Why is aerobic exercise so good for you?


I wanted some motivation to exercise so I searched the net for information. I found more then enough info about why exercise is so beneficial.



Health

- Improves control of blood sugar.

- Increases the efficiency of the digestive system.

- Enhances immune system.

- Improves liver functioning.

- Reduces constipation.

- Decreases a woman's risk of developing endometrials by 50%.

- Increases the amount of blood that flows to the skin making it look healthier and feel better.

- Reduced risk of diabetes.

- Improved circulation leading to a better love life.

- Helps alleviate menstrual cramps.

- Makes calcium transport in the heart and body more efficient.

- Increases quality of life and life expectancy.

- Improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity.

- Increased intracellular aerobic system enzymes and mitochondria to produce ATP.

- Helps speed up elimination of toxic substances through perspiration.


Weight Reduction

- Elevates your metabolism and fat oxidation.

- Decreases appetite (more easily satiated).

- Makes the body use calories more efficiently.

- Improves glycogen storage.

Heart

- Enlarges the arteries that supply blood to the heart.

- Reduced risk of heart disease.

- Reduced risk of stroke.

- Decreased resting heart rate

- Increased amount of blood your heart can pump in a single beat.

- Increases maximum cardiac output.

- Increases contractility of the heart's ventricles.

- Relieving or decreasing the symptoms of angina

- Improvement in cardiovascular/cardiorespiratory function (heart and lungs).

- Increased cardiac output (amount of blood pumped every minute).

- Increased stroke volume (amount of blood pumped with each beat).

- Increased blood volume and ability to carry oxygen.

- Reduced workload on the heart (myocardial oxygen consumption) for any given exercise intensity.


Endurance/Muscles

- Maintains, tones, firms, and strengthens your muscles. Exercise also increases your muscular endurance.

- Increases you aerobic capacity (fitness level). This gives you the ability to go through each day with less relative energy expenditure. This enables a 'fit' person to have more energy left at the end of the day and to get more accomplished during the day with less fatigue.

- Increased threshold for lactic acid accumulation

- Increased stamina

- Increases speed of muscle contraction and reaction time.

- Increases the number and size of mitochondria in muscle cells.

- Lessening fatigue, shortness of breath and perceived exertion during physical activity


Bones/Cartilage/Joints

- Reduced risk of osteoporosis.

- Helps fight osteoporosis.

- Increases the strength of bones.

- Increases the thickness of cartilage in joints, which has a protective effect on the joints.

- Increased muscle tissue, healthy bones and flexible joints.

- Improves posture.

- Eases and possibly eliminates back problems and pain.

- Increase flexibility.

Vascular (Blood transport system)

- Decreases your blood pressure.

- Decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol.

- Increases HDL (good) cholesterol.

- Lower resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

- Decreases blood levels of triglycerides (fat).

- Increases hemoglobin concentration in your blood. Hemoglobin is part of the red blood cell that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.

- Decreases the tendency of the blood to clot in the blood vessels. This is important because small clots traveling in the blood are often the cause of heart attacks and strokes.

- Causes the development of new blood vessels in the heart and other muscles.

- Helps to alleviate varicose veins.


Lungs

- Increases concentration of myoglobin (carries oxygen in muscles) in skeletal muscles.

- Enhances oxygen transport throughout the body.

- Increased maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max).

- Larger lung capacity leads to slower, calmer breathing.


Sleep

- Increase quality of sleep (stage 4 'deep' sleep).

- Decrease sleep requirements.

- Makes going to sleep easier.


Brain

- Increasing chemicals in the brain that help cognition, such as dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine, and serotonin.

- Enhances coordination and balance.

- Reduced feelings of depression and anxiety.

- Improves emotional stability.

- New brain cell development, improved cognition and memory.

- Improve cognitive functioning via improvement of hippocampus-dependent spatial learning, and enhancement of synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis.

- Increased confidence and self-esteem.

- Exercise increases the body's production of endorphins. Endorphin creates a sense of well-being and increases the body's resistance to pain.

- Enhances feedback through the nervous system.

- Enables you to relax more quickly and completely.

- Increase mental focus/concentration (ADHD symptoms).

- Helps increases IQ and 'Emotional' IQ.

- Exercise sharpens the brain by increasing the amount of oxygen available.

- Reduces the risk of developing dementia.



How do I get these benefits?

It's simple. Do something that's fun and keeps your heart rate in the 'aerobic zone' for 30 minutes about 3 to 5 times per week. If you can find just 1/2 hour in your day for exercise then your body can find time to reward you with so many benefits.

Here is a heart rate chart:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Exercise_zones.png


Stay Healthy and Have Fun!


p.s. Absolutely NO excuses please. Take them somewhere else!

