How exercise prevents sickness or disease

Thesis statement

The aim of this paper is to describe what exercise and physical activity is. The paper also describes the benefits of exercising on human body by creating prevention against diseases and sickness.

Introduction

People participate in physical exercise to improve general health, performance-related fitness for a particular sport, and/or for recreation and relaxation. Improved fitness results from adaptation and improvement of cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic function as well as local responses in the muscle groups engaged. The nature and magnitude of any training effect are influenced by the frequency, duration and intensity of exercise. The process of determining and controlling appropriate exercise intensity presents a challenge, which has implications related to both physiological changes and to individual compliance within an exercise program.

An exercise response is the pattern of change that physiological variables present during a single acute bout of physical exertion. A physiological variable is any measure of bodily function that changes or varies under different circumstances. Heart rate is a variable with which already familiar. One probably also knows that heart rate increases during exercise. However, to state simply that heart rate increases during exercise does not describe the full pattern allow response. For example, the heart rate response to a 400-meter sprint is different from the heart rate response to a 50-m bike ride. To describe the response of heart rate or any other variable, we must first have more Information about the exercise itself. Three factors need to be considered to determine or describe the acute response to exercise is the exercise modality, the exercise intensity, and the exercise duration (Sheppard 2004, 129).

Benefits of exercising

Exercise is a single acute bout of bodily exertion or muscular activity that requires an expenditure of energy above resting level and generally planned and structured to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness. However, from a physiological standpoint both bring about changes (both acute and chronic). Therefore, the terms exercise and physical activity are used interchangeably. Where the amount of exercise can actually be measured, the terms workload and work rate may also be used. Exercise disrupts the homeostatic state or dynamic equilibrium of the body. These homoeostatic disruptions or changes represent the body's response to exercise. One probably also knows that heart rate increases during exercise.

Exercise modality or mode is the type of activity or the particular sport. The modes are often categorized by the type of energy demand such as aerobic or anaerobic, the major muscle action such as continuous and rhythmical activities like jumping, sprinting, and weightlifting. Although there is much scientific evidence that show the health benefits of regular physical activity and most people recognize the benefits of regular physical activity, the percentage of regular exercisers remains low.

Moderate and high levels of physical activity have been showed to be associated with reduced risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Physical activity has not been proven to enhance the quality of life (QoL) after stroke according to the Cochrane review on ...