ISO METRICS VERSUS ISOTONICS

ISO METRICS VERSUS ISOTONICS

For some years, the virtues of isometrics have been trumpeted, often in advertising which promises an isometric system that "will put you in top shape in a minute a day-and no sweat." Isometrics involve muscular contractions without movement. The sys- tem is based on the principle that when a muscle is required to work beyond its usual intensity, it will grow. In isometrics, one set of muscles may be pitted against another or against an immovable object such as a doorway or floor. 

Put your palms together and push your hands against each other as hard as you can, without moving either hand. Or push against a closed door which does not move. These are isometrics. On the other hand, isotonic involve movement. Running, lifting, push-ups, sit-ups, virtually all sports are isotonic. Isometric exercises can be useful-for example, in correcting specific deficiencies such as building arm muscles or putting back into condition a leg that has been in a cast.

They may be useful, too, as a supplement to isotonic for further development of specific major muscles and muscle areas. But it is important to realize that your objective in exercising is not simply to build muscular strength. Strength is the ability to work against a resistance. Additionally, you need muscular endurance, the ability of a muscle to respond repetitively for a relatively long period of time; flexibility or muscular elasticity so you can use the muscle effectively throughout its whole range of motion; and cardiovascular-pulmonary efficiency-the adaptive response of heart, blood vessels; and lungs to work and exercise. 

Isometrics can help develop strength. But for the other needs, you have to get down on the floor and do push-ups and sit-ups and other isotonic exercise; you have to walk and jog or swim; you have to work the muscles through their whole range and work them repeatedly; and you have to sweat at the job and give the heart and blood vessels and lungs a workout. There is no shortcut. 

Excercises and blood circulation, Physical activity Vs Excercises

The higher oxygen content of the blood will aid muscle nutrition. As circulation improves in both quality and quantity throughout the body, the total effect is admirable: Muscles are strengthened; so is the whole supporting system. It appears, too, that there may be a double defect on the heart itself: It becomes more efficient in its pumping not only during activity but at other times as well, thus reducing the strain on it at all times; in addition, it appears that activity which builds endurance also stimulates the development of new and extra blood vessel pathways to feed the heart muscle. 

Thus, if there should be trouble in the future, if a coronary artery should become choked by atherosclerosis and a heart attack occurs, that attack is likely to be less severe because of the extra circulation available. Because of the extra circulation, much less damage to the heart muscle is likely to occur, and chances of survival are greatly increased. The best activities for exercising the heart and lungs and for building endurance are those that are continuous in nature-brisk walking, jogging, swimming, for example. The effectiveness of walking is not fully appreciated by most people. It brings many muscles into play.

 It is a continuous activity. It lends itself to putting a healthy progressive load on the body. Start with a relatively easy mile walk. Gradually lengthen the walk and increase the pace. Keep doing this until, for example, you are up to a three-mile walk as fast as you can get your legs to carry you, and you are getting great benefits every step of the way. Jogging, too, has its merits, as a simple and practical aid in developing both muscular strength and endurance. It is inexpensive, requires no special skill, can be done outdoors and, in inclement weather, indoors.

Start with a jog that is only a little faster than a brisk walk. Jog until you begin to puff. Then walk. Then jog again. Your body should be upright, not bent forward. Keep the buttocks in, not protruding; the back straight, not arched; bend the elbows; breathe through nose and mouth. The objective is to start at a comfortable level and gradually exert you more and more. At first, you may jog for 50 yards, walk for 50 yards keep alternating, and cover about a mile. As you keep working till, you will find you can increase the distance, jog more and walk less.

Even perhaps interspersing some sprints, running as fast as for 50 yards, and then dropping back to a jog or walk. Over a period !11(1l1ths, you may progress until you can cover as much as three miles at a good pace, walking very little of the time. Be sure you obtain your doctor's approval before you start jogging as an exercise. 

