Helen Hecker asked:


Whether you need a manual or electric wheelchair, there are many advantages and disadvantages to consider for each. Or you may need both for different purposes.

A manual wheelchair should work if you have enough good strength in your arms to push whether the surface is flat or on an incline such as a wheelchair ramp. Some manuals come with hand aids called hand rims, with knobs which are easier to hold onto rather than rims alone.

Some people use a manual wheelchair only, while others use both a manual and an electric. This may depend on the distance, the surface, and whether they need to be lifted up any stairs or help loading the chair into a car, etc. You might need an electric chair to get to work, but use a manual chair when you come home. High school or college students may use an electric chair at school on campus, where they might need to travel a short or long distance from building to building. Using a combination may be the best use of energy or limit overuse of the body.

When choosing a manual chair, you’ll want to know how easy it is to push it along and how well it coasts so you don’t have to expend much energy pushing it.

Maintenance is important. You want to keep the tires inflated and the frame tight. You will want to note that modern adjustable wheelchairs need attention to the axle position, the seat angle, the back height, and many other features that influence the ease of wheeling the chair. The lighter the weight, the less force you have to push, so if you’re in between you should consider the weight when choosing.

The main advantages and disadvantages of manual wheelchairs are: They require strength and balance to move; they take more energy going distances and up inclines or wheelchair ramps; they can add to aerobic and muscular health; they are easier to transport; the user can be lifted up any stairs while still in the chair; there are lower maintenance requirements because there are fewer parts; it doesn’t need charging batteries or have the possible failure of batteries and they are usually narrower and easier to move around in small spaces.

The main advantages and disadvantages of power or electric wheelchairs are: You can travel distances regardless of your strength; it can contribute to muscular weakening if you’re not participating in a regular exercise program; they are a lot heavier and not as easy to transport as a manual; there is more maintenance risk because they are more complex; they cost more and servicing and repairs cost more than manual; the control programming is high tech; there is a wide variety of types including mid, front, and rear-wheel drives both for individual and variety of terrains and if the user is not able to lift their body you can get one with tilt and/or recline systems for relief from pressure.



Nicholas

Alien asked:


However, just to be safe, let us take some sensible precautions. Most of us tend to ignore symptoms. But, we want you to be fit and healthy. So, just think for five minutes. In the course of your normal activities, you may have rushed to answer the doorbell or telephone, hurried up the stairs. After doing so, have you felt dizzy or faint?

Got slight pains in the chest? Developed flu-like symptoms? Had an upset stomach? Found difficulty in breathing? There is nothing to panic about – but do consult your doctor. Explain that you want to start exercising and ask him or her to guide you on the activity you choose and how intensely you can do it. Take any test he advises you to. If the thought of visiting your doctor at his dispensary puts you off, you could enrol yourself in a gym that has a medical practitioner attached to it. It is worth the expense as you will be put on the right track of health and fitness suited to your individual circumstances.

Moreover, if you are over 35 years of age and have never exercised, it is better to get a doctor’s green signal to get into aerobics.

Most fitness books advise you to exercise under medical supervision if you have a heart problem, diabetes, are a heavy smoker, are highly stressed out or are extremely obese. Clearly, such factors need careful medical monitoring. To these we would like to add one more condition – the state of your eyes. Are you myopic? In other words, are you short-sighted where you have high minus-number glasses? If so, before embarking on an exercising programme, consult an ophthalmologist, an optometrist or a vitreo-retinal surgeon and have your retina checked out. Your eye doctor should be highly trained in binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy. Retinal detachment can be aggravated by lifting weights or sudden jerky movements.

Being myopic does not automatically put you in the retina detachment department, but the risk exists. Hence, it’s wiser to consult a specialist. However, don’t use your short-sightedness as an excuse – where you do not make an appointment with your eye doctor, and put off exercising indefinitely. Make that call today. Even a person who has undergone retinal surgery is advised to lose weight after the healing and convalescing period. The reason being that that extra load of fat puts a strain on the retina.



Esther

Raymond Lee asked:


Aerobic exercise is any activity that elevates your health rate and increases your oxygen consumption. In addition, this type of exercise is one of the best ways of improving and maintaining good overall health. The heart, vascular system, lungs, muscles, joints, brain, and nervous system all benefit. Regular aerobic exercise will help you to sleep better, have more energy, be more relaxed, and maintain a more positive outlook. In fact, aerobic exercise is considered an excellent treatment for mild depression, anxiety, and stress-related problems. In addition to all of those benefits, regular aerobic exercise can increase the levels of natural painkillers in the nervous system, making it a good way to control common types of pain.

