The wind is flowing all around you, pushing you, gushing beneath your feet, blowing in your face, rustling your hair, in and out of your body, feeling your lungs expand and deflate with every breath. The trees, grass, wildlife, and world are left behind you as you’re passing by. Running, it’s what you do. There are three main types of exercising: Aerobic exercise, resistance training, and stretching exercise. These three activities will help keep you healthy, happy, fit, and young.
Physical education is a very important part of one’s life. It keeps you fit, active, and healthy. Our country is one of the most obeast nations in the world today. Our children are not getting the nutrition or exercise they need. According to Medline Plus everyone is supposed to have at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days out of the week. Some people think that they are too busy, don’t have the time, or maybe do not live in the right location to be able to exercise. Well, it all starts with the want to. There are 1,440 minutes in one day, so 30 of those cannot be too much to ask to go lift some dumbbells in your own home, walk or run on a treadmill, or take a nice run outside around your neighborhood. But not everyone likes to just go out and exercise, you have to want to, in order to maintain doing this for a long period of time; or else it will probably be another one of the “2-day exercise routines” that is so common.
For high school students, maintaining a routine can be much easier. They have the opportunity to be involved in their school’s sporting activities. According to cdc.gov, 56.3% of students are involved in sports. That is just barely over half. So what about the other half that are not involved in sports? Are they getting the proper amount of exercise? With budget cuts rampant throughout American schools they have to cut-back on the amount of classes they teach, going straight for the “unnecessary” classes that are not required to graduate: art, music, and physical education. P.E. is very important in schools because it is the one block of the day that kids can run around, play active games, and burn some calories. After school most students would not take the time to do those things, due to other commitments such as social activities and homework, leaving no time by the end of the night to just go exercise.
America’s workforce, on the other hand, is more difficult to reach. Only about 24% of our working adults do not exercise, while about 49% perform the recommended 30 minutes per 5+ days a week. Most of these include before or after-work trips to the gym or some simple exercises at home cdc.gov.
This brings me to the three main exercises that could help to improve our people’s physical activity participation according to uptodate.com: aerobic exercise, resistance training, and stretching exercises.
Aerobic originally means “with oxygen”, and refers to working at a level where the large muscles get adequate oxygen from the blood to sustain a long amount of activity. It involves walking, running, or swimming, which all increase the flow of blood through the heart. Random aerobic exercise such as fidgeting can burn between 100 to 800 calories per day. Sports and cardio fall under this category.
Resistance training-also call anaerobic exercise, or exercise “without oxygen”, increases muscle strength and is not a prolonged exercise. After exerting so much energy lifting a higher amount of weight, the muscles get deprived of oxygen and are too fatigued to continue at that level. It may be sore or difficult at the time, but the after effect feeling one gets of accomplishment makes it worth it. Regular gym visits are the main routine to do for this.
Stretching exercise is a more subtle exercise. These are movements that help to improve flexibility and prevent injury. This allows the joints to move over a wider range of motion. A good range of motion for all joints helps to maintain musculoskeletal function, balance, and agility.
The benefits of exercising are numerous. Just maintaining a regular exercise routine helps improve your daily life, health, and prevents quick aging. The risk of dying earlier is decreased, and it also helps to specifically lower the risk of death in men with coronary artery disease. It is an essential component of weight management programs as well. Exercise burns calories and can help maintain muscle mass while dieting. It also improves blood sugar control with diabetes, improve blood fats, and decrease stress. Just simply by exercising, research has shown people may reduce tension, anxiety, and depression cdc.gov.
There are so many positive reasons to exercise and it helps with many things. So the next time you think about placing another candy bar in your mouth while watching the evening news, drop down and do a few push-ups or sit-ups instead. And then you could put on those running shoes and feel the wind in your hair, the expansion of your lungs, and the world pass by as you run ahead of it. Exercise the body and the mind, be healthy, stay fit, and stay happy.










Works Cited
Safer, Healthier, People. "Physical Activity - DASH/HealthyYouth." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 1991. Web. 05 Nov. 2010. <http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/physicalactivity/>.

UpToDate. "Physical Activity Exercises." UpToDate Inc. Web. 05 Nov. 2010. <http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html>.