Health Benefits of Physical Activity - Essay Example

Children, who exercise, benefit from the lowered risk of chronic pain in the future (Harvey, 2015). Perhaps the most rewarding thing that a person can do to help themselves would be to have regular physical activities because it not only lowers a person’s weight, but it reduces the risk of diseases such as certain cancers. In addition, it promotes the mental well-being of a person. According to Evers et al (2012), behavioral interventions applied to a group of people showed that their adherence to physical and mental activities increased as their physical activities increased.

Though personal fitness may only involve one person and not a group of people in a fitness center, Angle (2014) argues that exercising when a person is under the supervision of professionals is extremely important.  According to Blitz (2015) getting the right balance between instructing oneself and when using the equipment instead of being supervised is extremely important. As noted by Brett and Chris (2013) the duration that an individual exercises matters because the longer the exercise duration, the lower that it impacts on the individual. This shows that personal fitness is not only a matter of exercising but knowing how to exercise. Douw et al (2014) propose that to get the maximum benefits of exercising, a person needs to understand the benefits involved in exercising. Lastly, as noted by Kranz et al (2013) exercising using personalized mobile devices is helpful, for people who want supervisors during exercise routines.

Interview

Personal fitness does not only mean that a person wants to look better or eat better. It also means that the person is aiming at decreasing his or her risk of diseases, feeling both mentally and physically better, and being in a position to perform better at work, school, or at home. To show that exercise has many benefits which are not necessarily related to the physical aspect of a person, I decided to interview two of my friends. My participants were two of my friends from home, Justine and Emmy. I wrote down their views.

            The first person I Interviewed was Justine. According to Justine, he first noted the physical benefits after 3 months of intense exercises. However, it was only after he combined his routine exercises and a healthy diet that he noted an improvement in his cognitive skills. According to Justine, he learned the brain formed nerve-protecting compounds when a person exercised. The neurons in the brain also develop and the damaged proteins inside the brain are altered. A healthy brain aids in reducing stress, and improving sleep and a person feels that they have a sense of purpose resulting in the person aiming to have a better quality of life. A person’s social connectedness also improves. Exercising reduces the chances of a person becoming depressed and it increases the chances of a person living for many years. Exercises promote personal fitness which results in enhanced mental health. An enhanced mental health promotes a person’s ability to control emotions appropriately allowing one to feel comfortable when expressing them. According to Justine, these were the benefits he gained after training for more than one year.

The other person in the interview was Emmy. Emmy argued that even though the physical benefits of exercising outweighed the non-physical benefits, she was happier with the non-physical benefits. According to Emmy, the non-physical advantages of excising included reduced risks of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Emmy also noted that during her exercise days, her mood would be constant and her sense of inner calm was also high. She argued that the type of exercise that a person did matters because if it was only one type, it would not work. Similar to Justine, she explained that her memory had improved. She said that she become more alert in class and was more attentive.

After learning about the benefits that one gain from exercising, I also decided to exercise. It was only after 2 weeks that I noted that I could fill a Sudoku puzzle way better than before. I also noted that the exercise helped with my ability to provide fast solutions to questions in group discussions. According to Evers (2012), the participants in the research carried out were able to cope better with problems after exercising than before engaging in their exercise pattern.