Many biological effects that occur, from head to toe during exercise are narrated below. The changes include:
- Muscles that use glucose and ATP for contraction and movement. To increase the amount of ATP, the body needs extra oxygen, so breathing increases and the heart begins to pump more blood into the muscle. Without adequate oxygen, lactic acid is formed. Soft tears in the muscles make them grow stronger and stronger as they heal.
- Lungs. As your muscles require more oxygen (about 15 times more oxygen than during rest), your breathing speed increases. When the muscles surrounding the lungs can not move faster, you will achieve what is called your VO2 max – the maximum oxygen capacity. The higher the VO2 max, the better you are.
- Heart. As mentioned, heart rate increases with physical activity to provide more oxygen to the muscles. Your fitter you are, the more effectively your heart can do it, allowing you to work longer and harder. As a side effect, this increased efficacy also reduces the resting heart rate. Your blood pressure will also decrease as a result of the formation of new blood vessels.
- Brain. Increased blood flow brings benefits to the brain, allowing you to work almost immediately. As a result, you usually feel more focused after workout. Moreover, regular exercise encourages the development of new brain cells. In the hippocampus these new brain cells help to increase memory and learning.
“When you work regularly, your brain is accustomed to this frequent blood circulation and adaptation, including or excluding certain genes.” Many of these changes enhance brain function and protect against diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, even stroke, and the ward off for the age related decline. ”
There are also a number of neurotransmitters, such as endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate and GABA. Some of them are well known for their role in controlling moods. Exercise is in fact one of the most effective strategies for preventing and treating depression.
- Joints and bones because exercise can cause as much as five or six times more than body weight. Peak bone mass is reached in adulthood and then begins to slow down, but exercise can help maintain healthy bone mass as you age.
Weight training is actually one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis, because the bones are very porous and soft, and when they get bones they can easily become less dense and therefore more brittle – especially if you are not active.
While I mentioned that neurotransmitters, brain chemicals such as mood-boosting serotonin, are released during exercise, which does not take into account all the benefits that your brain has. When your blood pressure rises, your brain thinks that you are fighting the enemy or running away from it. To release yourself and your brain from stress, release the protein called BDNF (neurotrophic factor from the brain) which has a protective and reparative element of memory neurons and acts as a reset switch, so we often feel free and clear of everything after exercise. At the same time your brain releases endorphins, another chemical stress. Endorphins minimize physical pain and discomfort associated with exercise. They are also responsible for the euphoria that many people report during regular exercise.
Scientists have for years been linking the benefits of exercise to brain health, but recent studies clearly indicate that both of these issues are simply linked; rather is a relation. Evidence indicates that physical exercise helps build a brain that not only restrains but increases cognitive abilities. Exercise encourages the brain to work at optimum performance, causing nerve cell multiplication, strengthening of interconnectedness, and protection from damage. Many mechanisms are involved here, but some are better understood than others.
The rejuvenating role of BDNF is one of them. BDNF activates the stem cells of the brain to transform into new neurons. It also triggers many other chemicals that promote nervous health. In addition, exercise provides protective effects for the brain by:
- Preparation of nerve protection compounds
- Better development and survival of the neurons
- Reduced risk of heart disease and blood vessels
- Change the way in which harmful proteins are inside the brain, which slows the progression of Alzheimer’s
- Both fasting and exercise cause brain rejuvenation
Increasing evidence indicates that both violent and stressful genes trigger the effort and growth factors that recycle and rejuvenate the brain and muscle tissue. These growth factors include BDNF, as mentioned, and muscle or MRF regulators.
These growth factors cause brain stem cells and muscle satellite cells to transform into new neurons and new muscle cells. Interestingly, BDNF is also expressed in the neuromuscular system, which protects neuropathies from degradation. Neuromotor is the most important part of your muscle, without the neuromotor, your muscle is like a non-ignition engine. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that suppresses muscle atrophy associated with age. So BDNF is actively involved in both the muscles and the brain, and this interrelation seems to be the main part of explaining why physical training can have such a beneficial effect on brain tissue. This quite literally helps to prevent and even reverse the brain’s decay as it prevents and reverses age-related muscle disorders. This also helps explain why exercise during fasting can help keep the brain, neuro-motors and muscle fibres biologically. For more information on how to enable interrupted training for maximum benefit, see the previous article. Sugar blocks BDNF, which helps to explain why a low-sugar diet coupled with regular exercise is so effective to protect memory and prevent depression.
It’s your brain thatโs does the exercise.BDNF and endorphins are two triggers for exercise that help to boost mood, feel good, and sharpen cognition. They are similar to morphine and heroin in their activities and addictions – but without any harmful side effects. On the contrary! So how much do you have to practice to keep the sun’s temper and better memory in the long run?
According to a study published in the journal Neuroscience in 2012, “Secret” increase in performance and happiness on a given day is a long-term investment in regular exercise. And a little each day seems to go beyond many, once or twice a week.
“Those who exercised the previous month, but not on the day of the tests, performed better on memory tests than those who sat in a sitting position but did not perform as well as those who worked in the morning,” the author notes.
———–( The author currently pursuing M.tech in VLSI Design and Embedded Systems at Visveswaraya Technological University Belagavi, Karnataka. The views expressed by author are her own but not of โKashmir Horizonโ)