Your Body
Accepting Exercise Into Your Daily Routine Will Pull You Out of Your Rut; In this articles I provide reasons exercise benefit you.
Accepting Exercise Into Your Daily Routine Will Pull You Out of Your Rut
Health & Exercise is my trade. And topics such as psychology, leadership , philosophy, and finance are topics of study in my free time. For the past few years I’ve spent much of my free time studying various methods of leadership, psychology, body language, investment and the theories behind philosophy, economics, and finance. In that time I’ve noticed a few parallels between health, psychology, body language, and finance that I feel obligated to share in an attempt to help as many benefit as possible from my point of view. As well as providing some conversation on tendencies I’ve noticed in group-psyche and the average individual that prove to be detrimental to the health of the individual.
I intend to detail what I’ve learned and experienced personally with changing my approach to fitness, my daily routines, and money. These simple concepts, while I label them “simple” can be difficult to accept or change in practice. They are simple in concept but much harder to alter because it involves a lifestyle change, which is something that many of us are scared of.
First, I will explain some benefits of fitness that have a knock-on effects improving your health and fitness returns multiple times over. Then I will get into where I believe these health benefits are comparable to the health of an individual’s finances and/or portfolio.
The Body’s Reward System
The human body is a complicated system — a multitude of mechanisms performing specific jobs independent, yet still reliant on- and working in conjunction with a nearly exponential collection of other systems. All designed not only to survive off each other, but also benefit and reward. While I’ve detailed a few of these physiological systems, there are a plethora of rewards that our bodies provide to promote being physically active that I haven’t touched on. I previously wrote on a few psychological systems that benefit from exercise such as depression, self-efficacy, and confidence here.
Aside from these more direct returns of adopting an active and healthy lifestyle, there’s more. As of 2018 roughly 11% of Americans are on anti-depressants. ELEVEN PERCENT. That’s about 30 million people taking medication for depression alone, this doesn’t include those on medication for cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes, morbid obesity… the list could go on and on. We are in the middle of a pharmaceutical pandemic, but more importantly a pandemic of aversion to responsibility.
You and I are responsible for utilizing our bodies the way they are intended; pushing limits, staying active, and eating well. Taking responsibility for your own health and taking action can see your world and your situation flip on its head. But it requires dedication, consistency, and accountability.
My colleague and friend Orville is a prime example, below is a personal testimony provided to me by Orville for utilization as an example of just how boldly adopting this lifestyle can change your situation;
Got married in 1995 was about 210 maybe 220. By 2017 I was 306. I decided to do Keto for a while, and I got down to like 260. But I was on Metformin (1000mg per day) and Glipizide (5mg per day) for blood sugar, and Metropolol 50mg per day for my heart rate. I was depressed most of the time, and ended up in the ER one Sunday thinking I was having a heart attack (nope just too much anxiety and such).
So sometime in mid-2018 my doctor suggested I go on some anti-anxiety / anti-depression meds — tried Prozac and that just made my heart really race, so he gave me a prescription for Zoloft. I filled it, and it sat there. I decided there had to be another way and I was not going to be 48 on 4 different meds — we know where that was headed…
So my friend had lost a bunch of weight and I asked him how he did it. He had been working with a personal trainer. I contacted the trainer and asked to meet. We talked and he agreed to train me. Started with 3 days a week, moving into heavy lifting. I thought I would die I was so sore. But after a while my body started adjusting and changing. By early 2019 I was able to halve the doses of all my meds (I never did take the Zoloft)…. From March 2019 on ,until the Rona hit, I attended a workout class 5 times per week, and still lifted hard with my trainer 3 times per week.
By that Sept 2019, I was off Glipizide, off Metropolol, and down to 500mg Metformin. My resting heart rate was in the mid-70’s with no meds (was almost 100 before which is why I took meds). My weight was down at best to about 235, BUT I went from barely being able to bench 115 when we started, to PR of 225 last time I could PR on the bench. So body recompositioning is a real thing, I don’t weigh much less than a year ago, but I am definitely different!
Your Body.
So to start — a few basics. The process of mechanical loading (aka resistance training) of the body kicks off a few processes. But for those who may not know what defines resistance training, let’s attempt to define it.
Resistance training is, simply put, the act of applying a force against the body (resistance) to cause microscopic tears in the muscle tissue in order to induce a growth response within the body. This resistance can be applied in multiple ways. The utilization of weights such as barbells, dumbells and kettle-bells is likely the most popular and widely known. Resistance bands have also increased in popularity, utilizing the elasticity of the band as a force to contend with for a workout. But there’s two forces that should also not be forgotten; gravity and the force of an object that does not move as effort is applied to it (also referred to as “static” when referring to stretches or workouts, static meaning the position is being held and effort remains constant).
Gravity can be utilized in a few ways. It plays a role in weight-training that involves vertical movement (which is nearly all of them) as well as calisthenics.
