THE SWEETNESS OF LIFELONG FITNESS
Movement stresses your bones, tendons, ligaments, fascia and cartilage and the result is connective tissue adaptations. Consistent, long-term training is essential to affect change in connective tissue. For example, new bone is built over time with progressive, weight-bearing exercises. These increases in bone diameter, strength and density may take six months or more and will be lost if you stop moving.
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The same use-it-or-lose-it principle applies to your other connective tissues, which link your muscles and bones. Ligaments connect bone to bone and tendons transmit force from muscle to bone. Cartilage serves as a shock absorber and articulating surface in joints. Fascia surrounds and separates muscle. Building and maintaining these tissues occurs in direct correlation to the intensity of your exercise. Multi-joint exercises, working on uneven surfaces, regular aerobic training and increasing the weight used during strength workouts are key to healthy connective tissue.
The development of muscle, bone and connective tissue is also influenced by endocrine adaptations to consistent exercise. Tissue-building hormones such as testosterone, insulin, insulin-like growth factors and the growth hormone family are released during and after exercise in order to repair tissue and restore the body to homeostasis. Intense workouts with short rest periods, which challenge large muscle groups (chest, back, legs) stimulate the greatest levels of hormone release. Regular resistance exercise changes your resting and acute hormonal responses, so you can work harder and recover faster.
Long-term training also affects cardiovascular and respiratory adaptations. Regular strength training enhances cardiac function as the amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat increases and this may lower blood pressure levels. High-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) measures rise and low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) numbers fall. Even greater results occur when you add aerobic work, which builds capillaries in the muscle for better nutrient delivery, increased oxygen uptake and greater endurance.
The benefits of lifelong fitness are many. Exercise will help you lose weight, feel better and more easily handle everyday tasks. Long term, a varied program of strength and aerobic training changes you at every physical level.