I'm interested in one mechanism in particular the increase ability of the blood to take up oxygen. I guess thats one definition of aerobic fitness. Hyperbaric oxygen treatment has shown in some preliminary studies to improve conditions like autism. The mechanism could apply to many other disorders where there is insufficient bio-energy production in the mitochondria. Basically the ability to get more oxygen to cells would give you more energy and potentially increase production of needed neurotransmitters,etc.

My knees have bothered me when I tried to run or jog much. I tend to walk with a little running. But I know I do not have great aerobic fittness.

I'm all for it! I love the stuff. Aerobic work is the bomb. I define aerobic intensity where I can't sing while doing it, but I can converse. :)
Great post!
Ian

Basically the ability to get more oxygen to cells would give you more energy and potentially increase production of needed neurotransmitters,etc.
I'm not sure how it works, but exercise seems to have a way of helping the entire body by way of linking certain changes with others. It's quite amazing. Tell us what you find. :)

My knees have bothered me when I tried to run or jog much. I tend to walk with a little running. But I know I do not have great aerobic fittness.
How about an elliptical machine? It's extremely easy on the knees and it'll get your heart rate up much easier then jogging with less perceived effort. That's why these machines have been so popular these days.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Elliptical-Trainers-Fitness-Kings-or-Fitness-Hype

(http://hubpages.com/hub/Elliptical-Trainers-Fitness-Kings-or-Fitness-Hype)
I'm all for it! I love the stuff. Aerobic work is the bomb. I define aerobic intensity where I can't sing while doing it, but I can converse.
I have a tendency to go over my max heart rate if I don't monitor it every few minutes or so. Years of overexercising as well has been an issue in past for me. This stuff can be addicting!


Update:

Just now I put in 10 minutes in the upper anaerobic zone (85 to 95%). I didn't wanna take a half hour so I just upped the intensity. I notice that if I get into the anaerobic or VO2 max zone I feel much better. The intense zones really do it for me.

How about an elliptical machine? It's extremely easy on the knees and it'll get your heart rate up much easier then jogging with less perceived effort. That's why these machines have been so popular these days.



Any kind of near pointless stationary machine would never work for me its too illogical to burn energy for no reason in my primitive brain.

I usually walk dogs and/or make a trip to a store.

I usually walk dogs and/or make a trip to a store.

Dogs are wonderful exercise reasons I had a pittie and not only did I get an aerobic work out walking her I also got some strength training in with some balancing thrown in for good measure. Don't under estimate the value of dog walking :)



Moderate exercise and chronic stress produce counteractive effects on different areas of the brain by acting through various neurotransmitter receptor subtypes: A hypothesis (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1592480)


Okay well time for me to go back to work - hope this is of interest.

Dogs are wonderful exercise reasons I had a pittie and not only did I get an aerobic work out walking her I also got some strength training in with some balancing thrown in for good measure. Don't under estimate the value of dog walking :)



They allways want to go so they are good motivators. Plus you feel guilt if you don't walk them so your more motivated to. Unless it very hot and humid they allway want to move faster than I do so they keep the pace higher.

They are good for social anxiety to if walking alone is a problem. They will keep nearly everybody's and everything out of your way to. We were attacked by two pit-bulls last night and my dogs ran them off. Its odd pit-bulls are the only stray dogs that are so impulsive they must physically attack. No other animals have tried to bite us. My dogs walk 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day for a few years now so their fitness level is much greater than a typically pit bull.

Never under estimate the value of dogwalking! Ever! I used to work on a farm and as an exercise rider and I actually stay just as fit dogwalking, if not more so, than I was then. Nothing like speedwalking for an entire day with an average of 3 dogs at a time for strength and aerobic training. Throw in a whole bunch of 5th floor walk up buildings and hills in the park, and it's a total body workout.

When my brother came to visit me, he made me wear a pedometer because he wanted to know how far I walked. I kept forgetting to put it on, but it hit 18 miles in one day and I took it off because I didn't want to know that I had walked that far. That wasn't even one of my busiest days! When I first started, I was exhausted every day, after 3 1/2 years, I don't even notice. However, if I have a few days off, I get really antsy and have to exercise a bunch to get rid of the restlessness.

ps. Pit bulls are strong and they do pull!!!

Pit bulls are strong and they do pull!!!

That is a fact . . . .

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5865758.html

Fewer than 10 percent of high school seniors are fit, tests show

Thats in Texas. The fact I rarely see people walking and most exercise equipment has a layer dust on it suggest that it applies to most adults. Working all but the most physically intensive job is not substitute either for exercise. A waitress may have painful feet, and back at the end of the day but she has not burned many calories or got her heart in the target zone.

I don't buy that exercise can significantly improve ADHD but no question lack of exercise and poor diet effect many other conditions significantly. Being poor its all I got. :)