31omarkanjouagha

Week 1:

Week 2:

Questions: What are the ACSM guidelines for effective cardiovascular training (cardio)? How long and how intense should a session be for health benefits? Give an example of something that counts as cardio and something that doesn’t (but some people might think it does)? How many glasses of water should you drink each day? 

Answers: The ACSM has developed the FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) priciple to provide baisc guidelines for exercise prescription. A session should be 20 to 60 minutes long of continuous activity OR 1 to 2 minutes of high intensity intervals for at least 10 minutes. The intensity should be 60 to 85% of Max HR (RPE: 2 to 4 comfortable to moderately hard). An example of cardiovascular activity can be a treadmill run. Some people believe that weight lifting can be a cardiovascular exercise, and this is not true because in weight lifting, only one major muscle group is trained and the activity is not continuous. The ACSM recommends an intake of about 2000 mL (8 cups) of water per day, but for active people, they should consume 2500-3000 mL (about 10 to 12 cups) per day.

Week 3:

Questions: How does your exercise program fit into your weekly schedule? Comment on how easy or hard it is to find the time to exercise. What are your stress levels before and after exercise?

Answers: Finding the time to exercise is never a problem. The reality is that people usually are stressed with their personal activities and obligations that they do not organize time for exercise. The reality is that ever since I started my exercise program, my schedule of obligations has not been affected. In fact, my performance in college has drastically improved. A good 40-minute exercise in the morning to kick off the day will give you a mental boost in order to deal with the rest of the day. For example, if you have studies for the day, having a morning exercise will mentally prepare you to study and your focus will be improved. People are too stressed about their obligations, but once they set up a 90-minute/week exercise program, they will realize that their schedule is unchanged and, in fact, their performance in studies or their obligations has improved.

Week 4:

Questions: Do you feel different this week… more energy, better sleep, better mood, or increased self-confidence? What effect is the activity plan having on you? How long should you rest after completing a muscular strength or endurance workout? Why? What happens if you don’t?

Answers: I feel that my general health has improved since I started the workout program. I became less stressful, have better sleep, and I have a better mood overall. In addition, my performance in my daily activities has drastically improved. Overall, I am leading myself to a better lifestyle.

Generally, the more intense the workout is on the muscle, the more rest it needs after being worked. Usually, each muscle that is worked needs approximately 2 to 4 days of rest. This helps the muscle to recover and repair itself before it can be trained again. If it is not well-rested, it will not be repaired and its performance in the next workout will be worse. For example, if you exercise your biceps for, say, 2 sets of 15 reps each only to workout the same muscle the next day, it will be much harder to workout similarly. In other words, you won’t be able to achieve 2 sets of 15 reps each the next day. Muscles need more time and rest in order to rebuild fibers.

Week 5:

Questions: Do you need to revise your original goals? Are your goals still realistic? Why or why not? State your new goals if they’ve changed. What is working in your program? What do you need to change? How many servings of vegetables should you eat each day? Are you getting enough? If not, how could you ensure that you do? What are your three favorite vegetables?

Answers: I don’t want to revise my goals. They remain the same. I aim for improving my leg, chest, and abdomen muscles as well as my stamina. I also want to continue focusing on my cardiovascular exercise to protect myself from having heart diseases in the future.

The USDA recommends 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. It is important to note that this number remains relative. For example, people who are bodybuilding need a larger intake of fibers, meaning more fruits and vegetables should be consumed. Personally, I feel my vegetables intake per day is slightly falling behind the recommended number, with one or 2 days not having the minimum 5 servings per day. One way to solve this problem is to add more vegetables into my daily intake of food. For example, I like to eat pasta and I like to have to less vegetables if I add tomato sauce to my pasta, but I like more vegetables on the pasta with cooking cream and cheese. I can increase my vegetable intake simply by eating more pasta with cooking cream and cheese than with tomato sauce. In the end, I like both types, and just eating one type more frequently than the other will bring a lot of health benefits without me loosing an appetite to any of them. Another way can be to add more vegetables to the daily meals I have without them having an effect on my appetite. For example, I like to have rice and meatballs, but I can add some bell pepper and zucchini to it and I won’t feel much of a change in the taste, but it will benefit me a lot. In the end, my daily intake is not very far behind. Lettuce is my favorite leafy vegetable, bell pepper is my favorite cruciferous vegetable, and potatoes are my favorite root vegetables.

