Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise

Two keys for building optimal physical fitness are regular exercise and healthy diet.

Without exercise, physical fitness drops about 30-50% from age 30 to 80. Exercise can minimize this drop. Exercise takes two forms, aerobic and resistance. I have been asked and puzzled by the question often (and for a long time) that which is more beneficial for humans, aerobic or resistance exercise. This is a fundamental question. Aerobic exercise, also known as endurance activity or cardiovascular exercise, involves a sustained period of rhythmic movement of large muscles. It requires pumping of oxygenated blood by the heart to deliver oxygen to the muscles to generate energy. Examples of aerobic exercise include walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, dancing, playing soccer, basketball, and tennis, etc. Aerobic fitness is typically evaluated by the one-mile walking test, the PACER test, or a treadmill running test. The one-mile walking test is perhaps the easiest to perform. In this test, you must walk as fast as you can for the entire one mile. By walk, it means one foot must always be on the ground. The time (in minutes and seconds) you take to finish reflects your aerobic fitness. Note that a 3-5 min warmup (e.g., stretching and brisk walking) before and cooldown (e.g., slow walk) following

High saturated fat diet (e.g., butter, cheese, fatty beef) and overweight/obesity (i.e., BMI or weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters >=25) are the enemies of physical fitness, physical health, mental health, executive function, and memory. Both have been found to reduce the number of new neurons in the brain. I have written extensively on how to lose weight in another book ‘Plato’s Insight: How Exercise Builds The Mind and Brain’. Briefly speaking, if you are overweight or obese, a good choice is to reduce your energy intake by 500-750 kcal/day and stick to the Mediterranean style diet (and exercise