The human body is a piece of work. Unchecked by abnormal affliction and blessed with a healthy diet, it can last for decades. But there are several factors that can cut your life short. Fortunately, there is an ultimate panacea; a philosopher's stone -- a universal cure-all and method of bucking fate that can even extend your life beyond its natural course. It's physical fitness. Let's take a quick look at what it accomplishes. I must note that this all comes from scientific study, not word of mouth. There are studies confirming all these benefits.
As you may not know yet, there are three core areas of physical fitness.
- Cardiovascular
- Muscular
- Flexibility
Cardiovascular involves health of the respiratory system. As you do work, your body breaks down energy derived from your digestive system and burns it like an engine. Your blood is the conveyor belt for the energy, taking oxygen (needed to free it up) to storage and removing carbon dioxide (the byproduct of release) back out of the system. Muscular involves the strength of your muscles, obviously. How well you do work or how much work you can do is determined in part by muscular endurance. Flexibility is about muscular and joint health. If your neck suddenly jerks to one side, whether you've done flexibility training may impact the risk of whiplash. It also keeps your joints safely supported. What are the benefits of keeping this trifecta in order?
FlexibilityLong Term- Stretching improves joint health by reducing tension on joints caused by tight muscles.
- Stretching can prevent arthritis and eases the pain of those who have it.
- Stretching ensures avoidance of pain with age by combating the natural loss of elasticity in muscle tissue.
- Stretching makes everything easier, from reaching for a can of soda to tying your shoe.
- Stretching can help prevent sport injuries or accidents that cause abnormal movement of limbs.
- Stretching can prevent lower back pain, though currently, science dictates that knee and leg flexibility is more effective than trunk flexibility here.
- Stretching improves and helps maintain good posture.
- Stretching ensures life-time wellness. Even twenty year olds are sometimes inhibited by pain in certain areas. By stretching, you can ensure you're mobile well into old age.
- Stretching allows you to exert force through a wider range of motion and assume better posture in sports.
But remember, this is for people who stretch after workouts consistently. Stretching before physical activity has been scientifically proven to inhibit physical ability. Yes, for some reason, football and track coaches still demand their players stretch before games, when science blatantly suggests they shouldn't. "Warming up" doesn't mean stretching; it means elevating your body temperature to a level conducive to the chemical reactions needed to perform work.
Short Term- Stretching can postpone delayed muscle soreness for one to two days after lifting weights.
- Stretching relieves aches and pains that come from remaining sedentary in a certain position.
- Stretching can relax a person after work.
Muscular- Weight training improves muscular strength, allowing you to do more work.
- Weight training can help body composition by replacing lost fat with muscle.
- Weight training temporarily raises your calorie-burning for two hours after a workout.
- Weight training improves appearance, self-image, and self-efficacy.
- Weight training reduces risk of injury to the tissues exercised.
- Weight training causes more fuel to be stored in the muscles, building endurance and reducing fatigue in work.
- Weight training, while in progress, increases blood supply to muscles, eliminating waste and supplying oxygen more efficiently.
- Weight training normalizes biological processes and makes other biochemical improvements, like increasing tissue sensitivity to insulin (thereby directly reducing chance of Type II diabetes).
- Weight training improves metabolic function.
- Weight training improves blood / fat levels, reducing risk of heart disease.
- Though men will have more mass then women, both can gain the same amount of strength in a training program.
CardiovascularThis is the big league, and I've saved the best for last.
Long Term- Aerobic training improves cognitive function and stress management, reducing depression, anxiety, and risk of stroke.
- Increased blood flow to the brain exists during work.
- A correlation exists between reduced risk of Alzheimer's and aerobic training.
- Aerobic training increases the heart size and resting stroke volume. Lower resting rate reduces risk of heart disease and heart attack significantly.
- Aerobic training improves efficiency in using oxygen from inhaled air.
- Aerobic training by extension reduces risk of cold or upper respiratory tract infection.
- Aerobic training increases the sweat rate, in effect improving body cooling.
- Aerobic training (much more than two minutes, at least) reduces fat by burning fat stores.
- Aerobic training has been scientifically proven to reduce risk of colon cancer. Studies for other cancers are being conducted, and the cause-effect correlation is holding strong in preliminary results.
