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Kenneth Cooper's book, Aerobics, many individuals have focused on walking, running, cycling, swimming, and other types of aerobic activity as their only means of exercise. Unfortunately, this has led to many of these same people neglecting other key components of fitness; such as strength training, fiexibifity and body composition. Many of us lack the strength to carry a full bag of groceries, or the flexibifity to pick up our shoes without bending at the knees. In addition, as we have aged, we have replaced muscle tissue with fat tissue. Continued work by Dr. Cooper at the Institute of Aerobics Research, is showing that in addition to the need to stress our cardiovascular system, that more attention needs to be placed on building stronger muscles and increasing joint flexibility. They are talking about the benefits of balanced fitness: regular physical activity that includes strength training and flexibility (stretching) in addition to aerobic conditioning. For many years, "fitness" has been solely a measure of cardiovascular (aerobic) endurance. And, while aerobic fitness is the cornerstone for health and quality of life, there are two other components that are nearly as important. When developing your home fitness program it is only appropriate that you develop all three components in order to achieve balanced fitness, and thus optimal health and quality of life. The three components are: --Muscle strength --Cardiovascular fitness -Flexibility I! Balance Fitness Many people considering beginning a balanced home fitness program still think "no pain, no gain." They usually think they have to cycle or lift weights until they are over-tired and their body aches. This idea of fitness is outdated. What they don't realize is that, in a short time using proper guidelines, the initial tiredness or soreness will be replaced by increased energy for work and recreation and an increased sense of well-being. Since 1978, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has had an influence on the medical and scientific communities with its position statement on "The Recommended Quantity and Quality of Exercise for Developing and Maintaining Fitness in Healthy Adults." For the first time since 1978 the ACSM has revised its recommendations on exercise for healthy adults. The new paper published in 1991 expands and revises advice on cardiovascular fitness and body composition, and now' recommends that you add resistance training. This is new information to those of us who have only cycled, ran, swam, watched our body weight and controlled our diet to attempt to maintain fitness. Balanced fitness can do more to ensure a long, healthy life than just about anything else known to the medical community today. It's never too late to start a fitness program but ideally, you should build strong muscles, flexibility and a strong cardiovascular system early in life and enter the later years with your physical potential at its maximum. If ! Muscular Strength The new guidelines have added resistance training since the ACSM recognizes the increasing importance of maintaining strength as a health benefit as we get older. The rationale for the addition of strength training to the guidelines is a result of a ten year follow-up study on master runners (along with other studies). Those who continued to train aerobically without upper body exercise maintained their body's oxygen transporting capacity over the years, but lost about 4.5 pounds of lean body mass; those who included strength training in their program maintained their lean body mass along with their aerobic capacity after 10 years of aging. The guidelines also show where consistent resistance training helps maintain bone and muscle mass as we get older. For women, strength training (along with the aerobic work) may also protect against post menopausal bone loss and osteoporosis in their later years. The guidelines recommend that two strength training sessions per week should be added to your workout schedule. We recommend three sessions a week during the off-season and two sessions a week for maintenance during the in-season. The new ACSM guidelines recommend one set of eight to 12 repetitions of eight to 10 strength exercises of your major muscle groups per session as the minimum requirement. A complete detailed strength training program will be outlined in a later section of this book. If weights or other resistance training devices are not available, add calisthenics to your program. I! Cardiovascular Fitness The new statement, published in 1991, repeats the four recommendations on duration, intensity, frequency and various modes of aerobic activity, with slight changes. The duration is now 20 to 60 minutes, versus a minimum of 15 minutes in the past. Intensity of exercise can be determined by two methods. The first is the familiar use of target heart rate. The guidelines state that you should aim to work at 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate (max HR = 220 -your age) o...

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