While not everyone has the time or the means to begin and maintain a regular exercise program, everyone should participate in some form of physical activity. Staying physically fit is a way to maintain good energy, brain function, and improve well-being, it can help combat and even prevent heart diseases and other ailments for the young and elderly. The more you stay active, the longer you stay active. This statement means that as long as you exercise routinely with an educated approach, you will remain in motion and see healthy benefits well into your early age. The remainder of this paper is based off of a few specific topics given to the class to look further into and formulate our own responses for each.
The first focus point was to describe the physical and mental health benefits of participating in a regular exercise program. Exercise and physical activity decreases the risk of developing CHD, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. On top of all of that, it is been said to lower blood pressure, improves lipoprotein profile, c-reactive proteins, enhances insulin sensitivity and plays a major role in weight management. CHD, which stands for Coronary Heart Disease, is accounted for 23.5 percent of all deaths in the United States in 2008. If I was completely oblivious to the health benefits of regular exercise and someone came to me with such strong information, which would be all it took to get me off of my sedentary lifestyle and make me get active.
At this point I will be identifying some chronic physiological responses that can take place when participating in a regular exercise program. First and foremost, your body can potentially increase the amount of mitochondria it has which in turn produces a sense excess “energy” in the body. Speaking for myself, whenever I take an elongated break from the gym, the first thing I begin to notice is my energy levels and sense of “drive” begin to fade or slip away. This was shocking for me to discover because I often knew that this certain feeling would come if I took off from routine exercise but I did not know that it was and actual process occurring in my body based off of mitochondria production. Regular long term resistance training induces a change in the size of muscle fibers. From a bodybuilder’s approach this is one of the first things taught to us when beginning our competition journey.
The importance of including flexibility in an exercise program can be broken down into many different points and arguments, so I will include only few. It is said that joint range of motion is improved transiently after flexibility exercise, chronically after approximately three to four weeks of regular stretching at a frequency of at least two to three times a week (Kokkonen J, Nelson AG, Eldredge C, Winchester JB 2007). It also may enhance postural stability and balance (Costa PB, Graves BS, Whitehurst M, Jacobs PL.2009) particularly when combined with resistance exercise. In my own personal experiences, stretching has improved my flexibility which in turns has improved my wellbeing and ability to utilize my whole body in many more way than before my days of stretching.
The next topic is discussing the benefits of resistance training. The benefits of resistance training are simple. For older adults, resistance training can help strengthen muscles and emphasize the development of power that could help prevents falls. Older adults can expect potential balance improvements as well as muscular conditioning which could prevent falls and constant muscle fatigue. Resistance training is a good way to build up one’s overall strength and physical appearance. Progressive overloading and resistance training tears down the fibers in the muscle and forces them to repair and adapt to be able to lift the weight again and again.
Finally time to analyze the health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. A sedentary lifestyle can “fast track” you to a lot of health issues. A few of these issues include; chronic heart disease (CHD), stroke, type two diabetes, and some forms of cancer (US Department of Health and Human Services 2008). A non-sedentary lifestyle can enhance feelings of energy, well-being, quality of life and cognitive function and is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline and dementia ( Larson EB, Wang L, Bowen JD 2006). So in other words, neglecting proper physical activity and adapting to a sedentary lifestyle can expose you to a number of health risk that can be actively combated with proper nutrition, exercise and training. Some people adapt regular exercise programs for strictly cosmetic reasons, but if done right, not only will it potentially shed body fat and give you the look you are seeking, it is prevent to also help your body function at its intended levels and potentially safe guard you from some pretty nasty health conditions.
As easy as it may seem, a sedentary lifestyle is not the best option for optimal health. Some of the potential health benefits of implementing a regular exercise program have been broken down and discussed in the text above. The benefits of stretching, the importance of flexibility, warm up and cool down importance, as well as benefits in resistance training. Hopefully this information will give you the push to get active if you have not already, or it will provide you with a little more motivation to keep things going for your overall health.
References
- American Heart Association (AHA). (2016, May 20). Coronary Artery Disease – Coronary Heart Disease. Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Coronary-Artery-Disease—Coronary-Heart-Disease_UCM_436416_Article.jsp#.V9fFk5MrLMI
- US Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008 [Internet]. Washington (DC): ODPHP Publication No. U0049. 2008 [cited 2010 Sep 24]. 683 p.
- Puetz TW. Physical activity and feelings of energy and fatigue: epidemiological evidence. Sports Med. 2006; 36(9):767-80.
- Nelson ME, Rejeski WJ, Blair SN, et al. Physical activity and public health in older adults: recommendation from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007;39(8):1435-45.
- Bartholomew JB, Morrison D, Ciccolo JT. Effects of acute exercise on mood and well-being in patients with major depressive disorder. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005;37(12):2032-7.
- Gillison FB, Skevington SM, Sato A, Standage M, Evangelidou S. The effects of exercise interventions on quality of life in clinical and healthy populations; a meta-analysis. Soc Sci Med. 2009;68(9):1700-10.
- Smith PJ, Blumenthal JA, Hoffman BM, et al. Aerobic exercise and neurocognitive performance: a meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials. Psychosom Med. 2010;72(3):239-52.
- Citations Cont.
- Reid DA, McNair PJ. Passive force, angle, and stiffness changes after stretching of hamstring muscles. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004;36(11):1944-8.
- Costa PB, Graves BS, Whitehurst M, Jacobs PL. The acute effects of different durations of static stretching on dynamic balance performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(1):141-7.
