WHO EXERCISES MORE?
It is not an unknown fact that almost half of the American population never engages in any physical activity and which more than often leads to serious health problems. The reason why women are less active than man is that men tend to involve themselves towards group sports whereas women are needed to run a whole household as well as caring for children.
But no matter what your gender is, studies clearly show that inactivity can push a body towards serious health consequences, which not only threatens your overall health but also affects your mental wellbeing along with shortening your lifespan.
The benefits of exercise (regular) are so vast that it would take an entire book just to summarise them. In fact, the table below are only a few ones that you can benefit from regular exercise –
| Boosts your IQ, thus allowing you tothink better | Athritis can be managed | Depression can be fought off | Lose weight |
| Blood pressure is lowered | The risk of heart disease can be lowered | Risk of diabetes and pre-diabetes can be lowered | The risk of cancer can be lowered and which in turn, improves your recovery chances |
| Cold can be fought off | Insomnia can be cured | Chronic knee pain can be relieved and the bone structure becomes strong | The aging process can be slowed down |
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THE TWO FACTORS THAT ARE INFLUENCED BY EXERCISE
While the biological influences of exercise cannot be mentioned, yet there are two factors that deserve special mention as physical activity strongly influences these two and helps in understanding why exercise can be so beneficial –
- Your insulin levels decrease and which in turn helps to normalise your receptor sensitivity (insulin) as a result of performing exercises, and you very well remember this that this very action is responsible for slowing down as well as preventing the chronic diseases known to man.
- Exercise also helps to prevent the shortening of telomere (main culprit of cellular ageing) and in that way, making it a very powerful anti-aging strategy.
OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO EXERCISE
The most common reason why people avoid exercising is that they simply don’t get the time for it, but don’t be like that. No matter what, you have to schedule your routine around it.
Think of ‘exercise’ as a necessity and make time for it. Take it as a high priority in your calendar and make out a prescription for it before starting the exercise based on various factors such as – your goals for fitness, your concerns regarding your health, the activities that you enjoy among many others.
However, if you are overweight or you have serious health concerns, then you need to customise your exercising schedule according to it. The same goes for pregnant women as well as those people who have serious health conditions like cancer; in fact, exercise for them is a boon as it will result in a healthy pregnancy plus a successful recovery.
BACK INTO THE EXERCISING ROUTINE
If you are just back into exercise after a long time, then, it is best that you should work up your way slowly towards the top. Don’t ever try to do much at once or else; it will only lead to burnout and you will end up spraining your muscles. The more you exercise, the more benefits you will reap and at one point of time, it will become addicting like a drug, and it will make you feel so good that you won’t feel like stopping in case you lose that feeling.
Quality vs Quantity
Always remember that quality exercise doesn’t take a lot of time of your week, in fact high intensity resistance training can achieve dramatic improvements in your physique and general health in as little as 30minutes per week. If you use intensity in a smart way you will develop a skill set of fatiguing your muscles deeper and deeper as you progressively gets stronger and therefore your muscles will need more time for recovery.
Choose an exercise protocol that will make you more stress resilient and not one that will increase stress and inflammation in your life due to overtraining (wrong dose of the stimulus of exercise).
