Exercise for Health, Energy, and Fitness
Exercise is an important tool to increase your health, energy, and fitness. Specifically, adequate physical activity will help you to better manage stress, assist the healing of injuries, and prevent disease. Research shows it is important for protecting against a large number of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, some cancer, diabetes, even some cognitive disorders. Increased physical activity can correct various sleep disturbances (or disorders), as well as, enhance mood due to exercise’s ability to stimulate various brain chemicals. Not to mention exercise is vital to weight loss and weight management.
Exercise is especially beneficial to the cardiovascular system. It strengthens the heart, the sk eletal muscles (movement muscles), the blood vessels and helps the oxygen carrying red blood cells to grow in size and number. This will cause a boost to your energy levels. These oxygen carrying red blood cells are not only needed to transport more blood to the body, but will help the body to efficiently remove waste (carbon dioxide) away from the body. Another important feature of exercise is its ability to cause a growth in the number of small blood vessels (arterioles and capillaries) that supply the skeletal muscles.
A person who exercises vigorously and regularly has lower levels of circulating stress-related hormones and this improves the health of the blood vessel lining. This also reduces the chance of plaque build up which can cause heart attack or stroke. This decrease in stress creates an improved sense of well being and the ability to more quickly bounce back from injuries or surgical procedures.
Regular physical activity is known to help with high blood pressure. Your cholesterol will benefit, too. Regular physical activity boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol while decreasing triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly by lowering the buildup of plaques in your arteries.
And there's more. Regular physical activity can help you prevent type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.
There are two major categories of exercise. Resistance exercise (such as lifting weights) and endurance or "aerobic" type exercises (such as running and swimming). While either are good when done alone, benefits of exercise are greatly increased in many conditions when done together. Endurance exercise increases muscle strength and stamina, while resistance exercise will enlarge the muscles and strengthen bones. It is a good idea to combine both endurance and resistance exercises.
Exercise must be done on a regular basis to maintain optimal health, energy, and fitness. It’s also very important to have fun during exercise so that it can be looked forward to as part of a normal "lifestyle."
For the greatest overall health benefits, experts recommend that you do 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic activity three or more times a week and some type of muscle strengthening activity and stretching at least twice a week.
However, if you are unable to do this level of activity, you can gain substantial health benefits by accumulating 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity a day, at least five times a week.
If you have been inactive for a while, you may want to start with less strenuous activities such as walking or swimming at a comfortable pace. Beginning at a slow pace will allow you to become physically fit without straining your body. Once you are in better shape, you can gradually do more strenuous activity.
Although physical activity is perfectly safe for most people, sometimes it's important to get a doctor's OK before you exercise - most experts suggest you talk to your doctor before you start an exercise program if any of the following apply:
■You're unsure of your health status.
■You have asthma or lung disease.
■You have arthritis or osteoporosis.
■You've had joint replacement surgery.
■You're pregnant.
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■You've had a heart attack.
■You have diabetes or heart, liver or kidney disease.
■You take medication to manage a chronic condition.
■You feel pain in your chest, joints or muscles during physical activity.
■You experience symptoms such as loss of balance, dizziness or loss of consciousness.
■You have an untreated joint or muscle injury, or persistent symptoms after a joint or muscle injury.
The American College of Sports Medicine also recommends you see your doctor if two or more of the following apply:
| ■You smoke or you quit smoking in the past six months.
■You're overweight or obese.
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■You're a man older than age 45 or a woman older than age 55.
■You have a family history of heart disease before age 55.
■You have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Working with your doctor ahead of time may be the best way to plan an exercise program that's right for you. Consider it the first step on the path to physical fitness.
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