Exercise

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The Importance Of Exercise

Exercise constitutes a part of any bodily activities that enhance physical fitness and improve health and well being.

Physical exercises may be done for strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, perfecting athletic skills, achieving weight loss, or simply for enjoyment. Active deep breathing during physical exercise helps increase the lung capacity leading to greater efficiency of the cardiovascular system. The heart has to pump less to oxygenate muscles, and there is also greater blood flow to the muscles, resulting in greater muscular efficiency. Regular exercise boosts the immune system, and also helps prevent lifestyle diseases like heart disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It is also believed that exercise has a positive effect on mental health and can help treat insomnia and depression.

Benefits Of Exercise

With the increased use of mechanized transportation and labor saving technology, there has been a definite shift in the world toward low physical activity and studies have proved that this has been a major cause for many health problems. Physical exercise helps maintain ideal body weight and bone density, strengthen muscles, improve joint mobility, promote physiological well being and reduce health problems and surgical risks. Exercise also helps keep cortisol levels under check. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which interferes with fat, protein and carbohydrate metabolism, and weakens the immune system.

Studies have shown that exercise also improves oxygen supply to the brain and cognitive functioning via improvement of spatial learning. In addition, exercise enhances the growth and function of the nervous system and plays a major role in preventing many degenerative conditions of the nervous system as well as neuromuscular diseases. Regular exercise is also believed to help reverse brain damage caused by alcohol abuse.

Types Of Exercise

Exercise may be aerobic or anaerobic. Aerobic includes low-intensity activities like walking, running, swimming, or cycling. Performed for longer periods of time, these exercises require a good amount of oxygen to supply the energy needed for prolonged exercise. In contrast, anaerobic exercise involves intense activity and is usually performed by athletes and body builders to build muscle strength and power. The most popular forms of anaerobic exercise are weight training and sprinting. Individual response to exercise varies greatly. For instance, some exercisers may double their oxygen intake, while only a few might achieve significant muscle growth even after prolonged training.

Exercise Through Entertainment

One of the latest exercise options that has caught the imagination of both adults and children alike is Exergaming, which means ‘exercise' and ‘gaming.' In this "virtual reality" technology, the user has to perform some activity, like pedaling or arm flexing in order to move say, a virtual ball in a virtual tennis court. Although, the initial response to it was lukewarm, the idea is gaining popularity in health clubs and fitness centers as it takes the monotony out of workouts.