Essay On Benefits Of Exercise

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Health Benefits of Exercise

Physical exercise has long been regarded as a positive thing for the human

body - but what actually constitutes exercise? Exercise can be dissected into two major categories, aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is usually a lower intensity, longer endurance form of energy usage that raises the respiratory and pulse rate of the individual. The major physiological classification of this type of exercise is that it accesses the aerobic energy generation process - loosely meaning that your cells need and use more oxygen during this type of exercise (1). Anaerobic exercise is a type of activity that is usually short lived and in high intensity, such as weight lifting or short sprinting. This type of activity does not require your body’s cells to take up increased amounts of oxygen. Anaerobic exertion must use a very fast fuel source like the phosphates creatinine phosphate and adenosine triphosphate as well as anaerobic glycolysis (2). If the individual continues to work past the means of anaerobic exercise, the body will begin to use aerobic pathways for energy production like the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation, which require much higher quantities of oxygen (1).
There are many reasons why the American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week (3). Exercise has many proven benefits for the human body including physiological, mental and preventative aspects. Usually, one of the main ideas behind exercise is weight loss or healthy weight maintenance and this is crucial in preventing or regressing many diseases. Obesity is quickly becoming a global epidemic, and in the United States alone over the last two decades there have be...

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...cise has also been proven to cause a release of a handful of other neurotransmitters and hormones with similar affects like seratonin, dopamine, epinephrine and adrenalin (12).
It is a well known fact that obesity is a leading cause of many diseases worldwide. Maintaing a healthy lifestyle can not only prevent obesity, thus avoiding these diseases - it can also cause disease to regress if stored adipose tissue is lost. Evidence supports that the physical act of exercise has a positive effect on our metal and physical well being through many different pathways and some are more clear than others. However, decreasing the world’s population of obese individuals would in turn lessen the number of people suffering from a plethora of preventable diseases and ailments. We just have to remember that if we burn what we eat we are on the pathway to a long and healthy life.

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