Exercise
Exercise is anecessary part of a healthy lifestyle. Not only does regular exercisehelp to maintain overall fitness but also manage weight loss. It canreduce the risk of many life-threatening conditions. People whoexercise regularly enjoy a better quality of life. Regular exercise canalso advantage mental and emotional wellbeing.
Types of exercise
Exercises are generally classified into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body:
• Flexibility exercises such as stretching improve the range of movement of muscles and joints.
• Aerobic exercises such as hiking, ambling, cycling, running or playing tennis focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance.
• Anaerobic exercises such as functional training, weight training or sprinting increase short-term muscle strength.
Groups of physical exercise
• Aerobic exercise
• Anaerobic exercise
• Strength training
• Agility training
Sometimestwo terms 'dynamic' and 'static' are also used. 'Dynamic' exercisessuch as steady running tend to produce a lowering of the diastolicblood pressure during exercise, because of the improved blood flow.
Benefits of exercise
Physicalexercise is important for maintaining physical fitness and cancontribute confidently to maintaining a healthy weight, building andsustaining healthy bone density, muscular strength and joint mobility,encouraging physiological well-being, , strengthening the immunesystem, and decreasing surgical risks.
Frequent and regularaerobic exercise has been revealed to help prevent or treat serious andlife-threatening chronic conditions such as obesity, hypertension,cardiovascular disease, no insulin dependent diabetes, depression, andinsomnia. Strength training shows to have continuous energy-burningeffects that continue for about 24 hours after the training; howeverthey do not present the same cardiovascular benefits as an aerobicexercise does. Additionally, physical activity has been shown to beneuro-protective in many neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases.
Noteveryone benefits uniformly from exercise.
General misconceptions
• That too muchexercise can cause immediate death. Water intoxication can result fromprofuse sweating (producing electrolyte losses and imbalance) combinedwith consumption of large amounts of plain water and inadequatereplenishment of electrolytes, especially sodium and potassium.
•That excessive weightlifting makes you short or stops growth. Onecaveat is that heavy weight training in adolescents can injure theepiphyseal plate of long bones.