Exercise buys you three to seven additional years of life. It is an anti-depressant, it improves cognitive function and there is now evidence that it may retard the onset of dementia.
The lead researcher said everyone should be doing at least between 20 and 25 minutes of walking a day, involving brisk walking or slow jogging. If you know that something is 20 minutes away, try and walk it if you’ve got time and not take the bus. People with a heart condition shouldn’t run but walk to a point where they can still speak – but they shouldn’t be able to sing. Following these simple directions is essential considering our sedentary lifestyles. Exercise will bring benefits whatever age or condition.
People who start exercising at the age of 70 are less likely to go on to develop atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm condition that affects about 10 per cent of people over 80.
The research was carried out by a team at Saarland University in Germany, who introduced a group of non-exercising but otherwise healthy and non-smoking people to a program of exercise. It showed that aerobic exercise, high intensity interval training and strength training all have a positive impact on markers of ageing. The authors found endurance exercise and high intensity exercise to be more efficient at achieving good health than just lifting weights, and is more likely to trigger the anti-ageing process. The professor at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, said: ‘The more active you are, and it doesn’t matter when you start, the more benefit you are going to have.
We recommend people who have cardiovascular disease or had myocardial infarction or heart failure to be physically active, because it’s beneficial for them; so there’s really no reason for healthy people not to exercise as well. The study brings a bit more understanding of why physical activity has that effect.
It helps us understand the process of cellular ageing as that’s what drives our organ system and body ageing and the effects physical activity can have on the cellular level.
Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec comments on “ 25 minutes a day of brisk walking adds 7 years to your life.”
Health always and we mean always comes back to basics: 7 Basic Steps. One of those basic steps is exercise. If you don’t move it you lose it is the saying but the “it” you are going to lose is your life. This study made it clear that everyone; yes everyone of all ages should be exercising no excuses. The lead researcher states “We recommend people who have cardiovascular disease or had myocardial infarction or heart failure to be physically active, because it’s beneficial for them”. So if it’s good for those with heart disease then it is really good for those who don’t have heart disease yet.
Remember this saying “LIFE IS MOTION”.
If you stop moving you have no more reason to live and your physiology starts to shut down. People have asked me over the last 32 years “what exercise is the best?” My answer is the one you will do every day for the rest of your life and this study showed it can be as simple as a 30 minute brisk walk each day. Remember the goal of exercise is to move blood and strengthen muscle especially your heart. So lifting weight is good for muscles but not so good for your heart and does not move blood enough. That does not mean to exclude it only to make sure you are doing the cardiovascular exercise first. Another great from of cardiovascular exercise that can be done at home for most people is walking up and down stairs. The goal in exercise is oxygen debt and that is achieved when one starts to get out of breath so that you cannot carry on a conversation easily because you are breathing heavy. You should not exercise into pain only to the level of slight oxygen debt which when doing stairs only takes one minute.
The best way to commit to lifetime exercise is to combine it with another activity like prayer. If you go on a thirty minute brisk walk and that is your prayer time you have added much value to the exercise because it becomes your prayer time each day also. This means you are not going to skip it because you feel tired or the weather is less desirable.
Start slow with whatever form of exercise you choose but make a commitment to make it consistent. Also do not exercise with others because it should be your quiet time, your personal time between you and God and the time you look forward to each day. If you make it a social time it will lose the power of helping you reflect on your life and your purpose.
But the most import thing is to DO IT and KEEP DOING IT EVERY DAY. It is worth not only 7 more years of your life but a much higher quality of those years because you decrease the risk all disease and disability.
