The Body Needs Three Essential Kinds of Exercise
by Bob Hannum Oct 23, 2013
| Table of Contents – What Are the Essential Exercises – Why Are They So Important – How Much Do We Need – Which Methods Include All 3 – Two Challenges – Which Method Is Best – Summary |
After years of practicing and teaching fitness I’m struck by how few people, even doctors and health educators, know this basic truth about fitness. If I knew this simple fact when I was first developing an exercise habit in my youth, I would have treated my body differently and avoided several injuries.
The most important fitness truth is that the body needs three kinds of exercise to be healthy – aerobics, strength training, and stretching. And here’s an even more important fact: any one of these alone will not keep you healthy! 
For instance, aerobic exercise – walking, running, swimming, biking, hiking, and most sports exercise – is great for your heart, but does not build muscle. Muscle-building exercise is essential because from about age 30, men and women lose muscle tissue – slowly but constantly – all over the body.
Muscle surrounds and protects all of our joints. If we neglect to restore muscle tissue, our joints become vulnerable to injury. Hence the epidemic number of chronic back, knee, and shoulder problems. And muscle supports our balance which is critical to preventing falls and consequent injury – a particularly important issue for older adults because minor falls often lead to major injuries.
Years ago I loved to jog. Still do. Back then that’s all I did for exercise. I ran miles nearly every day, felt great, and my heart rate indicated perfect health. Yet by my late-twenties I was developing lower back pain and shoulder injuries from simple activities that never before caused problems, such as planting a ski pole and holding up a ceiling panel. I simply did not know that a lack of strength training to restore lost muscle tissue had left all my joints vulnerable to injury. The good news is that I avoided surgery and no longer have any shoulder or back pain simply by adding strength training exercise 3 times a week.
Cardiovascular exercise is recommended for 30 minutes 5 days a week or 75 minutes 3 days a week. Strength training is best every other day in order to allow critical recovery time that the body requires to build muscle tissue. Stretching which in my opinion is a cure-all can be done as often as you wish – the more the better, particularly as we get older.
The important point to remember is that anything you do for an exercise program must include all three of these exercise.
There are a few exercise methods that combine all three into one complete workout such as Pilates mat exercise, rigorous swimming, circuit training, and others which I discuss in further detail in my article on best exercise methods. And be sure you read it correctly – It’s Pilates MAT exercise and not the machinery. I don’t mean to discourage Pilates machinery, but it can’t be counted among exercise programs that combine the 3 necessary exercises. A cardio workout cannot be achieved when you have to pause to make adjustments to a machine. However, if the machines are hydraulic as found at Curves which require no adjustments, you can go from machine to machine without stopping and maintain the target heart rate required for a cardio workout.
Incidentally, be careful of claims that a gym has circuit training. If the machines require adjustment then the term circuit training does not strictly apply in the sense of including all 3 essential exercises. The best circuit training is found at Curves fitness facilities for women. Unfortunately similar circuit training franchises for men are not readily available. For those with the resources you can purchase an hydraulic circuit for your home.
The answer to this question is complicated. In my opinion based on many years trying nearly every exercise method out there, Pilates is the very best and I explain why in detail in my article on Pilates benefits. But I don’t believe it’s the right question! The most important issue is not what’s best but rather how do we maintain a life-long exercise discipline? To put it another way, how do we keep exercising in the face of the greatest single challenge anyone will ever face maintaining an exercise routine: boredom! The answer to this question is that no single exercise is a magic bullet. No exercise program is immune from boredom. So the real answer is that each of us must create a “tool bag” of many different exercise methods that we enjoy. This is critical for overcoming boredom and also responding to the science of “periodicity”. Periodicity or “muscle confusion” refers to the fact that muscles get accustomed to any activity and stop getting stronger no matter how hard we work! Ever notice how after a period of time perfecting a particular exercise, you feel very strong at it, but then go out and do something else even as simple as gardening or hiking and you wonder where all your strength went! Well you are strong but only for a particular activity, not for much of anything else! Mixing up your exercise program works your muscles differently and avoids this problem. Your body’s health requires 3 different kinds of exercise. There are certain methods that combine all these exercises into one complete workout. The very best exercise is Pilates, but actually no one exercise is as good as a “tool bag” of many different enjoyable workouts that keep you exercising regularly – better yet, daily – for the rest of your life!