You can improve your fitness level through moderate, everyday physical activities.
The Surgeon General's report defines fitness as "the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue and with ample energy." Even after years of a sedentary lifestyle, people can achieve this level of fitness if they perform regular, moderate physical activity. Spending more time on less vigorous activity provides health benefits similar to shorter, more intense workouts. Everyone can accumulate the daily equivalent of 30 minutes' moderate exercise. Briskly walking 15 minutes from the bus stop home, then gardening for 20 minutes or riding a bike for another quarter hour will do the trick, and the experts urges people to "think daily and think moderation" when it comes to exercise, ''Choose something you like and stick with it, "
It's true that Americans can optimize their fitness by taking up more vigorous sports such as swimming or jogging. But it’s not necessary to disrupt your hectic daily schedule by rushing off to a gym, swimming pool or jogging track.
Moderate physical activity brings important health benefits.
More than 60 percent of adults do not perform a minimum 30 minutes of moderate physical activity daily. Worse, 25 percent are completely inactive. This sedentary life-style increases as we grow older and is even more common among women than men. The report makes clear that this widespread inactivity contributes to "premature death and unnecessary illness" for millions of Americans each year. Moderate exercise, however, can help shield us from many diseases:
Cardiovascular Disease
Dozens of studies suggest that exercise increases the level of "good" HDL cholesterol in the blood, which acts like a scavenger of "bad" LDL cholesterol, the main component of arterial plaque, by transporting it to the liver for elimination in bile. People who are physically active can maintain an improved HDL-LDL ratio for several days after exercise.
Regular exercise also lowers high blood pressure by relaxing the vascular system. Even better, exercise increases the capacity of the heart's coronary arteries and may help develop small new capillaries and arterioles to branch from the main coronary arteries and provide increased blood flow to the heart. Exercise also enhances blood enzymes that break down dangerous clots, which can cause heart attacks.
The American scientist evaluated almost 1 0,000 American men ages 20 to 82 for cardiovascular fitness at an interval of five years. Those who improved their fitness through exercise had a 64 percent reduction in death from cardiovascular disease compared with those who remained unfit.
Several major studies worldwide have shown that regular physical activity significantly reduces the risk of colon cancer. It has been theorized that exercise helps to prevent this dreaded disease just, behind the death rate of prostate cancer in men and breast, cancer in women by increasing the production of a chemical compound called prostaglandin F2 alpha. This may accelerate intestinal activity, which decreases the time potential carcinogens are in contact with our digestive tract.
Adult-onset Diabetes
As many as 16 million Americans are afflicted with adult onset diabetes, which is most prevalent in sedentary obese people. Almost 170,000 die each year of complications of the disease,In diabetes, the metabolic balance between glucose and insulin is disrupted, leading to dangerous blood-sugar levels and organ damage. Regular exercise contracts the skeletal muscles, which enhances glucose metabolism in our cells. Exercise also helps reduce abdominal fat, which many experts believe is a major risk factor for diabetes.
Osteoporosis
Weight-bearing exercise such as walking and dancing helps prevent the crippling bone loss of osteoporosis. Bone cells respond to weigh, bearing by proliferating to build stronger bones. Elderly people who exercise moderately have far fewer fractures and fall less often than their sedentary peers.
Depression and Anxiety
Regular moderate to vigorous exercise can reduce depression and anxiety, perhaps by increasing the metabolism of brain chemicals called monoamines, which elevate mood. The raised body temperature from exercise also decreases muscle tension, which may contribute to an improved sense of well-being. Studies of adults suffering from mild to moderate depression showed that at least 30 minutes of exercise, three or more days a week, greatly improved their mood.
It's never too late to start becoming physically active.
Middle age is when many people slide into inactivity, then they were exhausted halfway up a small hill and they're in terrible shape.
If people added moderate exercise to their daily lives, their fitness steadily improved, in their mid-50s they could take brisk walks and bike rides, and regularly camp and hike in the Cascade mountains . They will be fit and healthy, and can't imagine going back to being a couch potato. "
Older people can benefit as well. Maryland
Then one day in 2002, he decided to regain control of her life. Instead of taking the elevator to his fifth-floor condominium, he began slowly climbing the stairs. He also began a regular program of water walking. Since then he has also taken swimming lessons and swims a quarter-mile three times a week. He hasn't suffered chest pains for three years. "I feel better than I did ten years ago." he said shortly before his recent 80th birthday.
At present, the challenge facing us is motivating all Americans toward a level of physical activity that can benefit their health and well-being, actually you always find some ways to stay health for your life.
