There’s a saying, “Use it or lose it.” That’s pretty much why exercise is good for you. But that’s just the short answer. The details of what actually happens in your body are truly amazing and, I think, super motivating. Here’s the rest of the story you won’t want to miss!

[This article is going to motivate you to exercise more. So here’s the obligatory, but important, cautionary note. If you are going to start an exercise program, you should have the OK from your doctor first to make sure that you don’t have any potential heart or other health issues.]

How Exercise Makes You Stronger and Healthier

The very first day that you start your exercise program, you will be healthier than you were yesterday. Why? Because your body immediately responds to the exercise by building new cells and tissues to support that exercise. It gets ready to better handle the exercise you will do tomorrow. Isn’t that amazing!?

There are several marvelous ways that your body changes when you begin a consistent aerobic exercise program. All of the improvements your body makes increase your VO2 Max, which is a measurement of your fitness level. Specifically, VO2 Max measures the volume of oxygen a person can consume in one minute exercising at maximum exertion.

Here are the incredible changes you’ll see in your body:

Heart

When you train over a period of time your heart will grow in size, allowing it to pump a larger volume of blood with each stroke (or pump). This allows more oxygen to be delivered to all the cells in your body. At the same time, your heart also becomes stronger and more efficient at pumping blood.

Blood Vessels

In response to your muscles needing more oxygen, your body will grow more capillaries to deliver more oxygen faster going forward. Isn’t that cool?! In addition, over time, regular exercise will make your blood vessels become more flexible allowing them to deliver more oxygen rich blood more efficiently. And if that wasn’t enough, the increased blood flow in your blood vessels serves to clean out excess cholesterol, keeping you free of clogs which can cause strokes and heart attacks.

Red Blood Cells

As you exercise each day, your body says, “OK, I get it. You need more oxygen. Alright, turn up the red blood cell production!” As your red blood cell count increases so does your ability to receive more oxygen more efficiently.

Cellular Level

This improvement is very cool too. In each of the cells in your body there are these little power machines called mitochondria. What they do is produce energy by combining oxygen and glucose (or other fuel molecules). This combination produces ATP which is the molecule that gives your cells the energy they need to do their cellular work. When you exercise regularly, guess what happens? Yup, your body creates more and stronger mitochondria in each of your cells, making you more powerful and giving you more endurance for everything in your life! Wow! How exciting is that!?

Muscles

When you use your muscles beyond what they can handle, either through aerobic exercise or weight bearing exercise, it causes your body to build new muscle tissue. Tiny tears can occur with weight lifting, and when these tears are repaired, this is what causes the muscle to become larger and more defined. Larger, stronger muscles will raise your metabolism making weight management easier.

Your VO2 Max

If you want to test your VO2 max, a simple way to do this is to perform the Rockport Walking Fitness Test. It is well regarded as an accurate way to measure your VO2 max. If you can’t get your heart rate above 120 with fast walking, here is a similar jogging test. (Again these tests should only be done with your doctor’s approval.)

What Kind of Exercise is Best?

The best kind of exercise is the kind you do everyday for 30 minutes, whether consecutive minutes or broken up throughout the day. You should aim for a target heart rate of 55-85% of your max heart rate. Here’s the formula to calculate your maximum heart rate:

Maximum heart rate = 208 - (0.7 X your age in years)

Example: If you are 40 years old, then your maximum heart rate = 208 -(0.7 X 40)= 180.

Moderate activity level would be between 99 - 126 beats per minute.

Strenuous activity level would be between 126 - 153 beats per minute.

So it doesn’t matter if you walk or run, bike or swim, play tennis or rake the yard. As long as you do it everyday and get your heart pumping you will make yourself healthier every day. The only advantage that running has over walking is that you can burn more calories in a shorter period of time. But, the advantage of brisk walking is that it is easier on your joints than running. So just choose whichever activity you like better, and go for it!

Another thing to keep in mind is that you have to stop in the middle of your exercise, don’t fret. As long as you finish it later, it’s fine. You can do 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. Everyone has time for that right?

