Benefits of Exercise

Benefits of Exercise - The health of aerobic exercise are subtantial (see table 4.1). A mere 30 of exercise a day can decrease the risk of cronic disease including heart disease and some cancers including breast cancer (Center for the Advancement of Health, March 2004). Exercise, coupled with dietary change, can cut the risk of Type II diabetes in high-risk adults significantly. However, two thirds of American adults do not achieve the recomended levels of physical activity, and about one fourth of American adults do not engage in any leisure-time physical activity (Center for the Advecement of Health, April 2002). Physical inactivity is more common among women than men, among African Amercans and Hispanics than Whites, among older than younger adults ( R. E. Lee & King, 2003), and among those with lower versus higher incomes (Center for the Advancement of Health, 2002). Sixty-four percent of men and 72% of women do not have any regular leisure time source of physical activity and two thirds of older adults are not as active as they should be (Facts of life, March 2004).

aerobic exercises for Healthy

aerobic exercises for beautiful body shape

Table 4.1 Health Benefits of Regular Exercise

• Increases maximum oxygen consumption.
• Decreases resting heart rate.
• Decreases blood pressure (in some)
• Increases strenght and efficiency of heart (pumps more blood per beat)
• Decreases use of energy sources, such as glutamine.
• Increases slow have sleep.
• Increases HDL, inchanged total cholesterol.
• Decreases cardiovascular disease
• Decreases obesity
• Increases longevity
• Decreases menstrual cycle length, decreases estrogen and progesterone.
• Decreases risk of some cancer.
• Increases immune system functions.
• Decreases negative mood.

Perhaps more suprising is the fact that health practitioners do not uniformly recommend physical exercise, even to their patients (Center for the Advancement of Health, 2000; Leveille et al. 1998); yet studies show that a physician recommendation is one of the factors that lead people to increase their exercise (Calfas et al., 1997).

Aerobic exercise has been ried to increases in cardiovascular fitness and endurance (B. Alpert, Field, Goldstein, & Perry, 1990) and to reduced risk for heart attack (Paffenbargert, Hyde, Wing, & Steinmetz, 1984). Exercise is considered to be the most important health habit for the elderly, and cardiovascular benefits of exercise have been found even for preschoolers (B. Alpert et al., 1990). Other health benefits of exercise include increased efficiency of the cardiorespiratory system, improved physical work capacity, the optimization of body weight, the improvement or maintenance of muscle tone and strenght, an increase in soft tissue in joint flexibility, the reduction or control of hypertensions, improved cholesterol level, improved glucose tolerance, improved tolerance of stress, and reduction in poor health habits, including cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and poor diet (Center for the Advancement of Health, 2000b; Ebbesen, Prkhachin, Mills, & Green, 1992). People who obtain regular, vigorous exercise may also have lower rates of certain froms of cancer (Brownson, Chang, Davis, & Smith, 1991).