In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.
—HENRY MILLER
When you are trying to lose weight, particularly with an underlying metabolic issue like thyroid disease, exercise has to be an essential part of your overall approach. I know that some of you are going to groan and swear to me that you have a friend, coworker, or relative who lost weight just dieting. And I believe it. Ultimately, for most people, it’s easier to cut calories than add physical activity.
But the question is: Was that person also battling a thyroid problem? It may not seem fair, but you can’t just cut out some calories and watch the pounds melt off. You’ll have to work harder and may still have less success than someone else eating and working out at a similar level. But if you include exercise in your program, you will see results.
Calorie restriction alone does allow for some weight loss, but it slows, then stops, and often rebounds back up again, as your metabolism slows down in response to the calorie reduction. To keep your metabolism efficient or to make it even more efficient, you absolutely need exercise for many reasons.
First, when done properly and for a sufficient time, exercise can burn fat. During the first 15 to 20 minutes that you are exercising, glycogen (that’s the sugar in your muscles) is burned for energy. As you continue exercising, the body turns to glucose and free fatty acids from the bloodstream for energy. At about the 30-to 40-minute point, the body starts burning fatty acids from stored fat. Studies have repeatedly shown that when you combine a moderate cutback in calories with regular physical activity, you’re not only going to be more successful in achieving your weight goals but you’re far more likely to keep off the weight.
Second, exercise is good for your heart and cholesterol levels. Getting your heart pumping makes it stronger and healthier. It helps reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. It improves cholesterol levels and ratios, helps you live longer,…enough said.
Third, exercise reduces insulin levels. According to Jean-Pierre Despres, professor of medicine and physical education and director of the Lipid Research Center at Laval University Hospital in Quebec, “Exercise is probably the best medication on the market to treat insulin resistance syndrome…. Our studies show that low intensity, prolonged exercise—such as a daily brisk walk of forty-five minutes to an hour—will substantially reduce insulin levels.”
Fourth, weight-bearing exercises improve your muscle mass, which raises metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.
Fifth, aerobic exercise has a shorter but powerful effect on metabolism, giving you a burst of metabolic efficiency during the period after your exercise session.
Sixth, stretching exercises help improve your flexibility, reduce muscle/joint pain, and improve your balance.
Seventh, according to Byron Richards, author of Mastering Leptin, exercise helps combat leptin and insulin resistance. Exercise can lower both leptin and markers for inflammation.
HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED TO DO TO LOSE WEIGHT?
One survey looked at the characteristics of those who were able to lose at least 30 pounds and keep it off for a year. On average, they ate a diet that was no more than approximately 24% fat, and they expended an average of 2,827 calories a week in exercise. Most of us would need to walk around 28 miles a week to expend this amount of energy! (I’m not walking 28 miles a week, but I guess I should!)
Experts have recently said that healthy people with a body mass index of less than 25—meaning that they are of normal weight—need 60 minutes of physical activity a day to maintain weight and avoid excess gain. That is in addition to reducing calories and minimizing saturated fat and sugar in the diet.
Maybe I should repeat that. They’re saying that 60 minutes a day is for someone who doesn’t have a weight problem. So if you are overweight, you need to consider this as your starting point. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing 60 minutes a day. I’m not even close. But it’s my ultimate goal. And it needs to be yours, too…for life.
This does not mean you have to go to the gym for an hour and work out. It does not mean you have to jog through your neighborhood for an hour. It means you need an hour of physical activity a day. That includes cardiovascular exercise, which can be a full aerobics class, 10 minutes of jump roping, or just 5 minutes of going up and down the stairs. It includes strength training, which could be a circuit on your gym’s resistance machines, a 20-minute upper body workout, or even 10 push-ups during a TV commercial. Exercise includes stretching. You can do a full Pilates class, or 10 minutes of yoga, or just a quick stretch at your desk. It also includes other physical activities such as the walking you do to get around, cleaning your house, washing your car, gardening, and playing with your children.
I can almost guarantee that if you are overweight and have a thyroid problem, you are not getting an hour of physical activity a day. Even those of us who are active delude ourselves about how much exercise we’re actually getting. Researchers doing a survey said that about two-thirds of those who were trying to lose weight claimed that they were increasing their physical activity. But only 21% were exercising at least 150 minutes a week, which is the absolute minimum recommended for weight loss by some experts.
