Staying healthy is a challenging job in today’s globalized “techo-crat” era . The sky is the limit when it comes to development and progress in our age. It is easy for us to say that our lives are more advanced and modernistic than our forefathers, but more difficult it is to admit that their lives were healthier and stress-free than ours. The prevalence of ailments is alarmingly increasing at an exponential rate. Shocking further is that our modern lifestyle makes us prone to heart diseases, obesity, hypertension, etc. The answer to this burning question of the world is lifestyle modification starting with Exercise.
Physical exercise not only is a preventive and curative therapy but sadly also the most neglected factor today. Physical inactivity is now identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. People are too busy or should I say too lazy, even to get up for the television remote and waking up early for physical exercise is like a fortune to ask for.
Throwing light on the WHO recommended exercise pattern for adults of age groups 18-64 years , 30mins of exercise for atleast 5 days a week is all that is required to achieve the following-lower rates of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon and breast cancer,depression;less risk of a hip or vertebral fracture; a higher level of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness.
In adults aged 18–64, physical activity includes leisure time physical activity (for example: walking, dancing, gardening, hiking, swimming), transportation (e.g. walking or cycling), occupational (i.e. work), household chores, play games, sports or planned exercise, in the context of daily, family, and community activities.
Physical activity has also been associated with development of healthy musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, neuromuscular awareness (i.e. coordination and movement control); and maintain a healthy body weight among children along with psychological benefits by improving their control over anxiety and depression.(source: http://www.who.int/en/)
Everyone irrespective of your age or disease condition must inculcate daily exercise routine on a long-term basis. Don’t just sit there and read about the benefits I listed above, experience it yourself. This is for all those busy people who just keep making plans for starting exercise tomorrow but that ‘lucky’ tomorrow never comes. All those who watch crazy fitness and weight loss shows on TV and get terrified by the fact that you need to exercise hours a day, lucky for you that it isn’t true. All you need is 30 minutes of light exercise or brisk walking everyday as your daily routine. I stress on the word ‘daily’ and insist to follow it as your daily “to-do chores” list for the remarkable results.
It’s a known fact that everyone of us have attempted to follow an exercise program atleast once, at some point or the other and have experienced few ups and downs. There’s the ‘up’ time when we get all fired up to exercise and want to lose weight instantaneously either stimulated by an inevitable desire to look slim in a cousin’s marriage or alarmed by the blood test reports showing increased cholesterol levels. After this begins that ‘down’ level which prevents us from holding onto that new routine and bringing us back to square one.
The need of the hour is to accept this change in our life. Nothing is impossible. Changing the ‘Impossible’ to ‘I-M-POSSIBLE’ all depends on your will power and perseverance. Once you start making changes in your life, as you go along, these changes affect the rest of your life too. So don’t be too rigid, be prepared to adapt plans to fit in with the changes. Set a new routine and follow the schedule regularly. Stop being lazy and step forward to commit yourself to something that will provide you a lot of positive feedback. Once you start doing exercise and observing positive results, you will actually enjoy it. It takes a lot of effort and strong will, but it’s worth it.
As, Lee Haney rightly said, “Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn’t formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them.”
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