Friday, April 17, 2009

Nutrition and Exercise



Sufficient nutrition is essential if the benefits of the exercise are to be achieved and both should go hand in hand. During an exercise, the rate of metabolism increases and that burns up a lot of the calories. It means that there is a reduction of our energy levels and thus must be substituted by the appropriate nutrition.

During an exercise, the body demands increase tremendously and will take sufficient amount of energy from carbohydrates to power the level of metabolism going on. Protein foods will supply the amino acids required for muscle building. All these including antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, micro nutrients like B vitamins and chromium, and minerals such as calcium and magnesium will be required at extra quantities. The level of metabolism releases even more free radicals and as such, increase mop up action will be required by anti-oxidants.

There is an increase in the breakdown of carbohydrates and fats, during an exercise. They all need to be replaced and in cases where the essence is to build the muscles, adequate amino acid sources are ingested to allow the new rate of muscle building triggered off by the exercise.

During an exercise, you will need to drink much water than usual. You will loss very much fluid from sweat and insensible loses due to the increase of respiration, and so you will be easily dehydrated. This can lead to heat stroke, renal stone formation etc. So you will require a lot of water to cool off the exothermic reaction that is occurring in your body.

There will be an increase in every single chemical reaction in the body. Just as everything else is working overtime, so are the heart muscles. You will need to supply the heart with sufficient vitamins like B and C, oxygen and other nutrients to make sure that the electrical activities in the heart continue to meet up the new demands. More sodium and potassium ions influx and efflux occur and nutritional intake should be such that can meet up with these activities. Reduction of these ions could cause the heart block.

The strong grip and balance in the legs of athletes, wrestlers, boxers and other sports can not be developed if the exercise is not properly balanced by good nutrition. For a strong grip, the muscles of the hands need to grow bigger and stronger, the leg muscles must grow bigger too for the balance, and the bones are not going to be strong enough without the supply of sufficient calcium from a diet rich in fruits, fish and milk.

Sufficient carbohydrate which is the main energy source for physical activities should be taken before or after an exercise. If you want to do before an exercise, you need to allow time for adequate digestion to occur and commence when the food is no longer much in the stomach to avoid Angina as blood flow is more to the abdominal organs thereby depriving the heart. Preferably, we should eat after a good rest following an exercise, watching to the needs of the body.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Importance of Exercise

If you forget or perhaps you don't know the importance of exercise for good health, it only means you have been doing many wrong things to your physical health, you are already living a high risk lifestyle and your case must be watched immediately. The muscles of your body will become flaccid and weak. The heart and lungs may be unsuccessful to work properly. That means, without doing exercises may be killing you more than the cigarettes you are smoking.The importance of exercise will require a full book to highlight. If you take a look at a few things particularly to those you must know. You certainly need to know these before you start working out.

Improves Physical Endurance and Stamina- When you do the exercise the body builds up strength gradually and improves physical endurance and stamina. For each additional day of doing the exercise, you become more powerful and much more able to flourish under heaviness. Your aerobic levels improve and if you are running you will still be strong enough to go. While the other people who have not been exercising like you need to stop and take a breath.

Disease Prevention - As mentioned above, exercises as disease prevention may just be the reason why a lot of us who smoke and drink excessively are still alive today. Regular exercise is required for physical fitness and good health. It cut downs considerably, the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes. Regular exercise also supports the long life.

Muscles Strength – The exercise with weights makes the muscles grow larger and become stronger. This exercise produces more strength and even makes your grip a lot more firm. The form of the body can be improved, and your muscles become more toned and hard.

Flexibility - When you exercise it makes much sense to practice a variety of exercises as different forms of exercise for different purposes. Stretching exercise is also important because it helps to circulate lubricants in the joints sufficiently. Stretching Exercise also ensures that the nonstop joint movement gives no opportunity for joint stiffness this way you stay flexible and decrease you possibilities of getting a fracture occurring.

Weight Loss - As you must know before, you can not reduce body weight without exercises. It is improper to try to loss weight on diet alone. Exercise is in charge for burning your body fat to help you loss weight. Exercise is also a key to weight control because it burns calories. If you burn off more calories than you take in, you lose weight. Taking in less amount of calorie alone will not help you loss weight you need to exercise to help the weight loss process.

Aerobic exercise engages continuous and rhythmic physical movement, such as jogging, walking and bicycling. It will affect the heart, the heart will develop and become accustomed to handling higher metabolic demands of the body and so even when you exercise for unusually in the longer periods of time, you do not get tired because the heart can still deal with the higher demand.