Overall, one in four Americans does no form of leisure-time physical activity, half do less than 30 minutes of moderate activity a day, and only one in four is actually active for 30 minutes or more. It’s no coincidence that most of those active people are not battling weight problems.
THYROID PATIENT CHALLENGES TO EXERCISING
Even most people who don’t have thyroid disease aren’t getting the amount of exercise they need. But thyroid patients face a number of additional challenges that can make it harder to exercise.
Muscle/Joint Pain
Pain in the muscles and joints is a common thyroid symptom and can persist even after treatment is optimized. There are several things you can do to help with this sort of pain so that you can exercise more effectively.
You can take a high-quality fish oil supplement (2 to 3 grams a day). I particularly like Enzymatic Therapy’s Eskimo Oil because it has no fish “burp”—that is, that terrible fishy aftertaste you get with some fish oil supplements.
Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including over-the-counter options such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), and naproxen sodium (Aleve), as well as the prescription drugs celecoxib (Celebrex) and rofecoxib (Vioxx), can be helpful with muscle and joint pain and autoimmune-related inflammation.
Fatigue
Being tired is one of the most common complaints of many thyroid patients. You may find that even after treatment you feel too tired to keep up with your daily activities, much less exercise. Once your thyroid treatment is optimized, there are several things you can do to help increase energy.
Get enough sleep. It seems an obvious solution, but most people aren’t getting enough sleep. The National Sleep Foundation has found that only 30% of adults are getting 8 or more hours of sleep per night on weeknights. I personally have to get 8 hours or my immune system slowly starts to degrade.
Another thing that can affect energy is a low dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) level. Before supplementing with DHEA, you should have your level assessed by your physician. If it is low, supplementation (usually no more than 1–5 mg a day for women and up to 25 mg a day for men, every other day, taken in the morning) can help greatly. In my case, at one point I experienced extreme fatigue in the afternoon, and my doctor found that I had particularly low DHEA levels. Within a week after she put me on a regimen of 5 mg of DHEA, I had enough energy to exercise again.
If you are suffering from flagging energy, you need to make sure that you are getting enough B vitamins. Vitamin B12 is essential for energy. Consider taking a B complex plus B12 separately in a sublingual form (dissolves under the tongue) for maximum absorption.
Also consider using one of the adaptogenic herbs that can help with energy. These include
Resist the temptation of a giant-size latte, multiple cups of coffee, or taking herbal energy supplements that have stimulants such as caffeine, ephedra, ma huang, guarana, or gotu kola. These are all like stepping on the gas pedal of your adrenal system while keeping on the parking brake. You rev things up but don’t go anywhere.
Body work and energy work, such as yoga, tai chi, qigong (pronounced chee-gung), and Reiki, can all help in adding and balancing energy. In qigong, tai chi, and yoga, gentle movements are used to move energy along the energy pathways of the body. In Reiki, a practitioner helps open up energy channels. (Personally, I’ve found yoga and Reiki to be most beneficial to my energy.)
Hyla Cass, holistic physician and best-selling coauthor of Natural Highs, offers these suggestions for natural energy boosters:
You can start with Siberian ginseng (400 mg), licorice (500 mg), pantothenic acid (100 mg). (The last two are more for adrenal support than actual energy.) Or take the amino acid tyrosine or DLPA (500 mg). Depending on your response, you can add in any or all of the following to create your own personal energy formula, preferably one at a time to gauge your response. This can differ from day to day, too, depending on how you are feeling. If you do end up taking them all, reduce the dose of each accordingly, about one-third to one-half:
You Think You’re Too Overweight or Out of Shape
If you feel you are very overweight, you may not think that you can do much of anything in the way of exercise. It may seem daunting. Your body may feel stiff and inflexible, and you don’t want to end up in pain after just one exercise session. Exercise expert and About.com exercise guide Paige Waehner has these suggestions for how to get started:
First, choose something accessible. Walking is usually a popular choice because you can do it anywhere, there’s no learning curve and you don’t need fancy equipment or gym memberships. Allow your body time to get used to what you’re doing and make regular activity a part of each day, whether it’s just walking more than usual or taking the stairs when you normally don’t. The more active you are, the more comfortable you’ll be and the more energy you’ll have to go further and longer.
Even if all you can do to get started is walk around the block once, do a few sit-ups, or lift a 2-pound hand weight a few times, that’s enough. Slowly add more distance, more repetitions, or more weight. Don’t try to run a mile or bench-press 100 pounds your first time out, or you’ll end up sore, miserable, and swearing that you’ll never exercise again! Waehner says,
One of biggest problems I see with new exercisers is that they start out too hard. Most people want to start where they want to be rather than where they are, and that almost always leads to quitting. The best way to avoid that is to do what you’re comfortable with and add on to that each week.
