Nautilus Quinton Owner's Manual - Components of Fitness

N

A

U

TI

LU

S

®

FI

TN

ES

S 

G

U

ID

EL

IN

ES 

®

C HA NG I N G  T H E   G A M E   I N   H EA LT H  A N D   F I T N E S S  

®

40

EXERCISE & FITNESS GUIDELINES

Components of Fitness

Over the past 25 years, many people have focused on walking, running, cycling, 

swimming and other types of aerobic activity as their only means of exercise.

However, we have learned that two other components of fitness are just as 

important. These other two components are muscle strength and fl exibility. 

So in addition to having a strong heart and lungs, we also need to be able to pick 

up a full bag of groceries and tie our shoes without having to sit down.

When developing a fi tness program, it is only appropriate that you develop all 

three components in order to achieve balanced overall fi tness. Let’s take a look 

at all three components:

Cardiovascular Fitness  is training the heart and lungs to be stronger and deliver 

more oxygen throughout your body with less effort. It can help reduce the risk of 

heart disease, and help you manage your weight. It is the cornerstone of fi tness, 

and can be achieved in many ways such as walking or running on the treadmill or 

outdoors, climbing stairs, cycling, using a StairMaster

®

 stepper or swimming in 

the pool or ocean.

For many years, it was suggested that moderate level cardiovascular activity 

(activities that make you sweat and breathe and a moderate pace) should be 

done 3 –  4 days a week for 15 –  45 minutes at a time. It is now recommended that 

you attempt to do some cardiovascular activity EVERY day, if possible.

The good news is that the cardiovascular activity does not need to be 

moderately intensive everyday, nor does it need to be sustained for 15 –  45 

minutes at a time.

So while it is ideal to challenge your heart and lungs by doing something like a 

strong power walk every other day for 15 –  45 minutes, it is more important to 

make sure you do at least a little bit of cardiovascular activity every day, even if 

you don’t do it for very long or very intensely.

For example, you might try using a Nautilus

®

 treadmill for a scheduled, moderate 

level workout for 20 –  30 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday 

(see the intensity monitoring section for further details on how hard to workout). 

On the other days, you might try going for a leisurely stroll 10 minutes in the 

morning and in the evening (or whenever you can fi t it in).

Whatever you do, just make sure you get your body moving, and your heart and 

lungs pumping for some period of time every day.