Life Extension: Exercise and Physical Fitness Program

There are two types of exercises that are crucial to any Life Extensions program, physical and mental. This section covers physical exercise. A good physical exercise program will also support your mental exercise program and your stress management program. A good physical exercise program is designed to improve the overall fitness and to maintain the health of an individual. Among the benefits of a well-designed program are:

• Increased physical work capacity (strength and endurance)
• Increased cardiovascular and respiratory efficiency
• Decreased risk of coronary heart disease
• Changes in body metabolism (e.g., reduced level of obesity)
• Psychological effects (e.g., stress reduction)
• Delay of physiological aging effects

Exercise is to the human body what fine tuning is to an engine. It enables us to perform up to our potential. Fitness can be described as a condition that helps us look, feel and do our best. More specifically, it is: "The ability to perform daily tasks vigorously and alertly, with energy left over for enjoying leisure-time activities and meeting emergency demands."

"It is the ability to endure, to bear up, to withstand stress, to carry on in circumstances where an unfit person could not continue, and is a major basis for good health and well-being."

Physical fitness involves the performance of the heart and lungs, and the muscles of the body. And, since what we do with our bodies also affects what we can do with our minds, exercise influences to some degree qualities such as mental alertness and emotional stability.

As you undertake your life extension physical fitness program, it's important to remember that fitness is an individual quality that varies from person to person. It is influenced by age, sex, heredity, personal habits, exercise and eating practices. You can't do anything about the first three factors. However, it is within your power to change and improve the others where needed.

Links: Exercise and Fitness