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Here are some of the benefits of exercise:
- Improve or maintain your physical health
- Relieve anxiety
- Increase your energy
- Improve concentration levels
- Build up strength
- Improve your muscle tone
- Improve your circulation
- Develop breath capabilities
- Weight control and improve
your digestive health
- Enjoy social interaction with others
- Prepare for an upcoming athletic event
- Helps you sleep
- Helps protect your body against injuries and illnesses
- Protect your bones
- Increases your flexibility
- Increases your endurance, giving you more energy
- Promotes better posture
- Improve your body image
- Increases your coordination, agility, balance, and speed
Further information
- Exercise is essential for weight control.
Extra good news: exercise increases your metabolic rate, and your metabolic
rate tends to stay up even after you stop exercising. So you go on burning
more calories than usual for hours after you’ve finished your workout!
- In some cases, exercise improves insulin sensitivity in
your body. After several months of exercise you may, in some cases, be able
to reduce the amount of insulin or oral medication you take. (In many cases,
type 2 diabetes can be controlled by diet and exercise alone.)
- Aerobic exercise reduces your risk of dozens of ailments,
especially heart and coronary artery disease.
- Working out with weights helps you build lean muscle mass,
which is metabolically active and sensitive to insulin. (Fat is inactive and
less sensitive to insulin.) That’s why athletes with diabetes generally
require lower doses of insulin -- they have more muscle and less fat. Weight
training also builds your strength and can help protect you from
osteoporosis by increasing your bone mineral density.
- Exercise is a powerful anti-depressant. Recent studies show
that exercise may be as effective as medication in fighting depression —
and easier to stick with for the long run.
- Exercise increases your over-all sense of well-being. When
you exercise, nerve cells in your brain release natural pain-killing
chemicals called “endorphins”. And endorphins are very good for you.
Studies conducted over the last 20 years show that endorphins give you an
increased sense of well being, a decrease in anxiety, increased ability to
cope with stress, an increased tolerance for pain — and they strengthen
your immune system.
- Exercise improves your self-confidence and self-esteem.
If you’re already exercising, keep it up!
You’re absolutely doing the right thing. If not, check with your doctor. And
then get moving!
Nutrition Tips
Everybody knows that you need to eat the
right things if you want to stay healthy and fit. But what are the "right
things"? What does your body need in order to help you stay active?
One important answer is glucose.
Glucose is the fuel your body needs, especially at the beginning of exercise.
Even after you've been exercising for a while and your muscles are getting
energy from fat, glucose is still important. It's like gasoline for your body -
so keep your gas tank full.
Where do you get glucose? You get it
from carbohydrates. Maintain a well-balanced diet and choose lots of fruit and
vegetables to go with your grains (pasta, rice, bread, cereal). And remember to
eat the right things at the right times - food takes time to digest.
Water is another part of eating
healthy. You need water to keep the nutrients circulating in your body and to
clear out the waste. And you sweat off a lot of water when you exercise (even if
you're swimming). You can get your water from milk, juice,
sports drinks - or plain old water.
Here's what to eat and drink before,
during and after exercise:
More than 3 hours
before exercising
- Eat a regular meal if you want, since you'll have enough
time to digest. Balance a serving of lean meat with a good amount of
carbohydrates - rice, spaghetti or bread - plus fruit and vegetables and
water, milk or juice.
- Drink regular amounts of fluid - a glass or two every hour.
Just before exercising
- Stick with light, easy-to-digest snacks. Go for fruits and
fruit snacks, perhaps with a few light carbohydrates (graham crackers,
cereal, a muffin).
- Keep yourself well hydrated so you'll have enough water
circulating in your system (but not so much that you feel overfull or will
have to keep stopping for restroom breaks).
- If your legs cramp, try drinking plenty of water before
exercising or 30 minutes before class drink a glass of tonic water.
During exercise
- Drink an average of a cup of liquid every 15 to 20 minutes.
- Water will be fine for short exercise periods, especially
if you've eaten enough in advance. For exercise lasting more than an hour,
you may want to keep your energy up with sports drinks or juice mixed with
water.
After exercising
- If you will be exercising again in the next 24 hours, eat
some carbohydrate-rich foods within a half hour of your workout.
- If you will be exercising again in a day or two, make sure
to keep lots of carbohydrates in your diet to keep your glucose gas tank
full.
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