LESSON ONE
Why Exercise Is Important!
You know what exercise is, but do you know why exercise is important? It is important because it keeps people's bodies and minds healthy. Without it, we would not be feeling or looking very good. Actually, there are so many reasons why exercise is good for you. It is time to get right into it and see why it is good to be fit!
Exercise Makes Your Heart Happy
Your heart is one hardworking part of your body, pumping blood every day of your life. The heart is a muscle, and it is the strongest muscle in your body, but it can always become stronger! Since it cannot lift weights to get stronger, it relies on you to do aerobic exercise.
Aerobics is a word for needing oxygen, and aerobic exercise is any kind of activity that makes your muscles use oxygen. Aerobic exercise is repetitive, meaning it is an activity that you do over and over, to keep bringing fresh oxygen to all of your muscles. When you do aerobic exercise and bring in that oxygen, your heart becomes stronger and even a bit bigger! The number of blood cells in your blood increases, so the blood can carry even more oxygen. The blood in your body even moves more easily through the blood vessels. All these things mean that your body works more efficiently to keep you healthy, and you can do a lot of exercise without getting tired.
Exercise Makes Muscles Stronger
All the muscles in your body do a fine job when you use them for easy things, like picking up a book or walking down the stairs. But what about using them for harder activities, like taking long bike rides or climbing a tree? That is where exercise comes in: it makes your muscles stronger and sometimes larger. As your muscles get stronger, you can do more active things for longer periods of time. Strong muscles also help protect you from injuries when you exercise, because they give better support to your joints.
Exercise Makes You Flexible
Can you touch your toes easily? Most children are flexible, which means that they can bend and stretch their bodies without too much trouble. But as people get older, they usually get less flexible; that is why it is important to exercise when you are still young to stay flexible. In addition, when you are flexible, you can be more active.
Exercise Keeps You at a Healthy Weight
Every time you eat food, your body does the same thing: it uses some of the nutrients in the food as fuel. It burns these nutrients to give us energy or calories. You need calories for all of your body's functions, whether it is things you think about doing, like brushing your teeth, or things you never think about doing, like breathing. But if the body is not able to use all the calories that are coming from food, it stores them as fat. Exercise helps keep you at a weight that is right for your height, by burning up extra calories. When you exercise, your body uses that extra fuel to keep you strong.
Exercise Makes You Feel Good
Exercising is an excellent way to feel happy, whether you are exercising on your own or with a group. If you have had a hard day at school, or just feel unhappy, exercising can help you feel better. That is because when you exercise, your body can release endorphins, chemicals that create a happy feeling. In addition, when you are breathing deeply during exercise and bringing more air into your lungs, your brain enjoys the extra oxygen. And when you are active and running around, sometimes it is hard to think about what was bothering you.
Exercise can make you feel proud, too. In other words, when you are stronger and you are able to do things better, you can feel better about yourself.
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