Welcome back, everybody. This is Thoughts If
It Were You by Neogentrics, Food for Thought.
And it is 2 .30 p .m. Now, like I said, I've
been on a health strain for the last couple of
days, and I have no idea why, but... continuing
with the train of stuff i've been talking about
i'm going to talk about the importance of exercise
or why and exercise is even important in the
first place all things considered some people
enjoy it some people don't and i mean to be fair
we all know that exercise isn't important is
important in our daily lives, but we may not
know why or what exercise can actually do for
us. And to be fair, even if you don't think you
are exercising every time you leave your house,
go for a walk or go to the store, even going
to the store can be a workout because just simply
walking is exercise. Okay. It's important to
remember that we have evolved from, I guess you
could say nomadic ancestors. who spend all their
time moving around in search of food and shelter,
traveling large distances on a daily basis. You
know, working hard is in our genes. Our bodies
are designed and have evolved to be regularly
active, in a manner of speaking. You know, in
the same way that a sports car is designed to
go fast, we are designed to move. If the sports
car is taken out once a week for a three mile
round trip through a town center, then it would
probably develop engine problems fairly quickly.
Over time, people develop too many problems if
they sit down all day at a desk or in front of
the TV and minimize the amount of exercise they
actually do. There are benefits of exercising.
There are many benefits of regular exercising
and maintaining fitness. A couple of them are,
and this one's probably the most common one you'll
hear, exercise increases energy levels. Okay,
exercise improves both the strength and efficiency
of your cardiovascular system to get the oxygen
and nutrients to your muscles. When your cardiovascular
system works better, everything seems easier
and you have more energy for all the fun stuff
in life. Your cardiovascular system is your heart
system where all the blood is pumping through
your body, through your veins, from your heart,
and the air that you intake goes into your blood
vessels, into your heart, and it's dispersed
through your body. So the better that system
functions, the better off you'll be. The second
one is it improves muscle strength, and this
is true. Staying active keeps muscles strong
in joints, tendons, and ligaments flexible, allowing
you to move around more easily and avoid injury
or accidentally hurting yourself. Strong muscles
and ligaments reduce your risk of joint and lower
back pain by keeping joints in proper alignment,
so you don't have to worry about dislocation.
They also improve coordination and balance. Exercise
can also help you maintain a healthy weight.
The more you exercise, the more calories you
burn. In addition, the more muscles you develop
and the higher your metabolic rate becomes, so
you can burn more calories easier when you're
even not exercising at all. The result, you may
lose weight and even look better physically,
which will boost your self -esteem, if that's
what your aim is. Not only that, but exercise
will also improve your brain functions, increase
blood flow and oxygen to the brain. It also encourages
the release of brain chemicals, hormones, and
otherwise that are responsible for the production
of cells in the haempochampus, in the part of
your brain that controls memory and learning.
This in turn boosts concentration levels and
cognitive abilities. And it helps reduce the
risk of cognitive dementia. degeneration diseases
such as Alzheimer's. Sorry about that. I know
these skills all too well and that exercise helps
with these as I'm one of those people that has
a very, very, very active mind and is basically
super active. I'm not ADHD, but I do a lot of
stuff in a short span of time and having a good
memory and a highly active reactive brain is
really, really good. There is overwhelming evidence
that people who lead active lifestyles are less
likely to suffer from illness and more likely
to live longer. And I can actually testify to
this being true. So, another thing that a lot
of people aren't sure of is, is exercise good
for your heart? And the answer is yes. It does
reduce LDL, cholesterol, the type that clogs
your arteries. It increases HDL, the good cholesterol,
and reduces blood pressure, so it lowers the
stress on your heart. Added to this, it also
straightens your heart muscle. Combined with
a healthy diet, exercise lowers the risk of developing
coronary heart disease as well. So you don't
have to worry about having a heart attack for
those who need it. Not the heart attack, exercise.
