THERE is an expression which says “use it or lose it”. It is true. If you do not use your body, you will surely lose it. Your muscles will become flabby and weak.
Your heart and lungs will not function efficiently and your joints will be stiff and easily injured. Inactivity is as much of a health risk as smoking.
Our bodies crave exercise. You do not have to run marathons to reap the benefits of exercising. Rapid walking for 30 minutes at a time three to four times a week can do the trick. Regular exercise is necessary for physical fitness and good health. It reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases.
Once you begin to exercise regularly, you will discover many more reasons why exercise is so important to improving the quality of your life.
Renowned physiologist Herbert DeVries once conducted a fitness study of more than 200 men and women aged between 56 and 87 years old in a California (US) retirement community, which included walking, a walk-jog routine, calisthenics and stretching.
After six weeks, their blood pressure dropped, body fat decreased, maximum oxygen transport increased and neuromuscular signs of nervous tension diminished.
Analysing the results, DeVries concluded that men and women of between 60 and 70 years were as fit and energetic as those that were 20 to 30 years younger.
Exercise reduces stress, lifts moods, and helps you sleep better. It can keep you looking and feeling younger throughout your entire life.
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Why is exercise important? Exercise increases the tone of your muscles and blood vessels, changing them from weak and flabby tissue to strong and firm tissue and often reducing blood pressure in the process. It will increase the efficiency of your heart in several ways. Gradually, the heart will grow stronger and pump more blood with each stroke, thus reducing the number of strokes needed to supply your body with life giving blood. It will increase your digestion by quickening the circulation and help to lift the blood back to the heart from the digestive organs and thus normalising your bowel action. It will increase the efficiency of your lungs, conditioning them to process more air with less effort. It will increase your maximum oxygen consumption by increasing the amount available and the efficiency of its delivery to body cells. It will improve the overall condition of your body, especially your vital parts, which includes the lungs, heart, blood vessels and endocrine system. This will impart added protection against sickness. It can change your whole outlook on life enabling you to relax, work more efficiently and handle stress better. When not over done, it imparts a cheerful quality to the mind. It will enable you to sleep better at night and think better during the day. Exercise strengthens the will. You will be able to get more work done with less fatigue. It will slow down your aging process – by slowing down the natural physical deterioration that old age normally brings. It will give you a new zest for life at a time when you most need it and there is evidence that it can reduce the likelihood of cancer. Now go outdoors into the open air and take a walk.
Exercise, consistently done with proper moderation as the years advance can help prevent heart attacks as well as many other ailments.
The blood vessels are carefully lined with smooth muscle fibres and if these special muscles do not receive adequate exercise, they gradually weaken.
The only way you can exercise a blood vessel is to put demand on the blood stream to provide more oxygen. When you exercise, your muscular tissues use up oxygen more rapidly and your heart beats faster to pump along a new supply of oxygen carrying blood to meet this demand.
As your heart increases its pumping action, it pushes more blood through the system. The blood vessels expand and contract in order to meet this demand and this exercises them in the process.
Without exercise, they become flabby and begin to degenerate. One of the best ways to counteract tension is the physical fatigue from healthful exercise and that benefit cannot be stressed too much.
Physical exercise helps children grow. Exercise lowers the resting heart rate and increases the amount of blood pumped with each beat. Exercise puts stress on the bones and increases calcium in them, making them stronger and less susceptible to fractures.
Young people should anticipate the ageing process and get ahead of it. Those who are older should get to work by starting with a moderate exercise programme to help keep in shape for years to come.
