The New Approach To Fitness

The real challenge now is how and when to fit this potentially unwieldy thing called exercise into your already hectic life. It does continue trip up millions of us daily, don’t forget, so we must be doing something wrong.
For an exercise program to succeed in becoming a permanent and worthwhile endeavor, it’s going to have to do two things:

1) lt’s going to hove to fit comfortably into your life.

2) We going to have to work.

A do-or-die approach to exercise is as doomed to fail as even the most diligent use of something electronic to shrink the thighs. So often fitness programs don’t last because we undertake them aiming for a Mercedes, and lose interest when it becomes clear that all we may have time for is a Honda.

To which we say: A Honda beats whatever heap is currently transporting your bones around. Research continues that even a little exercise, so long as it’s don’t consistently, can be significantly better than no exercise at all. That’s basically all the motivation you should need. The rest — actually fitting that exercise into your life — is going to be up to you.

If there’s one key ingredient that’s been lacking in the ways exercise has been sold in years past, it has been permission to exercise the imagination. There’s been an abundance of encouragement and instruction to exercise our biceps, triceps, and abs, that’s for sure, but too often it has been given within guidelines that are restrictive to the point of being prohibitive. Do we really need a 2,000•pound weight machine to work our peers, or something available for three “easy” payments in tighten our tummies?

Of course not. lt’s the movement that counts, not machinery, and there are far more ways to get that movement than would be economically wise for manufacturers of exercise devices to admit.

The same holds true for the time normally recommended for exercise, and for the attire. Exercise for at least 30 minutes within a target heart rate, we’re told. Wear Lycra because it breathes.

As long as you’re breathing, that’s what matters. lt’s time we stopped making exercise so needlessly and extravagantly complicated.

Exercise Your IQ

By getting the body to run better, exercise improves the functioning of the mind. The brain may think it’s the boss, but without a healthy body supporting it, it’s about as powerful as a candidate with no votes.
Research now concludes that regular physical exercise can improve brain Function by:

1) Improving memory. Memory depends on good communication among all parts of the brain, and exercise appears to help keep the wires (blood vessels) responsible for that communication in good condition.

2) Increasing problem-solving ability and creativity. The brain cell benefiting from exercise may also be the more clever brain cell, as attested by recent research with business executives — plus the cerebral track records of such avid exercisers as Wordsworth, Thoreau, Einstein, and Aristotle.

3) Creating stronger immunity to stress. “Exercise appears to burn up excess stress chemicals by using them tor energy expressed outwardly rather than inwardly, where they can do harm,” explains cardiologist Robert S. Elliot.

4) Helping us to keep our chins up. And not just over the bar. Exercise is a potent mood—elevator, as shown in clinical studies with depressed mental patients. To be thanked: the TOO percent all—natural uppers called endorphins.

5) Improving stamina. Let’s face it: It’s tough to be smart when you’re pooped. Exercise can give the physical boost that intellectual stamina cannot do without.

Adequate physical activity has been found to be so important to good health that a recent report in the Archives of Internal Medicine warned that insufficient levels of exercise should be considered as detrimental to health as - believe it or not - smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day.

To add to the alarming findings of that report, doctors presented statistics a year later in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that people who don’t exercise, when compared to those who exercise moderately, could expect their risk of dying prematurely to double.

Seventeen Great Ways Exercise Improves Your Life

1)    Exercise increases circulation by widening blood vessels and even creating new ones, thus reducing risks of heart attack and stroke, In addition, it boosts physical and mental stamina by improving the delivery of oxygen and other vital nutrients to virtually every cell in the body in those of the brain included.
2)    Exercise lowers blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, aneurysms, glaucoma, and stroke.
3)    Exercise improves the ratio ot good [HDL] to bad (LDL) cholesterol in the blood, thus reducing the risk of heart attack due to arterial blockage caused by the accumulation of plaque on artery walls.
4)    Exercise helps the body make better use of insulin, thus substantially reducing the risk at type ll (adult onset) diabetes.
5)    Exercise improves lung Function and hence physical as well as mental stamina by increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood.
6)    Exercise helps bolster the immune system, thus increasing protection against everything from cancer to the common cold.
7)    Exercise strengthens bones by boosting their uptake of calcium, thus dramatically reducing the risk of osteoporosis (a major problem for women following menopause).
8)    Exercise helps keep joints healthy, thus reducing the risk of osteoarthritis.
9)    Exercise speeds reaction time, reducing risks of driving mishaps as well as accidents around the home.
10)    Exercise improves coordination, lowering the risks associated with falling (especially among the elderly).
11)    Exercise aids digestion and hence optimal absorption of vital nutrients.
12)    Exercise helps promote intestinal regularity, thus reducing the risk of cancers of the colon.
13)    Exercise helps burn body fat and maintain healthy weight, thus boosting energy levels and improving appearance as well as reducing risks of diabetes, high blood pressure, harmful wear and tear on joints, and even certain types of cancer [i.e., breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men].
14)    Exercise aids restful, higher-quality sleep.
15)    Exercise lowers the resting heart rate by increasing the amount of blood pumped by each at the heart’s contractions, thus saving the heart as many as 50,000 beats a day, and l7 million in a year!
16)    Exercise helps slow the aging process lay improving blood circulation and hence the delivery of vital nutrients to, and the removal of metabolic waste from, virtually every cell in the body skin included!
17)    Exercise improves sexual performance by boosting physical endurance and flexibility as well as body image and self-esteem.