There’s a saying, “Use it or lose it.” That’s pretty much why exercise is good for you. But that’s just the short answer. The details of what actually happens in your body are truly amazing and, I think, super motivating. Here’s the the rest of the story you won’t want to miss!

[This article is going to motivate you to exercise more. So here’s the obligatory, but important, cautionary note. If you are going to start an exercise program, you should have the OK from your doctor first to make sure that you don’t have any potential heart or other health issues.]

How Exercise Makes You Stronger and Healthier

The very first day that you start your exercise program, you will be healthier than you were yesterday. Why? Because your body immediately responds to the exercise by building new cells and tissues to support that exercise. It gets ready to better handle the exercise you will do tomorrow. Isn’t that amazing!?

There are several marvelous ways that your body changes when you begin a consistent aerobic exercise program. All of the improvements your body makes increases your VO2 Max, which is a measurement of of your fitness level. Specifically, VO2 Max measures the volume of oxygen a person can consume in one minute exercising at maximum exertion.

Here are the incredible changes you’ll see in your body:

Heart
When you train over a period of time your heart will grow in size, allowing it to pump a larger volume of blood with each stroke (or pump). This allows more oxygen to be delivered to all the cells in your body. At the same time, your heart also becomes stronger and more efficient at pumping blood.

Blood Vessels
In response to your muscles needing more oxygen, your body will grow more capillaries to deliver more oxygen faster going forward. Isn’t that cool?! In addition, over time, regular exercise will make your blood vessels become more flexible allowing them to deliver more oxygen rich blood more efficiently. And if that wasn’t enough, the increased blood flow in your blood vessels serves to clean out excess cholesterol, keeping you free of clogs which can cause strokes and heart attacks.

Red Blood Cells
As you exercise each day, your body says, “OK, I get it. You need more oxygen. Alright, turn up the red blood cell production!” As your red blood cell count increases so does your ability to receive more oxygen more efficiently.

Cellular Level
This improvement is very cool too. In each of the cells in your body there are these little power machines called mitochondria. What they do is produce energy by combining oxygen and glucose (or other fuel molecules). This combination produces ATP which is the molecule that gives your cells the energy they need to do their cellular work. When you exercise regularly, guess what happens? Yup, your body creates more and stronger mitochondria in each of your cells, making you more powerful and giving you more endurance for everything in your life! Wow! How exciting is that!?

Muscles
When you use your muscles beyond what they can handle, either through aerobic exercise or weight bearing exercise, it causes your body to build new muscle tissue. Tiny tears can occur with weight lifting, and when these tears are repaired, this is what causes the muscle to become larger and more defined. Larger, stronger muscles will raise your metabolism making weight management easier.

Your VO2 Max

If you want to test your VO2 max, a simple way to do this is to perform the Rockport Walking Fitness Test. It is well regarded as an accurate way to measure your VO2 max. If you can’t get your heart rate above 120 with fast walking, here is a similar jogging test. (Again these tests should only be done with your doctor’s approval.)

What Kind of Exercise is Best?

The best kind of exercise is the kind you do everyday for 30 minutes, whether consecutive minutes or broken up throughout the day. You should aim for a target heart rate of 55-85% of your max heart rate. Here’s the formula to calculate your maximum heart rate:

Maximum heart rate = 208 - (0.7 X your age in years)

Example: If you are 40 years old, then your maximum heart rate = 208 -(0.7 X 40)= 180.
Moderate activity level would be between 99 - 126 beats per minute.
Strenuous activity level would be between 126 - 153 beats per minute.

So it doesn’t matter if you walk or run, bike or swim, play tennis or rake the yard. As long as you do it everyday and get your heart pumping you will make yourself healthier every day. The only advantage that running has over walking is that you can burn more calories in a shorter period of time. But, the advantage of brisk walking is that it is easier on your joints than running. So just choose whichever activity you like better, and go for it!

Another thing to keep in mind is that you have to stop in the middle of your exercise, don’t fret. As long as you finish it later, it’s fine. You can do 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. Everyone has time for that right?

