...Home > Sports & Fitness > Aerobic exercise: the health benefits Aerobic exercise: the health benefits ‘Aerobic’ exercise refers to exercise that requires the consumption of substantially more oxygen than at rest. It is of a light to moderate intensity, and can be undertaken for a prolonged duration (many minutes to several hours) without excessive fatigue. Examples of aerobic exercise include walking, jogging, swimming or cycling at a steady pace. Another example would be dancing or ‘aerobics’ classes. Regular exercise causes your body to make adjustments that result in improved health and physical functioning. Continuing with regular exercise enables your body to maintain these benefits. Regularly doing the right types of exercise at the correct intensity, and for an appropriate duration, results in the most benefit. The benefits of aerobic exercise can be broadly categorised as either ‘fitness’ (physical capacity) or ‘health’. Fitness and health are linked, and most forms of aerobic exercise will help you achieve both. Fitness — including increased cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance (stamina) Regular aerobic exercise improves your cardiovascular fitness by increasing your capacity to use oxygen. It does this by increasing your heart’s capacity to send blood (and hence oxygen) to the muscles. This is mainly achieved through an increase in the size of the heart’s pumping chambers (ventricles), which means that your heart doesn’t have to beat as fast to deliver...
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...for their need to improve these problems. Aerobics is a better form of exercise than weight training because it’s better for your heart, improves your mood, and helps you lose weight. Aerobics is a form of physical condition that increases the ability for your body to intake oxygen. This will stimulate the cardiovascular system, which will help to reduce fat, make blood pressure decrease, and make a reduction in stress (Britannica, 2013). To optimize longevity, nothing compares to cardio activity. Although strength training can help to prevent individuals to gain intra-abdominal fat, aerobic activity has many more health advantages (Women’s Health, 2012). When doing an aerobic exercise, it will make a person’s lungs process oxygen without having to work as hard. In doing this it will help your heart to pump more blood without beating as fast, causing a decreased heart rate (Fit & health, 2011). Aerobic exercise is also known to lower the risk of heart disease. Researchers are beginning to understand why the effect of aerobics helps the cardiovascular health. The studies they have conducted have shown that exercise can decrease inflammation; this reduces a fatty build up in the arteries, which is the cause of a lot of the cases of heart disease (Science Daily, 2007). In a two year study at Harvard in 1998, doing 30 minutes or more of weight training only reduced the risk of heart attack, while the study showed that aerobic activity had a 42% reduction (About.com, 2010)...
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...Name Institutional Affiliation Unhealthy Behavior: Not hitting the gym for aerobics Group Members: Three close friends Goals: Attend daily aerobics classes per week Baseline data: Aerobics is a form of physical exercise offered in gymnasiums and combines rhythmic exercises with stretching to improve cardio-vascular fitness, flexibility, and muscular strength and more importantly reduces predisposition to illnesses (Hales, 2008). With knowledge of these benefits, I and my friends registered for aerobics classes for daily exercising. However, my friends were found to be less active and skipped some classes. Instead of the usual daily one-hour-classes per week, two of my friends went for the aerobics for one per week and sometimes left the class after thirty minutes of exercise. The other third friend is more consistent than the other two and attends aerobics classes for three to four days in a week. The two friends who attend an average of one lesson per week argued that course work took much of their time hence could not attend the aerobics class. They argued that they would not attend aerobic classes even after finishing class work since they were too tired, thus attended the aerobics lessons only when they had no class work, but even then, they would rush out whenever they felt tired. However, they were aware of the benefits that are associated with aerobics. The other friend who attended aerobics classes for an average of three to four classes per week argued that extreme...
