Regular Exercise

A lot of studies have shown the benefits of exercise on nearly every aspect of our lives. Exercise can lower blood pressure, control weight,and lower cholesterol. It can help us stop smoking, control stress, and sleep better. It can boost our immune system to help us fight diseases.
It gives us strength and endurance. I can go on, and on, and on. In fact it is almost criminal, or it so it seems to our bodies, not to exercise. It would be hard to find anybody who doesn’t think exercise is good for them. Fortunately, more and more people are adding exercise to their
lifestyles. The bottom line: Exercise is good for you, and is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.
Now let’s consider some other aspects: exercise being complicated, and the money it takes to exercise.
Complications
We can discuss the different types of exercise: aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. We can talk about warm-ups, primary exercises, and cool-downs. We can talk about target heart rate. We can talk about target zones. We can talk about the training effect. Are these things
important? Sure, and if you are an exercise physiologist, you’d better know them. Do you need to know them to exercise? Absolutely not. In fact, if you try to figure out all these things, you might give up because you might think it is too complicated. So let’s make things less complicated. Exercise simply means doing an activity that increases the rate at which your body burns calories. Calories are the bundles of energy that your body needs to do all the things it does to stay alive. We get calories from the foods we eat. If you think of exercise as increasing your body’s activity level, then constantly doing the things that increase your activity level will give you the benefits of exercise.
The Cost of Exercise
A lot of people think that to exercise, they have to join a gym, buy fancy exercise equipment, have a personal trainer, or be involved in an exercise program. If you can afford all these things, great. But you do not need to spend a dime to have an exercise program. Got an old pair
of sneakers? There are a lot of activities you can choose from the list on pages 19–21. If you need a program or someone to help you with your exercise, join an exercise group or start one in your neighborhood. You can also join less expensive clubs like the YMCA.