Lack of Motivation
Psychologist and motivational fitness coach David Junno has found that when thinking about starting an exercise program, many people think primarily about how much work and discomfort is involved. This makes it easy to come up with excuses not to start or continue.
There are two secrets to overcoming our resistance to doing exercise. The first is to focus on the benefits and the second is to gather evidence that refutes our negative perceptions. Not only should you remind yourself of the benefits of exercise, such as getting in shape, losing weight, better sleep, better health, looking better and improved sex life, but you need to find evidence of those benefits.
According to Junno, to convince yourself of the benefits of exercise, you have to do it for a period of time. But getting to that point is often the biggest challenge—and you’ll need to exercise even when you don’t feel like it. To help begin exercising despite not feeling like it, Junno shares this simple experiment:
Establish an exercise routine, for example, taking a brisk 30-minute walk four times a week. Before you take each walk, rate how you feel about taking that walk. You can do this by using a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Then take your walk and afterwards rate the actual experience on your 1 to 10 scale. What do you notice? There is a good chance that you are going to rate the experience higher after you do it. Learning that doing exercise is going to feel a whole lot better than we anticipate, is a powerful way to combat the negative thinking that often gets in the way of our intentions.
Staying Motivated
Staying motivated can be a challenge to even the most regular exercises. Fitness expert and trainer Silvia Treves suggests that a few sessions with a personal trainer in the beginning can help. She explains, “That way, you can learn the exact way to perform the exercises and movements, and learn how to protect your spine, neck and back from injury. Clients tell me that they are likelier to continue working out if they don’t always feel incredibly sore for days after exercising.”
Some experts suggest following the 10-minute rule. When you don’t feel like exercising, set your wristwatch alarm or a timer for 10 minutes at the start of your exercise session. If you want to quit after 10 minutes, then stop. But it’s likely that once you start, you’ll be feeling pretty and will continue past the 10 minutes.
Be sure that you plan ahead and schedule your time for exercise. When others want to schedule something else for that time, tell them you have an important meeting! What else is more important than meeting with yourself for some exercise? Lay out your exercise clothes for the next day in a place where you can see them. If you’re an early morning exerciser, put your workout gear right next to the bed so that you literally have to trip over it when you get up.
Not Enough Time
So many of us live busy lives and feel that there’s barely enough time for work, family life, and sleep, much less exercise. But if you truly want to lose weight and get in shape, you have to set aside about an hour a day, even if broken up into segments, and make exercise as much a priority as everything else in your life. There are no quick fixes and no miracle exercise machines that will allow you to lose weight in minutes a day. Time is your best friend!
One of the best things you can do is schedule your exercise in the morning. Studies have frequently shown that morning exercisers are as much as three times more likely to consistently exercise than those who exercise at night. You get up, you exercise, and it’s done for the day. Your morning, before work, school, and other responsibilities, is possibly the most controllable time of your day. As the day progresses, there are delays, distractions, errands, schedules, and countless interruptions that may chip away at your time, and we all know that exercise is the first thing to give when we have a schedule conflict. (Morning exercise also revs up your metabolism for your day and helps burn some extra calories.)
Psychologist Dave Junno has these suggestions on how to find the time to exercise:
Look at what you spend your time on now that are there things that actually make your efforts at dieting less successful you could eliminate? For example, what about shaving off some couch potato time in front of the TV and devote that time to menu planning for the week or doing a physical activity. If you eat out a great deal, think about spending one hour a week meal planning and one hour a week shopping for those meals. These two hours will result in big time and money savings over the course of a week. If you have a lot of people putting demands on your time, maybe you can delegate tasks to others or let people know you are no longer available to do certain things. Sit down with a friend and brainstorm your schedule and the demands on you. Others can often see areas of potential flexibility we do not.
KEEPING ACTIVE: THE BASICS
Ways to Increase Activity Levels
Try walking sometimes instead of driving. Walk to a local store or to a friend’s house. I have a friend who loves to get espresso every weekend, but she has made a deal with herself that she needs to walk a mile to Starbucks to get it and a mile back. She walks more than 100 miles a year just for her espresso!