Regular exercise lowers your risk of developing
type 2 diabetes as well. It helps to control
the blood glucose levels, which helps to prevent...
or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. Also,
additional exercise helps to prevent obesity,
which is a primary factor in the development
of type 2 diabetes. And on that note, it also
helps improve your immune system. You know, your
body's ability to pump the oxygen and nutrients
around your body that is required to fuel the
cells to fight bacteria and viruses as well.
Keeping with the theme here of why exercise is
important, staying active also reduces the likelihood
of developing some degenerative bone diseases.
Weight -bearing exercise such as running, walking,
see, even walking, or weight training lowers
your risk of both osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
The adage of or, use it or lose it function,
basically, really does apply to your bones, okay?
Exercise may help to reduce the risk of certain
cancers. Not all of them, but a good some of
them. It has been proven that it does. And being
fit means that the risk of colon cancer, breast
cancer, and possibly, also possibly, the key
word here is possibly lung cancer, and endometrial
cancers are reduced. There have been studies
in the Seattle Cancer Research Center that have
suggested that 35 % of all cancer deaths are
linked to being just straight up overweight and
sedentary. And I'm going to be honest with you,
it kind of makes sense if you think about it.
If you're just going to sit there and do nothing
and you're constantly overweight and all you
do is eat, then, well, I'm not really surprised.
You know, I mean, you want someone to help you,
but you need to first learn to help yourself.
Okay? Now, for those who can't do that, I understand
you needing help. But for those who know better
but won't do it, well, all I can say is God help
you. Okay? And with that, I'll agree to disagree.
Exercise not only makes you physically fitter,
but it also improves your mental health and general
sense of well -being. So, in a sense, it's actually
good. Active people tend to sleep better also,
by the way. I'm one of those. I love myself a
good sleep, but sometimes it's hard to wake up
and you do need to. Physical activity makes you
more tired and the more... You're ready to sleep
the better and good quality sleep you have as
it helps improve overall wellness and can also
reduce the amount of stress. Exercise improves
your mood and gives you an improved sense of
well -being. Physical activities stimulate the
release of endorphins, which make you feel better
and more relaxed. These in turn improve your
mood and lower your stress levels. Not to mention,
exercise can also help prevent and treat mental
illnesses like depression. So I'd say physical
activities can help you meet people, reduce stress
levels, you know, cope with the frustration,
give you a sense of achievement and provide some
important me time, as some people describe it,
all in the same range of depleting depression
for those who have it. So with that, keeping
it fit can reduce some of the effects of aging
as well. So keep that in mind. So with that,
as you can see, exercise can be fun as well,
okay? Getting fit is not about running on a treadmill
for hours in your local gym. It can be a dance
class, a new hobby like fencing, mountain biking,
any kind of sport. I mean, it can be a group
or a team activity like football. Actually, I
don't really care for football. It's kind of
painful. It actually hurts your muscles rather
than helps you in the long run. But karate class
can also be a good one. Martial arts, try those.
Whatever form of exercise you choose, however,
you'll almost certainly meet new people and make
new friends. But then this also brings up the
question, how much should you exercise? Now there's
a question for you. Well, I'm going to go with
something I read from the American College of
Sports Medicine. And right now, according to
them, the current guidelines suggest that to
stay healthy, adults between 19 and 64 should
try to be active daily and follow selected recommendations
well i can live with that let's have a look at
what those recommendations are okay the first
one is cardio respiratory exercise that sounds
interesting the second one is resistance exercise
and the next one is moderate versus in vigorous
intensity these look very interesting and with
that i mean they all can all help you with your
exercise routines and make it a lot easier for
you to stay in the habit of doing it and you'll
feel good in the process. With the cardio respiratory
exercise that they have listed here, I actually
know what this one is, so I'm going to go ahead
and give you a brief overview. Obviously, the
first half cardio is anything that pertains to
your increase in heartbeat and breathing rates,
such as including walking, running, sleeping,
yes, sleeping, swimming, cycling, football, hockey,
basically sports or dancing. And with that, you
should at least get 150 minutes of moderate intensity
exercise per week with that recommendation. It
can be achieved through just 30 to 60 minute
intervals of moderate intensity exercise five
times a week or 20 to 60 minutes of vigorously
intensity exercise three times a week or just
a combination of both of those. One continuous
session combined with multiple shorter sessions
of at least 10 minutes is also acceptable for
those who know what I'm talking about. For those
starting out, I would recommend gradual progression
of exercise. Frequency and intensity is recommended.
