The True Health Benefits of Exercise

Hi, it's Dr. Adam Perlman and we are here at, I will admit it, one of my favorite places, the gym. Exercising is so important. It's so important to get a combination of strength training, stretching and aerobic activity. And although you don't need a gym to get that sort of exercise routine in, you need not be intimidated by the gym either. And so what we're going to do today is talk about some ways to utilize some of the things we find in a gym to get a safe and effective workout. I'm not actually going to do a full workout, but just kind of hit the highlights of a workout. That kind of things that I would typically do. And one of the things that's really important is you want to warm up. I'm not a big fan of sort of static stretching when your muscles are cold. So I like to kind of get my blood moving and stretch at the same time. Just picked up a weighted ball here and I might start something to kind of warm my hips up, work at different angles, Wood chop, trying to warm up various parts of the body and get the blood moving before I jump into my full workout. So strength training, let's say we wanted to work the chest. There's so many options. Don't need a gym. Could be doing push ups, all kinds of things. There's a whole bunch of machines that you could utilize. I'm a fan myself of dumbbells. So, you know, I might grab a pair of dumbbells and use a bench and do some incline bench press. Right. But let's say I didn't want to use dumbbells. If you're not sure how to set these things up, the people that work in the gym, that's what they're trained to do. So I might want to do a press, I might want to adjust the weight. Okay, I might want to do more of a fly. But let's say I was even at home. I can do the same sort of exercise routine just with a relatively inexpensive exercise band. So I could again do a press. I could do a fly. I recommended to my patients that they try to get to a gym or work with a personal trainer at least two to three times so they have a safe routine and then even periodically check back in just to make sure the technique is still what it should be. Because you really not only want to get in better shape and feel better, a big part of that is you want to avoid injury too. So obviously another component of a comprehensive, complete exercise routine is enough aerobic exercise. And there's A lot of options there, from bike riding to treadmills to ellipticals. And certainly don't need to be in a gym to get aerobic exercise, swimming, all kinds of things you can do outside and outdoors. And find what's enjoyable for you. Get your heart rate moving, but find what's enjoyable for you. I also like to use a heart rate monitor. Not everyone enjoys these, but it's one way for me to keep track of just how much I've done in terms of getting my heart rate up into that zone where I'm getting that true aerobic benefit. Because this actually monitors it for me. And then I can track on a weekly or daily basis how well I've done. So again, we could talk a lot about how much exercise is right and you know, the official recommendations of 150 minutes. It could probably be less if it's more intense. For most people, if you can exercise at least 20 minutes at a time. And the exercise needs to to be a combination of getting some aerobic, some sort of strength training as well as stretching. Stretching comes sometimes as a part of more dynamic warm up, but certainly at the end of the workout that can be very important. I also like to incorporate a roller when I stretch. You can actually improve flexibility. Also the roller can help with muscle soreness. Let me show you a few things that I like to do. I can tend to get sore in my lower back area. So I'll roll that. I'll roll my entire back. Sometimes I'll find a spot like I have right now and kind of stay with it for a little while. Again, like to work the side of the leg. A lot of runners get very tight there. Other exercises, bikers that can tighten up quite a bit. So I like to roll that out and there's ways you can do it. But I always try to adjust to what feels right for my body. There's also stretches that I do because I know the parts of my body that tend to get really tight. So one love to do. I do it pretty much every day here and I just kind of roll over and it's interesting. My body just really craves this stretch. I specifically like to stretch with this sort of a stretch, make sure that I'm kind of loosening this area up. And then depending on the kind of workout I did, I may focus more on other types of stretching. So for example, I might want to spend a little bit of time just making sure that I'm loosening up my chest muscles. If that was an area of the body that I had worked, or if I had worked my shoulders more, I might make sure that I'm putting in that shoulder stretch, which I may not do every day, but on a day that I've been working shoulders, I make sure that I'm kind of loosening up post workout those particular muscles that I spent more time on. And then I'm seeing how I feel, and when I don't feel great the next day, I'm saying, hmm, I wonder what I did that may have been too much, or maybe I could do differently next time. If something's happening consistently not the way I'd like it to be, then I'm asking a trainer to take a look and tell me what they think I need to adjust. So at the end of the day, this is really about healthy habits, right? And making exercise one of your healthy habits. Now, one of the neat things about exercise, if you've been struggling with it or struggling to adopt other healthy things in your life, is exercise is one of the things that can be what's called a keystone habit. So it's one of those habits that if you can put it into place on a regular basis, it actually can trigger your ability to implement other healthy habits. I'd encourage you to experiment, try different things, find an exercise buddy, but make exercise one of your healthy habits.