One of my silly but effective tricks is that I do some exercise every time I make a cup of tea. I like to drink several cups of herbal or green tea during the day. I work at home, so that 5 minutes it takes for the kettle to boil is exercise time for me. I do stretching and flexibility exercises, a few quick push-ups, some lunges and squats, and pretty quickly the water is boiling for teatime. Those little breaks add up to 15 minutes every workday, which adds up to an additional 75 minutes of exercising every week! Some people suggest that you do the same thing during commercials while you’re watching television. Pop down on the floor and do some sit-ups, leg lifts, and stretches. Keep some hand weights nearby, and do bicep curls. Since there is an average of 8 minutes of commercials for every 30 minutes of television, if you watch 2 hours of television, you could end up doing a half hour of exercise. And there’s almost no activity that you can’t do for 2 minutes at a time!
Speaking of television, get away from it! The amount of time you spend in front of the television is directly related to weight gain and mindless eating! If you’re a TV fan and there are programs you just can’t miss, buy yourself an inexpensive portable radio with headphones that also gets the audio from broadcast television stations, and listen to your favorite show while you’re exercising. Obviously, this won’t work well for all programs, but it could be great for a talk show.
If you have home exercise equipment, like a treadmill, elliptical machine, stair-stepping machine, or exercise bike, and you love television, put a TV in front of your equipment. Make a strict deal with yourself that you can watch your favorite programs only if you’re working out while they’re on. This is a great way to get your TV and workout, too!
THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSCLE
If you only have the energy or time to do one type of exercise—weight-bearing/muscle-building or aerobics—which one should you choose? Well, ideally, you should be doing both, but I posed this question to exercise expert Paige Waehner, who had this to say:
I would probably choose strength training. When you build lean muscle, you’re giving your body the ability to burn more calories even when you’re not exercising. A pound of fat only burns around 6–10 calories each day while a pound of muscle can burn up to 60 calories per day. Adding more muscle means burning more calories, period. Some strength training workouts will also have cardiovascular benefits as well.
Waehner emphasizes an important point. Muscle is much more metabolically active than fat, and as a result, a pound of muscle burns far more calories than the same pound of fat. Around 60% to 75% of your daily energy expenditure is accounted for by the resting metabolic rate—the calories your body uses just to keep you alive, though inactive. Even if you are in bed all day, the higher your percentage of body fat, the lower your resting metabolic rate—you’ll need fewer calories per pound to maintain a stable weight.
In one study, after just 12 weeks, people who increased their muscle mass by 3 pounds could eat 15% more calories—that’s a total of 225 calories a day if you normally eat 1,500 calories a day—without gaining weight. And the people studied still lost 4 pounds of fat on average.
And remember, fat takes up a lot more space than muscle, which is far denser. Typically, in middle age, most of us trade as much as 1 pound of muscle for up to 2 pounds of fat every year—the reason for the much-lamented “middle-age spread” in both men and women. You can lose 10 pounds of fat, gain 10 pounds of muscle, and still be fitter, leaner, and look far slimmer but weigh in at exactly the same weight! So don’t become too scale obsessed!
One study found that after menopause women can reduce body fat, increase muscle mass, and strengthen bones by regularly lifting moderately heavy weights. Another research study followed 24 women through a 6-month program of periodized resistance training—that is, regularly varying exercises and the order in which they’re done, varying the weight used and the number of repetitions, and varying exercise frequency. This helps avoid plateaus. The women on this periodized program lost 7% of their body fat—double the results of those doing a nonperiodized routine.
Fitness and nutrition experts Ric Rooney and Bart Hanks of the Physique Transformation Web site (see appendix A) recommend that men should concentrate on upper body work and women on lower body work for strength training.
On average, a man’s exercise program works five times above the waist (chest, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps) for every time below the waist (legs). A woman’s program should do just the opposite, and work five times below the waist (quads, hamstrings, calves, hips, glutes) for every time above the waist…. If squats are the king of exercises for men, lunges should be the queen of exercises for women. Lunges are a great compound movement that work the glutes, hamstrings, and to a smaller extent, the quads, all in one exercise.
A STARTER STRENGTH CIRCUIT
You can get strength training videos and books, buy a set of hand weights or free weights, work out with resistance bands and tubes, join a gym, or get a personal trainer—there are many ways to start strength training. I really like working out with my resistance bands and hand weights.
