How Exercise Benefits Your Body
More than a century ago a French scientist, Lamarck, said, "Function makes an organ." This saying is just as true today as it was then. We may also add that lack of function unmakes an organ.
What happens, for example, when one uses his muscles too little? This leads to what has been dubbed, in this country, as a Flabby American. This means more than just flabby muscles. This means "flabby" or debilitated heart, blood vessels, blood, respiratory system, to name a few items. A flabby man suffers from an old sickly state, which has been given a fancy name: hypokinesis.
Hypokinesis creates a vicious circle: little activity brings about greater inability for activity, which leads to even greater restriction of activity, and the person begins to act sick or prematurely aged, avoiding physical exertion which used to be fun and now causes only pains and aches and makes one puff and feel tired.
What can be done about this? This can be remedied in a simple manner—start exercising! Do it gradually, and gradually you will become again what you used to be when you were younger—almost!
The result obtained from exercising may be compared with that obtained during immunization. A doctor injects some substance which may cause a temporary indisposition, but makes you immune against even a deadly disease.
Each time that you exercise until you feel slightly tired is comparable to one immunization shot, only in this case it is immunization against fatigue and not against a disease. After each exercise session, you become more resistant to fatigue and you can do more than before. There is, however, a difference between immunization and training.
During immunization you usually have only a short period of partial mobilization of the body which results in a dramatic production of specific weapons called antibodies. Once immunization is achieved you don't need any more shots, sometimes for a few years, sometimes for life. During training, although the body is mobilized to a greater extent, the immediate results are slight and of a short duration. Thus, one cannot consider himself trained for life, or for a year or for a month, by just exercising on two or three successive days. One has to exercise frequently and continuously. Only in this manner can one obtain a lasting cumulative effect.
Few people realize the tremendous capacities of our internal organs. Let us cite just a few.
1. If all the capillaries of one individual were placed end to end they would form a string long enough to go four times around the earth, or close to 100,000 miles. And the heart which pumps the blood through all these capillaries weighs only ten ounces.
No wonder that, if the heart weakens, sludges may begin to form in the vessels.
2. If we take from a sedentary man a bundle of muscle fiber equal in thickness to the lead of an ordinary pencil, and cut it across, there will be as many as 2,000 capillaries.
3. A drop of blood of a man at rest contains 250 million corpuscles. During exercise it is increased by 7.5 million.
4. At rest, about one gallon of blood per minute is pumped by the heart. During running this may increase to 10 gallons per minute.
5. If all the blood corpuscles of an individual are placed on the ground they will cover an area of about 5,000 square yards.
6. The surface area of the capillaries in the lungs equals the area of one-half of a tennis court for singles. Fantastic as these figures are, they may be even greater; and this result can be achieved through the fun of exercise.