An immovable object can be utilized for resistance training in the way of actively attempting to apply force at a near-maximal effort. While you may look silly as you attempt to push a building, you can rest assured your workout is intact… even if a few bystanders get a chuckle out of it.
Health Returns
Now on to the reasoning for dedicating time out of your day toward improving your body’s fitness. There’s a lot, don’t worry I’ll provide a brief definition of each.
Muscle Growth
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
Neuroplasticity
Insulin Resistance
Bone Density
Stabilization & Balance
Range of Motion
Cardiovascular Health
Muscle Growth
In technical terms; “hypertrophy” is the process of causing microscopic tears in the muscle tissue. The body responds to these tears by stimulating muscle growth. It’s like the system determining — “the tissue experienced damage because we aren’t strong enough, time to build more.”
RMR
Resting Metabolic Rate refers to the caloric demand that your body requires just to exist and breathe. RMR increasing is a good thing for those wishing to shed body fat weight. Increased resting caloric demand causes the body to eat at fat storage during moments of fasting. Can you guess what increases caloric demand and RMR? Muscle tissue. More muscle tissue requires more energy for upkeep, as well as use.
Bone Density
During mechanical loading the bones of the body flex and bend. While this sounds scary or dangerous, the flexing is minute. Much like the skyscrapers in downtown New York, Chicago, and across the world. These structures aren’t perfectly rigid — if they were they would snap like a toothpick. Rather, they are a complicated system that is designed to give slightly and sway and flex with the physics of the wind.
When our bones flex, osteoblasts are stimulated to begin secreting a bone formulating matrix. Meaning that as we workout our bones are working to grow more dense, in an effort to support the demand being placed on them. Which also results in a hardiness against injury and breaking.
Insulin Resistance
Working out and developing the body causes the cells of this system to become more sensitive to carbohydrates as the need for energy grows. As our body becomes more sensitive to carbs it also responds with an increased sensitivity to insulin.
For those that don’t know, diabetes is a condition where insulin is not released within the body or the body no-longer responds to the insulin being released by the pancreas. Type 1 diabetes is a result of the cells of the pancreas being attacked by the body’s own defense system. Type 2 diabetes is a result of the cell’s response to high glucose with low demand, resulting in an increased insulin resistance by the cells. Much like an individual that drinks alcohol regularly. As the alcohol is introduced to the body regularly the body responds with an increased resistance (or tolerance) to the foreign substance in an attempt to maintain homeostasis.
Cardiovascular Health
Pushing the body requires the delivery system for the fuel substances and recovery systems to also improve. The heart is a muscle just like the glutes and the biceps. As we push ourselves through limits and the demand for oxygen and H2O heighten. This calls for the heart and lungs to work faster and harder to provide the necessary materials, improving their effectiveness. The heart gets stronger — allowing for it to squeeze out more blood per “pump.” Allowing for a more efficient delivery system. This efficiency isn’t only during activity but also at rest. As the heart grows stronger, it is allowed to require less effort to supply the body adequately. Resulting in less arrhythmia risk due to less signaling being required because the heart is working more efficiently.
Neuroplasticity
This sounds like a scarier topic than it really is. I will have to explain this with a secondary concept, which is more accurately the primary reason for this benefit.
When we use our bodies, and more narrowly when we workout and improve our fitness, we stimulate muscle growth. At the same time, through a very complicated process, our bodies are also stimulating growth of cognitive pathways as well. Hypertrophy and recovery also see the proliferation of motor neuron and motor unit connections to the damaged tissue. This process allows for an increase in mind-body-connection density. The higher the density — the higher the number of connections — resulting in more control over the physical body.
Neuroplasticity is a reflection of the cognitive capability to reorganize, store and recover data. Basically put; the general capability for a brain to react to stimulation, as well as learn from stimuli. Improving this aspect, as many can imagine, involves “flexing the mind muscle.” While keeping the brain active and partaking in processes resulting in learning are very important, it’s not the only answer to improving mental functioning and neuroplasticity. As we workout and build muscle, we are also jacking up the number of connections our brain & mind have to our body. These connections require organization by the mind to be capable of accessing and utilizing (otherwise, we’d be building muscle without being able to use them). This organization process that our brain performs improves our neuroplasticity, which improves our performance physically as well as improving our learning capability.
More connections mean more control. More connections means more organization is necessitated to be capable of proper functioning. More organization allows for more efficient, and better learning. Better learning leads to better understanding of how to grow (physically as well as mentally). It’s just one giant revolving-door of leveling up the self.
Range of Motion, Stabilization & Balance
As an accessory to muscle growth and mind-muscle connection proliferation, balance begins to improve as well. As we improve our strength and endurance, as well as our memory and learning, our mind is also improving it’s capability of assessing spatial awareness. This aspect plays a big role in range of motion (ROM), stabilization and balance.
