Physical activity does not matter, provided that it is carried out at least 3 times a week, prolonged (45 minutes minimum), without pain or shortness of breath.
The natural physical exercise of all bipeds is walking, which enabled them to move. It is a very gentle activity for the joints, unlike running. An easy to understand concept. When running, depending on the intensity of this race, the lower limbs support stress and shocks representing 2 to 4 times the weight of the body. By way of comparison, walking only opposes a constraint of 1.5 times the weight of the body.
The main thing is to walk as quickly as possible, without causing pain or shortness of breath. The ideal is to use a pedometer (or an appropriate application on your Smartphone) and a heart rate monitor, to increase each day, if possible, the duration and above all, the distance. All means are good for walking: walking objectives (and during walking, even fast, conversation must always remain possible, which is the best method for controlling shortness of breath), Nordic walking with poles, carpets in the gym sport…
For those who are significantly overweight, the impact on the joints argues for the practice of physical activity in “relative weightlessness”. This is the favorite area of cycling. Weather conditions, traffic conditions, or the risk of falling can be perfectly avoided by practicing indoors, on a bike intended for this function or quite simply, with a road bike, on a home trainer, the first models of which cost less than 50 euros.
Pedaling, faster and faster and more and more energetically, thanks to the counters that these exercise bikes have as standard, can then be done in front of a television screen, which makes it possible to maintain the habits of an inveterate sedentary person!
However, walking or cycling are not the favorite physical exercises of doctors, as one might think, but swimming! It is not the easiest of physical activities, but the effort is gentle and sufficiently effective. We also know that the weight of our body – since Archimedes found his soap – is carried by the liquid. It is an activity which, a little more than cycling, is practiced in weightlessness. It is therefore excellent for those who suffer from overweight or painful joints… With few contraindications, especially if the water is hot. Except that you have to know how to swim and above all not be afraid of the water! One might think that this is only the case with older people, but if the French remain poor swimmers while swimming pools are flourishing in our country, it is probably because we are an aquaphobic people.
Another activity that practically only combines advantages: rowing and its indoor application, the cyclorameur. Again, popularity remains minimal.
Finally, physical activity does not matter, provided that it is daily, sufficiently prolonged and above all that it is practiced without pain or shortness of breath.
Subscribe to the chronicles of Dr Jean-François Lemoine
@DrLemoine
.
