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Trust Marandure
Regular physical exercise is obviously vital to good health. We all know this, yet less than 50 percent of people exercise on a regular basis. While the immediate effect of exercise is stress on the body, with regular exercise the body adapts—it becomes stronger, functions more efficiently, and has greater endurance.

The entire body benefits from regular exercise, largely as a result of improved cardiovascular and respiratory function. Exercise enhances the transport of oxygen and nutrients into cells at the same time as it enhances the transport of carbon dioxide and other waste products out of cells.

You will find that exercise increases your overall energy levels.

Physical inactivity is a major reason so many people are overweight. This is especially true for children – research indicates that childhood obesity is associated more with inactivity than with overeating. There is also strong evidence suggesting that 80 to 86 percent of adult obesity begins in childhood. If you have children, get them active. If you are not active yourself, make a change and get active, especially if you have weight to lose.

Adults who are physically active tend to have fewer problems with weight loss for the following reasons:

1] When weight loss is achieved by dieting without exercise, a substantial portion of the total weight loss comes from the lean tissue, primarily as water loss.

2] When exercise [especially strength training] is included in a weight loss programme, there is usually an improvement in the body composition: an increase in muscle mass and a decrease in body fat.

3] Exercise helps counter the reduction in basal metabolic rate [BMR] that usually accompanies dieting alone.

4] Exercise increases the BMR for an extended period of time following the exercise session.

5] Moderate to intense exercise may help suppress the appetite.

6] People who exercise while on a weight loss program are better able to maintain the weight loss than those who do not exercise.

Exercise promotes the efficient burning of fat. Muscle tissue is the primary user of fat calories in the body, so the greater your muscle mass, the greater your fat-burning capacity. If you want to be healthy and achieve you ideal body weight, you must exercise.

Regular exercise exerts a powerful positive effect on mood. Tension, restlessness, depression, feelings of inadequacy, and worrying diminish greatly with regular exercise. Exercise alone has been demonstrated to have a tremendous impact of improving mood and the ability to handle stressful life situations.

Regular exercise has been shown to increase powerful mood-elevating substances in the brain known as endorphins. These compounds have effects similar to those of morphine, although much milder. There is a clear association between exercise and endorphin elevation, and when endorphins go up, mood follows.

If the benefits of exercise could be put in a pill, you would have the most powerful health-promoting medication available. Take a look at this long list of health benefits produced by regular exercise:

a] MUSCULATED SYSTEM
– Increases muscle strength
– Increases flexibility of muscles and range of joint motion
– Produces stronger bones, ligaments, and tendons
– Lessens chance of injury
– Enhances posture, poise, and physique
– Improves balance

b] HEART AND BLOOD VESSELS
– Lowers resting heart rate
– Strengthens heart function
– Lowers blood pressure
– Improves oxygen delivery throughout the body
– Increases blood supply to muscles
– Enlarges the arteries to the heart

c] BODILY PROCESSES
– Improves the way body handles dietary fat
– Reduces heart disease risk
– Helps lower total blood cholesterol and triglycerides
– Raises HDL, the “good” cholesterol
– Helps improve calcium deposition in bones
– Prevents osteoporosis
– Improves immune function
– Aids digestion and elimination
– Increases endurance and energy levels
– Promotes lean body mass, burns fat

d] MENTAL PROCESSES
– Provides a natural release for pent-up feelings
– Helps reduce tension and anxiety
– Improves mental outlook and self-esteem
– Helps relieve moderate depression
– Improves the ability to handle stress
– Stimulates improved mental function
– Relaxes and improves sleep
– Increases self-esteem

The better shape you are in physically, the greater your odds of enjoying a long and healthy life. Most studies have showed that someone who is not fit has an eightfold greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke than a physically fit individual. Researchers have estimated that for every hour of exercise, there is a two-hour increase in longevity. That is quite a return on investment.

The Aerobics Centre Longitudinal Study involved 9,777 men ranging in age from 20 to 82 who had completed at least two preventive medical examinations [on average 4,9 years apart]  at the cooper clinic in Dallas, Texas, from  December 1970 through December 1989. All study subjects achieved at least 85 percent of their age-predicted maximal heart rate [220 minus their age] during the treadmill tests at both exams.

The men were further categorised by their level of fitness based on their exercise tolerance on a standard treadmill test. This measure is a sound objective indicator of physical fitness, as it has been shown to correlate positively with maximal oxygen uptake. The men were divided into five groups, with the first group categorised as unfit and groups two through five being categorised as fit. The higher the group number, the higher level of fitness.

The highest age-adjusted death rate [all causes] was observed in men who were unfit at both exams [122.0 deaths per 10,000 many years], the lowest death rate was in man who were physically fit at both examinations [39,6 deaths per 10,000 man-years]. Furthermore, men who improved from unfit between the first and subsequent examinations had an age-adjusted death rate of 67.7 per 10,000 man years, representing a reduction in mortality of 44 percent relative to men who remained unfit at both exams. Improvement in fitness was associated with lower death rates after adjusting for age, health status, and other risk factors for premature mortality. For each one minute increase in exercise tolerance between examinations, there was a corresponding 7.9 percent decrease in risk of mortality.

Trust Marandure is a Naturopathy Practitioner based at Bulawayo he can be contacted on 0772482382 or email [email protected]