Benefits of Exercising

¶ … Physical Activity In these modern times, the pace of life is extraordinarily fast. This means that it has become more and more important to balance one's time with strategy and effectiveness. Given the demands on the average individual and the aggravated pace of life, it thus becomes easier to justify not exercising.

So much of life involves the number of things that one can get done in a day, along with staring into various screens (the computer, tablet, and phone screens), that it almost seems justifiable to assert that one doesn't have time to exercise in the course of a day. However, this would be extremely problematic for one's overall health and wellness. The benefits of exercising are extensive and they radiate into one's mental and physical health, creating a multi-faceted incentive for the individual to engage in exercise.

Furthermore, this paper will touch upon the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle as a means of supporting the importance of exercise. The biological and physical benefits of exercising extend to the entire organism.

Exercise: "improves your chances of living longer and living healthier; helps protect you from developing heart disease and stroke or its precursors, high blood pressure and undesirable blood lipid patterns; helps protect you from developing certain cancers, including colon and breast cancer, and possibly lung and endometrial (uterine lining) cancer; helps prevent type 2 diabetes (what was once called adult-onset diabetes) and metabolic syndrome; helps prevent the insidious loss of bone known as osteoporosis" (Harvard.edu, 2013).

Thus, over time, the human body can't help but deteriorate in its level of functioning: disease can creep in from a lifetime of abuse, as can poor patterns of functioning. Essentially exercise is a type of tune-up which allows the human body to work at its most optimal level of skill, warding off disease. Exercise keeps the body running in good shape like a finely tuned machine with the improved heart-lung functioning and overall muscle fitness (Harvard.edu, 2013). The mental benefits of exercise are also exceedingly compelling.

Exercise can minimize the risk of falling and gets to improve cognitive function in mature adults; some studies have even demonstrated that steady amounts of exercise can help to improve memory. In fact, numerous studies have even shown that when it comes to one's mental and emotional health, exercise can help relieve the symptoms of depression and anxiety (Harvard.edu, 2013).

Furthermore, in connection with one's mental and physical health there is also scientific evidence to demonstrate the importance of exercise for improving sleep, allowing one to be happier and more productive during the day (Harvard.edu, 2013). In a related note, by promoting weight gain, exercise has a positive impact on the bio-physical functioning of the entire human body. The dangers of a sedentary lifestyle have been well documented. The nurse health study involved an intensive examination into this arena.

"Researchers followed more than 50,000 middle-aged women for six years, surveying their diet and activity habits. They found that for every two hours the.