Walking and Jogging for Fitness
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GALILEO, University System of Georgia GALILEO Open Learning Materials Nursing and Health Sciences Open Textbooks Nursing and Health Sciences Spring 2018 Walking and Jogging for Fitness Scott Flynn Georgia Highlands College, [email protected] Lisa Jellum Georgia Highlands College, [email protected] Jonathan Howard Georgia Highlands College, [email protected] Althea Moser Georgia Highlands College, [email protected] David Mathis Georgia Highlands College, [email protected] See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/health-textbooks Recommended Citation Flynn, Scott; Jellum, Lisa; Howard, Jonathan; Moser, Althea; Mathis, David; Collins, Christin; Henderson, Sharryse; and Watjen, Connie, "Walking and Jogging for Fitness" (2018). Nursing and Health Sciences Open Textbooks. 3. https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/health-textbooks/3 This Open Textbook is brought to you for free and open access by the Nursing and Health Sciences at GALILEO Open Learning Materials. It has been accepted for inclusion in Nursing and Health Sciences Open Textbooks by an authorized administrator of GALILEO Open Learning Materials. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Scott Flynn, Lisa Jellum, Jonathan Howard, Althea Moser, David Mathis, Christin Collins, Sharryse Henderson, and Connie Watjen This open textbook is available at GALILEO Open Learning Materials: https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/health-textbooks/3 Open Textbook Georgia Highlands College UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA Scott Flynn, Lisa Jellum, Althea Moser, Jonathan Howard, Sharryse Henderson, Christin Collins, Amanda West, and David Mathis Walking and Jogging for Fitness Walking and Jogging for Fitness Scott Flynn, Lisa Jellum, Althea Moser, Jonathan Howard, Sharryse Henderson, Christin Collins, Amanda West, and David Mathis 1. Benefits of Walking and Jogging for Exercise 2. Getting Started 3. Adaptations to Stress 4. Technique: The Art of Walking and Jogging 5. Nutrition and Energy Requirements 6. Injuries and Injury Prevention Appendix: Flexibility Walking and Jogging for Fitness by Scott Flynn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Direct any permission requests to:[email protected] Chapter 1 The Benefits of Walking and Jogging as Exercise The History The benefits of physical activity and Anatomy of Melancholy, “Opposite to exercise exercise have been recognized for as long as is Idleness or want of exercise, the bane of body man has been around. Our first ancestors and minde…one of the seven deadly sinnes, and didn’t think they were exercising. For them, it sole cause of Melancholy.1 (1632) Heironymus was more like chasing their next meal to survive Mercuralis (from the 16th century) defined instead of chasing a ball to win a game or going exercise, a definition that has changed little for a leisurely stroll. Regardless, in order to since the 16th century, “exercise is the survive, they had to be actively engaged in deliberate and planned movement of the moderate levels of physical activity either human frame, accompanied by breathlessness, through hunting or gathering foods for their and undertaken for the sake of health or sustenance. In other words: no exercise, no fitness…”1 food; no food, death. How’s that for a health benefit? Beyond the physical health benefits, there are affective benefits associated with The Greek physician Herodicus in fourth group games and activities. Ancient Mayans century B.C. recognized the importance of organized the first team game called the Ball exercise. He practiced gymnastic medicine, a Game. It consisted of two teams trying to get a branch of Greek medicine that relied on ball through a hoop mounted about 23 feet on vigorous exercise as a treatment.1 Hippocrates a wall. The rules were to get the ball through also agreed, “if we could give every individual the hoop using certain parts of the body. In the right amount of nourishment and exercise, some cases the captain of the losing team gave not too little and not too much, we would have himself as a human sacrifice to the winning found the safest way to health.”1 The Jewish team, an act that was believed by the Mayans philosopher Rabbi Moses ben Maimon of the to be a vital part of prosperity. 