Exercise is the central ingredient of good health. It tones
the muscles, strengthens the bones, and makes the heart and
lungs work great. It increases your physical reserve
and your vitality. Exercise eases depression, assists the
function of the bowels, leads to sound sleep, and aids in
every activity of your daily life. Exercise helps prevent
heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and many more
diseases. Exercise for the body comes in three
different types:
Strengthening Exercise
Strengthening exercises are the traditional body building
exercises that build stronger muscles. These exercises can
be very helpful in improving function in a particular body
part after surgery where it's necessary to rebuild strength.
They also help to strengthen your bones, since bones react
to stress by becoming stronger; they can help strengthen
bones even at advanced ages. When using strengthening
exercises you should never use anabolic steroids or any
other drugs because you may damage your future health.
Examples of strengthening exercises are squeezing balls,
lifting weights, and doing push-ups or pull-ups.
Stretching Exercise
Stretching exercises are designed to help keep you loose.
These exercises are truly important and everyone should
be doing them everyday. Stretching can be of great
benefit, like if you have a joint that's stiff because of
arthritis or an injury. There's nothing strange about the
stretching process. Any body part that you can't completely
straighten or bend needs to be frequently and repeatedly
stretched. A good rule is at least twice daily. Over weeks
or months, you can often regain motion of that body part.
An example of a stretching exercise is like toe touching
without the bounce.
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercises is the most important of the three. It's
the key to fitness and vitality. The word aerobic means
that during the exercise period, the oxygen that you breathe
in balances the oxygen that you use up. A number of good
things happen while doing this exercise. Your heart speeds
up to pump larger amounts of blood. You breathe more
frequently and more deeply to increase the oxygen transfer
from the lungs to the blood. Your body develops increased
heat and compensates by sweating to keep your temperature
normal. At the same time you build endurance which improves
the function of all the cells of the body where you become
more fit. The best form is interval training.
It's never too soon to develop the habit of lifetime
exercise. It's never too late to begin an exercise program
and to experience the dramatic benefits. If you haven't
been exercising for some time, start at a lower level of
physical activity than a more active person would until you
build yourself up.