Exercises time and play, Basic principles of excercises

Exercise should become part of your daily routine. That means setting aside 30 minutes to an hour a day about five times a week. The daily activity period, or periods, should be considered as being as essential a part of your life as eating, sleeping, bathing, and dressing. Pick a time, or times, most suitable for you. If it is convenient for you to carry out much or all of your activity in one period each day, fine; divided periods of activity can also serve the purpose. Some people, early starters, like to exercise before breakfast. For others, this is impossible. Many men find it convenient to exercise late in the afternoon or before lunch. Never perform any exercise sooner than one hour after a meal.

 GADGETS Keep equipment to a minimum It's a good idea to avoid complicated apparatus and overreliance on weights, pulleys, and other devices.

BASIC PRINCIPLES Whatever program of activity you propose to engage in, check with your physician to be certain it is suitable for you. And your physician may.

Have valuable suggestions for activities particularly suited to you. Start slowly. Rush in without preparation and lift 200 pounds over your head-or even try to--and it may be your last act on earth. Take on a routine of mild setting-up exercises and you may feel a bit better, but this is far short of what you can get out of well-planned activity. What is needed is a program that follows certain key principles. Tolerance is one. There should be no sudden demand on your body or burst of tremendous effort.

Excessive straining beyond the level your body is ready for accomplishes nothing and may produce injury. Overload is another. Easy workouts continued endlessly day after day value but it is limited value. You have to push yourself just easily, then gradually begin to work a little harder, working 8 I Building General Health as Preventive Therapy just slightly beyond the first feeling of tiredness, but still within your limits of tolerance. 

Your body has more capacity than it is called upon to use. Give it a bit more load than usual and it can handle it. Progressively, it will become able to handle more. Progression is another important principle. As you maintain' a regular schedule of exercise and your strength and endurance grow, your activities will become easier for you. Continue them at the same level and you will maintain the improvement. To go beyond, you can make the work- outs progressively more strenuous, if your physician indicates this is desirable, until you arrive at a level of fitness you want to achieve. 

Who need excercises? - How muscle activity helps?

DO YOU NEED EXERCISE?

The chances are that, like most of us, you are getting too little daily exercise. If you need specific clues to the fact that you can benefit from more activity, here are some: heart pounding or hard breathing after relatively slight exertion; a long time required for your heartbeat to return to normal after heavy exertion (you can measure the heart rate by the wrist pulse); stiffening of legs and thighs after climbing stairs; aching muscles after such activities as gardening or furniture moving; waking up from sleep as tired as before; frequent restlessness. 

Your physician, as part of his preventive medicine program for you, will be glad to determine with you, on the basis of your specific present condition, daily activities, and other personal factors, whether you need more exercise, how much time you need to devote to it, what kinds of activities would be best suited for you.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTIVITY

Undoubtedly you will benefit from a soundly planned regular exercise schedule, even if it occupies no more than just a few minutes a day- and more on this shortly. Along with such a schedule, you can, and should, find other opportunities for increasing your activity. For one thing, it is possible to find opportunities for physical recreation that can supplement scheduled exercises and provide enjoyment. The list is almost endless: fishing trips, family outings, evenings of dancing, bowling in an office or neighborhood league, walking, etc. 

For another thing, there are opportunities for stepping up daily activities-and little bits of action add up in their good effects. It's a matter of attitude, of recognizing that it is good to use the body As much as possible and of seeking chances to do so.

Walk up a flight Physical Activity in 85 or more of stairs instead of relying entirely upon the elevator; walk part III much or sometimes all the way to the market, to the office. Interrupt sedentary work with little bursts of activity, even if no more than getting lip out of the chair and bending, stretching, moving about, flexing the  squatting, imitating a few golf swings. 

ACTIVITY AND MANY KEY PHYSICAL HEALTH PROBLEMS And Treatment

Excercise, Activities and health problems

There is increasing evidence that exercise is of value in preventing many key diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular dis- orders which affect circulation in the extremities. It is good for most ACTIVITY AND THE HEART lung diseases; an aid in the prevention of backaches and foot problems; a help too in the prevention of hernias; and a means of maintaining good skin tone. . For many years, vigorous physical activity was considered a hazard for the healthy heart, let alone the diseased. Today, there is mounting evidence that regular activity not only is essential for optimal maintenance of heart health but also, with certain precautions, can be of great value in heart patients formerly doomed to inactive existence.