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...Background Information Exercise and physical activity has shown to be a significant factor in the management and treatment of diabetes. What is unknown is how benefits from physical activity directly correlate to glucose control as manifested in low glucosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in diabetic people. The study aims to prove that the decrease in HbA1c is a result of greater aerobic fitness and strength in patients that are performing aerobic or anaerobic exercise. Secondly, it is related to the changes in strength and aerobic fitness that are performing cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. Review of Literature The purpose of the article is to assess the correlation of reduced HbA1c to physical activity. It is hypothesized that this reduction is related to the changes and increase in aerobic fitness and strength in diabetic people who are engaged in aerobic and anaerobic exercise. The result from the study showed that the link between the changes in glucose control during exercise training is not that high nevertheless; physical activity offers health benefits to diabetic patients. Methodology The study used experimental method by randomized controlled trial. Random sampling of 251 patients between 39-70 years old with type 2 diabetes mellitus that were previously sedentary was allocated aerobic, resistance, or aerobic plus resistance, or to a control group that was sedentary. The participants were evaluated prior to...
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...Major Depressive Disorder and the Treatment of Aerobic Exercise Therapy Melissa Young Abnormal Psychology SUNY Geneseo 9/20/10 The article “Exercise Treatment for Major Depression: Maintenance of Therapeutic Benefit at 10 Months” is based on a study from the year 2000, of two different treatment methods in regards to Major Depressive Disorder(MDD). This study (the Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term Exercise, or SMILE study), follows both aerobic exercise therapy and sertraline(Medicated) therapy. This longitudinal experiment was conducted with the possibility to develop a practical application to the present and future treatment of MDD. According to the article; “Aerobic exercise has been prescribed for the treatment of a wide range of medical disorders”, and “exercise may have a number of psychological benefits(p.633).” Given this positive outlook on exercise in the medical and psychological world, it is presumed that the exercise treatment will show positive results in this experiment. Researching more about exercise therapy could open up possible doors for the present and future world of treatment for mental disorders. In the SMILE study, 156 adult volunteers aged 50 and older, with MDD were randomly selected to participate in three different treatment groups. The three treatment groups included aerobic exercise therapy, sertraline therapy, and a combination of both exercise and medication. The independent variable was the different methods of treatment...
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... Today I will talk about what IT is, some of the great benefits and finally, how to get started, in hopes that you will want to try IT as part of your fitness plan and healthy lifestyle or at least arouse your curiosity about this training method. TOPIC 1: What is Interval Training? Interval training has been shown to be THE most effective cardiovascular training method for improving cardiovascular endurance, sport-specific performance, boosting metabolic rate, and best of all, burning fat! It is a form of cardio-respiratory Training involving a combination of high intensity work and low intensity work OR rest in repeated successions. In other words, a high intensity activity is followed by a low intensity one, or by rest, allowing the body to recover its energy systems faster for the next high intensity activity. This also allows the body to…. TOPIC 2: Benefits of Interval Training Interval training is awesome for fat burning and aerobic conditioning but let’s have a look at 3 more benefits and reasons to use interval training for your cardio workouts. (1) IT Has a wide variety of programs and methods. Because of its versatility, IT offers 1000s of different program variations. This is especially great for those looking for variety and change. Almost all aerobic exercises can be used just by adjusting training intensity. This allows a wide selection of choices from running to swimming, from sprinting to aerobic gym equipments like treadmills or bicycles. (2) Interval...
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...equation; glucose → lactic acid + energy released. This is when your muscles need to create energy quickly, so in order for this to happen, glucose is broke down to for lactic acid and the release of energy. A lot of ATP is produced at a fast rate. Aerobic System – This is the long duration energy system. The aerobic system produces a lot more ATP than either of the other energy systems however it produces the ATP much more slowly which is why the aerobic system helps in long distance races (such as the 10,000m) as the energy is produced at a slow constant rate. Rowers would also use this system because they would not want all their energy used up at once because their body needs to consistently perform in order to last the whole race. Phosphocreatine System – this is also known as the Phosphagen system. This releases energy at a high rate. The CP...
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...The Effect of Acute and Chronic Exercise on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression March 8, 2015 Abstract Mental health is a severe problem in our society today, approximately 61.5 million of the Americans experience mental illness in each given year (NAMI, 2013). The main goal of this paper is to provide answers on how physical activity can replace anti-anxiety and depression drugs. To solve this question numerous research articles were examined by looking at how both acute and chronic bouts of aerobic and anaerobic exercise correlated with mental health aspects such as stress, depression, and anxiety. The findings showed that almost all types of exercise showed the capability of being able to improve mental health significantly. Thus, it is possible for physical activity to become a replacement for drugs being administered to the general population today, which allows people to treat their mental illness without the adverse side effects, which accompany drugs. This is supported by multiple studies done that compared physical exercise and drugs as treatments for mental disorders. All the studies support the claim that physical activity could be used as a replacement for drugs in treating mental illness. Introduction Mental health illness is a severe issue affecting a significant portion of Americans every day. Serious mental illnesses have been reported to cost America $193.2 Billion in lost earning per year (NAMI, 2013). Specifically, 14.8 million people are reported to...
