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The Power of Regular Activity

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What if we told you that you have the power to add years to your life span, perform daily activities easier or prevent disease and sickness?

The truth is we all have this power and it can all be accomplished through consistent, regular physical activity!

This can be planned exercise or any activity really that requires you to expend energy.

The power of regular movement, be it planned exercise or not, has many proven positive benefits. The more consistent the physical activity is, the greater the potential benefits.

Here is a brief list of what you can expect to achieve by introducing regular physical activity and movement into your lifestyle:

  • Lower blood pressure
  • Lower blood sugar
  • Improve cholesterol
  • Reduce your risk of heart disease
  • Reduce your risk of diabetes
  • Lose weight
  • Gain strength
  • Improve bone density
  • Improve range of motion
  • Stronger joints
  • Improve joint conditions (eg. arthritis)
  • Help with depression
  • Improve sleep
  • Increase longevity
  • Perform daily activities better/easier
  • Maintain independence
  • Reduce risk of some types of cancer
  • Improve cognitive abilities

This list could go on and on.

The human body was meant to work. Today we sit more then ever in the history of our existence so building regular physical activity and exercise into your life has become a necessity. The more we move and challenge our bodies, the more fit we become, the more efficient and effective we are and of course the healthier we are. So, get moving!

Are We Making Things Too Complicated?

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Over the weekend I attended the Can Fit Pro 2019 Conference in Toronto. Here are a few of the takeaways:

  • Over 70% of our population is considered overweight or obese
  • 19% of the population has a gym membership
  • The average person consumes about 66lbs of added sugar per year
  • Sugar sweetened beverages are the main culprit when it comes to added sugar consumption, making up 47% of sugar intake. Next is sweets and snacks at 31% of sugar intake.
  • People who consume 2 or more sugar sweetened beverages per day have a 31% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease and each additional sugar sweetened beverage increased risk another 10%

None of these statistics is really that surprising. We all know that as a population our health is declining and just by looking at this data we can attribute it to not being active enough and consuming too much sugar.

Look at how much of an impact just switching out sugar sweetened beverages for water can have on your health. For the average person that would cut sugar consumption in half!

Another observation I had while walking around the expo was that it seemed to me like everything new coming out in fitness is mostly made towards the already fit. For someone who was new to fitness, most of these gadgets are completely intimidating. It was intimidating for me and I have been around fitness my whole life! Maybe 80% of the population doesn’t exercise regularly because we have scared them off making health and fitness seem complicated with all of these machines, gadgets and electronics.

Let’s keep it simple.

  1. Get your heart rate up with some movement daily. Go for a walk, bike ride or some chores around the house. Make it a goal to move more then you sit.
  2. Eat well. Eat real food that is not processed as much as possible and keep portion sizes in check.
  3. Lift heavy weights 2 or 3 days a week.

Do those 3 things consistently and you have all the tools you need to be healthy.

No need to make it complicated!

The Sitting Disease

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This article is kind of a continuation of the article I wrote several weeks ago about trying not to take the easy way all of the time and being more mindful of your activity level or lack thereof.

The other day, I was commissioned by my siblings to take my mom to a doctor’s appointment in St. Catharines. So that morning I not only took her to the appointment in St. Catharines, but on our return to Port Colborne, we stopped to do her blood work downtown. As I was standing in the waiting room waiting for her to have her blood drawn, I realized that from 8am when I left my house to 10:30am, if I didn’t have the mindset that I have about sitting and doing nothing, I would have spent two hours and fifteen minutes of the two hours and thirty minutes that morning sitting down, right after a seven hour sleep, and it was only 10:30am!

These thoughts, strange as it may seem, are the kind of thoughts that go through my head constantly. The only time I sat down that morning was in the car driving. Otherwise, I was standing. I was standing in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, standing in the doctor’s examination room and standing in the waiting room at the Life Labs Clinic.

Typically, most people who are not mindful of their activity level would be seated most of the morning of a day like that.

If I attend a long conference or meeting, I typically don’t sit down until the event actually starts, but rather I stand behind my chair until I have to sit down. If I find myself on a bus and someone is looking for a seat and there isn’t one, I would be the first to offer mine. I would much rather stand than sit where most people would rather sit than stand. It’s all in your mindset. Just because there are chairs in a room or on a bus, doesn’t necessarily mean you have to sit. There were plenty of empty chairs for me to sit down in that morning, but I chose to stand.

Research has shown that lack of activity……”the sitting disease” they refer to it now, is just as detrimental to your health as smoking! Yes, it’s true! So don’t sit, don’t smoke either, and certainly don’t sit and smoke!

Something to think about.

Gino

Is Exercise Really That Important? Really?

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Seeing how this is my 100th article, I guess I’d better make it a good one, so here it goes. I’m certain that everyone by now has heard that exercise should be a regular part of your weekly routine and why. Researchers have proof of how important it is because of what it does for your body systems and thus have been advocates of exercise for quite a while now.

Once you hear these things, you likely don’t want to hear them over and over again, so I won’t bore you with those, but, as researchers continue to do what they do best, they’ve actually come up with more and different reasons why regular exercise is so extremely important today more than ever before. These are fairly recent so I doubt you haven’t heard these ones before. So, without further a due, here they are:

These newly discovered benefits of exercise listed here are the result of legitimate, extensive, long term and documented research, some of which may get a bid technical, sorry.

1. People who continue to exercise well into their ripe old age live longer and stay healthier than those who stop moving and allow their muscles to waste away.

2. Exercise is a hermetic stressor (limited stress placed on your body to make yourself stronger). Therefore, exercise stimulates autophagy (the recycling of old, worn out cellular components, and a similar process called unfolded protein response (UPR). In the case of UPR, the cell degrades dysfunctional (misfolded) proteins, restoring the health of the cell. Rejuvenating the cells helps keep you young.

3. Regular exercise dramatically reduces your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. A study from 2018 showed that women who were physically fit at middle age were a whopping 90% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease even decades later.

4. Another study examined the effects of exercise on patients with early stage Alzheimer’s and found that it improved memory performance and even reduced atrophy of the hippocampus, the memory centers of the brain.

5. Exercise that uses the legs in particular stimulates brain cells keeping you alert and healthy into old age.

6. Exercise has a powerful effect on the immune system. This means that exercise causes you to produce more of the enzymes that support cellular and mitochondrial function.

7. Exercise helps prevent heart disease which can be attributed to its effects on your gut biome.

8. Exercise increases gut bacteria richness and diversity.

9. A recent report from the Harvard Medical School stated that for some adults struggling with depression, regular exercise works as well as prescription antidepressants.

See you at the gym!