Can You Walk Yourself to Health?

The benefits of Aerobic Exercise

The concept of Aerobic Exercise was born in 1968 with the publishing of Kenneth Cooper’s book, Aerobics. The medical literature has grown exponentially ever since. Dr. Cooper continues to do research at his Cooper Aerobic Center in Dallas, Texas. He is truly one of the great American Heroes in modern medicine. He has been inspiring this author for 40 years.

What are Aerobic Exercises?
You can literally invent aerobic exercise. Any activity that increases your heart rate and respiration rate for a minimum of 20 minutes is an aerobic exercise. Ideally you would like to achieve your target heart rate for that period of time. What is target heart rate? To calculate target heart rate you need to know your age and your resting heart rate (heart rate before you get out of bed in the morning). The following calculation is shown, assuming age 40 and a resting heart rate of 75:

Maximum Heart Rate 220
Subtract your age - 40
180
Subtract your resting heart rate -75
105
The target heart rate range is
Between 65-80% 68 – 84
Add your resting heart rate +75
Target heart rate range 143 – 159

The traditional aerobic exercises are skipping rope, running, swimming, bicycling, rowing, and dancing. There are many recent forms of aerobic exercise such as: step aerobics, water aerobics, spinning, etc. Remember that in any exercise you must factor in Intensity and Duration when assessing the benefit.

What are the Benefits of Aerobic Exercise?
1. The benefits of aerobic exercise are almost limitless. One of the obvious benefits is the improved Cardio-Respiratory function. Your heart rate and breathing rate get synchronized and more efficient. This results in a decreased resting heart rate and a decreased resting respiration rate. The uptake and flow of oxygen into your tissues improves in efficiency. When your efficiency improves and you do aerobic exercise your intensity will have to increase just to get to your minimum target heart rate. Conditioned athletes often have resting heart rates of 40 beats/minute or less.
2. Increase the Number of Capillaries throughout the body. It has been reported in research that doing 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week can increase your capillaries by 100 miles. The demand for oxygen in muscle tissue causes a release of angiogenic growth factors, messenger molecules that promote the growth of blood vessels. More capillaries mean more efficient distribution of oxygen to the tissues.
3. More Mitochondria in Muscle Cells. Aerobic exercise encourages muscle cell mitochondria to multiply. The more mitochondria you have the more energy (ATP) you can produce and the more calories you can burn. Muscle cells, when exercised, begin to burn carbohydrates. When the exercise continues for 20 minutes (the time varies with individuals), the muscles will shift to a more efficient fat burn. Carbohydrates yield 4 kilocalories of energy per gram burned, whereas fat yields 9 kilocalories per gram burned. That is 2.25 times more energy from fat. All of this presumes that you have the vitamins and minerals required to pull this off.
4. Decrease in Fat Stores. As you continue to do aerobic exercise your body will continuously tap into stored fat for energy. Remember that the aerobic exercise time period needs to be extended to up to 40 minutes to reach optimal fat burn. Your also need to be aware that a pound of stored body fat (454 g) contains 3,500 kilocalories (kcals). In most aerobic exercises you will burn between 300 – 500 kcals in 30 minutes. If the fat burn is only during the last third of the exercise, the fat calories burned will be between 100 and 165 so the fat loss is not going to be instantly noticeable. Persistence is the answer to successful, permanent fat loss. If you extend the exercise time to 40 minutes then approximately every 10 days you could loose a pound of body fat.
5. Increase the Number of Receptor Sites in the Cell Membranes. It is true that aerobic exercise increases your body’s production of all kinds of beneficial molecules. One of those benefits is the increased production of membrane receptor sites. So you produce more LDL receptors, Insulin receptors, and mitochondrial fatty acid-carnitine receptors. LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) is a molecular complex that carries cholesterol to the cells of the body. The more receptors you have allows a greater efficiency in lowering the LDL (the bad cholesterol) levels of the blood. More insulin receptors mean greater efficiency of removing glucose from the blood, thus lower blood sugar levels. The mitochondrial fatty acid-carnitine transferase increase means more efficient fat burning.
6. Increased metabolic rate. When most people say: “how can I increase my metabolism”? They are really asking how can I burn more calories. Most calories are burned in the mitochondria, so with increased numbers of mitochondria, increased receptors, and increased circulation you simply become a more efficient calorie burner. This is the only way that you can increase your metabolic rate! There may come a day in the distant future when we will be able to take a pill to increase our metabolic rate. There is nothing available that will do that now.
7. Increased Production of Antioxidant Enzymes. It is a proven fact that aerobic exercise increases your body’s production of the antioxidant enzymes: Catalase, Glutathione Peroxidase, and Superoxide Dismutase. (see article on Antioxidants). This is a very important side effect because aerobic exercise typically doubles your production of free radicals that can damage your tissues. The concomitant increase in production of these antioxidant enzymes means that you can maintain the desirable ratio between free radicals and antioxidants.
8. Increases the Production of Endorphins. Endorphins are opiate molecules that are produced in the body during aerobic exercise, mediation, jovial laughter, and sexual pleasure. These molecules are taken out of the blood stream by opiate receptors in the brain. The result is pain ablation and mood elevation. These endorphins are often called “feel good chemicals.” What a pleasant fringe benefit.
9. Increases the Thermic Effect of Food. The process of eating, digesting, absorbing and transporting food molecules uses energy, thus produces heat. You may have noticed being warmer after a meal; that is the Thermic Effect of Food. Aerobic exercise increases the amount of energy consumption that is converted to heat. If you convert more of your energy consumption to heat, then you will not be making fat from it. It is a WIN, WIN.
10. Increases Your Efficiency of Removing Wastes from the Body. Increased bowel mobility means improved transit times (feces elimination). Increased efficiency in circulation leads to better kidney function.
11. Increases Muscle Mass in the Body. Aerobic exercise encourages muscle growth.
12. Enhances Your Immune Function. Better circulation, more receptor sites, improved metabolism, more endorphins lead to better immune system.
13. Decreases the Onset of Degenerative Disease. Atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease), cancer, diabetes, and many others are degenerative diseases that often start at an early age. They slowly develop into pathology later in life. All of the benefits of aerobic exercise work synergistically to protect the body from disease.

Now I ask you, with a list of benefits like this, how can you continue to be SEDENTARY? If you say you cannot find time to do this; then rearrange your schedule! You cannot afford NOT TO!

Professor Jack A. Bateman
www.thevitaminsupplementstore.com