The Benefits of Exercise
New research findings show an interesting trend regarding the ‘extent’ of the benefits
The sky’s the limit when it comes to the benefits of exercise in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, as newly-released findings attest to.
As I already covered a few years back, the benefits of exercise and good health are immeasurable.
This has long since been proven medically and supported widely by schools, research centers and medical institutes, as well as by wellness experts.
Aside from keeping you functional, nimble and in good shape (who’s gonna gripe about that?), appreciable levels of health and fitness prevent the onset and/or likelihood of you having – among other chronic medical issues – heart attacks and/or strokes.
But even though we wellness coaches annoy and bore the heck out of people we talk to and train, we can now feel even more emboldened to bang the drum.
What’s the new research saying?
In a nutshell, there’s more benefit potential than we were made to believe.
A recently released University of Oxford study suggests exercise may be even more important for preventing cardiovascular disease than previously known. And in fact, ‘more’ is actually better.
Researchers in the UK tracked over 90 thousand participants over the course of five years and combined findings with a wider study by the UK Biobank.
And since cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death globally, claiming approximately 17.9 million lives each year, it was most encouraging to see that cases decreased among participants as physical activity increased.
But what was particularly noteworthy, was that there was no point beyond which the effects did not go on improving cardiovascular health. In other words, there were exponential benefits in line with the physical activity (PA) – or even more plainly: payouts were directly proportional to the input, with seemingly no limit.
As the study concluded:
"we found no evidence of a threshold for the inverse association between objectively measured moderate, vigorous, and total PA with CVD. Our findings suggest that PA is not only associated with lower risk for of CVD, but the greatest benefit is seen for those who are active at the highest level."
As noted by Associate Professor Aiden Doherty, from the University of Oxford: "This is the largest ever study of device-measured physical activity and cardiovascular disease. It shows that physical activity is probably even more important for the prevention of cardiovascular disease than we previously thought. Our findings lend further weight to the new WHO guidelines on physical activity which recommend at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity per week for all adults."
I’ve cited the World Health Organization’s take on the declining state of world health before, and I’m going to reiterate it, especially since the organization revised its guidelines just last month.
My takeaway message
I’ve worked in the industry long enough to know with certainty that people will continue to roll their eyes, raise their eyebrows or simply turn the page on this topic.
But why not consider a change?
After all, the effects of cardio are well-documented and compelling – as can be seen in this image published on the National Institutes of Health’s research library.
If you’re reading this you probably know where you stand on the issue of health and fitness.
So before you go, hear the important message one last time:
Physical exercise is good for you!
Let me again urge you to refresh your mind regarding just 5 of the numerous benefits I like to talk about:
Exercise allows you to control your weight
Exercise lowers your health risks
Doing exercise enables you to do more
Exercise improves your physical attractiveness
The non-physical benefits of exercise are invaluable to overall well-being
(The benefits of exercise page goes into more detail on this list.)
So, my final word today: Just start! What’s there to think about or wait around for?
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Image courtesy of: Gabe Pierce on Unsplash
