Exercise And Energy

Today's Sedentary Lifestyle:

How do you warm your home on a cold morning?You probably turn a dial on a thermostat and the heating starts.A tiny movement of your finger accomplishes the whole job.

Two hundred years ago,you would probably have had to go outdoors,chop the wood,carry it inside,and get up repeatly to fuel the fire.This would have involved a great expenditure of physical energy,but your body would have been able to handle it.In contrast,a movements what once would have called for a great physical expenditure of energy.

This efficiency has produced a busier but more sedentary lifestyle.People can accomplish more things each day,but they use hardly a fraction of energy once needed.Despit busy schedules and pressure of deadlines,our lives are filled with commuting,sitting at desks,watching movies and television,and eating in restruants-a busy lifestyle conducted largely by sitting down with almost no physsical exertion.The same body that was made for massive physical activity now simply accompanies the finger that pushes the buttons.

Without activity,the body settles,spreads,and becomes out of shape.The body becomes weak in the sense of being unable to perform basic physical tasks or engage in sports without painful effort.It also becomes weak in the sense of becoming more vulnerable to injury and disease and less able to recuperate from such traumas.