Sure, we know we need to exercise for health, but what are the real reasons to exercise?

Well, the list can be very long, but here are a few items you may wish to consider.

Exercise will help with fat loss: Notice, I did NOT say, "weight loss". You see, while weight can be a general indicator of health and fitness, it isn't a perfect indicator. People have different body types, for example, and a physically fit, attractive, and perfectly healthy person can weigh more than what the charts say they should. It isn't necessarily what you weigh that's as important as what that weight is comprised of. After all, at his peak of health and fitness, Arnold Schwarzenegger was "overweight" but had a very low level of fat on his body.

While some fat in and on the body is necessary to health and proper functioning of various systems within the body, it is excess fat which becomes the villain and which must be gotten rid of. You exercise to do a lot of good things for your body, and to burn fat is one of them.

YOU have heard that exercise burns calories, but, when done properly, it will also burn fat. Burning calories is important because excess calories is where fat comes from, and when we burn the calories through physical activity, they do not have a chance to be stored as fat.

People who are overweight are more likely to be susceptible to a wide range of health difficulties.

Exercise can help prevent disease: It has been demonstated through many studies that participating in regular physical activity can help prevevent the occurence of many diseases and degenerative conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and depression.

These studies also show that a lack of exercise is often a contributing risk factor in many of these diseases and conditions. Sometimes, the effect of exercise is indirect but still of importance. As mentioned above, exercising to lose weight is a common goal, but often, a direct effect of losing weight is improved health in many areas.

Exercise helps improve overall health: Well, if regular exercise, combined with healthy eating and living practices, can help combat disease and degenerative conditions, isn't that a pretty big deal? If, in addition to that, a regular program of physical activity can indirectly produce positive health effects as well, such as in the discussion on exercise and weight loss above, isn't that even better? What more do you need to say about the subject?

Of course, those are some great points, but when you consider the overall positive effects of exercise on the immune system, the muscular system, the bones, the cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary systems, you can see that the value of regular moderate exercise can be even greater than originally anticipated. The person who exercises regularly CAN, in most cases, expect a more effective immune system to combat ill-health in many forms, stronger bones (an effect that can carry over into the senior years), a stronger, healthier heart and lungs, which, in turn, will make life easier and healthier.

Page 1 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next