Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the world of health. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. If there’s something new, I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s real or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
I recently talked about a series of studies on exercise. The studies covered walking versus riding an exercise bike, High Intensity Interval Training and Sprint Interval Training. I talked about the effort some groups of people put into high intensity exercise that may seem out of reach for some listenerst. After careful consideration, I didn’t put things into perspective. After all, not everyone can run or ride a bike at high intensity. That’s why I’m letting you know that exercise is relative.
When I say exercise is relative, it’s relative to your physical condition right now. If you cycle 100-mile bike races, that’s different than 20 minutes on an exercise bike with no resistance. If you’re 25 years old years old, there will be a difference from someone who is 65. Body weight also plays a factor. The act of carrying extra weight can dramatically increase the effort and duration it takes to do some exercises like walking. I know that one for a fact.
The way to approach these higher intensity exercises is that your effort should be relative to your fitness level now. If you can’t run, maybe you can walk fast. If you can’t walk fast because of joint pain, perhaps you can ride an exercise bike. The mode will not matter; just the relative effort you put into it.
If you have a workout watch that tracks heart rate, you can use that as a metric. If you have nothing to monitor your effort, you can always use this as an indicator. If you can walk, maybe taking a deep breath once in a while, that’s about 60-70% of your Max HR. If you can’t talk any more, you’re most likely at 70-85%. If you’re gasping for air, that’s max and that’s too much unless you’ve trained to work that hard.
Keep that in mind. The last thing I want to happen is for you to make a mental decision that you could never do that, and miss an opportunity to get fitter. As long as you’re cleared to exercise by your physician, you can use some of the higher intensity effort exercises to see if they the can fit in your workouts. And that’s what exercise being relative is all about.
However, I didn’t want to leave you hanging. I wanted to give you an alternative to begin the process. To me, exercise, together with eating well, are the most important lifestyle habits we all have to master. But you may get the impression that high intensity exercise is the only thing that I think is important. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm going to cover a form of exercise that can be safe, smooth, and easy (but not simple) and yet still provide a cardiovascular workout. Maybe you've guessed it. If not, it is ballroom dancing.
My pretend daughter Jamie was originally my dance instructor. I took private lessons and couple lessons with my wife Paula from her for a couple of years. She left the studio, Paula required surgery on her foot that left her unable to spend a lot of time on her feet and so dancing has not been part of our life lately. Ballroom, with a little Latin and other types of dance thrown in, does wonders for the cardiovascular system. It can also result in plenty of stretching and strengthening of both the legs and the upper body as well.
That's what I want to talk about in this podcast. What prompted this was a discussion with someone who has been mostly wheelchair bound for over 20 years. She didn't really belong there for this long; she just became dependent on it. She lamented on how she missed dancing at her son's wedding. She is already thinking about dancing at her grandchildren's wedding in five to 10 years. You would think that with that much lead time, she has the motivation to become more confident in her ability to walk without assistance However, she's having a big problem with that. She's fallen a couple times and doesn't have the confidence to do much walking, even inside the house. So I suggested that she work on dancing now.
I know you're thinking—that Dr. Chet has lost his mind. But hear me out. Dancing implies that you have a partner, someone who can help you during the dance. You can do any type of dance step small—really small—and get the benefit of movements. Let me explain.
A basic box step is left foot forward, right step forward, left foot close to the right. Then, right foot back, left foot back and right foot close to the left. For the partner, they begin with their right foot back, etc. That's the essence of fox trot, rumba, and a number of other dances. The key is that those steps don't have to be huge. Even a movement as short as 6 – 12 inches is enough. If you've ever seen the old style 9" floor tiles, those would be a perfect place to begin. That way a person doesn't have to lean on their partner but it's enough to move and shift weight from one leg to another, forward and backward. Really want to get fancy? Put in a turn, again, just using those very small steps, until you get back to the original dance position.
The important thing is that a person has support. They don't have to move great distances and they're working their heart, their legs, and their arms. One more thing? They are working on improving their balance with the dance movements. If I asked someone to dance around the room with their walker, that would be clumsy and require large, awkward movements. But because someone has a partner to help steady them, the dancing will train the postural muscles to help with balance.
Begin slow, like for 60 seconds, and then add to it to increase stamina. As confidence grows, increase the size of the steps. Then, who knows where it ends up. All you need is a partner and a phone with music on it. It's important to do exercises to increase leg strength and flexibility but when it comes to the heart, movement, no matter how great or small, is what we all need. Might as well enjoy it.
Exercise to increase fitness, flexibility, and balance is relative. The critical thing is that you begin and make it a habit. Dancing with the Stars or the Olympics may not be in your future but you can be better than you are today. That’s it for now because I’m all out of time. This is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day
