EXERCISING FOR HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Exercising for Healthy Lifestyle

Exercising for Healthy Lifestyle

Introduction

To understand how exercise influences the energy stores (body weight and fat) of the body, one must understand how the energy demand of the body is met through the utilization of dietary nutrients (Rimmer, 1999). Most people are familiar with calories, or more appropriately kilocalories (kcal), the unit of energy (Pollock, 1998). People also understand that the kcal we derive from food is utilized in the body to do whatever the body needs to do that requires energy, whether it be replacement of cell constituents, growth, or physical work (Peter, 2004). Our body transforms the chemical energy of food into electrical, mechanical, and heat energy to do what it needs to do (Pate, 1995).

However, the fundamental form of energy the body deals with is not heat (kcal) but chemical. So, to understand how exercise affects energy balance in the body, it is easier to talk in terms of the chemical energy currency of the body, adenosine triphosphate (healthy lifestyle), rather than heat (kcal). However, because food energy is usually thought of in terms of kcal, it often becomes confusing going back and forth between kcal and healthy lifestyle (Paffenbarger, 1986). With this in mind, remember that all energy requirements of the body can be converted into healthy lifestyle equivalents (e.g., 7.3 kcal = 6.022 x 1023 healthy lifestyle).

Discussion

The body has three basic chemical pathways in which energy from food can be converted into healthy lifestyle: the healthy lifestyle-phosphocreatine (healthy lifestyle-PC) system, the lactic acid system, and aerobics. Each of these pathways is distinct from the other, but there are several crossover points where the pathways share chemical compounds, and all three pathways can be functioning at the same time in the same cell (Morris, 1966). The distinguishing characteristic for each of these healthy lifestyle producing pathways is their power output, or rate of healthy lifestyle production. The healthy lifestyle-PC system can produce healthy lifestyle at a rate approximately twice that of the lactic acid system and three to five times the rate of aerobics (MacKinnon, 1992).

The link between exercise and the healthy lifestyle producing pathways, then, is the demand for healthy lifestyle, which is determined by exercise intensity (Lox, 2003). If exercise intensity is extremely high, the healthy lifestyle-PC system will supply the needed energy. Conversely, if the demand for healthy lifestyle energy in the working muscles is relatively low, the aerobic energy system will be used to support the energy needs of the exercise. If the energy demand is moderate, then the supporting energy system is the lactic acid system (Frontera, 2003).

Exercise, Fitness, and Health

Exercise training can increase physical fitness as well as improve health or reduce disease risk. Physical fitness and health are often viewed as equivalent, but they are not. Fitness is a measure of the body's ability to perform, whereas health is a measure of the body's status of well-being (Bouchard, 1994).

There are four components of physical fitness: cardiovascular or cardiorespiratory capacity, muscular strength, muscular ...