On The Need To Exercise
What do you imagine when you hear about exercise? Does what come to your mind involve doing physical activities that makes you tired and all, but in the end, gets your body to a higher fitness level? Well, that is a good place to start. But what if exercise was what you thought about and a whole lot more than you have ever imagined.
A one time event that got you sweating profusely might not be considered an exercise as it is more than just a one time thing. Exercise is planned, structured, and repeated in such a way that your body gets better every time you exercise. One of the key things you need to understand about exercise is consistency. When the activity becomes consistent, then you are on the right path. But one of the most difficult things in life is to stay consistent. The question a person might ask is what use does exercise give beyond improving my health. I could get to improve my health in a whole lot ways than exercise, a person might say.
But consider what exercise does to your brain. The brain is the highest consumer of glucose in the body, somewhere around 20% of our total glucose goes to the brain. And we might understand why this is so since the brain controls a lot of activities in our body. But beyond sending glucose to the brain through eating, have you considered what else the brain needs. It needs oxygen, and a whole lot of it.
And how can you improve sending more oxygen to the brain. Simple answer. Get more oxygen in your blood such that the blood goes to the brain. And what is a good way to get oxygen into your blood? Simple answer. Exercise. So rather than considering exercise as an activity you need to do everyday, consider it a means of improving one of the most important organ of your body. Since most of the things you do would involve the brain, don’t you want to do a whole lot to improve the activities of the brain?
Consider the brain like a poultry farm where you have birds that lay eggs everyday. Imagine what happens when you supply them more food and more oxygen to breathe, they do better. Same as the brain, so rather than only think that exercise makes you grow your muscles, understand that it does much more. Some research has found that the brain still grows even during our adult age, and one way to improve that growth is to get more oxygen to the brain and what best way can you think can help get that oxygen to the brain. Exercise exactly.
Beyond what exercise does to the brain, imagine what it does to the heart. Exercise does more than only help the brain, it also helps our heart. Imagine how one activity could really do so well for our body. It helps keep our vital organs in check and what it requires is a few minutes of consistency from time to time and we would be happy at the end of it all.
And as humans, we love challenges as they make us better versions of ourselves. Exercise challenges us to do more and be more especially in things we thought we could never do. To exercise usually requires a lot of perseverance as sleeping on the bed a little more usually sounds better than having to exercise that morning. But guess what, your brain requires exercise. And the earlier you get started, the better it becomes for you as a person. If one of the most important part of your body is the brain, don’t you want it to improve everyday. You surely would.
Understand that exercise is more about consistency than sudden burst of activities we cannot sustain. It is better to keep small committments than irregular activities we cannot sustain. Start small, choose to walk, jog, or run for a few kilometers today, get a break tomorrow, come back again the day after. That is how you keep pushing until it becomes something you cannot go a day without.
No time is too late to get started with exercise. Start small, start today. Just take a small step today and understand that with small steps, a journey is completed. Enjoy the journey, make it fun and make exercise a part of your life. Your life would improve more than you can imagine. Start now.
Thanks and God Bless.