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...Persistent low-grade inflammation has been identified as a significant contributor to the development of several chronic diseases, (Niklas et al, 2005) including heart disease and type II diabetes (Woods et al, 2009). Inflammation is indicated by an increased concentration of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-Reactive protein (CRP) in the bloodstream (Niklas et al, 2005). This elevation may be due to a number of factors, including increased visceral adipose tissue secreting cytokines (Niklas et al, 2005), decreased circulatory levels of interleukin-10 (IL-10), and elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. (4) This essays aims to show the role that exercise can play in reducing inflammation, and will examine this effect in an obese, type II diabetic population. This reduced inflammation will be looked at in terms of three different mechanisms; the first is a reduction of visceral fat from exercise, leading to a decrease in adipokine secretion, the second is the increased release of anti-inflammatory cytokines from skeletal muscle contraction, and the third is the release of adrenal hormones, leading to a release of anti-inflammatory catecholamines. Inflammation can be acute or chronic and is indicated by a ‘two-to four-fold increase in circulating pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines’ (Woods et al, 2009) and by the presence of proteins such as CRP. The inflammation response can be due to trauma or as a result of factors such as obesity. Obesity can lead...
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...Title: Outline the benefits of an Exercise programme for people with Cystic Fibrosis and discuss the factors which may influence Exercise compliance. Introduction Cystic fibrosis (CF) is one of the most common and life limiting autosmal recessively inherited diseases in the world with an estimated occurrence in newborns of 1 per 3000 per annum (Walters, 2007). The majority of people with this disease are diagnosed during their first year of life with many countries now employing newborn screening programs. The basic mechanism of the disease consists of manifestation as pancreatic insufficiency leading to malabsorbtion and failure to thrive and impaired mucocillary clearance leading to reoccurring chest infections and bronchiestasis (Savage et al. 2011). With the recent advances in treatment of CF which have resulted in increased life span and survival rates, individuals can now expect to live into their fourth decade. Stats from the UK show that CF affects over 9000 people with 4000 under the age of 16 (Williams and Stevens, 2013). Irish stats show a similar pattern where 1200 individuals suffer from CF with 45% being under the age of 18. According to the CF trust (2010) the primary cause of death in individuals with CF is respiratory failure. CF is a progressive respiratory disease which results in an abnormal ventilator response to exercise for individuals with CF (Bradley and Moran, 2008). This contributes to dyspnoea which is a shortness of breath and is a major limiting...
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...The Effect of Acute and Chronic Exercise on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression March 8, 2015 Abstract Mental health is a severe problem in our society today, approximately 61.5 million of the Americans experience mental illness in each given year (NAMI, 2013). The main goal of this paper is to provide answers on how physical activity can replace anti-anxiety and depression drugs. To solve this question numerous research articles were examined by looking at how both acute and chronic bouts of aerobic and anaerobic exercise correlated with mental health aspects such as stress, depression, and anxiety. The findings showed that almost all types of exercise showed the capability of being able to improve mental health significantly. Thus, it is possible for physical activity to become a replacement for drugs being administered to the general population today, which allows people to treat their mental illness without the adverse side effects, which accompany drugs. This is supported by multiple studies done that compared physical exercise and drugs as treatments for mental disorders. All the studies support the claim that physical activity could be used as a replacement for drugs in treating mental illness. Introduction Mental health illness is a severe issue affecting a significant portion of Americans every day. Serious mental illnesses have been reported to cost America $193.2 Billion in lost earning per year (NAMI, 2013). Specifically, 14.8 million people...
