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Exercise for better health
Exercise for better health
The American Heart Association recommends adults do at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of heart-pumping physical movement each week. Doing this regularly can lower your risk for serious health conditions, like:
Heart disease
Stroke
Being more active can also improve your overall well-being and quality of life. It’s a natural mood-lifter that can help you:
Think, feel and sleep better
Complete daily tasks more easily
Best of all, you can find ways to be active almost anywhere — for free. Whether you’re indoors or outdoors, you can get creative. Here are the four types of exercise you’ll want to focus on doing regularly.
Stretching
Stretching
Stretching can keep your muscles flexible, strong and healthy. The more flexible you are, the better it is for your joints. Keeping muscles and joints in top shape helps with your range of motion. It can also help prevent injury.
Before stretching, you’ll want to make sure you do it safely and the right way. Stretching incorrectly can do more harm than good. So while you can stretch anytime, anywhere, doing it properly is key.
Strength training
Strength training
Strength training is also known as weight training, resistance training and muscular training. It’s any physical movement in which you use your body weight or equipment to build:
Muscle mass
Strength
Endurance (how well you can keep doing a difficult movement for a long period of time)
Strength training may help you:
Get stronger: Gaining strength allows you to perform daily tasks much easier, like carrying heavy groceries or running around with pets or kids.
Burn more calories: It can help boost your metabolism, so you’ll burn more calories after your workout.
Reduce stomach fat: Studies show that strength training can help reduce stomach and total body fat.
Strengthen your bones: By putting stress on your bones, strength training can increase bone density. This reduces the risk of osteoporosis (bone disease).
Manage chronic conditions: It can help reduce the signs and symptoms of certain conditions. This includes arthritis, back pain, obesity, heart disease, depression and diabetes.
Endurance
Endurance (also called aerobic) exercises include movements that increase your breathing and heart rate. This helps keep your heart and lungs healthy and improves your overall fitness.
People who work on their endurance regularly can reduce the risk of many diseases. These include diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Some endurance exercises you can try are:
Walking briskly
Running/jogging
Swimming
Biking
Jumping rope
Having good balance is helpful for many things we do every day, such as walking and going up and down the stairs. A loss of balance can occur when you stand or move suddenly. Exercises that improve balance can help prevent falls. They can also aid those who are overweight or obese.
Some exercises that can help strengthen your balance are:
Yoga
Tai chi