Exercise

Regular exercise is vital to help maintain good health. Exercise burns up extra calories in food and reduces the likelihood of these being converted into fat. Regular exercise makes you fit, gives a general sense of well-being, improves appetite and sleep and makes the heart and circulation, lungs and respiration work more efficiently. Exercise carried out for about 20 minutes three times a week is beneficial for the body.

Physical Fitness can be measured in various aspects such as your balance, stamina, strength and flexibility. It is often assessed by measuring heart rate after exercise. Fitness can also be measured in terms of the strength of specific muscles required to perform a task such as lifting weights. optimal Physical fitness requires both aerobic exercise and muscle - strengthening exercises.

There are three main types of exercises that can be included in your exercise program. These are- flexibility, strengthening, and fitness.

Flexibility exercises involves stretching, loosening up and bending. These exercise helps muscles and joints to perform their full range of movement with suppleness and ease and help to reduce stiffness and keep your joints flexible.

Strengthening exercises include both flexibility and fitness exercises as well as the use of weights and specially designed equipments in a gym. These exercises help maintain or increase muscle strength, leading to firming up of the body and an improvement in posture.

Fitness exercises help increase your endurance and stamina. Vigorous activities (Aerobic activities) such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, dancing, swimming along with many sports like football, tennis, badminton etc. improve fitness. The improvement can be seen after a few weeks of regular, fairly, hard exercise i.e. 30 minutes of aerobic activity every day. However, the level of fitness soon declines if the exercise regime is abandoned.

Walking: Walking is the best form of moderate exercise. Brisk walking help circulation of blood throughout the body. Walking can help people avoid a heart attack, peel off pounds and even develop a hard body.

An ideal walking schedule for beginners is 20 minutes 6 or 7days a week. As you develop endurance and loose weight increase your walking time gradually. If you don't need to lose body fat, you can stay fit by walking 20 to 30 minutes 3 days a week.
Walking.... go for it.

Research has shown that brisk walking regularly 3 days a week gives a 15 percent boost in mental functioning



Running or Jogging : Running improves cardiovascular fitness, promotes endurance and stamina and gives complexion a super fit glow. However, over exertion can cause fatigue, insomnia and rapid heart beat after the exercise.

Cycling : Cycling strengthens legs and thighs, heart and lungs and improve circulation. Fresh air, speed and sense of freedom allow the mind to soar. Ride at an even speed, instead of exhausting the energy by pedalling hard. The continual pumping action benefits the heart.

Aerobics : This vigorous form of exercising which is generally accompanied with music, will slim you down and improve the efficiency of your heart, lungs and circulatory system.

Swimming : It tones all parts of the body symmetrically. The crawl, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, all of them firm buttocks and thighs, broaden shoulders, slim torso and lift breasts. Swimming also gives a beautiful back and pressure tones the skin to a smooth polish.

Tennis , Badminton and squash : These sports help develop strong buttocks and leg muscles, strengthen wrists, reflexes, eye hand co-ordination and foot work ability. Warm up before you play. Drink plenty of liquids after play.

Other daily activities like climbing stairs, gardening, carrying groceries etc all count towards moderate exercises which help in burning calories.