In one of the pioneering studies concerned with exercise and the heart, British investigators found that the frequency of coronary heart disease in London bus conductors was about 30 percent lower than in the less active bus drivers. Since then, an inverse relationship between physical activity and coronary heart disease-the more of the former, the less of the latter-has been found by many other investigators in this country and elsewhere in the world. In a study carried out by Harvard scientists, 700 Bostonians of Irish descent were compared with their brothers who stayed in Ireland.

Coronary heart disease deaths in the Boston group (ages 30 to 60) were two times those in the Ireland group. The men in Ireland ate more eggs, more butter, and more of other saturated fats-yet had lower serum cholesterol levels. They consumed 400 calories more per day on the average than their Boston counterparts but weighed 10 percent less. They were getting more exercise and their lower cholesterol levels showed that physical activity does more than just burn off calories. Somewhat to their amazement, American scientists who recently made a special trip to study Masai tribesmen in Africa found that these people, despite a diet containing enough cholesterol to send the ordinary worried American fleeing in panic from the dinner table, never seem to get heart trouble.

 They live almost exclusively on meat and on milk with a butter- fat content that soars to 6.5 percent. Yet they have lower blood cholesterol levels on the average than do Americans. It is possible that it is exercise which protects Masai hearts, keeping cholesterol levels in their blood low despite the high dietary intake. The Masai are known to walk as much as 50 to 60 miles a day-and to do it without strain. In a study covering 120,000 American railroad employees, the heart attack incidence among sedentary office workers was found to be almost twice that of men working in the yards. Investigators have noted that activity trains the heart to beat slowly, to function more economically, to require less oxygen for a given amount  

How eating binges, breakfast, beverages affect your weight loss, weight control, weight management

EATING BINGES

 Some dieters are able to go off their diets occasionally without ill effect. Their morale may even benefit from knowing they can do this every month, which is better than constant "cheating." But re- member that you probably have a great tendency to eat more than you need or you wouldn't be dieting in the first place, so be very careful.

TALKING ABOUT YOUR DIET

 If you do talk about it, some people may consider you a bore; some may try to get you to break your diet; some will help you to keep it. You have to know which kind you are with before you start discussing your diet. Sometimes, it may be just as well simply to say that your physician has asked you not to eat certain foods. As a general rule, the best social technique is to avoid calling attention to your problem. Simply eat very little of fattening foods placed before you.

BREAKFAST

 A reasonably healthy, high-protein meal in the morning keeps people from being hungry in the midmorning and from eating too much at noon.

BEVERAGES

As you can see from the listings in the table, alcoholic beverages are high in calories. They don’t expect perhaps when taken in excess. Three glasses of 76 / Building General Health as Preventive Therapy beer, at 120 calories per 8-ounce glass, will supply as many calories as a fairly substantial breakfast. An evening of cocktails can provide almost as many calories as a full day's reducing diet. Even more serious is the fact that the calories supplied by alcohol are empty ones, without necessary food values such as proteins or minerals.  

Many people have turned to weight-reducing clubs where join with others wishing to reduce. The clubs are helpful in pi t1viding motivation. But medical authorities have reservations about supervision provided.  This dubs vary considerably in their programs, but all emphasize diet. Coupled with lectures, literature, and experience-sharing, some prescribe particular exercises.

 Many require an initial medical certificate for membership, but few have continuing medical supervision. Physicians have reported that, because of the lack of medical supervision in some clubs, the condition of their heart and diabetic patients worsened as a result of diet advice given. If you are considering joining some diet club you may have read or heard about, the best policy is to check with your physician about that particular club and its standing and whether he advises that you join it. 

weight Loss - CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES FOODS AMOUNT CALORIES

CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES FOODS AMOUNT CALORIES 

 Miscellaneous Sugar 1 level tbsp. or 3 level tsp. 50 Jam or jelly 1 level tbsp. 60 Peanut butter 1 tbsp. 100 atsup or chili sauce 2 tbsp. 35 White sauce, medium 1/4 cup 100 Brown gravy 1/2 cup 80 Boiled dressing (cooked) 1 tbsp. 30 Mayonnaise 1 tbsp. 100 french dressing 1 tbsp. 60 Salad oil, olive oil, etc. 1 tbsp. 125 Margarine 1 tbsp. 

