HealthHealth and Fitness

Exercising: A way to a long and healthy life

Remaining fit and healthy is never an option. Although given with our hectic scheduled nowadays, people should try to incorporate certain rules and regulations in one’s life. A person should aim at leading a healthy and energetic lifestyle. This simply implies that a person should be full of beans! Being as fit as a fiddle will only increase our life expectancy. So how do we do this? How do we become fit and healthy? There are two methods to improve our health. While the first one is to monitor and control our diet, the second one is a little bit time consuming and much more demanding. Although the second one is demanding but it shouldn’t worry you much, since that demand is the requirement of our body. Exercising is what I am talking about. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Let us first know what exercising is. The movement of muscles which further results in burning our calories is what exercising actually means.  

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Benefits of Exercising

 Let me explain this aspect scientifically. Our body needs energy to function. Has this ever occurred to you that from where does this energy come?  This energy comes from the food that we eat. Let me elaborate this by citing an example. Supposedly you have started running, within three seconds of running, the muscles finish of their ATP supply. Adenosine Triphosphate, often abbreviated as ATP, helps in storage and usage of energy.  

In order to avoid the finishing of this ATP, the phosphagen energy system starts working. The system helps in regeneration of ATP, which in turn keeps are muscles working for the next 8-10 seconds. 

Glycogen is split into glucose and lactic acid, thereby producing ATP. This ATP lasts for about the next 90 seconds. If we continue exercising for a longer duration, the glycogen-lactic acid system again takes over.  

Now, if we keep exercising, then aerobic respiration takes place. Now what is aerobic respiration? A process by which animals or creatures surviving on oxygen, turn fuel or food such as fats and sugars, into energy. Through respiration, the cells turn  fuel into energy, which enhances our body’s functioning. It is therefore through respiration that ATP is produced. 

Now that was the benefit that exercising provides us internally. Let us now know about the other benefits that exercising provides. 

Weight Control 

How can we get away with this one? The primary aim of exercising is to get rid of the excess fat in our body, thereby reducing our weight. Our metabolic rate increases because of exercising. More calories are burnt as a result of our increased metabolic rate. Since more calories are burnt, our body fat is consumed to generate more energy, thereby reducing our weight. 

Enhances Mood 

Exercising leads to a reduction in our anxiety levels, makes us happier and reduces depression. Exercising increases our brain’s sensitivity towards hormones like serotonin and norepinephrine, thereby relieving us from depression. 

 Beneficial for our muscles and bones 

Exercises like weight lifting help in muscle building in a person’s body. It is also a known fact that people who exercise more have an increased bone density and are said to be safe from diseases like osteoporosis. 

Skin 

Exercising increases the blood flow in our body. Since the skin requires blood for its nourishment, exercising provides blood to our skin cells. Cleansing of the skin from inside takes place as a result of exercising.  

Although there are many other benefits of exercising, like it also reduces the cholesterol levels in one’s body. In the nutshell, we should exercise regularly for our body’s proper functioning. Becoming a bag of bones should never be the aim of exercising. A clean bill of health should be our priority. Although everyone has to die one day, but we should die with our boots on.  

 

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