Practice sport yes, but safe

1995/10/01 Agirre, Jabier - Medikua eta OEEko kidea Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

With the fame of Indurain, many have bought the mountain bike. Exercise is certainly the best therapy against sedentary lifestyle, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, depression and many other diseases.

Sport is a positive factor for health, because it increases and improves the quality of life, in addition to benefiting the psychic aspect. The main problem of physical exercise is its improper use as therapy, as it can worsen diseases that already have the person and even cause injuries.

It is so dangerous to play sports from time to time, without thinking much. And it is that these sporadic athletes usually do not know how to run, or tread properly, or know how high the bicycle saddle should be, or swim, or make an excessive effort to assume uncontrolled risks.

Sports and exercise are known to have a significant impact on improving health levels. This occurs at different levels: it prevents the onset of hypertension and decreases what already exists, improves lipid metabolism and improves “good” cholesterol levels, reduces the risk of infarction and strokes, prevents diabetes and decreases (exercise balances carbohydrate metabolism and prevents insulin resistance), stops bone loss and increases muscle flexibility in osteopsis. At a psychological level, the advantages of sport are very high. People with depression, stress or anxiety are the ones who benefit most from sports.

To achieve this, sport should be daily, regular and progressive, just like showers. The person must show patience and will and not despair because progress is very slow. Starting to say that we don't have time doesn't make sense, because those excuses are solved with a little imagination. Who doesn't have time at home to do some gymnastics while listening to the music he likes for about ten minutes?

Need to change habits

Among us are more those who do not exercise than smokers. It is known that for the members of this last group it is practically impossible to quit smoking. The result of the latest research published by the Harvard School of Public Health is not so well known. This means that lack of exercise threatens smokers' quality of life more than expected.

Not doing sports is as dangerous as smoking a daily pack of cigarettes or having an ideal 20% more weight. After 20 years of study on the health status of 17,000 volunteers, Harvard experts highlight the following activities: walking five times a week for half an hour in quick steps, playing one hour in tennis two or three times a week, swimming three hours a week, cycling half an hour each day or running or skating three times a week.

What can you do when you decide to change your life habits? For an adult, it is best to know what you will find in front of you before dressing your sneakers. Your doctor will perform a test that will assess your health and report your fitness for exercise.

However, to start playing sports, even if you've never done it before, you don't need a thorough medical exam. Just start slowly, carefully and prudently. For example, walking fast, always to travel at least fifteen kilometers throughout the week, or doing heavy lengths repeatedly, without the heart having to climb its normal pace.

The doctor thinks he has a wide variety of tests: general examination or examination, apog-base research, spinal observation, resting electrocardiogram, spirometry (to assess lung capacity), stress test, or muscle strength assessment. Through this comprehensive medical examination, the specialist will indicate the most appropriate sport for each and the necessary frequency in the practice of this sport.

Steps to follow

As a general rule and when performing any physical exercise or sport, three phases must be respected. The first is the warm-up phase, necessary to bring the pulsation and muscle tone to its proper level. The second is the main phase, that is, the phase of exercise, muscle toning at the beginning and after resistance. Finally, there is a cooling phase, that is, reducing the activity back to rest and progressively reaching relaxation to avoid contractures and injuries.

Plastic clothing and clothing specifically used for slimming can be harmful than favorable. In fact, these garments do not burn fat and cause greater sweating, so prolonged dehydration can occur if lost liquids are not properly recovered. In this connection, we find a very widespread error or false conviction that if we drink there is no weight loss. Drinking during and after exercise is recommended. Water levels must be maintained continuously and accidents such as stress drops, lipotimias, cramps and heat stroke occur when this is not achieved.

The use of appropriate sports clothing is fundamental. As for footwear, it is recommended to cushion the weight of the foot, have the sole flexible but well profiled and, depending on the activity, supply air cooked. It is evident that in the hottest hours of the day you do not have to do sports, so you have to avoid noon and the first hours of the afternoon.

And what sport to do? The most recommended exercises are those that “dance” to large muscle groups, especially aerobic exercise, walking, golf, jogging, swimming or cycling. In the case of tennis and ball, if played at two, the distances that each person must travel are shorter and therefore are recommended activities for beginners. On the contrary, if you act individually, the effort is harder, so they should be considered inadequate if the physical form is not at the point.

If we have to give a general rule, we can bring what Dr. Juan Carlos Segovia has given us from the School of Sports Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid: “Long-term and low intensity exercises that affect fat metabolism are recommended for the body. As for the duration, you have to start shifts between fifteen and twenty minutes every two days, to increase gradually in two or three weeks to reach an hour. People around forty years old should adjust the exercise to the rhythm of the heart, keeping the pace of 130 pulses/minute.”

After the initial heat and if things are not done well, stamina will appear. This must also be controlled, because it is not true that there is no painless achievement in physical form. Exercise requires effort but does not have to cause pain. If pain arises during physical activity, stop practicing it, as this indicates that it is being done wrong or that there has been some injury.