Today, I’m going to talk about the importance of establishing a consistant workout plan - even on the weekends.
Sometimes, squeezing in a few workouts during an action-packed week is like watching paint dry — you’d rather not. So the big question is can you simply skip those sessions and just work out longer on the weekend? Maybe shelve those muscle-working, intense, heart-pumping sessions? Should you save the sweaty routine for the weekend?
The answer is NO. Especially not if you’re battling high blood pressure, lousy cholesterol counts (high LDL or low HDL), or extra pounds! To put it bluntly, not if you care about how long you live. Your health doesn’t take “breaks” on the weekends. Now burning 1,000 calories over four or five sessions — not one or two — is what sets you up for a longer, healthier life.
Here’s how frequent sessions do their magic: Brisk walking, running, biking, or any aerobic activity lowers your triglycerides — unhealthy blood fats linked to high levels of lousy LDL cholesterol for 24 hours. Triglycerides are also consequences of drinking lots of soda & soft drinks. This means that if you’re active every day, your triglycerides will be progressively lower after about 4 days. “Weekend ” workouts just can’t match that.
You can think of blood pressure in the same vein. A brisk walk lowers your BP almost immediately and for a few hours afterwards. So that means the more frequently you do it, the closer you are to a happy and healthy 100th birthday.
Of course, there is one exception: Weekend workout people may add years to their lives if they’re in virtually perfect health to begin with. That means they have NO risk factors for heart disease: no extra pounds, no smoking, no hypertension, and no less-than-great cholesterol numbers. But let’s be frank here - not many of us can say that we’re in PERFECT help.
Now get on that treadmill!! For those of you on a diet plan - keep it up, during the weekdays AND weekends!