If you want to start training at home, here is a very simple but effective approach to get you started. All you need is a circuit (series) of three exercises: lunges, push-ups, and leg raises. They target the key parts of the body. Your objective is to do the exercises in a circuit, meaning that you do as many of one exercise as you can until you can’t do another one, then move on to the next exercise, and so on. When you’ve finished one circuit, rest a minute or two, then go back through the circuit again. The objective is to repeat the circuit three times.
As you begin, keep in mind that you may only be able to do one or two of each exercise in each round of the circuit. That’s fine. Rest a minute or two. Do a second circuit. Rest again, stop, or do a third circuit. Next time, see if you can add one repetition to each exercise. The point is to keep challenging yourself and to keep improving from where you began. It doesn’t matter if your friend can do 10 lunges and you can only do 5. Just do what you can do, and try to improve on your personal best each time.
Lunges
Lunges are good for strengthening and firming your legs and rear end.
Periodically, switch your lunges to forward/walking lunges.
Note: With both types of lunges, as you get stronger, you can use hand weights to increase resistance.
Once complete, move on quickly to push-ups.
Push-ups
Push-ups help strengthen your upper arms, shoulders, and back.
Once complete, move on quickly to leg raises.
Leg Raises/Crunches
Rest for 1 to 3 minutes. Then repeat the circuit, starting again with the lunges.
Sounds easy, right? Try it! After my first day’s effort of two circuits (when I started, each circuit involved 5 lunges on each leg, 8 push-ups, and about 15 of the leg raises/crunches), I was one hurting girl. This program worked out muscles I didn’t even know I had! I felt it for days. So get started, but go slow and don’t overdo it at first.
AEROBIC/CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE
Aerobic exercise not only helps your heart but can burn fat and boost your resting metabolism for several hours afterward, as your muscles burn calories to recover and repair themselves. The key to getting the most benefit out of aerobics is ultimately being able to work at the right intensity for you. Your target heart rate is the pulse rate you should exercise at for maximum cardiovascular benefits. Your objective should be a minimum of 30 minutes at your target heart rate at least three times a week. Your target heart rate—the rate at which you’ll burn fat—is easy to calculate. It’s (220-your age) × 0.75. Here’s are some examples:
|
STARTING RATE |
AGE |
= |
× 0.75 TARGET HEART RATE |
|
220 |
25 |
195 |
146 |
|
220 |
30 |
190 |
143 |
|
220 |
40 |
180 |
135 |
|
220 |
50 |
170 |
128 |
|
220 |
60 |
160 |
120 |
|
220 |
70 |
150 |
113 |
So if you are 40 years old, your target heart rate is 200 minus 40, or 180, multiplied by 0.75, for a total of 135.
Keep in mind that this number is a goal. It’s not where you’re going to start out if you’re just getting back into exercising.
There are many activities that are considered aerobic, and which one you do depends entirely on your own preference and capabilities. You can cycle, indoors or out, on a regular or recumbent bike. Swim or do water workouts. Walk outside or on a treadmill. Use a stair-stepping machine or climb stairs at your home or office. Row. Jump-rope. Take an aerobics class or do an aerobics video. You can do low-impact (like an elliptical machine) or high-impact, (like jogging).
WALKING: THE SUPER EXERCISE
If you have to pick one cardiovascular exercise to get started, it should be walking. One study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women who want to lose a lot of weight should walk briskly for an hour a day while cutting calories. Researchers followed 184 sedentary women who weighed an average of 200 pounds. The women, ages 21 to 45, were told to consume 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day and exercise 5 days a week for a year, either continuously or in 10-minute bursts. The form of exercise used was brisk walking. After a year, here’s what happened:
Remember, this is brisk walking, not strolling through the shopping mall. If you were on a treadmill, the speed would probably be in the 3 to 4 mph range, minimum.
Speaking of treadmills, this is my favorite way of walking. I put on a television show, stick a movie in the VCR, or pop on my headphones, and pass the time while I get my aerobic exercise. And I’m not alone—treadmills are one of the most popular exercise machines at health clubs and at home.
But with treadmill walking, it’s easy to get lazy, so you need to vary the routine. One of the most effective things you can do to burn fat is raise the incline! If you raise the incline, you can burn as much as 50% more calories. One simple way is to alternate 5 minutes of level walking with 5 minutes of incline, and so on. Start with a small incline(e.g., 1%) at the same speed, then gradually raise it. Or if your treadmill has a setting for going up and down hills, program that setting.
