Since we have no choice in our modern days but to exercise in gyms and parks to compensate for our inactivity and desk-bound jobs, we should embrace activity and sports with serious minds, commitment and positive attitude in order to keep physically, mentally and emotionally fit as well as remain disease-free, energetic and well.
Today, I shall explore the multiple health benefits that can be achieved by regular activity. Exercise should neither be exhaustive nor exclusively for professional athletes. There is neither a need for an instructor nor a specialized gym or a sports club. Heavy equipment or fancy machines are not required to achieve fitness. All that is needed is a pair of good walking shoes and comfortable clothes for walking briskly around three kilometers to work and back home five to six days a week. Such an activity can be ample enough to keep the heart, brain and body fit and strong. A jog around the park in the afternoon can give the strength, physical and mental energy and optimum health required to add joy to life. Let us see now how simple exercises influence our health and well-being.
There are two types of physical training: Aerobic and anaerobic exercises. Aerobic exercises are intended to strengthen the heart muscles, expand the lung capacity and circulate oxygen and blood in the body and brain. These include brisk walking, running, jogging, cycling, swimming, hiking and others. They focus on oxygenating the heart, lungs and brain, thus making nutrients available to all organs. The heart muscles and lungs should get trained to reach their maximum capacity, but for limited periods.
Anaerobic exercises, on the other hand, do not put too much stress on the heart or lungs. Such training focuses on buildings muscle mass in the arms, legs, thighs, back and abdominals. It should be done with metal weights, machines or through resistance exercises. This type of training requires assistance and guidance by a professional trainer who advises on the type of weights and corrects back and body postures in order to prevent back and leg injuries or muscle sprains.
Now, I am going to demonstrate to you the important role of physical training, muscle building and workouts in preventing disease and metabolic syndromes in particular. The latter includes insulin resistance, adult onset diabetes, high blood lipids, hypertension, obesity and others. Let us see why our bodies need to be shaken up by some kind of daily exercise.
Regular activity is an absolute necessity to give the body energy, improve memory and cognitive skills, bolster the immune defenses and boost the mood through balancing the neurotransmitters and secretion of hormones (serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, the feel-good hormones). More importantly, it enhances insulin uptake in cells and muscles. Let us see how it prevents insulin resistance.
Insulin is a hormone that is released by the pancreas to facilitate the uptake of glucose, or sugar, by the body cells. However, when the muscle cells become saturated with fat, they block the entry of insulin. They become insensitive to insulin, or insulin resistant, making the pancreas release additional insulin, flooding the system with the hormone, which results in very harmful conditions that lead to metabolic syndromes. The other side effect of insulin roaming in the system is that it increases the deposit of fat in the body, leading to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Here comes the role of exercise in this vicious cycle. With the help of a low sugar and starchy carbohydrate diet, regular activity helps reverse insulin resistance by increasing the sensitivity of muscle cells to insulin, thus decreasing insulin secretion in the system.
In healthy people, too much insulin in the bloodstream lowers blood sugar abruptly, leading to low blood sugar level, weakness, irritability and renewed demand for sugar. If this type of nutrition is followed for some time, the condition persists and the person develops hyperglycemia, suffering a seesaw of high and low energy and mood.
Exercise can help regulate the spikes of blood sugar and insulin levels, making muscle cells more responsive to insulin for longer hours after stopping the training session. This way, exercise can reverse pre-diabetic conditions and prevent diabetes and insulin resistance. Energy remains stable and available. For adult onset diabetes, exercise can do wonders by controlling blood glucose levels and lower insulin doses for insulin dependent patients.
Activity is vital to other functions of the body. Regular workouts not only strengthen the muscle but also increase bone mass and stamina. Electrical impulses occurring during activity send signals to the bones to mineralize and build bone mass. Along with a healthy nutrition, exposure to sunlight or taking vitamin D3 supplements and natural hormonal supply, exercise can prevent osteoporosis, bone loss, an incapacitating disease that can start early in life without showing symptoms at first. Bone fractures can be indicators of early bone loss. Hunched backs are advanced stages of the disorder and are irreversible. Regular exercise is critical for children and adolescents for developing stronger bones and muscles, which eventually protect the bone structure.
The joints, too, benefit from regular and simple regular aerobic exercises like walking, cycling and swimming. Moving and bending the joints regularly protect them from stiffness and lubricate them by increasing the fluid in between cartilage, reducing inflammation and pain and improving joint flexibility.
I think the information above is sufficient for today. Next week, I shall provide additional information about the effects of physical training on the body and brain as well as general health and well-being and how it can prevent many physical, emotional and mental disorders.