Regular exercise has a host of benefits including:
- The release of good hormones in your body,
- Toning your muscles,
- Improving skin tone and color,
- Preventing joint deterioration,
- Increasing lean muscle mass,
- Preventing insulin resistance,
- Keeping body weight under control,
- Increasing strength and energy,
- Improving mental fitness.
Canadian Air Force Exercises:
My favorite exercise program is the Royal Canadian Air-force Exercise Plan. Actually there are 2 plans – one for men and one for women. Written more than 50 years ago, these are simple exercise routines that anyone can do without any additional equipment. The routines are usually done in under 10 minutes, 12 minutes max. They start on a very, very low level of exertion and increase in number of repetitions as well as required strength and agility on a very gradual basis, which you increase at your own speed.
Below are the links that you can download the 2 booklets – one for men (5BX) and one for women (XBX).
https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rfburger/5bx-plan.pdf – 5BX for Men
http://www.corvedale.com/5bx/xbxPlan.pdf – XBX for Women
Read all of the information in the beginning of the booklets so that you understand the theory of these exercises and how the whole plan works.
If you allow an extra 10 to 12 minutes into your morning routine and do them before jumping into the shower, and do them daily, over time you will get into better and better shape. These won’t transform your body in a few weeks into Mr. Muscleman, but done consistently over time will get and keep you in excellent physical condition.
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Interval Training:
Quite a few studies have been done on what is called “Interval Training” or Interval Exercise. Done 3 times a week for about 12 minutes each time produces better results than hours at the gym doing longer workouts. In essence interval training is where you do several short burst of very intense exercise with short recovery period of low intensity in between. There are many variations of this but most of them involve a short warm up, then about 1 to 2 minutes of intensity then 1-2 minutes of recovery, back and forth several times. I have found it easiest to do this on a treadmill. I warm up with a fast walk for a few minutes. I then do 1 1/2 minutes of running – fast enough running to get my heart rate up to about 160 or 165, then back to fast walking for 1 1/2 minutes. I do this 4 times. The entire routine is done in 12 to 15 minutes. I do it every other day in addition to my daily Canadian Air Force Exercises which I do daily in under 10 minutes. More about CAF exercises in other posts.
Here are a couple links about Interval Training that I found helpful:
https://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/interval-training-short-workouts-really-pay
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/fitness/in-depth/interval-training/art-20044588
There are many other low impact workouts that you can try. Here’s an excellent article that covers 21 additional low impact forms of exercising you can do.