Aerobic exercise is an important part of your exercise regimen. Aerobic exercise involves repetitive movement of large muscle groups that increases your heart rate, breathing, and blood flow. Performing aerobic exercise helps to strengthen the heart, burn calories, provide health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and helping diabetes patients, and promotes overall health and wellness. After surgery, this type of exercise helps to maintain weight loss and provide overall health.
Recommendations:
General Health Benefit
- 150 minutes per week
- Moderate intensity exercise 5 days per week for 30 minutes
- or
- Vigorous intensity exercise 3 days per week for 20 minutes
- or
- A mix of both intensities for 3-5 days per week
Prevent weight gain and help with active weight loss
- 150-250 minutes per week
Prevention of weight regain
- 200-300 minutes per week
Intensity
- Moderate intensity:
- Perceived exertion of 5-6 on scale of 1-10
- Heart rate and breathing elevated, but able to hold a conversation, unable to sing
- High intensity
- Perceived exertion of 7-8 on scale of 1-10
- Heart rate and breathing elevated, unable to hold a conversation
Types of aerobic exercise
- Walking
- Running
- Swimming
- Water Aerobics
- Zumba
- Stair Climbing
- Biking
- Ice skating/Roller Skating
- Any exercise that raises your heart rate and breathing
Try different modes of aerobic exercise to make exercise fun and challenge your body. Don’t forget to give yourself 2 days of rest each week for your body to recover and build new muscle.
Equipment you will need:
- Yourself
- Outside path or trail
- Exercise equipment—treadmill, bike, stair climber, elliptical
- Appropriate shoes and socks
- Comfortable exercise clothes
- Water bottle
Starting and progressing your aerobic exercise routine
- If you are new to exercise, start with 3 bouts of 10 minutes of aerobic exercise 2-3 days per week.
- Progress to 2 bouts of 15 minutes of continuous exercise, then to 1 bout of 30 minutes of continuous exercise 2-3 days per week.
- Once you are able to do 30 minutes of continuous exercise continue to add 5-10 minutes every week to each exercise session until you are able to continuously exercise for 60 minutes for 5 days per week.
- Challenge yourself by adding interval training into your aerobic exercise. Do this my increasing the intensity of your exercise every 5-10 minutes for 1-2 minutes by moving faster or adding incline/hills.