Your level of physical fitness has a significant impact on your overall quality of life. The better shape that you are in, the more you will enjoy your life. It is therefore important that you use every resource that is available to get yourself in good physical condition.
Improvements in physical fitness, especially cardiovascular endurance, frequently are equated with
improvements in health status or disease prevention. The difference between health and fitness
often is a difficult but important distinction to make when attempting to define the physical activity characteristics necessary for improving health. A high level of physical fitness usually is associated
with good health, but an improvement in fitness does not necessarily ensure an increase in resistance to disease or its consequences. For example, patients with disorders such as emphysema or
schizophrenia can significantly increase their physical fitness through exercise without necessarily
changing the severity of their disease or their medical prognosis. Becoming more physically fit and
improving health status are interrelated, but they are not synonymous. Physical activity may improve physical fitness (or one of its components) and clinical health status. At the same time, the health improvement may
be due to biological changes different than those responsible for the improvement in physical fitness. For example, endurance training will increase aerobic capacity and may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, but the biological changes produced by the exercise responsible for these two benefits may not be the same: the increase in aerobic capacity is likely due to an increase in oxygen transport and utilization capacity, while a reduction in coronary heart disease risk may be the result of alterations in lipoprotein metabolism or
fibrinolytic mechanisms such as blood-clotting.
Therefore, while the improvement in physical been derived from studies that have investigated the effects of exercise on specific biologic changes known or thought to be linked either directly or
indirectly to health status. These changes include measures of physical fitness (aerobic capacity,
skeletal muscle strength, flexibility, and so forth) or biological changes not necessarily linked to improved
functional capacity (altered lipoprotein profiles, increased insulin sensitivity, delayed loss of bone calcium). While one cannot assume that a positive in one of these biological functions is the same as improving health status, these studies have contributed substantially to our belief that exercise improves health and to our knowledge regarding the characteristics of the exercise required to produce specific effects.
Here are the advantages of being involved in physical fitness are given below:
- Lower blood pressure and improve heart health.
- Improve your quality of sleep.
- Reduce feelings of anxiety and depression.
- Combat cancer-related fatigue.
- Improve joint pain and stiffness.
- Improve your memory and brain function (all age groups).
- Protect against many chronic diseases.
- Aid in weight management.
- Maintain muscle strength and balance.
- Increase life span.
The Harmful Effects of Not Getting Enough Physical Activity:
Heart Disease
Not getting enough physical activity can lead to heart disease even for people who have no other risk factors. It can also increase the likelihood of developing other heart disease risk factors, including obesity, high
blood pressure, high blood cholesterol.
Type 2 Diabetes
Not getting enough physical activity can raise a person’s risk of developing
type 2 diabetes. Physical activity helps control blood sugar (glucose) weight, and blood pressure and helps raise “good” cholesterol and lower “bad” cholesterol. Adequate physical activity can also help reduce the risk of heart disease and nerve damage, which are often problems for people
with diabetes.
Cancer
Getting the recommended amount of physical activity can lower the risk of many cancers, including cancers of the bladder, breast, colon, uterus, esophagus, kidney, lung, and stomach. These effects apply regardless of
weight status.
Better Community Design to Promote Physical Activity
Many people want to get regular physical activity but live in communities that lack safe, convenient places for people of all ages and abilities to be active. CDC aims to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027 through Active People, Healthy Nation, a comprehensive
approach to promoting physical activity based on strategies recommended by the Guide to Community Preventive Services. For example, CDC funds state, communities, and national organizations to collaborate with
partners to create activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations that connect people from where they live to where they need to go.
Before starting exercises, one very important thing is that you should follow safety precautions.
Safety and Smart Training
Before you begin an exercise program, ask your physician to give you a checkup. Your doctor can advise you to avoid or participate in activities based on your current health and history. Be sure to stay within your limits. If you are injured while exercising, remember to P-R-I-C-E your recovery.
Smart Training
You live in your skin and know how your body feels and works best. That is why you should take responsibility for managing your fitness-training program. Knowing your limits and capabilities is key to setting goals for physical fitness improvement. Smart training means observing some well-recognized guidelines:
• Progression—As you have seen, increasing intensity and/or duration by 10 percent at regular intervals is a good idea.
• Warm-up—Always take a few minutes to warm up your muscles to reduce your chances of injury. Your warm-up should include some running in place or slow
jogging, stretching, and calisthenics. It should last five to seven minutes and should occur just before the CR or muscular endurance and strength part of the workout.
• Stretching—Critical to improving your flexibility, stretching increases your overall fitness and reduces the chance of muscle injury. After exercising, you should cool
down by walking and stretching until your heartbeat reaches 100 bpm and is heavy.
CONCLUSION
Health and fitness are integral parts of military life. They are critical for readiness and important to the well-being of the individual Soldier. Although not a cure-all, a properly planned fitness program yields many physical and mental benefits.
Effective physical training can improve your body composition (decrease body fat and increase lean body weight), ability to work, mental alertness, self-confidence,
and general well-being. Exercise also decreases metabolic and mental health risks, such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression, and much more. With assistance from your ROTC instructors, you now should be able to apply the Army’s general physical fitness principles to create a self-directed physical training program that meets your needs and fulfills your personal and
professional goals.
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