Table of contents:
- The health benefits of exercise
- How movement affects the body
- Exercise promotes health
- Movement lowers the risk of illness
- Therapy and rehab: this is how movement works
The health benefits of exercise
Physical activity is an important building block for a healthy life, because: Movement affects the whole body. Only with sufficient activity can the normal function of most of the vital organs be maintained, the energy balance in balance and the body weight in the normal range. This is the only way we can maintain or improve our physical performance.
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- How movement affects the body
- Exercise promotes health
- Movement lowers the risk of illness
- Therapy and rehab: this is how movement works
Exercise counteracts most health risk factors, but lack of exercise promotes it. Whether we stay healthy depends largely on whether we have been moving for a lifetime.
How movement affects the body
The following table shows how exercise or a lack of exercise affect the body and the organ systems.
| Influence of movement on | Move | Sedentary lifestyle |
|---|---|---|
| Energy turnover | increases | sinks |
| Body weight (with constant calorie intake) | decreases | increases |
| Cardiovascular system | becomes more powerful | gets weaker |
| endurance | improves | deteriorates |
| Blood pressure | sinks | increases |
| Fat metabolism | improves | deteriorates |
| Total cholesterol | sinks | increases |
| LDL cholesterol | sinks | increases |
| HDL cholesterol | increases | sinks |
| Triglycerides | sink | climb |
| Sugar metabolism | improves | deteriorates |
| Insulin levels | sinks | does not sink |
| Blood sugar level | sinks | does not sink |
| Locomotor system | becomes more powerful | gets weaker |
| Muscle strength | improves | deteriorates |
| Bone density | increases | decreases |
| Support function, stability | improves | deteriorates |
| Mobility, resilience of the joints | increases | decreases |
| Immune defense | improves | deteriorates |
| Brain functions | improve | deteriorate |
| Cerebral blood flow | improves | deteriorates |
| New formation of nerve cells | is funded | is not funded |
| psyche | antidepressant effect | no antidepressant effect |
Further information on the scientifically proven health benefits of regular physical activity - from toddlers to old age - can be found in the Austrian recommendations for physical activity from the Healthy Austria Fund.
Exercise promotes health
Energy expenditure has a central influence on the health and fitness of the entire body because it influences most of the other known risk factors, e.g. the percentage of body fat (abdominal circumference), bone density, insulin sensitivity, blood lipids and blood pressure. Strength and endurance, on the other hand, are fundamental requirements for physical performance.
From around the age of 35, the body's performance begins to decline due to natural aging processes. The risk of adverse health effects therefore increases with age. Physical inactivity causes or promotes these degradation processes. Adequate exercise and targeted training help to lower the risk factors for diseases and to age healthily.
Certain effects of exercise can occur after a short time, for example muscle strength and fat metabolism improve in about four to six weeks after the start of training. In order to reduce the risk of illness and to be able to live in health for as long as possible, physical activity must be carried out regularly, to the right extent and for a lifetime.
Note The Austrian recommendations for physical activity from the Healthy Austria Fund show the extent to which regular physical activity is recommended for various target groups.
Movement lowers the risk of illness
As studies - including by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Department of Health and Human Services - have shown, exercise lowers the risk of many widespread and often chronic diseases and injuries. These include:
- Cardiovascular diseases (e.g. heart attack, stroke or high blood pressure)
- Overweight and obesity
- Metabolic syndrome
- Type 2 diabetes
- Cancer (especially of colon, lung, breast, uterine, stomach, esophagus, kidney, bladder and prostate cancer)
- depression
- dementia
- Infectious diseases
- Hip fractures
- Falls
Therapy and rehab: this is how movement works
Exercise can help cure many diseases or alleviate symptoms if it is used in a targeted manner, similar to a drug. The prerequisite for the targeted application is the knowledge of which physical effects can be triggered by movement and why. In other words: which exercise dose causes which reaction in the body?
Different training measures, for example the training of motor skills such as endurance, strength, flexibility or coordination, have different effects on the body. The severity of a patient's illness or his / her physical fitness also influence the success of an exercise measure. These factors are taken into account in a medical prescription in order to be able to use movement specifically in therapy and rehabilitation, e.g. movement therapy.