Whether it’s on a treadmill or outside, if you’re going to get started with walking, go slow and have a plan. Beginners can start with 10 minutes of walking. Start with 2 minutes of slow walking to warm up, then go to 6 minutes at a brisker pace—that would be 3.2 to 3.7 mph on a treadmill—then cool down for 2 minutes at 2.5 to 3.2 mph.
When you’re ready to take on a bit more, go to 30 minutes of walking. Start with a 5-minute warm-up, going 2.5 to 3.2 mph. Then go for 20 minutes at 3.2 to 3.7 mph. Then have a 5-minute cooldown at 2.5 to 3.2 mph.
As you get stronger, you can start adding periods of incline to this workout (or if you’re outside, head for some hills) or switch to one of the interval approaches to make it more challenging.
STRETCHING AND FLEXIBILITY
Stretching and flexibility exercises are equally important for muscle building and aerobics, because these exercises relax you, make you feel great, and keep your muscles and joints in good condition. You can get a stretching tape, take a stretching class, or just follow some simple stretching programs.
There are several types of exercises—including yoga, Pilates, water aerobics, and water weight training—that I particularly recommend for thyroid patients because they combine a variety of stretching, flexibility, stress reduction, and even cardiovascular benefits. Other stretching and flexibility approaches you may want to look at include some of the movement and martial arts from Asia, such as aikido, karate, tae kwon do, and the softer practice, tai chi, which features graceful movements designed to harmonize energy in the body.
I particularly like Pilates, because it helps build muscle, raises metabolism, relieves aching joints and muscles, and can be done even by people who don’t have a high level of fitness or energy. (In short, it’s perfect for thyroid patients!) Pilates (pronounced puh-LAH-teez) is a method of exercise developed in the 1920s that focuses on strengthening what Pilates called the powerhouse—the abdomen, lower back, and buttocks—that supports your body, allowing for easier movement. When starting, it’s best to have a trained teacher, but some basic Pilates mat moves can be learned on your own. In Pilates, more isn’t better. You’re not pushed to do rep after rep. Instead, it encourages fewer, more precise movements performed with proper control and good form.
I started to do Pilates mat work during the summer of 2002 and have stuck with it regularly at least 2 hours a week. In more than 40 years of life as a nonathlete, this is the first time I’ve stuck to a particular exercise program regularly for this long. It combines many of the things I love about yoga, with even more muscle building and control. I love it. I spent years with shoulder and back pain, especially that awful stabbing neck and shoulder pain that is typical with fibromyalgia. I also had quite a bit of lower back pain and chest/rib pain (known as costochondritis). About 3 months after starting Pilates, my pain was gone…and it hasn’t come back!
Luckily, I’ve found an affordable personal trainer who works with a friend and me on our Pilates. In addition, I purchased Mari Winsor’s set of Pilates videos, which my trainer recommended. I love the 20-minute Winsor Pilates workout tape. Even on busy days, it’s hard to find an excuse not to pop down on the floor and do 20 minutes, which flies by! And the more intense Winsor Pilates Accelerated Body Sculpting workout tape gives me something to aspire to, as I slowly get better at doing the exercises. I think I’ve found my exercise for life!
Trained physician and fitness expert Silvia Treves—who also happens to be my Pilates trainer—has some thoughts about why Pilates is a good choice for people who may not be particularly physically fit.
Pilates doesn’t put any pressure on your joints. It gives you strength, particularly in the core area of the abdomen and lower back. At the same time, it builds flexibility. With proper instruction, there is no strain to the back and neck, and many people find that regular practice of Pilates actually resolves chronic back and neck pain. Pilates is also a gentle way to ease into exercising. You can convert some fat to muscle, build endurance—and you can always modify the Pilates exercises to accommodate your own capabilities—so it’s a good way to start off.
A SPECIAL NOTE FOR WOMEN WHO ARE STILL MENSTRUATING
Researchers have found that exercising later in your menstrual phase may help you burn more fat and feel less tired during your workout. Exercise may feel easier and your performance may actually improve during the later part of the menstrual cycle (the time between ovulation and the start of your menstrual period). During this time, the levels of estrogen and progesterone are highest. These hormones promote the body’s use of fat as an energy supply during exercise, which helps you burn off more fat. Since the use of fat is more efficient, less waste products that cause exercise fatigue are produced.
So when you have more energy during the second half of your cycle, use it. You can push yourself harder during that part of the month, because you’ll have more energy and get more results from your workouts. You may want to focus more on yoga, Pilates, and strength training during the first half of your cycle, and emphasize higher-intensity exercise during the second half.