Is exercising what we think it is?

Photo Credit of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/4284212351/sizes/m/

It's no secret, to anyone who knows Hope Solo, how much she works out. Exercise does the body good, right? Maybe some people around the world beg to differ. What I found in the two articles "The Risks of Exercise Training" and "Health Benefits of Exercise" was actually pretty surprising to me.

Many say exercise is beneficial in many ways. in my first article I found that exercising is beneficial because it reduces the risk of dying prematurely and dying prematurely from heart disease. It also helps reduce the risk of obtaining diabetes which is really big, mostly because many people today suffer from diabetes and it is known as one of the biggest killers in the United States alone.  Diabetes can be cause by obesity as well, this is another benefit of exercising.  Exercising can reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure and for those who already have high blood pressure exercise will help reduce it. Other risks of not exercising enough include increasing your risk of getting colon cancer, depression and anxiety. Lastly, exercise increases the likelihood of building and maintaining healthy bones, joints and muscles long with helping middle-aged/older adults become stronger, have a better ability to move without falling and exercise promotes a healthier psychological well-being.

http://www.nutristrategy.com/health.htm

In contrast, many argue that exercising to much can be bad for your body and Professor Carl Foster is one to vogue for this side of the argument in his article "The Risks of Exercise Training." Some of these risks can even be fatal, to the young it is primarily related to the undiagnosed congenital abnormalities, drug use or even trauma.  Also he states that in older adults "a number of individuals either die or or have myocardial infarction [a destruction of heart tissue resulting from obstruction of the blood supply to the large muscle] this can occur during exercise."

Risks of exercise training

Now, knowing there are risks and benefits of exercising it stated in both articles that without exercise, obesity could become a major issue which in turn could be a life threatening factor as well as diabetes and high blood pressure.  Both articles also said that being aware of your health is very important especially if your are going to exercise on a daily basis. If you are unaware of your health and unaware of how much exercise your body can handle, death could be a possibility at any time.  Professor Foster stated "understanding the risks of life threatening emergencies during exercise training is complicated by the way in which the risk is computed." The Risks of Exercise Training

Some differences I found in both articles was that of the heart and what it can handle. In the first article it stated "exercise reduces the risk of prematurely dying from heart disease."  But thats all it stated, it never said anything about warning signs or anything of that nature. In the second article I found that exercising to much and not knowing your condition to exercise can lead to far more injuries, problems or even deaths due to the state at which the heart is.  Therefore saying that if your heart is in bad shape or your body is unable to handle what you are trying to do it is a lot more dangerous to exercise in a bad condition than ti not exercise at all.

To conclude, understanding the risks and benefits of exercising has only brought me ti decide that given there are more benefits to exercising than there are risks - you have to take in consideration, there are less risks, but the risks are far more dangerous and life threatening.  Stating that, in my opinion I believe that the benefits and the risks even out. Yet either way there is going to be some kind of danger.  If you like to exercise maybe just take it a little easier on yourself, by exercising some but not to much. This connects back to Hope Solo because she is a hardcore exercising fanatic which is both healthy and unhealthy if not moderated. I chose to do the risks and benefits because I believe it is beneficial for everyone to know.