Main enemies of fitness
One of the factors is obesity and a diet rich in saturated fat. When rich foods are eaten in abundance, body fat increases: Half of adults in the United States are overweight. But invisible fat deposits are much more serious, especially those that accumulate on the walls of the coronary arteries of the heart. Blockage of a vital artery often leads to a fatal heart attack.
Therefore, diet control is apparently essential for fitness and reduces the risk of heart attack. Remember that visible fat probably means that fatty deposits accumulate in the arteries within the body, narrowing them dangerously. Therefore, avoid being overweight! It may also be wise to limit or exclude the consumption of foods fried in animal fat, as well as use them as a generous source of vegetables, fruits, melons and cereals.
Another contributing factor to reduced fitness is high speed and a stressful lifestyle. Previous generations did not live at the fast pace of people today, with a sense of urgency in time, formidable competitiveness, and latent hostility. Although the effects of this situation are difficult to measure, some experts believe that it is a major factor in the terrible increase in coronary heart disease.
Running a car engine constantly at full speed will shorten its life. In fact, this is what millions of men do to themselves, desperately struggling to keep going, to get a better position, to do more than everyone else, only to suffer a sudden crisis.
A common enemy of fitness
We now come to a particularly common enemy of fitness: the modern sedentary lifestyle. It is believed to be the main contributing factor to the onslaught of cardiovascular disease. The current goal is apparently to eliminate any need for muscle exercises.
Automobiles replaced legs as the main means of transportation and arms were also spared from power steering and power windows. In office buildings, workers are transported from floor to floor by elevators. At home, electric toothbrushes clean shoes and brush teeth. The grass is cut with self-propelled lawn mowers. And TV channels are changed with remote controlled channel changers.
The emphasis on the "easy life" has practically eliminated physical exertion. The thing is, the hardest job for many employees is showering and dressing. But does this lack of exercise really precipitate heart attacks?
Yes, the evidence shows that sedentary people are more likely to have heart attacks than active people.
For example, one study found that London bus drivers who constantly walked and climbed the stairs of double-decker buses had a heart attack rate twice that of bus drivers. Additionally, a study of monastery residents, where the diet and environment were the same, found that field workers had fewer heart attacks than monks who engaged in sedentary activities.
Needs of the heart
The heart muscle needs a constant and significant amount of blood to feed itself, which requires 1/20 of the body's blood supply, even if it is only 1/200 of body weight. The heart does not receive this blood directly from its receiving and expelling chambers, but receives it through both coronary arteries. These main arteries surround the heart and branch into many smaller and smaller arteries that extend and penetrate the heart muscle. The oxygen and other nutrients that these arteries provide are vital, as they are the arteries directly involved in heart attacks.
The value of regular exercise
What happens when a person is sedentary? The arteries that supply blood to the muscles narrow and many small vessels even disappear. Therefore, the blood for the muscles and therefore the oxygen is less. The total volume of blood in the body is still reduced. If there is an emergency, perhaps sudden stress or a "blocked" coronary artery, what will happen? The circulatory system may not be able to supply enough oxygen to the heart, causing a heart attack.
On the other hand, what happens when a person is regularly active? During strenuous physical activity, blood flow to skeletal muscles increases approximately tenfold, and the oxygen consumption of these muscles can be multiplied by one hundred. For example, regular exercise causes a person's arteries to swell, which helps carry more blood. In addition, more blood vessels open in the muscle tissue, providing new pathways to supply more oxygen. This is particularly beneficial in the heart muscle, because even if an artery is "blocked", the blood supplied by the auxiliary lines may be enough to prevent the heart muscle from running out of oxygen and closing.
Regular physical activity also strengthens the pumping action of the heart. Therefore, fewer strokes are needed to achieve the same results, allowing a conditioned heart to rest more. Sedentary people, who have a heart rate of eighty beats per minute or more, can significantly reduce that rate and allow their heart to rest more with regular exercise.
But the particular advantage of physical activity is that the strengthened heart works more efficiently under stress. This is easily demonstrated. For example, in one test, a group of clerical workers received a twenty minute exercise period. On average, his heart rate increased to 170 beats per minute, which is safe for hardcore men. However, after doing this period of daily exercise for eighty-four days, the men's average heart rate sped up to just 142 beats per minute. Their hearts were doing the same amount of work with less effort. Physical fitness had improved. This meant that stress could be tolerated more effectively and with less risk of heart failure.
Make the effort
The feeling of fatigue that sedentary workers generally experience is often related to a lack of exercise. If a person practiced physical activity, it would help to give him energy and overcome fatigue. Getting into the habit of walking regularly is a good start. Why not walk instead of taking the car for short trips? Brisk walking, if practiced from an early age, would dramatically reduce disability and premature death from coronary heart disease.
Other physical activities are fine too. Swimming, biking, car washing, gardening, lawn mowing - any form of activity that requires vigorous physical movement will be beneficial for sedentary workers, if practiced regularly. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is a good way to improve fitness.
However, you need to be careful: be careful not to exercise too vigorously in the beginning, before your circulatory system improves with regular activity. Gradually increase the amount of exercise and avoid the tendency to try to do too much at the same time. This will allow the heart and blood vessels to gradually strengthen and not be damaged.
Worth it. The question is, are you ready to make the effort?
Thanks for your article. I learn a lot from this.