Why Is Physical Fitness So Important

Just why is physical fitness so important, anyway? We often hear general advice about how staying active is good for you, so let's take a big picture look at how regular exercise affects your body.

Some benefits are more readily apparent than others. Here's a breakdown that should answer the question - Why is physical fitness so important.

As you exercise, your entire cardiovascular system gets a workout. That means your heart and lungs become stronger and more efficient at their respective jobs. This in turn translates to lower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure and less stiff blood vessels with less risk of plaque buildup. There's also an increase in red blood cells, making the blood more efficient at transporting oxygen, which boosts athletic performance.

Of course, exercise is fueled by the energy you eat and/or have stored in your body, ie. fat. Exercise more and your body needs more calories. If you eat smart and create a "calorie deficiency", that need comes out of the love handles. The resulting lower bodyweight works to further boost health, which brings us to the issue of joint health.

Regular exercise, if done in a sensible manner with proper warm-ups and cooldowns, keeps the joints nimble and healthy. If you also lose weight, the decreased day-to-day load on the joints and ligaments can have a big impact on problematic knees, aching backs and the like. It doesn't even have to be dramatic weight loss -- a reduction of as little as 10 lbs can have a noticeable impact on overall joint health.

Many chose to make stretching a part of the cooldown routine, when the muscle is good and warm. This is a wise move, as this is the ideal time to increase flexibility. While you may not have any ambitions of showing off doing full splits, it prevents problems that occur due to shortened muscles. An inflexible and shortened hip flexor muscle exerts a small but constant pull on the pelvic bone, tilting the whole hip slightly forward. This shifts the curve of the lower back, which may cause a low-grade but nagging back pain to develop, for example.

The skeleton may seem like a fairly static thing, but the truth is that it, too, adapts to the demands being put upon it. Regular exercise keeps the bones strong and healthy, while a sedentary lifestyle sets you up for brittleness and potential osteoporosis. This is especially true in women who skimp on calcium and may have hormonal fluctuations.

But let's not forget the mental aspect of staying active. The ancient Greek knew the correlation between a healthy mind and a healthy body, and that wisdom holds true to this day. Exercise makes for a great outlet of frustrations, anger, anxiety and other negative feelings you may have accumulated during the day.

A hard workout also triggers a release of natural "happy drugs", endorphins, into your system, making it very difficult to maintain a brooding or stressed state of mind. It is no coincidence patients with depression are almost universally ordered to start hitting the gym or the jogging trail on a regular basis.

Finally, don't underestimate the impact of looking and feeling good in a social and professional context. The sad truth is that some people subconsciously discriminate against overweight people, while giving slender people preferential treatment. Many who start exercising tend to lose weight, improve posture and gain a certain physical confidence which earns them a whole different kind of respect from coworkers, friends and strangers alike. Simply put, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose from getting into regular exercise. Good luck!

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