Exercise is Medicine
April 19, 2021
“Exercise is done against one’s wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse.”
Many of us understand that exercise will keep us healthy but we still don’t choose to participate in any sort of exercise. Simple things in our every day life like taking the elevator not the stairs, driving instead of riding a bike. We are all guilty of doing this. We eliminate exercise without hesitation.
Why are we so lazy about exercise? How much do we need? What kind? And how do we get motivated?
Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University has some good insight on humans and exercise.
Exercise Isn’t Natural. But Neither Is Being Sedentary.
We don’t want to exercise for no reason. We have to be motivated to do so. yes, they’re are some people out there that do enjoy exercise but in reality, no one wants to be active for no reason. Evolution always thought we’d have a reason to be active… But our worlds changed and we’re not. But this is BAD because a lot of biological stuff is dependent on it.
Back in the 1960’s they did a study where healthy twenty-year-olds did nothing but lay in bed all day for three weeks. Afterward, the subjects’ health metrics didn’t even look like those of twenty-year-olds anymore. They were indistinguishable from forty-year-olds. Three weeks of lying around watching Netflix seemed to age them two decades in three weeks.
So next the scientists put them on an eight-week exercise regimen. Boom. Their health metrics Benjamin Button’d back to twenty-year-old levels. How did lead researcher Bengt Saltin sum up the results?
“Humans were meant to move.”
Daniel says the majority of the health problems we attribute to aging these days are not the direct consequence of more birthdays. They’re due to modern behaviors and lifestyles — just like the bedrest study. He calls them “mismatch diseases” — the result of a mismatch between how we were designed to live vs how we actually do.
Diabetes
- The fastest growing disease in the modern world.
Guess what?
- Exercise reverses insulin resistance.
Heart Attacks
- Cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death.
Prevention
- Exercise
Cancer
- Now it’s one of the most common killers. Again, we can attribute a big part of its increase to lack of exercise.
Exercise is by far the most effective known form of treatment and prevention.
Don’t panic, you still have time!
“…engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week and weight train at least twice a week. Epidemiologists have calculated that this level of activity will reduce my risk of dying prematurely by 50 percent and lower my chances of getting heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and certain cancers by roughly 30 to 50 percent.”
Get Motivated
Create a good reason and socialize. Find something you enjoy doing or that you can attach an immediate reward to. Involve friends to add the lovely component of socializing.
Call our office today to help you get motivated!
If you or your friend is experiencing aches and pains while getting active we can help!
DO NOT wait to call.