When combined with a proper diet, aerobic exercise is the most effective method to control your weight. Many people would be happy to shed a few pounds, but for people with pain, weight loss may also mean an improvement in their condition. extra weight puts an extra stress on spinal joints and vertebral disks. If you are overweight, aerobic exercise will not only help to relieve your pain but may also help to control your weight.

Aerobic exercise is good for people with many different health conditions, as long as they start at a reasonable level and build up gradually. However, if you are over age 40 or have a medical condition that you think might be affected by aerobic exercise, be sure to check with your doctor before beginning such a program.

According to exercise physiologists, effective aerobic exercise should increase the rate of your pulse to roughly 70% to 80% of your predicted maximum heart rate. Before beginning to exercise, you should calculate your target heart rate. While exercising, you may want to monitor your pulse to make sure you stay within the target zone. A simple guide to remember is that you should not exercise vigorously and breathe so hard that you cannot carry on a conversation as you are exercising.

If you are taking certain medicines for high blood pressure, your heart rate will not increase with exertion as it normally would. In that case, you should use your breathing as a guide.

Although many jobs are physically demanding, very few will provide you with an aerobic workout. Better options for aerobic exercise include walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, dancing, playing basketball or tennis, and engaging in any other activity that gets your heart rate into your target zone and maintains that rate for the time you are exercising.

Some people do only one type of aerobic exercise, but it is generally better to alternate among two or more activities. This so-called cross training will make you physically fit for a wider variety of activities and keep you from getting bored.



Kurt

Yasmin Akrum asked:


An aerobics workout is one that gets your heart rate up for a period of time. It is great for losing weight and staying healthy because these workouts strengthen your heart, improve your breathing capacity as well as help you burn those excess fats.

However, many people do not know or understand how to do an aerobics workout in order to best maximize the results. Intensity is a very important aspect of any aerobics workout or training.

To understand how to use intensity in your workout or training, it is important to grasp the concept of lactate threshold. The level of intensity at which lactate is built up is called lactate threshold. By training or working out at near lactate threshold levels, this will improve the body’s ability to process lactate while also teaching the muscles to conserve glycogen and glucose fuel sources. This, in turn, increases your endurance. The muscles’ contractile mechanism also becomes more resistant to fatigue.

The next question most people will then ask is how will I know my lactate threshold (LT) level so that I can workout optimally? Unfortunately, your LT remains, at best, an estimate even when it is determined by scientists in the lab. One reason for this is that LT is a moving target. It drifts down during workouts due to weariness and can vary on a day to day basis due to fatigue, inadequate diet or environmental factors.

One way in this modern day and age to measure intensity is through the use of heart rate monitors.

However, as a guide if you want to get the most out of your aerobics workout, make sure that you follow these three rules.

Firstly, you have to find your personal optimal intensity. If you work out too intensely, you may injure yourself or will not see results. However, if you don’t work out intensely enough, you will not lose any weight or grow stronger. Therefore, you have to work with a program that has just the right intensity for you. For example, when working with weights, make sure that the weights used make the workout hard, but not impossible. Remember also that you will need to re-work the intensity of your workout as your tolerance and endurance increases, so readjust your routine every week or two according to your increased strength and fitness.

If you are not using weights and instead doing a purely aerobic workout, then intensity may exceed LT for short repeated intervals only.

The second rule is to make sure your workout is safe. Over training is a huge problem because it puts you and those around you in danger. When you under train, you will see no result. It might then push you to increase your aerobic workout intensity. However if you overdo it you can possibly injure yourself. If you are training properly, only your muscles should be sore not your joints. Never do an intense exercise in which you cannot control your form or breathing. Instead, take breaks and use lower weights or speed to get back on track. This method will help you get more out of your workout. In case you are injured during a workout, call for help immediately from those around you. It is a good idea to work out with a partner or to at least let someone know that you’re working out in case anything should happen to you.

Lastly, build up the intensity of your workout slowly in gradations. Be patient. Do not expect to be able to run the Boston marathon within one month of training! Building up slowly will help prevent injury as you gradually get fitter and stronger.



Yolanda

peter radford asked:


Background

Aerobics refers to the type of physical exercise that involves aerobic routines, which refers to exercise that involves or improves oxygen consumption by the body, by the application of rhythmical movements. In particular, it defines the concepts of: Flexibility, which is the amount of movement in a joint or muscle that is attainable with the help of a partner or the use of a certain piece of equipment.

Aerobics are usually performed to a background of music and is normally enacted in a group setting led by an instructor, who leads and guides the group to ensure continuity. However, it can also be undertaken as a solo exercise, and without musical accompaniment, although it is argued that this is not as beneficial as in the group setting.