100 Herbs and spices 0 Chocolate sauce 2 tbsp. 90 Cheese sauce 2 tbsp. 65 Butterscotch sauce 2 tbsp. 200 Beverages Ice-cream soda 1 regular 250 Chocolate malted 8 oz. glass 300 Chocolate milk 8 oz. glass 185 Cocoa made with milk 1 cup 175 Tea or coffee, plain 0 Apple juice or cider 1/2 cup 65 Grape juice 1/2 cup 90 Cola drink 8 oz. 95 Ginger ale 8 oz. 70 Grapefruit juice, unsweetened 1/2 cup 40 Pineapple juice 1/2 cup 55 Prune juice 1/2 cup 85 Tomato juice 1/2 cup 25

SOME DIETING SUGGESTIONS FATS

Rather than whole milk, use skim or powdered milk for your beverages (hot skimmed milk is enjoyed by some people in breakfast coffee) and in cooking soups, mashed potatoes, gravies, etc. Powdered milk is quite good for gravies. 

You can separate out your portion and then add cream or butter or margarine for the rest of the family. The cream you save can be used to convert your low-calorie gelatin or fruit desserts into higher-calorie desserts for others in the family. 

Use plain cottage cheese instead of butter or margarine. It is especially good with chives, or onion or celery salt, on thin dry (Melba) toast.

Cook thinly chopped spinach and other greens in very little water to which you add J. bouillon cube, and you are not likely to miss the butter.  

CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES - Weight Control - Weight Loss

FOODS AND BEVERAGES 1000S

 Soup Bouillon or consommé Cream soups Split-pea soup Vegetable-beef or chicken Tomato Chicken noodle Clam chowder Meat and fish Beef steak Roast beef Ground beef Roast leg of lamb Rib lamb chop Loin pork chop Ham, smoked or boiled Bacon frankfurter Tongue, kidney Chicken Turkey Salami Bologna Veal cutlet (un-breaded) Hamburger patty (regular ground beef) Beef liver, fried Bluefish, baked Fish sticks, breaded (including fat for frying) Tuna fish, canned, drained Salmon, drained Sardines, drained Shrimp, canned Trout Fish (cod, haddock, mackerel, halibut, whitefish, broiled or baked)

 Whole lobster Vegetables Asparagus Beans, green kidney lima Beets Broccoli Cabbage, raw cooked Carrots, sweet white potato chips Radishes Spinach Squash, summer winter Tomatoes, raw canned or cooked fruits Apple Applesauce, unsweetened sweetened Apricot, raw canned or dried Avocado Banana Cantaloupe Cherries, fresh canned, syrup Cranberry sauce Fruit cocktail, canned Grapefruit Olives Orange Peach, fresh canned, syrup Pear, fresh canned, syrup Pineapple, canned (with syrup) Plums, fresh canned, syrup Prunes, cooked with sugar Raisins, dried Tangerine cereal, bread, and crackers.  

      

 Building general Health as Preventive Therapy Weight Control

CALORIE CONTENT OF FOODS AND BEVERAGES 

Cereal, bread, and crackers Farina, cooked Oatmeal, cooked Rice, cooked Macaroni or spaghetti, cooked Egg noodles, cooked Flour Bread, white, rye, or whole wheat Ry-Krisp Saltine Ritz cracker Biscuit Hard roll Pancakes Waffles Bun-cinnamon with raisins Danish pastry Muffin Dairy products Whole milk Evaporated milk Skim milk Buttermilk (from skim milk) Light cream, sweet or sour 

Heavy cream Yoghurt Whipped cream Ice cream Cottage cheese Cheese Butter Egg, plain fried or scrambled Cake and other desserts Chocolate layer cake Angel cake Sponge cake Fruit pie Cream pie Lemon meringue pie Chocolate pudding  Fruit ice Doughnut, plain Brownie Cookie.