But you are more likely to stay on track and
avoid injury if you just start off gently instead
of gunning for it full force. And even if you
can't reach these minimum targets, you can still
benefit from some activity whatsoever. You don't
have to go hardcore. This isn't an insanity workout,
okay? With that, I would not recommend that being
your starting point. Fair enough. Resistance
exercises. Hmm, let me think about this one for
a minute. It's concerned with working the body's
muscle groups and building strength. That's basically
all this is. It's recommended that adults train
each major muscle two or three days each week
using a variety of exercise and equipment. I
mean, this is basically stuff you can just find
in your local gym, in your apartment if you live
in one, or if you're on a university campus,
or, you know, you have a gym membership. or light
intensity resistance training is best for older
people, or previously sedentary adults new to
exercise as well. You know, two to four sets
of each exercise will help adults improve strength
and power. You know, and for each exercise, eight
to 12 repetitions improves your strength and
power. 10 to 15 improves strength in the middle
age and older person starting exercise, while
15 to 20 repetitions improves muscular endurance,
period, okay? And with that, I mean, it's recommended
that adults should wait at least 48 hours between
resistance training sessions because you can
actually damage your muscles, which does not
help you. You want them to rebuild themselves
when they are torn from the workout. And yes,
when you work out and build muscles, you tear
them and let your body rebuild them as well as
your joints as well. As they tear and be rebuilt.
uh constantly it makes them stronger and better
it's just like when a bone breaks it rebuilds
itself from a fracture if it's able to heal properly
stronger than it was before because the tissue
is newer now on to something else moderate versus
invigorous intensity now there are a number of
different ways to classify the intensity of any
exercise some are based on heart rate some are
perceived exertion and some are on how the exercise
affects your metabolic rate And generally speaking,
moderate intensity activity should raise your
heart rate, make you breathe faster, make you
feel warm enough to start to sweat. Whereas vigorous
intensity exercise will make you breathe hard,
increase your heart rate significantly, and make
you hot enough to sweat profusely and wish you
had a tank of water next to you. That is what
the insanity workout is. However, the other one
is more like your Taibo, Zumba, or... Pilates
classes that you take, whereas it's moderately
intensive but not super, super intensive. The
physical activity guidelines for America suggest
that the moderate intensity activities allow
you to talk about but not to sing, whereas more
vigorous activity results is an inability to
say more than a few words without pausing for
a breath. In other words, one makes you work
harder than the other. Examples of the moderate
intensity exercise would be brisk walking 100
steps a minute, dancing, swimming, aqua aerobics,
gentle cycling, badminton, double teams, tennis,
and volleyball. That's moderate intensity. However,
the vigorous intensity exercises includes things
such as running, power walking at 5 miles per
hour or more, or walking uphill very, very fast,
cycling faster than 10 miles an hour, if you
can even do that. uh aerobics martial arts competitive
sports such as football see that's why i told
you don't do that if you can't handle it skipping
rope even jumping rope and rowing a boat because
water is highly resistant although overall any
activity that you get uh gets you moving gets
your heart rate up and gives you enough pleasure
to do it regularly and often it is good for you
you know in almost any way and with that it makes
you feel uh satisfied so with that i say have
fun be healthy please be safe and feel good exercise
doesn't have to be a chore it can be something
that you actually enjoy enjoy the rest of your
day