Monday, October 4, 2010

Learn the Significant Effects of Exercise on the Body

Effects of exercise on the body are too many to realize depending on the body system involved. In this article, I’m going to lead you through simple presentation on how the entire body system is affected by and health benefits of exercise.

First will be the effects of exercise on the muscular and skeletal system, otherwise termed as musculoskeletal system. This includes both the muscles and bones. Exercise aids in the contraction of muscle fibers. Also, it tends to maintain and develop muscle size, strength, and tone. As one can observe, sports persons, who are frequently involve in strenuous exercises, have well developed biceps, triceps, quadriceps, abs, and other muscles in the body.

Exercise can also help in keeping good joint mobility. Weight bearing exercises maintain equilibrium between bone-building and bone resorption cells, making the bones evenly stronger.

Next would be the effects of exercise on the cardiovascular system. This comprises the heart and blood vessels. Exercise increases the heart’s pumping activity, and there is a subsequent increase in blood pressure. These events cause the blood to be significantly delivered to various body tissues. This supports the concept that exercise improves blood circulation throughout the body.

How about the effects of exercise on the respiratory system? Effects of exercise on the lungs can improve one’s breathing pattern and ability as well. Ventilation, or the amount of air going in and out of the lungs, increases. Pooling of secretions, which usually cause upper or lower respiratory tract infection, can be prevented; breathing effort is maintained to a minimum; and diaphragmatic activity is improved.

In metabolic system, exercise speeds the metabolic rate, thereby increasing the production of body heat and waste materials. The level of triglycerides in the body can be reduced due to the increase of its usage, as well as fatty acids, with exercise. This is how exercise can maintain health and fitness. It can aid in the reduction of fats in the body, lessening the threat of having any form of heart and blood vessels diseases.

Moreover, adequate exercise promotes sufficient flow of blood to the kidneys, or urinary system. The excretion of body wastes becomes more effective, and urine stagnation in the urinary bladder can be prevented. This is good news! You can keep yourself away from urinary infections.

The gastrointestinal system, which includes the stomach and intestines, maintains its function with exercise. Appetite and gastrointestinal tract tone may be improved, resulting to efficient digestion and elimination of food taken. You see, exercise is good to prevent constipation. So, if you have a hard time defecating, aside from eating fibers and drinking much water, physical activity would also be helpful.

In integumentary system, improved blood circulation aids in the distribution of nutrients and removal of waste products, which then results to develop healthy structures such as skin and hair.

The effects of exercise on the body would also include psychoneurologic system. This involved the brain which receives significant effects from exercise. It can give a sense of relaxation, improves sleep pattern, boosts energy, and increases tolerance to external stressors.

Effects of exercise on the body are highly valuable because of the systemic effects it can bring. This should give you enough reason not to take exercise for granted. People do not just perform physical activities of exercising in order to get that hot body shape. People also do exercise for therapeutic purposes like improve body circulation, prevent constipation, improve muscle and bone movement as well as to prevent stiffness, improve heart and lung functioning and endurance, burn fats, and whole lot more. The physical effects of exercise would likely be enough to give us a healthier life to live! 

Effects of Exercise on the Musculoskeletal System

The effects of exercise on the musculoskeletal system are the greatest benefits people can ask for to maintain effectiveness of muscle and bone activities. While there can be benefits of exercising, so does limitations. I hope I can share more about it, but my focus is to give you some insight about the effects of exercise on musculoskeletal system.

Imagine now that you’ve done a lot of exercises yourself, but do you really know what happens when you induce stress to the musculoskeletal system? Do you really understand the terms effects of exercise on the musculoskeletal system? I’ll give you simple explanations about this. So, we begin with the effects of exercise on the muscular system and then with the skeletal system.

Muscles

With exercise, the weight or stress you’ve induced to the muscles can create resistance and then contraction of the muscles can be elicited. These contractions enable the muscles to increase in size significantly. Along with the increase in size is the increase in strength as well. Continuous exercise, coupled with weight bearing activities, hypertrophy, medical term for increase in muscle size, of the muscles will be evident. You can just imagine why body builders have huge bulk of muscles all over their body. They tend to carry heavy barbells, dumbbells, and all you can think of, which create greater resistance, leading to a more solid contraction, resulting to greater muscle size and strength. That also explains why runners have well defined legs, swimmers with broad shoulders, basketball players with solid biceps and triceps, and many more.

Bones

Benefits of exercise on the skeletal system are also very interesting. Let us make this as simple as this: according to Guyton and Hall, Textbook of Medical Physiology, continuous physical stress stimulates osteoblastic deposition and calcification of bones. Osteoblasts are cells responsible for the formation of bones, while calcification is the process wherein there is a buildup of calcium salts causing the bone to harden. Given these facts, a person can be assured that inducing physical stress through exercise helps in developing stronger bone tissues. That explains why people who do physical activities, especially athletes, don’t easily get injured. Well, that also shows why inactive people have weaker bones, making them susceptible to all sorts of physical injuries.

Ligaments

Ligaments are strong bonds of connective tissues that attach bones to bones. They are made up of collagen fibers that give them their strength. They usually encapsulate a joint to provide additional strength and stability with joint movement. Without exercise, the ligaments can loosen up. Exercise can help them maintain their power and durability.

Tendons

Tendons form the ends of the muscles which hold the muscles to the bones. The fibers of the tendons are long, and are very strong that they can transmit immense forces without damaging themselves. Most medical resources would agree that tendons function as springs. What’s with the spring? They’re strong, they can stretch and expand, and they can recoil. The stretching and recoil thing suggests the transmission of force produced by muscles to the bones. Exercise can amplify their strength, preventing them from becoming physically injured.

Cartilage

Cartilage is a semi-smooth tissue that forms a cap at the ends of the bones. It provides support by protecting the bones against weight bearing actions. Cartilage should be engaged with joint movement and weight bearing exercises for it to remain healthy. Such exercises keep the cartilage from becoming thin and damaged, which can make them vulnerable to injury or degenerative joint disease.

Joints

Joints hold the bones together while allowing movement between them. The degree of joint movement is called range of motion, or ROM. Exercises for the joints include range of motion exercises. These develop the extent of joint movements without feeling any discomfort.

The effects of exercise on the musculoskeletal system are beneficial for optimum physical functioning of the body. However, it should be done in moderation, especially within one’s cardiac tolerance. You see, exercise can stress the entire body not just the musculoskeletal system. Effects of stress on the heart can be detrimental. Moreover, excessive exercise may induce injury to musculoskeletal structures. Rest periods may also be helpful to relax the structures involved, as well as to regain energy lost with exercise.