Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness.
Exercise is any physical activity that uses large muscle groups and causes the body to use more oxygen than it would while resting. The goal of aerobic exercise is to increase cardiovascular endurance.
Examples of aerobic exercise include
- Playing
- Running
- Cycling
- Swimming
Anaerobic exercise which includes strength and resistance training, can firm, strengthen, and tone muscles, as well as improve bone strength, balance and coordination
Examples of strength moves are pull up and push up
An average adult should engage in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, 3 or more days a week.
Benefits of Exercise
- Weight Control. When a person is sedentary, he tends to be taking in more calories than are needed. These unused calories accumulate as fat. A person who is physically active may have a deficit of calories, which takes fat away and lowers weight. Lowered weight is good for the heart and is beneficial in people with diabetes.
- Heart Diseases are reduced. The heart is a muscle. Like other muscles, its performance improves when it’s regularly challenged by exercise. The heart responds to exercise by becoming stronger and more efficient.
- Emotional well-being is enhanced: Most people report that they feel calm and have a sense of well-being after they exercise. Exercise, according to one theory, releases beta-endorphin, a natural substance in the body that is hundreds of times more potent than morphine. Another substance that increased is serotonin , Increased levels of serotonin in the central nervous system are associated with feelings of well-being, heightening of appetite, and reduced tendency of mental depression. Regular exercise will reduce cases of suicide in the society.
- Cancer Prevention: People who exercise regularly have lower incidences of cancer. The incidence of cancer most reduced include colon, prostate, uterine, and breast cancers.
- Blood Pressure is regulated: Exercise has been shown to reduce stress levels. As the levels of stress in a person’s body subsides, his blood pressure and his risk for heart diseases decline.
- Reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke: Exercise reduces the amount of harmful cholesterol and fats in a person’s blood. It increases the flexibility of the walls of blood vessels, and helps to lower blood pressure. This can reduce a person’s risk for heart attack and stroke.
- Prevents diabetes mellitus. Exercise prevents sugar from accumulating in the blood by triggering muscles to take up more glucose from the bloodstream and use it for energy. This can reduce a person’s risk of developing diabetes.
- Fresh Skin: improved arterial supply to the skin makes your skin fresh especially when you do regular aerobic exercise.
- Improves Learning and Judgement Skills as one get older: exercise stimulates the body to release proteins and other chemicals that improve the structure and functions of the brain.
- Improves Sexual Health. Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction in men. For those who already have erectile dysfunction exercise may help improve their sexual function.
