Fitness – What Is Fitness?
Aristotle helped define the criteria of fitness 2, 500 years ago when he explained that a thing that suits its function well is fit. Luckily for us, the cardiovascular system, lungs, skeleton, muscles, endocrine system and all of the other astounding parts of your body function for our purpose: to stay well.
Working out aids fitness in a number of ways, each one involving one or more of those systems.
Raised physical activity causes the heart to work harder than at rest. That increases blood flow, floods tissues with fresh oxygen and eliminates cellular waste products.
Exercise leads to the lungs to draw in additional oxygen to bathe the tissues and aid power the heart. Exhalation removes carbon dioxide, a waste product of many biochemical reactions.
Repeated, moderate workouts helps increase HDL(High- Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol(the 'good' type) . It helps regulate blood sugar levels and converts stored fat into sugars which are used to give energy. This process also prevents fatness.
The other benefits of a consistent fitness program are much more obvious and usually among the more direct goals of most people that make the effort: bigger muscle mass, toned legs, bum, arms, abdomen and healthier appearing skin. Along the way, the individual receives the added value of more strength, improved balance, increased staying power and(often) a improved frame of mind.
Different types of routines will emphasize one location over another. Aerobic routines assist the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, weight lifting focuses on developing muscle tone and mass, yoga and pilates helps balance, flexibility and muscular control. But each of these, and several more, help more than just the intended focus group. The body is an integrated system and improving one area almost always has beneficial outcomes for others.
All those gains, at the least to a moderate extent, will be had for minimal day-by-day effort. Moderate intensity activity for 30 minutes each day, a minimum of 5 days a week, will go a long way toward optimizing health and fitness.
A brisk stroll, taking the stairs up a few flights, a quick regular jog, jumping rope and many other elementary activities can be accomplished with no special equipment or training.
More intense activity, done properly, can increase that level even more. A energetic tennis game, several laps in the swimming pool, an hour on the treadmill or exercise cycle, or any of a dozen others, can boost your fitness to a level with only a small commitment of money and time.
For the really committed there are, naturally, a thousand and one classes at the gymnasium, and every conceivable kind of home health and fitness equipment to fit a variety of budgets. A daily regime using free weights, followed by a good jog round the park will maintain all systems working perfectly.
Therefore, as Aristotle explained all those years in the past, to function well is to live well.
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