My soon to be released book on healthy living will have more information on healthy exercise. In the meantime, all you need is a pair of sneakers and you’re good to go. Vary your exercise every so often for a new muscular challenge and also for fun. Here are some other aerobic activities you can try:

biking
cross country skiing
swimming
tennis
strenuous yoga
squash
hiking
kayaking
golfing
soccer
jumping (jump-rope or mini-trampoline)
dancing

有這樣一句俗語，“不常使用，就失去。”就很好地說明了為什么運動對你有好處。但這只是句簡短的回答。運動讓你身體里實實在在變化著的細節是令人驚奇的，我認為，非常激勵人。這里有你絕不愿錯過的其他的信息！

（這篇文章將激勵你更多地去運動。所以這里有些必需的，但重要的警示。如果你要開展一項運動，必須先得到你的醫生的許可，確保你將不會有任何潛在的心臟或其他健康上的問題。）

運動怎樣讓你更加強壯和健康

即使是開始運動項目的第一天，你也比昨天更健康。為什么？你的身體以建立新的細胞和組織的方式迅速地做出反應，來支持那項運動的進行。你的身體狀況將更好，使你更好地應付明天要做的運動。這難道不是很神奇嗎？

當開始堅持一個有氧運動計劃時，你的身體以一些驚人的方式發生改變。所有的身體狀況上的改善將增加你的最大攝氧量，而最大攝氧量是測量你的健康水平的一個標準。具體來說，最大攝氧量測量的是一個人在一分鐘運動中的最大耗氧量。

這些就是你將在自己身上看到的難以置信的改變：

心臟
當你運動訓練過一段時間以后，你的心臟體積將變大，每一次跳動（或撞擊）可以輸送更多的血。這將輸送更多的氧氣到你身體的各個細胞。同時，你的心臟變得更強壯，能更有效率地輸送血液。

血管
因為你的體力需要更多氧氣支撐，你的身體將生成更多毛細血管來便于更多氧氣的傳送。這難道不神奇嗎？另外，久而久之，定期的運動將使你的血管更有效率、更靈活地更傳送更多富氧的血液。除此之外，那些增加的血液在你的血管里流動著，它們能清除多余的膽固醇，讓你免于可能引起中風和心臟病發作的血管堵塞。

紅細胞
隨著每天的運動，你的身體說，“好的，我知道了。你需要更多的氧氣。好吧，加大紅細胞的產量！”紅細胞數量增加了，你也能更有愜意地吸收更多的氧氣。

細胞水平
這個進展也是令人稱奇的。你身體中的每一個細胞里，都有這些叫做線粒體的“小發電機”。它們將氧氣和葡萄糖（或其他燃料分子）結合起來來制造能量。這種結合制造出提供細胞每天運行所需燃料的分子--三磷酸腺苷。當你定期運動，猜猜會發生些什么？是的，你的身體在每一個細胞中制造出更多更好的線粒體，讓你更強壯，在生活中做任何事情時都更有耐力。哇！這不是多激動人心嗎！？

肌肉
當你用你的肌肉做些有難度的活動時，不論是有氧運動還是負重運動，都會讓你的身體建立新的肌肉組織。舉重時肌肉會有輕微的裂開，當這些裂口愈合時，肌肉也變得更強大更輪廓分明。擁有些大塊些、強壯些的肌肉會讓新陳代謝加快，讓體重更容易保持。

你的最大攝氧量
若你想測試自己的最大攝氧量，進行rockport步行體能測驗就是一個簡單的方法。它被認為是測量最大攝氧量的一個準確途徑。如果你不能通過快走讓你的心率超過120，這里還有個相似的慢跑測試。（同樣地，這些測試必須在你的醫生的準許下完成。）

什么方式的運動最好？
運動的最好方式是每天進行半個小時，不管是持續的半小時還是一天中零碎進行的半小時。你需要朝著使心率往你的最大心率的55-85%的目標前進。這是計算你的最大心率的公式：

最大心率=208-(0.7X你年齡的年數）

例子：如果你40歲，那么你的最大心率=208-(0.7 X 40)= 180
一般的心率水平應該在每分鐘99-126之間。
較好的心率水平應該在每分鐘126-153之間。

所以，無論你是走還是跑，是騎自行車還是游泳，是打網球還是用耙理庭院，都沒有關系。只要你每天做，讓你的心臟自由跳動，你會每一天變得更健康一點。比起步行，跑步的唯一優勢是能讓你在更短的一段時間里消耗更多的卡路里。但是比起跑步，快走的優勢是它對于關節來說更為輕松。所以只要選擇你更喜歡些的運動，去做吧！

另外你需銘記在心，當不得不在運動中停下來時，不要為此苦惱。只要你能稍后完成它，就可以了。你可以早晨和晚上各運動15分鐘。這樣每個人都有時間運動了，不是嗎？

我將發行的那本關于健康生活的書中會提供更多關于健康運動的信息。與此同時，你所需要的一切僅僅是一雙穿著行動方便的膠底運動鞋。偶爾讓運動的內容多樣化，這將既是一項新的肌肉挑戰，也是一種樂趣。這里是一些你可以嘗試的其他有氧運動：

* 騎自行車
* 越野滑雪
* 游泳
* 網球
* 艱苦的瑜珈訓練
* 壁球
* 徒步旅行
* 劃皮艇
* 高爾夫球
* 英式足球
* 跳躍（跳繩或小蹦床）
* 跳舞