My soon to be released book on healthy living will have more information on healthy exercise. In the meantime, all you need is a pair of sneakers and you’re good to go. Vary your exercise every so often for a new muscular challenge and also for fun. Here are some other aerobic activities you can try:

biking

cross country skiing

swimming

tennis

strenuous yoga

squash

hiking

kayaking

golfing

soccer

jumping (jump-rope or mini-trampoline)

dancing

有这样一句俗语，“不常使用，就失去。”就很好地说明了为什么运动对你有好处。但这只是句简短的回答。运动让你身体里实实在在变化着的细节是令人惊奇的，我认为，非常激励人。这里有你绝不愿错过的其他的信息！

（这篇文章将激励你更多地去运动。所以这里有些必需的，但重要的警示。如果你要开展一项运动，必须先得到你的医生的许可，确保你将不会有任何潜在的心脏或其他健康上的问题。）

运动怎样让你更加强壮和健康

即使是开始运动项目的第一天，你也比昨天更健康。为什么？你的身体以建立新的细胞和组织的方式迅速地做出反应，来支持那项运动的进行。你的身体状况将更好，使你更好地应付明天要做的运动。这难道不是很神奇吗？

当开始坚持一个有氧运动计划时，你的身体以一些惊人的方式发生改变。所有的身体状况上的改善将增加你的最大摄氧量，而最大摄氧量是测量你的健康水平的一个标准。具体来说，最大摄氧量测量的是一个人在一分钟运动中的最大耗氧量。

这些就是你将在自己身上看到的难以置信的改变：

心脏

当你运动训练过一段时间以后，你的心脏体积将变大，每一次跳动（或撞击）可以输送更多的血。这将输送更多的氧气到你身体的各个细胞。同时，你的心脏变得更强壮，能更有效率地输送血液。

血管

因为你的体力需要更多氧气支撑，你的身体将生成更多毛细血管来便于更多氧气的传送。这难道不神奇吗？另外，久而久之，定期的运动将使你的血管更有效率、更灵活地更传送更多富氧的血液。除此之外，那些增加的血液在你的血管里流动着，它们能清除多余的胆固醇，让你免于可能引起中风和心脏病发作的血管堵塞。

红细胞

随着每天的运动，你的身体说，“好的，我知道了。你需要更多的氧气。好吧，加大红细胞的产量！”红细胞数量增加了，你也能更有惬意地吸收更多的氧气。

细胞水平

这个进展也是令人称奇的。你身体中的每一个细胞里，都有这些叫做线粒体的“小发电机”。它们将氧气和葡萄糖（或其他燃料分子）结合起来来制造能量。这种结合制造出提供细胞每天运行所需燃料的分子--三磷酸腺苷。当你定期运动，猜猜会发生些什么？是的，你的身体在每一个细胞中制造出更多更好的线粒体，让你更强壮，在生活中做任何事情时都更有耐力。哇！这不是多激动人心吗！？

肌肉

当你用你的肌肉做些有难度的活动时，不论是有氧运动还是负重运动，都会让你的身体建立新的肌肉组织。举重时肌肉会有轻微的裂开，当这些裂口愈合时，肌肉也变得更强大更轮廓分明。拥有些大块些、强壮些的肌肉会让新陈代谢加快，让体重更容易保持。

你的最大摄氧量

若你想测试自己的最大摄氧量，进行rockport步行体能测验就是一个简单的方法。它被认为是测量最大摄氧量的一个准确途径。如果你不能通过快走让你的心率超过120，这里还有个相似的慢跑测试。（同样地，这些测试必须在你的医生的准许下完成。）

什么方式的运动最好？

运动的最好方式是每天进行半个小时，不管是持续的半小时还是一天中零碎进行的半小时。你需要朝着使心率往你的最大心率的55-85%的目标前进。这是计算你的最大心率的公式：

最大心率=208-(0.7X你年龄的年数）

例子：如果你40岁，那么你的最大心率=208-(0.7 X 40)= 180

一般的心率水平应该在每分钟99-126之间。

较好的心率水平应该在每分钟126-153之间。

所以，无论你是走还是跑，是骑自行车还是游泳，是打网球还是用耙理庭院，都没有关系。只要你每天做，让你的心脏自由跳动，你会每一天变得更健康一点。比起步行，跑步的唯一优势是能让你在更短的一段时间里消耗更多的卡路里。但是比起跑步，快走的优势是它对于关节来说更为轻松。所以只要选择你更喜欢些的运动，去做吧！

另外你需铭记在心，当不得不在运动中停下来时，不要为此苦恼。只要你能稍后完成它，就可以了。你可以早晨和晚上各运动15分钟。这样每个人都有时间运动了，不是吗？

我将发行的那本关于健康生活的书中会提供更多关于健康运动的信息。与此同时，你所需要的一切仅仅是一双穿着行动方便的胶底运动鞋。偶尔让运动的内容多样化，这将既是一项新的肌肉挑战，也是一种乐趣。这里是一些你可以尝试的其他有氧运动：

* 骑自行车

* 越野滑雪

* 游泳

* 网球

* 艰苦的瑜珈训练

* 壁球

* 徒步旅行

* 划皮艇

* 高尔夫球

* 英式足球

* 跳跃（跳绳或小蹦床）

* 跳舞

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