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...Regular exercise and the consumption of a healthy diet can lead to a host of benefits, including increased energy, happiness, health and even a long life. Exercise and diet are pivotal to determining a person’s overall health, and making them both part of your lifestyle can make a dramatic difference in how you look and feel. According government guidelines, a healthy diet should consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and lean meats. On top of eating well, you must also minimise your consumption of cholesterol, sodium, sugar and saturated fat. In conjunction with regular exercise, a healthy diet can reduce your risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers. Promote increases in physical activity. Exercise provides numerous health benefits Both diet and physical activity play a critical role in controlling your weight. You gain weight when the calories you burn, including those burned during physical activity, are less than the calories you eat or drink. For more information see our section on balancing calories. When it comes to weight management, people vary greatly in how much physical activity they need. You may need to be more active than others to achieve or maintain a healthy weight. Heart disease and stroke are two of the leading causes of death in the UK. But following the Guideline of moderate-intensity aerobic activity can put you at a lower risk for these diseases. You can reduce your risk...
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...rewarding one. Exercise can be in the form of calisthenics, aerobics, jogging, walking, even weight lifting. As a result of choosing any exercise the heart begins to work, assisting with more blood flow, oxygen intake creating better circulation throughout the body. Heart disease is the number one killer in America today. Some people tend to become winded or feel tired when doing common work around the house, or other activities that may make them sweat, tend to think they should not do this anymore or should have someone else do it. As a result of this idea many people become less able and more likely to attract various other illnesses all stemming from the lack of physical activity. Proper daily exercise will help lower some risks of heart disease. Since walking, jogging, and bicycling all are good forms of aerobic exercise that starts working your heart. So, while these types of exercises are working your heart, blood circulation is increased and more oxygen is then carried through the body. Better circulation due to exercise will also help to lower a person’s blood pressure. Body weight and obesity are major concerns that can be controlled with aerobic exercise, resistance training or weight lifting. People not familiar with exercise should begin with low frequency, duration and intensity of their exercise routines. By gradually increasing the frequency, duration and intensity, these steady doses of aerobic exercise will aid in, burning calories, fat loss, and an increase...
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...to challenge myself and put a new plan in order. I want to be able to set realistic goals for myself and actually gain what I need for the baby and lose the weight I so desperately have been trying to get off for years. I have decided to incorporate yoga, light stretching, water aerobics and lots of walking into my new plan. I am also coming up with a healthy eating plan for me that won’t harm my baby and basically allow me to eat all I want without gaining to much extra weight. I really think this will help me through the pains of pregnancy and also post-partum allowing me to continue and lose weight after the baby. Being that walking is a locomotor exercise I will incorporating a lot of walking especially around my building. By starting with 5 or 10 minute walks 3 times a week and progress to 20 or 30 minute walks 3 — 5 times a week I feel this is the right path to start for me. I however will not be able to do many of the non-locomotion training without moderate supervision and guidance because of fear of hurting myself or the baby. Certain exercises that involve stretching , bending and twisting may not be used because of the risk. There are also non-locomotion exercises that can benefit me as well that can help with tension and backaches as well as leg pain. A lot of the exercises have health...
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...nutrients to the muscles, the body has to be well conditioned. By the body being well conditioned it improves the muscles capacity to use extra oxygen. Cardiovascular training is the most important style of training both for general health and for overall athletic performance. Cardiovascular Benefits of Conditioning The circulatory system is one of the major systems which is effected by cardiovascular conditioning. Your circulatory system consists of your heart, blood vessels and blood, and is responsible for transporting life-giving oxygen throughout your body. When you exercise, your body's need for oxygen increases; the harder you work out, the more oxygen your body demands. To ensure that sufficient oxygen is available for your muscles during activity, your body makes short- and long-term changes. The heart becomes strong and is able to use energy more efficiently with proper exercise. Blood pressure becomes lower as the heart muscle does not have to work overtime to pump blood to the rest of the body. The heart beats fewer times per minute while at rest, and is able to deliver a greater amount of blood with each stroke as a result of conditioning. Conditioning also has other benefits when it comes to cardiovascular fitness. Conditioning increases oxygenation of the blood due to exercising. Deep breathing during conditioning increases the...
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