- Aerobic training increases the number and size of mitochondria in muscle cells, increasing the amount of stored glycogen (energy) and myoglobin, and improving ability to use lactic acid and fats as fuel.
- The above means that not only will tissue respond to insulin (stemming type II diabetes), you'll have more power and endurance and will increase fat-free mass.
- Aerobic training increases density and breaking strength of bones, ligaments, and tendons, thereby reducing osteoperosis.
- Aerobic training increases blood volume and capillary density, heightens levels of high-density lipoproteins and lower levels of triglycerides, and lowers resting blood pressure and reduces platelet stickiness (a factor of coronary artery disease).
- Aerobic training reduces risk of cardiovascular disease summarily, including a variety of illnesses related to the circulatory and respiratory systems.
And the big one, derived from studies in the United States and Europe:
Aerobic training reduces risk of death from all causes.~
So let's count how many unsavory fates and medical bills we can dismiss through exercise.
Type 2 Diabetes risk is reduced.
Osteoperosis risk is reduced.
Cardiovascular disease / heart disease / stroke risk / heart attack risk are all significantly reduced.
Common cold risk is reduced.
Depression risk is reduced.
Chronic pain is reduced.
Chance of serious injury is reduced.
Correlation between reduced risk of Alzheimer's exists.
Colon cancer risk is proven to be reduced, while risk for other cancers are also probably reduced.
~
And I haven't even covered the benefits. ...I have lost too many friends of the family and seen too many hardships that could have been totally avoided through exercise. Resort owners are going to have to sell a resort nearing its 75th birthday because they can no longer maintain it, meaning bastards from Texas will carve it up to put mini-mansions on it and clog the river. Friends are hospitalized and develop cancer, or have heart attacks and die. Life is impaired and good, hard-earned money is squandered on medical bills. They are dying and suffering before their time, and their legacy is marred by the weight of these problems. And it is so ridiculously easy to avoid! I wake up and exercise a goor hour a day, stretching for about fifteen minutes after. In the last month, I've lost over fifteen pounds of fat. Granted, I've gained back four pounds of muscle through strength training. But I accomplished this just by walking three miles four to five days a week in the morning, cutting soda out of my diet, and eating three meals a day versus two huge ones. Already, the benefits are clear.
This is how easy it is. If I keep this up for the rest of my life, then barring unfortunate accidents, I will hopefully stave off a host of things that could push me off this mortal coil. I will have more life to enjoy, and I will care. And I still grant myself soda and candy on certaind days (mainly when I watch Naruto).
And you may ask, what's the point? I'll only be 100 years old and decrepit, unable to enjoy life as I do now. The point is, by that age your wisdom and power will be at an all-time high. Whereas you had to struggle and rough it in youth, you'll have (if you planned well) a sizable foundation and freedom to do what you please. You can fish each day, open a shop in a mountain town and hike, or take the route that many well-off retirees are doing now -- you can become a venture capitalist or join certain organizations. And if you already were in a corporation for most your career in a managerial job, you can progress even farther -- perhaps to be on the Board of Directors. The point here is that one of the greatest combined weaknesses and flaws of the human condition is that each generation has to learn several things all over again. By sticking around longer, you'll be able to effect your informed self-will and legacy and benefit others and the world. Your guided power and policy can go farther than ever before, provided you've retained your passion for living and youth. And hell, you might not even be that decrepit, after all. Bruce Lee was virtually "18 years old" at age 32. You may still maintain an active lifestyle. At a resort I visit in the summer, there is a 78 year old man who regularly traverses 13,000 foot high peaks with little effort. He runs his own shop and leads a charmed life. Basically, the entire world will be at your finger tips. Survive the challenge, and claim the reward. You can challenge yourself further with humanitarian pursuits, or you can rest. The choice is yours. But the best way of ensuring you're alive to enjoy it is physical fitness. It is ultimately the destiny of this generation to inherit the world and choose its direction. Let's invest in right decisions and guide the future.
At the very least, claim the years that were given to as yours. Many forces will try to take them away -- but through exercise, you can ensure that your body is your own, and that it will last as life intended to dictate. We spend so many years cultivating our self-will and struggling to fulfill our dreams. Let's see them through all the way, and dream anew. Take the marketing quotes from V8 and Bacardi to heart. Don't live; thrive. And live like you
mean it. 
