exercise
Taking regular exercise is very important if we want to live a long and healthy life. Exercise can help us lose weight, tone our body shape and make our heart and lungs function more efficiently. It can even double as an outlet to rid ourselves of work or home life stress.
Exercise is basically divided into two forms - cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. All workouts, sports and exercise activities comprise of these two basic building blocks.
Cardiovascular exercise focuses on the heart and lungs. Cycling, running, and cross training are all good cardiovascular activities as they require our legs and arms to work hard over a prolonged period of time. To keep up this work rate, our leg and arm muscles need a fast flow of oxygen, and to insure that they get it our heart and lungs have to work extra hard. This in turn keeps our heart and lungs healthy, and also helps them to become bigger and stronger.
Resistance training exercises focus on building muscles. These type of exercises, which normally involve lifting weights, are essential if we want to tone up and/or lose weight, as lean muscle mass is a lot more effective at burning calories than cardiovascular exercise.
For more information and advice on exercise please review the resources on our site.