2 12th century, a physician to the Sultan of Egypt, stated, ”Anyone who lives a sedentary life and American Indians are thought to be the founder does not exercise…even he eats good and takes of the modern game of lacrosse as well as other care of himself according to proper medical stick games. In general, Lacrosse (which principles-all his days will be painful ones and received its name from French settlers) was his strength will wane.”1 Robert Burton, a perceived as a cultural event. theologian and scholar also saw the benefits of an active lifestyle and stated in his book The things like yard work, house cleaning, walking the dog, or taking the steps instead of the elevator. Physical activity does not have to be done all it once. It can be accumulated through various activities throughout the day. Although typing on a phone or laptop or playing video games does require skeletal muscle and a minimal amount of energy, the amount required isn’t sufficient to improve health. Despite the common knowledge that physical George Catlin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons , activity is tremendously beneficial for health, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABall_players. rates of activity continue to be below what is jpg needed. According to the CDC, only 1 in 5 (21%) of American adults meet the recommended The game was sometimes used to settle physical activity guidelines from the Surgeon disputes between tribes, victory and choosing General. Less than 3 in 10 high school students teams was thought to be controlled get 60 minutes or more of physical activity per supernaturally, and games and equipment were day. Non-Hispanic whites (26%) are more active prepared ritualistically. 3 than their Hispanic (16%) and Black From Ancient History to Modern Times counterparts (18%) as is the case for males (54%) and females (46%). Those with more In retrospect, the perceived benefits of education and those whose household income exercise have changed very little since is higher than poverty level are more likely to Herodicus or the American Indians. Mounting be physically active. 4 research continues to support early thoughts that exercise is vital to human quality of life. Exercise, although often used interchangeably Culturally, sport plays a huge role in growth and with physical activity, is a sub-category of of development of youth and adults. Physically, physical activity. Exercise is a planned, there is indisputable evidence associated with structured and repetitive movement pattern the short and long-term benefits of regular intended to improve fitness. As a positive side- exercise to brain, heart, bone, muscular, and effect, it also significantly improves health as emotional health, and reductions in risk for well. Fitness improvements would be seen as chronic disease such as cancer, diabetes, and the heart’s ability to pump blood, increased obesity. muscle size and flexibility. For the most part, walking and jogging in this text is viewed in the Physical activity is defined as any movement context of exercise. carried out by skeletal muscle that requires energy and is focused on building health. Health The Role of Walking and Jogging improvements would be seen as improved Walking and jogging can play a major blood pressure, blood-lipid profile, and heart role in increasing these activity rates. Why? One health. Acceptable physical activity includes of the beauties of walking or jogging comes from their simplicity. For example, the basic given weekend, anywhere from 5 to 30 events requirements to begin a walking program are posted. Many of which carry low include: shoes, clothing, and a place to walk. For registration costs, short travel, and raise funds most, these items are readily available. In other for good causes. In addition to the old words, the excuse of cost and/or accessibility is fashioned 5k and 10k, many “new-age” events simply not a good one. have emerged with similar distances but that also include challenging obstacles and other If you’re wanting to be competitive and elements of fun such as color-runs or glow-in- not a just-for-fun kind of runner, there’s no the-dark runs. In other words, accessibility to problem with the availability of races. One of events is rarely an excuse. the fastest growing race distances, the half- marathon, continues to grow with 1.8 million Walking generally attracts a less finishers in 2012 for the 13.1 mile event. The competitive group although many clubs and most popular events, 5k’s, included 6.2 million organizations exist to support competitive race finishers. Marathoners dropped slightly from walking, a sport included in the summer 2011-2012 to 478 thousand finishers of the 26.2 Olympic games. Not all finishers of marathons mile events. The number of resources available are actually runners. Many are full-distance to runners has also increased with more and walkers. Regardless, most walkers are walking more online training programs, many of which for fitness or social enjoyment and not for are free. 5 competition so recommendations in this text primarily adhere to that non-competitive approach. Health Benefits Walking and jogging are considered aerobic exercise—a type of exercise that requires oxygen -- more frequently referred to as simply “cardio.” Both walking and jogging not only improve health but also increase fitness levels. The health benefits of aerobic exercise By unknown, from Jackson Mississippi, USA (Blues Race thru have been well documented since Dr. Kenneth Belhaven) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Cooper wrote the book Aerobics in the early Commons) 60’s.