Despite the fact that we have all heard of exercise and its importance, not more than 30% of Nigerians and the world at large practice it. Exercise is one of the most vital thing our body needs to function properly. Research suggests that the reason why the life span of an adult nowadays is reduced to that of our ancestors is because we hardly take part in any exercise which gives room for various illnesses and apart from that, we are in a rest or more relaxed state in which almost everything we do is aided or done by a machine; like cars for traveling instead of walking in the pre-colonial era, proximity of borehole or water supply, instead of walking kilometers just to get a bucket of water in the olden days etcetera.

So what is exercise? Experts define Exercise as any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. And I give a simple definition that exercise is anything we do that involves energy and upgrade our wellbeing such as walking, running, cycling, weight lifting, and even eating!

There are three kinds of exercise,

Flexibility exercise:
which involves stretching and it improves range of motion like twisting and skiing.

Aerobic exercise:
which involves oxygen and it builds our hearts, immune system and increases speed and accuracy, like swimming and running.

The last is

Anaerobic exercise:
which doesn’t involve oxygen and helps to build our muscle, body shape, stamina, strength and increases endurance level like weight lifting.

I would not want to bore us with some weight terms and researches like J-curve, rhadomyolysis, cognitive enrichment and other jargons like that, after all we are not writing an exam on this.

Now unto the most interesting part which is the advantages of doing exercises. Now I must confess that I hardly do any exercise until I came across the benefits of doing it. Here is a brief list

– It makes you look younger, better and even healthier,

– Boosts your mood, confidence and self esteem,

– It controls your weight and prevent excess fat gain,

– It combats body diseases, heart diseases and even reduces cardiovascular diseases too,

– It reduces the chance of suffering from type 2 diabetes especially those of us that loves sugary things, it also reduces stroke, early death, dementia, depression etcetera,

– It also improves your sex life because you have amassed a reasonable amount of energy and fitness,

– Reduces rate of breast cancer and other forms of cancer,
– Builds our muscles, tissues and aids firm bone attachment,

– It also maintains our internal environment (homeostasis ) and improves the immune system,
– Improves athletic skills
strengthen

and all in all, it is free, fun and most easy to perform.

No wonder health experts call it the miracle cure and some even went further to say if exercise is a pill, it would be one of the most expensive drug!

In conclusion, you have read and sometimes seen the importance of exercise, so I asked wouldn’t you rather do your body more good than harm?

Feel free to share your opinions.
http://mindfido.com/2016/01/15/exercise-the-miracle-healer/