is also a nice social opportunity.

5. Stand, don’t sit! Just getting up burns more calories than if you remain seated for hours at a stretch.

6. Make your commute an opportunity to move. Bike to work if possible, or get off public transportation before your destination and hike the rest of the way to work. If driving, park as far away as is reasonable. And always take the stairs.

MikeZume_walk everywhere not just for exercise.

Please consult your physician before starting any exercise or weight loss program.
Your physician is your very best resource.

walking for fitness

Aging is a part of life but getting old is a matter of mind-over-matter, if you’re working to live a fit life, then it don’t matter. You’ve all seen me write this a hundred times, walking is the exercise is the rest of us and for the rest of life. If you commit to slowly working yourself back into shape, good health and find a form of exercise that you love, a life time will be easy because it becomes a part of who you are, what you do and keeping fit.

Eugenie Jones writes for the Kitsap Sun that, “We’ve come accustomed to thinking “older means fatter.” Yes, we do lose muscle as we age, but it’s not getting older that’s the culprit as much as it is allowing ourselves to neglect our fitness — to become more and more unfit.

When it comes to muscle tissue this neglect materializes in the form of your lean tissue, ever so slowly, shriveling away.

It’s a gradual process that can almost go unnoticed, especially if the manner of detection is the bathroom scale. No, your muscles aren’t defying science and turning into fat, as some people mistakenly believe.

By not being put to use, they begin to deteriorate, to atrophy, while your spoon and fork — being put to excessive use — cause excess body fat tissue to accumulate. The loss of one tissue type is balanced out on the bathroom scales by the gain of the other.

So, when you do weigh yourself you’re given a false sense of “Oh, I’m not doing so bad,” and all the while your body’s fat-to-muscle ratio is changing for the worse.

Americans typically lose five to six pounds of muscle tissue every 10 years after age 30. That fact alone is pretty significant, but only part of the problem. Additionally problematic is the fact that a loss in muscle tissue also means a loss in strength.

Lost strength can materialize as lost physical ability and a diminished quality of life. Tie in the fact that the amount of muscle tissue you have affects your body’s metabolic rate (how fast your body burns calories), and it all adds up as motivation to use and not lose your muscles.

You don’t have to aspire to professional bodybuilding in order to counter these affects. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of eight to 12 exercises involving the major muscles groups: arms, shoulder, chest, abdomen, back, hips, and legs — performed two to three nonconsecutive days a week.

A minimum of one set of eight to twelve repetitions should be sufficient for most people, but you can gradually work up two to three sets for greater benefit. If your body fat is also a concern, add walking or a similar cardiovascular activity on four to six days a week, beginning at a comfortable workout duration and gradually working up to 24 to 60 minutes of cardio work.

If you’re unsure of what exercises to perform or how to perform them, pick up a copies of “Weight Training For Beginners,” by Tony Gallagher, and/or “The ACSM Fitness Book: A Proven Step-by-Step Program from the Experts.”

Both can help you to effectively use your muscles without losing all the advantages that keeping them strong brings to your life. Above all, remember that greater fitness is possible at every age and that you have more power over how “old” you are than you may imagine. Now go be great!

If your body fat is also a concern, add walking or any cardiovascular activity can accelerate your caloric burn and try to build toward a routine of  four to six days a week, beginning at a comfortable workout duration then build a routine that you can maintain and enjoy. Even if means starting small by walking around the block or down the street then build your walking for fitness routine from that point, remember you have the rest of your life. Build it slowly but do it six days a week.

MikeZume_i love walking because it gives me time to think and who couldn’t use a little time to think.

Please consult your physician before starting any exercise or weight loss program.
Your physician is your very best resource.