Physical Activity Thursday Challenge
Physical Activity Thursday Challenge: Complete muscle-strengthening activities for your lower body. Pick one of the exercises below and see how many you can complete in 30 seconds. If you feel good after 30 seconds, take a breather and try another set!
Lower Body Muscle-Strengthening Activities:
One of the best ways to keep muscles healthy and strong is through muscle-strengthen activities. These types of exercises push muscles to do more work than normal daily tasks and should be done at least 2 times a week. Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include lifting weights, working with resistance bands, doing movements that use bodyweight for resistance (such as push-ups, pull-ups, and planks), carrying heavy loads, and heavy gardening. These activities provide additional benefits not found with aerobic activity and can be one of the best ways to fight the effects on our body that can come with age. Done regularly, the benefits of muscle-strengthening activity include increased bone strength and muscular fitness.
Muscle-strengthening activities like resistance training and weightlifting, cause the muscles to work or hold against an applied force or weight. The goal is to do muscle-strengthening activities to the point where it’s hard for you to do another repetition without help. A repetition is one complete movement of an activity, like lifting a weight or doing a sit-up. Try to do 8-12 repetitions per activity, which counts as 1 set. Try to do at least 1 set of muscle-strengthening activities. To gain even more benefits, do 2 or 3 sets. The effects of muscle-strengthening activities are limited to the muscles doing the work. It is important to work all the major muscle groups of the body—the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms. If that’s more than you can do right now, do what you can. Even 5 minutes of physical activity can have real health benefits! You can do body-weight exercises with little or no equipment. Watch these muscle-strengthening videos from the Mayo Clinic to see how they’re done.
