Response to reader

Dear Dr Gardner,

My name is Diania and I live in London. I was just reading your piece online in The Gleaner, 'Are you exercising enough?' I was at my gym recently, just to use the steam room and sauna, and a member of staff told me that I needed to do more exercise to tone up and maintain health. Let me give you my exercise plan. I walk to work Mondays to Fridays, which is a 90-minute journey - 45 going and 45 coming back. It is done very briskly!

I thought that would have been enough exercise for one person per week; but when I was told I needed to do more, I was rather taken aback. I am 46 years old and just want to keep healthy and maintain my weight. I am rather toned, considering I have two grown-up kids and a grandson. Should I really do more? I'm thinking, "Salesperson, you can say anything!" Any advice?

Diania Tomlin-Perkins

Dear Diania

Congratulations! Walking to and from work is an excellent way to fit exercise into your daily routine. It is an option that should be considered seriously by others who can do likewise.

Brisk walking at speeds of four miles an hour or faster is very good for your cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory systems. However, no single physical activity develops total fitness. To enjoy total fitness, aerobic activities such as walking should be complemented with strength and flexibility exercises. These will address other health-related fitness factors such as muscle strength, flexibility and body composition.

Check fitness profile

Optimal benefits are obtained when exercise is performed regularly. International organisations such as the World Health Organisation have sanctioned a minimum of three exercise sessions of at least 30 minutes weekly, to gain health benefits. Your exercise workload is much more than the minimum. If you want to improve your total fitness, you could do less walking and substitute other kinds of exercises so that you are not overworked. Walking five days each week, for 90 minutes each day is a good way to manage your weight.

To suggest that you should do more exercise, I would have to be guided by your goals or objectives for exercising, your fitness profile, and your capability.

The best way to assess your fitness profile is to have you do a stress test. The test could be inclusive of your respiratory function, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Your blood pressure and heart rate - at rest and during exercise - are also included in the stress test.

Lastly, your weight, body composition, flexibility, strength and endurance are assessed. Where there is cause for concern in relation to your goals and objectives, your exercise prescription would be adjusted accordingly. Exercise prescriptions work best when they are developed on the basis of what your test results indicate, in conjunction with your goals and objectives for participating in an exercise programme.

Dr Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at Holiday Hills Research Center; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.