The Many Benefits Of Exercise

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2008-09-18 Word Count: 513 Category: Nutrition

Choosing The Right Type Of Exercise For Your Health
Exercise is required by every individual to lead a healthy life and at the same time free oneself of many diseases. Senior citizens must do some form of exercise to remain active irrespective of their age. There are many benefits of exercises.

By doing exercise, adrenaline hormone is released that results in an increase in heart rate and metabolism. This way, the heart muscles become healthy and increased metabolism makes the body healthy. Exercise helps to promote sleep to those who are suffering from insomnia. The brain activity is increased, as there is an increase level of oxygen getting transported to the brain tissues. By doing exercise, the endocrine system is activated and that normalizes the stress hormone function of the body. The endorphins pass through the nervous system and interact with opiate receptor neurons to create a feeling of euphoria. The anxiety level is also reduced to a great level.

However, there are certain points that should be kept in mind while doing exercises. It is better to do outdoor exercise as increased exposure of light helps in sleep and at the same time acts as an anti-depressant. One should also not do exercise near bedtime as an increased metabolic rate could lead to restlessness in the person. The right time to do exercise is the morning time. This is so as the circadian rhythms are influenced by the exercise and affects positively on the sleep quality. Generally, a regular aerobic exercise schedule helps to affect the sleep patterns positively while at the same time reduce the stress levels and increases the vitality and energy of the body.

There are different kinds of exercises as there are machines, and one should create a good balance of the exercises to get a good workout and also to feel better. There are two different types of exercises, the aerobic exercises and the anaerobic exercises. In aerobic exercises, an excessive amount of oxygen is used by the body over a long period of time. At the time of doing aerobic exercise, the heart should beat between 70% and 80% of the maximum heartbeat rate. Now one can determine one’s max heartbeat rate by subtracting one’s age from 220. Some good aerobic exercises are running, bicycle riding, swimming, dancing and those sports that need long period of movements like tennis, soccer, basketball and racquetball.

In anaerobic exercises, there are quick, powerful movements of the body that require large oxygen intake for shorter periods of time. Weight lifting and stretching fall in the anaerobic category.

One should include both forms of exercises in their workout, irrespective of the goal being to lose weight or gain muscle. Aerobic exercises will help one to burn calories and lose weight. This form of exercise is also beneficial to gain weight by warming up the muscles. The anaerobic exercise will help to burn fat cells faster than aerobic exercise, if one likes to lose weight. One can also make the muscles bigger if building strength is the goal.

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