As our musculature gets stronger and healthier, the ROM of our joints maintains a healthy functioning. As we grow and develop more brain power, our understanding of where we are in space allows us to better maintain our balance and center-of-gravity as well as keep weight (that our bodies are bearing) stable and controlled.
In Conclusion…
The body is built to move and grow. So my only question for those of you whom are suffering… why don’t you think a possible answer could be that you’re not using your body the way it was intended? Like any tool in a tool shed, if you use it in a manner that it wasn’t built for — it will break.
Our bodies are simply a tool for the mind, to act out our intentions and aspirations. Yet you neglect it by sitting all day, and then you are destroy it by consuming poisons in vast quantities to try and run away from your degrading mental state for a “quick fix,” which is only exacerbating your poorly condition.
So depression is an inflammatory disease, but where does the inflammation come from?
We now know that depression is associated with a chronic, low-grade inflammatory response and activation of…bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com
Your doctor is saying it. Your personal trainer is saying it. I’m saying it. Likely a friend of yours is saying it. So stop thinking you know better. Treat your body right. Use it. Fuel it. Join the rest of us that have made the adjustment to a happier, healthier life. And stop playing the victim game.
A healthy body supports a healthy mind. It’s an investment in your own future and happiness. And it’s easy, just an hour or two a day 3–5 days a week (consistently) with delicious healthy meals. Like financial investments, it takes patience, commitment, and a high time preference.
There is LITERALLY no reason for you to not do it.
[Before You Go…] Hydration
This particular topic has a few common misconceptions. Drinking a few bottles of water prior to a bout of exercise doesn’t get us “hydrated.” Spending a whole day of chugging a gallon of water after a weekend of consuming alcohol doesn’t get us “hydrated.” The sensation of being thirsty, means you’re already dehydrated.
Dihydrogen monoxide, otherwise known as H²O, makes up ~60–70% of our bodies (depending on your source of data). It’s important for the health of our skin, our bones, our brain, our muscles, and the interactions of the body’s systems. When we workout hydration is very important to help keep our blood volume levels. If the volume of our blood gets low then we aren’t delivering enough oxygen & nutrients to the areas that need it, and we also aren’t removing the waste from cellular respiration (this includes the lactic acid that accumulates in the muscle environment during activity). While muscles are ~79% water, our brain and heart are ~73%, and our lungs are a whopping ~83%! Add all of those numbers up PLUS the water that helps maintain blood volume and you start to realize just how important hydration really is. Oh and by the way, even your bones are ~31% water.
The process of re-hydrating tends to take the human body ~72 hours (depending on multiple factors of the individual — diet, activity, metabolism, etc.) to the point of our collection of very complicated systems that we refer to as a “body” getting saturated adequately. And that is with proper & adequate hydration for the entirety of those 3 days. One gallon a day usually doesn’t cut it. While it may be more than most are used to, it’s still not enough. Now… granted there is one thing to keep in mind here — we get water from food we consume as well. But for myself, I shoot for about 1.5–2.0 gallons if I hit a point where I can recognize my hydration is poor. Having to urinate roughly every 1–1.5 hours is usually a pretty good determination if you’re hydrating well.
All of this goes without mentioning that the temperature of the water also makes a difference. While many enjoy a glass of ice-cold water, a dehydrated body does not. Cold water and foods that are consumed cannot be utilized by the body until the temperature of the consumable has been brought to the same temperature as the body (~98.5 degrees Fahrenheit). Consuming cold fluids and foods not only takes more time, but the body will also be required put forth more effort in order to get the precious nutrients. I’m not saying that consuming cold water or foods is bad (I mean, I LOVE ice cream, how can you not?) but in scenarios where time is playing a factor in your hydration, room temperature water will help get you back to 100% faster.
And those of you regular party animals, that 72 hour hydration window doesn’t actually begin until that alcohol is flushed from your body….
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References:
Cassilhas, Ricardo C, et al. “(PDF) Physical Exercise, Neuroplasticity, Spatial Learning and Memory.” ResearchGate, ResearchGate, Dec. 2015, www.researchgate.net/publication/286446007_Physical_exercise_neuroplasticity_spatial_learning_and_memory.
Mangan, P. D., et al. “Resistance Training Treats Depression.” Rogue Health and Fitness, 29 Jan. 2019, roguehealthandfitness.com/resistance-training-treats-depression/.
Stifani, Nicolas. “Motor Neurons and the Generation of Spinal Motor Neurons Diversity.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 2 Sept. 2014, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2014.00293/full.
The Water in You: Water and the Human Body, www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects.
Venkatasamy, Vighnesh Vetrivel, et al. “Effect of Physical Activity on Insulin Resistance, Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Diabetes Mellitus.” Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research : JCDR, JCDR Research and Publications (P) Limited, Aug. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782965/.
Westcott, Wayne L. “Resistance Training Is Medicine.” Current Sports Medicine Reports, vol. 11, no. 4, 2012, pp. 209–216., doi:10.1249/jsr.0b013e31825dabb8.