Benefits of Exercise

Today's workout for the group:

"No Free Lunge" - Four rounds for time of

35 yards, bodyweight lunges

15 reps each arm of 1/4 Turkish getups with 10 percent bodyweight

35 yards, bodyweight lunges

15 reps each arm of dumbbell push presses, 25 lbs for men, 15-20 lbs for women

Why bother with all this exercise, anyway? We'll all eventually die, right? Well, sure, but isn't there something satisfying to know we're working hard to make ourselves harder to kill? Specifically, the mechanisms behind that "harder to kill" state are outlined in a 2006 Canadian Medical Association Journal article by Warburton, Nicol & Bredin entitled Health benefits of physical activity: the evidence. Find a link to the article here.

Summary of the benefits of exercise captured in the article are:

Improved body composition
Improve weight control
Improved coronary blood flow
Improved cardiac function
Improved endothelial function
Improved high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol
Improved glucose metabolism
Improved insulin sensitivity
Improved autonomic nervous system tone
Improved psychological well-being
Reduced blood pressure
Reduced systemic inflammation
Reduced blood coagulation
Reduced abdominal adiposity
Reduced triglyceride levels
Reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol
Reduced stress, anxiety and depression

Thanks to Len Kravitz, PhD of University of New Mexico for the nice summary list of exercise benefits from the Warburton et al article. Link to Dr Kravitz's website here.