10 Myths and Miracles of Exercise

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How much exercise do you get?

Would you benefit from more exercise? Different exercise? Regular exercise?

Would your lifestyle be considered active or sedentary? or somewhere in between?

Exercise is one of those things that many of you (including myself) know you need more of.  Life and other things get in the way.  Here are a few of the myths and miracles of exercise that you may know (or not).

Myths About Exercise

Exercise will help you loose weight – There are many reasons to exercise and staying fit is certainly one of them.  Unfortunately, we also believe that exercise helps in the quest for weight reduction, and that may not be ttue.  Gary Taubes, the researcher who caused a stir with his groundbreaking book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, shows that while exercise is great for many things, as far as weight loss goes, it may lean more towards “working up an appetite,” than assisting in a diet plan. I am not saying that people that exercise do not lose weight, but that it is not the key to weight loss, and for some can cause weight gain.

No Pain No Gain – If there is one giant myth about exercise, this is it.  EmmaGem dusts this one off well.  If you exercise to the point of pain, it may actually discourage you from continuing.  This is especially true for those of you who are starting out on a program and older adults who need the exercise for both physical and brain fitness.  Pain discourages the best of us.

Exercise Belongs in the Gym – I have joined gyms at different times, times when I felt I needed the camaraderie of other people exercising, or if I was training for an event (that’s been a while).  But a gym is not a prerequisite for fitness.  Neither is special equipment.  If you feel like you need weights, buy a small set of dumbbells or fill gallon jugs with water.  Fitness does not mean bodybuilding, although fitness will probably result in both body building and lay the foundations for brain fitness.

I Need an Exercise Routine – It doesn’t hurt to have an exercise plan, but there is evidence that it may be better to just build exercise into your day. On Twitter, I just ran across a Tweet from @Hector695 that people who think of activities as exercise gain more benefits.

I’m Too Old to Start This - Sorry, there is no age limit.  I have a friend and former client who is 77 years old and has recently started an exercise program, including hiring a personal trainer.  If you are over 40, yes, you should have a physical before you start a program, but there is no age limit on fitness or wellness.

Okay, enough of that, how about some miracles

Benefits of Exercise

Polish Up the Wetware – Your brain lives on glucose and oxygen.  Without those two things, carried to the brain in blood vessels, the old computer breaks down.  Exercise keeps the blood flowing, helps your brain make new neurons and helps the old neurons make new connections throughout life.

Mental Health – Regular exercise assists the brain in the production of neurotransmitters that stave off the chemical imbalances that cause depression and anxiety symptoms in some people. TeamFit writes that exercise increases the levels of chemical such as endorphins in the brain.  Endorphins are related to both pain reduction and mood.

Stress – Unfortunately, exercise cannot reduce stress in your life.  Only you and the choices you make can do that. Chances are that you won’t be doing it soon.  Stress is probably here to stay.  And it is not always a bad thing.  We  need some stress to stay alive.  It becomes a challenge when our allostatic load becomes more than we can bear.  Allostatic load is made up of, at least partly, of the stress hormones that are pumped into our bodies when we think of ourselves as under stress.  Exercise works wonders at burning off those chemicals.

Memory Improvement – Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, as stated before, and this is key to improving memory.  In burning off thos stress hormones from above, exercise eliminates cortisol, a powerful stress hormone, from the blood stream.  Cortisol is ultimately valuable in ‘saber tooth tiger situations’ as it can focus physical strength and energy in those situations.  The dark side of cortisol is that is turns off our abiltity to learn and to remember.

Overcoming Habits – New research in the journal Pharmacology actually reduces cravings for that which we know better than to consume or do (but we oh so much want to).  The study was done with cigarette smokers and may add …

weight to a growing body of evidence that exercise can help manage addiction to nicotine and other substances. It backs up previous studies, which have shown that just one short burst of moderate exercise can significantly reduce smokers’ nicotine cravings. Huliq.com

Bonus –

The Vitamin D Miracle - I have written in the past on this “new miracle vitamin”.  From everything I have read, it may truly be that.  Some researchers say that vitamin D may reduce the risk of dying from anything.  Let’s connect that to exercise. One of the reasons that this discovery of vitamin d came about is that many of us now avoid the sun, and we get D from sunshine.  Walking outside, for as little as 15 minutes a day in the sunshine enables our body to make this essential vitamin. Any outside workout can do the same.  I still take a supplement, but that is just me.

So, do the miracles outweigh the myths?

What are some other benefits of exercise in either physical or brain fitness?

What keeps you from moving forward with getting a little more fit?

How can I help?

Be well,

Mike

Photo via djwhelan’s photostream