No Walk in The Park

Let me ask you this, how many reasons can you come up with for not exercising?  How about for exercising?  Now which are more important? Well, to answer that you would have to know the effects of exercise, and unless you are: a) in denial or b) in denial, you should know it is best to exercise! The most well known effects of regular exercise are obvious: more muscle, less fat, toner body, and weight loss.

Mere physical appearance isn't the only effect exercise has on the body. A superfluous of studies over the past several decades have shown regular exercise creates a stronger heart, clearer lungs and reduces your chance pathologies such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart attacks. Moreover, a number of new studies have found that those who exercise regularly have less chances of developing cancer, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (in the eyes).

So far we've got exercise at: effectively reducing your chance of succumbing to the top three killers in the U.S. - Heart Attack, Cancer, Stroke (In that order). And some of you still be at: denial. Ok, exercise takes time and planning to fit into the daily grind. Completely understandable. But can you find 15 minutes out of every other day to reduce diabetes? Researchers at Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, Scotland hope you can. Their research found that 15 minutes of high intensity workout (i.e. running) every other day for two weeks significantly reduced individual’s blood-glucose levels.

Great! You now have your 15 minutes set aside. Maybe you can find just 15 more? The American College of Sports Medicine argues that 30 minutes a day five times a week is the best way to go. That’s to keep the weight off and body healthy. "More recent evidence has supported this recommendation and has indicated that more physical activity may be necessary to prevent weight regain after weight loss", states the ACSM. Keeping the weight off keeps the blood-glucose low, your blood-pressure down and dampens your the risk of stroke and heart attack.

Hopefully I didn't create complete aversion by telling you about the 30 minute recommendation! Yet that seems to be a normal reaction to exercise. Instead you often get people who either skip exercise all together or try some kind of diet, especially "hollywood" diets. Take for instance the "Master Cleanse" diet: the detox diet to clean out your GI while losing weight. I know what you’re thinking, but hold on a second. It is completely normal to supplant millions of years of evolution that created organs such as your liver and kidneys with: squeezed lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper several times a day for 10 days! Wow! I can skip over the physiological implications this has on your body by simply bringing attention that this diet lacks: calcium and protein - among a plethora of other nutrients.

The lesson that science has taught us is this: exercise is good for you - for your bones, heart, body and mind. Let me put all salubrious reasons aside for the moment and just reiterate one of the seven reasons the Mayo Clinic encourages people to exercise: because it can be fun! So join a team, a pick-up game, go hiking, take up kung-fu, hoola-hoop your way to number one on Wii Fit, chase squirrels out of your yard, or go to yoga to pick up girls (or guys). Just do it?

- m.tsang

[The title comes from the quote "People say that losing weight is no walk in the park.  When I hear that I think, yeah, that's the problem." I found it online and it is attributed to Chris Adams who was a former world class wrestler.  He once died on an overdose of GHB, but was brought back to life in the emergency room.  A few years later he was shot and killed during a drunken brawl.]