How Exercise Benefits Your Body
Exercise is even more important that you think.
One of the most important aspects of motivating yourself to get moving is to understand how exercise benefits your body and your life. Aside from the benefit of burning calories
to help you lose weight, exercise can make a vast difference in the
condition of your body and your organs, which can make the requirements
of everyday life easier and less likely to cause fatigue or pain.
First, consider how regular exercise can benefit heart health. Just getting regular, moderate exercise can reduce your risk of developing heart disease, plus, exercise makes the heart itself stronger, and more efficient. Here's how: Your heart pumps blood through your vascular system (veins and
arteries). Your lungs extract oxygen from air and send it to your blood
where it is distributed throughout your entire body. The stronger your
heart is, the more easily it pumps more blood throughout your entire
body. If your heart is weak, it has to work harder to provide you with
fresh blood and oxygen.
To improve the strength of your heart, you need to do aerobic
exercise. Since aerobic exercise makes you breathe more heavily than
you normally do, it trains your heart to pump blood more efficiently
throughout your entire body. You breathe more heavily during aerobic
exercise because your body is moving faster than usual and therefore,
using oxygen more rapidly, and in greater amounts. The oxygen is then
delivered more deeply in the body.
An activity is considered aerobic if it has the following
characteristics: You are required to move your limbs at the same time,
you use your larger muscle groups, such as those in your legs, and you
perform the activity for at least 20 continuous minutes. Aerobic
activity must also be performed at an intensity level that causes your
heart and lungs to work harder than usual and is typically rhythmic
and/or repetitive. So, for example, splashing in a pool is not an
aerobic activity, but swimming in a multiple-lap race is.
Other ways that your body is improved with exercise include:
Muscle strength
(how much weight your muscle can lift) and muscle endurance (how long a
muscle can work) are directly related to your activity level. Strength
training (or, as it is also known, resistance training) is ideal for
significantly increasing muscle strength. It can improve many aspects of
your life. Consider something as simple as going to the supermarket:
Carrying groceries into your apartment is an example of muscle strength.
Muscle strength is what happens when the nervous system
communicates a message to the muscle fibers to contract so as to
produce force. Often the force produced by a muscle contraction is
against resistance. Dumbbells, theraband or tubing, or something heavy
to lift or carry all qualify as resistance to muscle contraction.
The contracting of muscles (in a workout, for example) causes minute
injuries to occur in the fibers of the muscles. The body sends a
healing response to the "injured" area. After the healing takes place
(usually within a period of several days), the muscles are actually
stronger than they were before the workout (or other contraction) Subsequently, resistance training will raise your metabolism; the rate at which you burn fat for another 6 hours after you stop training or exercising.
Moreover, when you lift a few heavy bags into your backseat, you
are using muscle strength.When you are able to pick up the remaining,
less heavy bags and make trips to carry them from your car to your
apartment, that's endurance.
Bone health can also be improved with strength training since muscles
are attached to bones. Stronger bones can pay off now and in the future
-- you are less likely to get injured when your bones are strong and
increasing bone strength can help prevent osteoporosis as you age. Good
bone health also leads to deeper breathing and improved posture.
According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and
Skin Diseases, some of the best exercises for bone health include
lifting weights, walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, and tennis.
Flexibility is the ability to move joints effectively and can be
improved with stretching exercises. While stretching does not increase
your endurance or strength, it is an important part of reducing injury
risk and soreness that results from activity. If your flexibility is
limited, you will find movement more difficult. Exercises that improve
your flexibility feature moves that stretch your muscles, tendons, and
ligaments such as yoga or Tai Chi.
Remember, you should talk to your doctor before beginning exercise if you are over 40 or have any health problems.