The benefits of aerobics are not only the development of physical fitness, but also the ability to either prevent, or at the very least, reduce the incidence of certain illnesses.

The prescribed actions involve the participants performing a series of different dance-like exercises. In order to achieve the best results from the participants, aerobics classes are normally performed at different levels of intensity and complexity depending on the abilities and physical fitness of the performers.

Many gyms offer the facility of aerobic classes. Each class is designed to accommodate a certain level of experience of the performers and is taught by a certified instructor with experience related to their particular class.

Aerobic gymnastics

Aerobic gymnastics, also known as sport aerobics or competitive aerobics, refers to performing complicated and high activity movements to music, which originate from traditional aerobics, with a high level of perfectly executed movements which are defined as difficult.

It combines aerobics, sports aerobics, coordinating gymnastics with music, dance movements and choreography of the entire performance.

In order to introduce fairness, the performances are structured under various categories according to the age, gender and composition of the group, whether individual, mixed pairs or trios.

The judging is based on the following movements: strength exhibited whilst stationery and in motion, jumps and leaps, kicks, balance and flexibility. There are three compulsory exercises: four successive high leg kicks, four successive push-ups, and a programme which begins with four jumping jacks, and leads into 32 elements of standing movements and patterns. Performers are allowed to choose up to ten techniques from following selection: push-ups, supports and balances, kicks and splits, jumps and leaps. However, the following maneuvers may not be included in the routines: handstands, tumbling, back flips, handsprings, or aerial somersaults.

The performances are judged on the basis of the quality of the artistic content, the creativity exhibited, how well the performance was executed, and the extent of the difficulty of the routines presented.

Sport aerobics is represented in competitions at state, national, and international levels, but is not established as an Olympic sport.

Peter Radford writes Articles with Websites on a range of subjects, under the heading: Subject – How To Succeed. Aerobics Articles cover Background, History, Types of Exercise, Benefits, Aerobic Capacity, Other Issues, Commercial Success. Website has many more.

View his Website at: aerobics-how-to-succeed.com

View his Blog at: aerobics-how-to-succeed.blogspot.com



Connie

John Wellington asked:


Do you enjoy some healthy sweating? Do you participate in aerobics? If so, did you know that the wrong aerobic wear can adversely affect your workout? I bet the chance of an ignorant nod is half-half. Many people are unaware of the fact that aerobic wear is an essential part of the aerobic workout, and when the wrong attire is worn, discomfort and irritation may occur, hampering the exercise’s progress. Now let me give you a quick overview of what to look out for when shopping for aerobics clothing.

First things first. It is absolutely necessary to purchase pieces that fit loosely and allow for free airflow. If you are wearing tight, binding aerobic wear, your movements are likely to be severely limited and make the exercising ineffective. If your size is M, choose M. Don’t opt for an S which will make you look like a poor sausage.

Some people like to just throw on a sweat suit and head out for exercise class, and this is fine since this type of aerobic wear is lightweight, loose fitting and made from breathable material. However, if you prefer to leave the house looking posh and fashionable, even when the aerobics class three blocks away is your destination, there is a variety of aerobic wear to choose from that will add an element of style to your workout.

This type of active wear is available in many designs, as well as a wide array of colors and designs. An afternoon visit to a major sporting goods store will take you through many aisles of available aerobic wear. Items available to add to your work out wardrobe include shirts, shorts, pants, tank shirts and shoes all made from free- airflow material which makes you feel very comfortable during the workout.

When shopping, don’t forget about the shoes. The shoes are extremely important! Good aerobic wear shoes should fit well, but not be too snug. There are shoes especially made to be worn for aerobics, and while they may swing a bit to the costly side, the investment is worth it considering that it will save you from suffering in pain in the middle of your exercise.

If you happen to be a common size, the Internet has plenty to offer in this arena. Many of the online vendors offer “buy one get one free” specials, as well as free shipping. Why waste gasoline and walk for hours when you can sit cozily in your chair and shop for your aerobic wear online?

It can be purchased separately as individual pieces, or is available in two and three piece outfits. Buying pieces singly allows you to mix and match your favorite colors, but if you are not sure how to coordinate colors you’d better get a set. Aerobic wear sets feature tops with matched bottoms, and sometimes a matching, lightweight jacket. A few good pieces in neutral colors will allow you to periodically add new items of aerobic wear as used pieces become too worn to be functional.

The clothing you wear when exercising does not have to be boring, nor does it have to cost a fortune. With just an afternoon of shopping, you should be able to bring home an entire wardrobe of stylish, economical aerobic wear that will keep you on your toes!



Willie