Week 6:

Questions: What’s the point of doing a warm up? What constitutes a successful warm up? What’s the point of doing a cool down? When is the best time to stretch and why? Why is stretching important? How much sleep should you be getting every night? Are you getting that much? If not, what could you do to ensure that you do get enough sleep? What are there serious health effects related to insufficient sleep? Give two examples of healthy snacks that you can munch on while studying.

Answers: A warm-up helps the body prepare for exercise by warming the muscles, which increases the ability to produce successful reflexes and makes you take less time to contract a muscle. It increases blood flow to the muscles, thus enhancing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients. A successful warm-up is achieved when your heart rate and breathing increase. Usually, when a person comes to point where he or she is sweating lightly, it is an indication of a successful warm-up. There’s not time limit for a successful warm-up as it depends on the workout goal, but for general fitness, a 5 to 10 minute session of workout is good. A cool down helps your heart rate return to resting levels in a gradual momentum.

The amount of sleep that a person should be getting varies from person to person (like any medical, physical, or dietary procedure varies from person to person). Usually, though, healthy adults require 7 to 9 hours of sleep, but teens and children require more. Newborns may need 14 to 17 hours of sleep. College students who are at age 18 to 20 may require 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Personally, in the current pandemic circumstances, I am getting enough sleep and sometimes I even over-sleep. To adjust my sleeping schedule, I can avoid caffeine late in the day. Also, I can go to sleep at the same time every day and wake up in the same day using an alarm. This will help me adjust to a sleeping time, and my body will automatically show signs of tiredness when the sleeping time approaches. Insufficient sleep can cause an array of problems (both physical and mental) such as depression and anxiety, obesity, and high blood pressure. People can have no-bake energy bites or toast with cottage cheese and cherry tomatoes while studying. They are healthy snacks when someone is studying.

Week 7:

Questions: Did your diet change during the course of your program? Why and how? What was the most important thing you learned about yourself? How has exercise changed or impacted you and your family during this time of the corona pandemic and isolation? What will motivate you to continue to be active in the future? How do you see yourself living an active lifestyle? What are three benefits of a healthy active lifestyle? What are three possible consequences of a sedentary lifestyle?

Answers: My diet did not change much, but one thing that did change is that I am eating more vegetables than before. This is mainly because when I first started my program, I did some research on what foods I should be eating everyday. I found that my diet was pretty fine except that I had a lower intake of vegetables, slightly than I should be having. I adjusted myself by adding more vegetables to my usual meals, which was beneficial and did not really affect my appetite to my usual meals.

The most important thing that I learned about myself was the fact that I discovered that I carry a genetic mutation, which could possibly harm my health in the future. Although it is not good news, it pushed my to focus more on my workout program because it is essential to maintain my health right now to counter the effects of the genetic mutation in the future. During the Coronavirus pandemic, exercise has helped maintain a relatively average lifestyle and it prevented me from adopting a very lazy lifestyle, which is what many people may be suffering from during the pandemic. My family, however, did become more affected, although not to a severe level because we always go out to get groceries and perform other essential activities, all of which prevent us from a very lazy lifestyle. Living an active lifestyle is really essential. Overall, I found myself having improved in most if not all of my every-day lifestyle. An active lifestyle has many benefits, such managing your weight better, lowering your risk of heart disease, and lowering stress and having a better mood overall. A sedentary lifestyle has relatively the opposite effects of those of an active lifestyle. For example, you are more likely to suffer from stress and anxiety, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.