PHYSICAL EXERCISE IS THE PERFORMANCE of an activity to promote and improve health and fitness. Exercise improves the overall quality of life. It affects mood and mental state, physical appearance and performance, and brain activity.
We engage in exercise for psychological reasons: to feel good about ourselves and have more confidence so that we can get things done and pursue other things in life that are worth enjoying (an activity, going out, taking a trip, etc.).
We also engage in exercise for physiological and neurological reasons: to change physical appearance and increase functional ability (i.e., strength, muscle, endurance, coordination, flexibility) and to improve brain activity (i.e., cognition, focus, memory).
The benefits of exercise are incommensurable to any prescription, recreational drug, supplement or therapy can offer. Exercise contributes to positive thinking, increases confidence, metabolism, bone density, cardiovascular health, energy, and hormones. Exercise decreases anxiety, improves sleep and digestion, slows down the aging process, releases endorphins into the brain that reduce pain as a natural opiate, and boost the feeling of well-being.
Studies show that exercise can improve mental function and performance by reorganizing and restructuring brain activity called neuroplasticity. Plasticity is creating new neurosynaptic connections by sending new and repeated signals to the brain, such as learning a new physical ability like an exercise or developing the motor-skill of mastering an exercise to perform at an optimal level. This repetitive action can “physically change” brain activity because of the continued firing of learning new neurosynaptic pathways.
Summary of Exercise Benefits
Improves the overall quality of life
Creates a positive mood and mental state
Produces positive changes in physical appearance
Boosts self-confidence and the feeling of well-being
Increases the body’s functional ability and performance
Increases metabolism, bone density, cardiovascular health, energy, and hormones
Decreases anxiety and improves sleep and digestion
Reduces pain by releasing endorphins
Slows down the aging process
Improves brain activity by creating new neurosynaptic connections
Increases mental function and performance
No question about it. Sensible exercise is good for everyone. Yet, while we know it’s in our best interest to exercise regularly we find it too easy not to exercise.
Many people sacrifice their health for family, for friends, for a job, for wealth, or their happiness for these things, but do not put health as a priority to be rich. Good health gives us more time to enjoy life with the ones we love, travel more, build wealth and pursue the finer things in life. Healthy people often have long life expectancies, which give their investments time to grow. Good health is the least expensive investment we can give ourselves.
Physical exercise is a vital element of a healthy lifestyle. A sensible, balanced and consistent exercise program is good for the body. Movement is what we were meant to do. To meet the demands of life one needs to exercise their heart, lungs, muscles, bones, and joints to stay strong and healthy. We live, move and have our wellness through regular physical exercise.
Wake-Up Call
The Information Age in which we live, along with its technological advances, has caused a decrease in physical exercise. It has made us move less, eat more food, and expend less energy. The creation of online social platforms has exacerbated the problem. In the last 20 years healthcare costs have more than quadrupled due to a sedentary lifestyle with a lack of physical exercise in the United States.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), physical inactivity currently costs the United States $117 billion annually. Statistics show that is costs much less to stay healthy and physically fit that it does to treat health ailments as a consequence of not living a healthy lifestyle.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) reports that diabetes and depression are highly prevalent in the United States. They are associated with increased mortality, lost work productivity, increased disability, decreased quality of life, and increased healthcare costs.
Five Groups of People
According to a report by the CDC, 74% American adults over 20 years old are overweight and obese and, therefore, disconnected from exercise. The CDC also reported that 23% of American adults occasionally participate in physical exercise 60 minutes four times per week. It seems logical to conclude that the remaining 3% of American adults involve themselves in physical exercise 60-90 minutes five to seven days a week.
But this doesn’t mean that 3% are engaged in physical exercise. Direct observation and statistical probability can predict that 2% are withdrawn from exercising for reasons about looking good to others or because of relative ignorance to exercising by going through the motions. It is relevant to presume that the remaining 1% are immersed in exercising for reasons to get healthy and fit.
From the stats above, we derive five groups of people:
Group 1: Disconnected from Exercise - 74%
Group 2: Participates of Exercise - 23%
Group 3: Withdrawn from Exercise - 1%
Group 4: Ignorant to Exercise - 1%
Group 5: Immersed in Exercise - 1%
Exercise is Quality Over Quantity
What does it mean to exercise? The most basic definition of exercise is carrying out an activity requiring “physical effort” to sustain or improve health and fitness. Physical effort includes training intensity of which proper form is observed with the right amount of stress that stimulates the muscles and heart, which invariably can lead to a series of body transformations. It’s quality (how well you exercise in relation to your goal) over quantity (how much weight you use and how often and how long you exercise). The physical effort in exercise is only one aspect in the transformation equation. The other two aspects include nutrition and recovery.
Only group 5 can make the highest claim to exercise and, therefore, have the highest success rate of achieving a complete body transformation since they are immersed in all aspects of the transformation equation with sustainable action. It is reasonable to say that groups 1 thru 4 cannot make the claim to exercise, and if they do, only a lesser success rate.
Group 1 is disconnected from exercise. Group 2 doesn’t exercise enough. Group 3 exercises for reasons other than to get healthy and fit. And Group 4 exercises out of ignorance by going through the motions. Which group do you find yourself in? And why?
Transform Your Body
Most people fall into groups 2, 3, and 4, which make up 25% of people who are unsuccessful in achieving a complete body transformation for the reasons given above. If you find yourself in these groups, then you are in the contemplative stage of behavior change and need to re-wire your mind for a process of a transformation.
Re-Wire Your Brain
The first three sequential pictures above or to the right illustrate my 8-week and 14-week transformations, respectively. The last picture in the sequence illustrates my complete one-year transformation from a fat 200 pounds to a fit 180 pounds at 57-years-old.