ARTICLE No.

Why is Exercise
Important?
Studying Exercise
If you don't exercise, your muscles will become
flabby and weak. Your heart and lungs won't
function efficiently. And your joints will be stiff and
easily injured. Inactivity is as much of a health risk
as smoking!

Helps Prevent Diseases

Our bodies were meant to move -- they actually
crave exercise. Regular exercise is necessary for
physical fitness and good health. It reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure,
diabetes and other diseases. It can improve your appearance and delay the aging process.

Improves Stamina
When you exercise, your body uses energy to keep going. Aerobic exercise involves continuous
and rhythmic physical motion, such as walking and bicycling. It improves your stamina by
training your body to become more efficient and use less energy for the same amount of work.
As your conditioning level improves, your heart rate and breathing rate return to resting levels
much sooner from strenuous activity.

Strengthens and Tones

Exercising with weights and other forms of resistance training develops your muscles, bones and
ligaments for increased strength and endurance. Your posture can be improved, and your muscles
become more firm and toned. You not only feel better, but you look better, too!

Enhances Flexibility
Stretching exercises are also important for good posture. They keep your body limber so that you
can bend, reach and twist. Improving your flexibility through exercise reduces the chance of
injury and improves balance and coordination. If you have stiff, tense areas, such as the upper
back or neck, performing specific stretches can help "loosen" those muscles, helping you feel
more relaxed.

Controls Weight
Exercise is also a key to weight control because it burns calories. If you burn off more calories
than you take in, you lose weight. It's as simple as that.!

Improves Quality of Life

Once you begin to exercise regularly, you will discover many more reasons why exercise is so
important to improving the quality of your life. Exercise reduces stress, lifts moods, and helps
you sleep better. It can keep you looking and feeling younger throughout your entire life.

How Often Should I Exercise?

The benefits of any exercise program will diminish if it's disrupted too frequently. A "stop-start"
routine is not only ineffective, but can cause injuries. Being consistent with exercise, therefore, is
probably the most important factor in achieving desired results.
People often assume that more is better. Wrong! Doing too much too soon or performing intense
exercises on a daily basis will have deleterious effects, such as muscle/tendon strains, loss of lean
tissue, and fitness-level plateaus.

Cardio
If you are a beginner, start off slower than you think you should. Three days per week is realistic,
safe and effective. If you are experienced, do cardiovascular (aerobic) exercises such as walking,
jogging and bicycling for no more than 200 minutes per week with no more than 60 minutes per
session.
Lifting Weights
Weight training should be done no more than three times per week targeting the same muscle
groups. Exercise the same muscle groups on non-consecutive days because muscles need
adequate time to recover and cannot be effectively trained if they are tired or sore.
Stretching
Many people forget to stretch or make the excuse that they don't have the time. Flexibility is
important, so make the time! Stretching can be done every day, but stick to a minimum of three
times per week in order to reap the benefits. When the body is warmed up, such as after a
workout session, perform five to 10 stretches that target the major muscle groups. Hold each
stretch for 10-30 seconds.

Article prescribed by:

Armand Tecco, M.Ed.
Armand Tecco is certified as a health/fitness instructor by the American College of Sports
Medicine and as strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength & Conditioning...
ARTICLE NO. 1

Summary
Exercise is really important in improving and maintaining physical fitness and health. If a
person doesn’t exercise there is a possibility that his/her muscles, will be weak and his/her heart
and lungs will not function efficiently. And it is said that, “Inactivity is as much of a health risk
as smoking”.
There are many benefits of exercise. As stated by Armand Tecco, M.Ed., there are 6 main
benefits of it. First, it can help Prevent Diseases, through exercise the risk of having heart
diseases, cancer, diabetes and other diseases will be prevented and this can also make a person
looks younger because it delays aging process. Second, Improves Stamina, exercising is done in
order to train our body to become more effective and productive and also to train our body to do
heavy works using less energy. Third, It Strengthens and Tones, getting engaged in different
particularly muscle-strengthening activities can increase strength and endurance of the muscles,
bones and ligaments. Fourth, Enhances Flexibility, stretching activities serves an important role,
it keeps one’s body to limber so that they can bend, reach and twist. Also it helps to improve
balance and coordination. Fifth, Controls Weight, exercising really burns calories. The more you
burn calories than you take in, the more you lose weight. And Lastly, Improves Quality of Life,
Making even small changes to your diet can have a big impact on your mood, energy levels and
quality of sleep, making it more likely that you’ll feel like keeping up a regular exercise
program. Forming healthy habits is less about looking at the big picture than it is about making
small, positive changes consistently. From the moment that you first wake up each morning until
your head hits the pillow at night, you spend the day making hundreds of small decisions about
food and exercise that cumulatively have a big impact on your well being.
These benefits will be disregarded and ineffective if exercise is a “stop-start” routine.
Exercise must be a habit and must be done properly and appropriately. There is a process to be
followed, get loose of the perception that “the more, the better” because it is not right this can
lead you to deleterious effect such as strains and fitness-level plateaus. In Cardio, if you are a
beginner, starts off slower than you think you should. In Lifting Weights, Weight training should
be done no more than three times per week targeting the same muscle groups. And in Stretching,
Stretching can be done every day, but stick to a minimum of three times per week in order to
reap the benefits.
Start exercising and keep going for better lifestyle!
ARTICLE NO. 1

Reflection
In this article, I learned how important exercise is, in improving and maintaining our body
physically fit and healthy. According to the article, if one person does not exercise there’s a
tendency that his/her muscles, will be weak and his/her heart and lungs will not function
efficiently. And it is been stated that not exercising is as risky as smoking.
After reading this article, I was able to know the 6 benefits of exercising. Well doing
exercise can help prevent diseases like heart failures and diabetes. It improves stamina; by
exercising, our body will become more efficient and can use the less energy for the same amount
of work, we will be able to do heavy works/tasks. Exercising Strengthens and Tones, it develops
muscles, bones and ligaments, it helps them to become stronger and maintain high endurance. It
enhances flexibility, it will help our body to bend, reach and twist easily. It also controls weight,
getting engaged into exercising can burn calories, the more you burn calories than you intake the
more you lose weight. And Improves Quality of Life, making small changes can have a big
impact on our lifestyle and can really change our mood; it will make use physically fit and
healthy.
Exercising does plays an important role in our lives, without exercising our body is weak
and prone to any diseases and this can also put our lives to risks.
Our body is our temple so we better take care of it. Maintain our body physically fit and
healthy!