Schwinn 438 Elliptical Assembly and Owner's Manual - Page 52

FITNESS GUIDE ■ Use Positive Affirmations Affirmations will help you program your subconscious to accept new beliefs. Saying to yourself a couple of times a day, "I am living a healthier lifestyle by exercising several times per week at home," can help you stay on track. ■ Set Goals Setting goals can be helpful in keeping you motivated, but remember to keep them realistic. Short-term and long-term goals can make this easier. How many days do you want to exercise this week? How many workouts would you like to have done in ninety days or a year? Components of Fitness Over the past 25 years, many people have focused on walking, running, cycling, swimming and other types of aerobic activity as their only means of exercise. However, we have learned that two other components of fitness are just as important. These other two components are muscle strength and flexibility. So in addition to having a strong heart and lungs, we also need to be able to pick up a full bag of groceries and tie our shoes without having to sit down. When developing your home fitness program, it is only appropriate that you develop all three components in order to achieve balanced overall fitness. Let's take a look at all three components: ■ Cardiovascular Fitness Training the heart and lungs to be stronger and deliver more oxygen throughout your body with less effort. It can help reduce the risk of heart disease, and help you manage your weight. It is the cornerstone of fitness, and can be achieved in many ways such as walking or running on the treadmill or outdoors, climbing stairs, cycling, or using a StairMaster® stepper or swimming in the pool or ocean. For many years, it was suggested that moderate level cardiovascular activity (activities that make you sweat and breathe and a moderate pace) should be done three to four days a week for 15-45 minutes at a time. It is now recommended that you attempt to do some cardiovascular activity EVERY day, if possible. The good news is that the cardiovascular activity does not need to be moderately intensive everyday, nor does it need to be sustained for 15-45 minutes at a time. So while it is ideal to challenge your heart and lungs by doing something like a strong power walk every other day for 15-45 minutes, it is more important to make sure you do at least a little bit of cardiovascular activity every day, even if you don't do it for very long or very intensely. For example, you might try using your Schwinn® exercise bicycle for a 50