Not exercising is one offence the body punishes the individual for. For the body, lack of physical activity is an unforgivable sin.
Not exercising starts with saying; “I am tired” or “I cannot exercise” or “I am too busy to sneak in an exercise routine”.
These are just excuses to make the body relapse and feel it is enjoying its state.
Over time, the same body will serve you dishes of diseases that you will require so much money and time to address.
This is the issue with not exercising and this thing could result in chronic diseases that could claim life.
Everyone wants an amazing old age. But for many, the axiom, “life begins at 40” comes with a deluge of diseases.
As a result, we are putting this article together for you to take caution and exercise regularly.
We have come to realise that knowing the negative result of not doing something could be a motivating factor.
Fortunately, studies provide the benefits that come with exercising. They should also serve as motivating factor when it comes to making that decision to exercise.
However, not exercising means that these issues would become present.
Indeed, humans are moving beings.
The moment you reduce the amount of movement you make each day, you will gradually make the organs in your body perform lower than their capacity.
The only one that increases is the stomach, because with low physical activity comes increasing habit of eating junks.
When this lower physical activity level persists, the organs atrophy as a result of lack of usage.
It is like leaving some of your gadgets for weeks without using them. They become ineffective overtime.
As a result, if you decide to go days, weeks and months without conscious exercise routine, you could face different health issues.
1. Heart Disease And Not Exercising
You see, when you exercise a lot happens to the heart that you should know.
Your heart is one of the muscles in your body and exercise is one way of improving its performance.
Unlike skeletal muscle, which is under voluntary control, the heart is an involuntary muscle. You cannot tell your heart to slow down or speed up.
Most importantly, the heart is divided into 2. The left and right heart.
The right side (right ventricle) pumps oxygen-depleted blood that has returned from the body to the lungs for reoxygenation.
On the other hand, the left side (left ventricle) is the real workhorse. It pumps oxygenated blood that has returned from the lungs to the entire body.
This explains the connection between the 2 sides.
That said, exercising helps in improving the muscle’s ability to pull oxygen out of the blood, reducing the need for the heart to pump more blood to the muscles (1).
If you notice, you draw in more air when you exercise and that in turn helps provide more oxygen to the blood.
So as the right side feeds the lungs, there is enough oxygen coming in.
Also, exercising reduces stress hormones that can put an extra burden on the heart.
Works like a beta blocker to slow the heart rate and lower blood pressure.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), not exercising exposes you to different diseases.
“Not getting enough physical activity can lead to heart disease – even for people who have no other risk factors.
“It can also increase the likelihood of developing other heart disease risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol (2).
2. Type-2 Diabetes
You see, diabetes is one diseases that not exercising could also cause.
When you exercise a lot happens to the blood where sugar level needs to be in check to keep diabetes away.
However, this blood sugar level does not keep itself in check. Your muscles play a major role in this.
Basically, your muscles use more glucose, the sugar in your blood stream when you exercise.
According to the CDC, diabetics can explore being active as part of a healing mechanism.
This is because being active makes your body more sensitive to insulin (the hormone that allows cells in your body to use blood sugar for energy), which helps manage your diabetes (3)
This means that without exercise, the glucose stays in the blood and over time result in type-2 diabetes.
But when you sustain exercising routine, your blood sugar level is lowered and kept in check because the muscles ‘eat’ glucose.
This will help the insulin in your body work better.
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There is a component of your muscles – the cell membrane – that controls what enters and leaves the cell.
It contains regulatory proteins that are influenced by hormones like epinephrine (adrenalin) and insulin.
According to studies, the blood concentration of these hormones greatly influences fuel utilisation by the muscle cell.
This means that if the sugar is high in the blood the muscles will draw more from it and covert to energy.
3. Brain Issues And Not Exercising
Just like the muscles have a strong link to the heart, the brain also has a link to the muscles.
Exercising helps your brain release some signals to the muscles, thereby exercising the nerves.
There are nerves that run from the brain through the spine to the muscles of your body.
When you exercise, the brain signals the muscles to contrast.
You see, each fibre of a muscle can contribute to force production only if it is recruited by the brain.
The motor nerve that carry these signals terminates on the muscle fibre.
As this communication between the brain and muscles happens the brain is being exercised. Using the brain makes it function better.
This makes exercising help the brain in different ways.
The CDC says exercising can improve your cognitive health by helping you think, learn, problem-solve, and enjoy an emotional balance (4).
Also, It can improve memory and reduce anxiety or depression.
If you ever feel depressed, anxious or too forgetful, you should check your physical activity level and make adjustments.
4. Kidney Disease And Not Exercising
Your kidney is one organ that you should care for. This is because it could fail.
The rising cases of kidney disease is worrisome and one of the reasons is poor physical activity.
If you can just set an exercise routine, you can boost your kidney health. Here is how it happens.
Basically, your kidney could begin to malfunction when the heart is overworking to supply blood, when your cholesterol is high and when there is excess sugar in the blood.
Flipping sides, exercising helps your kidney because it improves muscles functions. This directly impacts your kidney (5).
Your muscles as they pump up and come down, help keep your blood pressure, blood sugar level and cholesterol level in check.
Before You Start Exercising
We know that every individual has its unique body needs when it comes to exercising. This should tally with the health condition, if any. Not everyone needs intense exercise.
Therefore, before you set an exercise routine, it makes so much sense to see a doctor.
The doctor will be able to recommend the level of exercise that you need daily to keep you healthy and fit.
Over time, you will notice improvement in your different health markets.
For a pregnant woman, for instance here are exercises that will help.