What Women need for Exercise:Keys to Female Fitness
Beyond Bar bells to Vital Infrastructure:HELP!
Superwoman:A Vital Exercise
The American Journal of Health Promotion published a research review* which tried to decipher the reasons why women are less active than males,and female activity levels decrease with aging. Whats important here for health promotion is that exercise benefits include reduced cancer, stroke and heart attack risk, as just a few of the “perks” that make exercise a vital health behavior.So what’s going on?
A review of factors influencing women’s ability to exercise noted the need for social support involving family and professional help.(No kidding).
According to this review study, women need an array of social support factors, including acceptance from others for exercising, informational (educational) input on health benefits and exercise strategies, activities of daily living assistance, health-appraisal support, and the ability to exercise beyond cultural stereotypes and gender roles.
So who is shopping, cooking, cleaning,helping with childcare, and bringing home a paycheck? How hard is it to ask for help and to delegate? What healthy fitness models and exercise health benefits can you list? Who pats you on the back and supports your exercise? What strategy do you use for fitting in exercise if your schedule varies?
Here are some strategies that can help, for busy moms with families who have “no time” to exercise:
List ALL household tasks, and let family members know you need their help for your health;Each family member chooses 2 tasks (expect resistance and imperfection!) to perform weekly, and one daily.For me this means letting my teens do 75% of their laundry (yes they leave it in the washer or dryer), being so bold as to leave dishes in the sink for my family to clean…especially after dinner (as I shop, prep, cook, and serve 2 meals a day), and multitasking with exercise (calisthenics, weights, Pilates, Bosu, Swiss Ball) in my living room…as pasta water warms up for 10 minutes, and cooks for 12. Ok my al dente is sometimes al soggy but I am fitting it in.
Learn a few exercise programs, short, medium, and long programs, for varied schedules.Some of the easiest beginning to intermediate programs include walking, and Pilates, here are a few helpful links:
http://www.walking.about.com
http://www.pilatesontheball.com
Good luck and Power On!
Maureen@BenchFit.com
*Vrazel, J., Saunders, R.P.,Wilcox, S., 2008, An overview and proposed framework of social-environmental influences on physical-activity behavior of women,American Journal of Health Promotion 23 (1), 2-12
