How to Get Physically Active

Posted on by Jesse Santiano, M.D.

Starting a bonfire with damp wood can be challenging, and it is like asking a sedentary person to start an exercise program.

Where I grew up, this huge mango tree gave us lots of fruits during the summertime. I used to sweep our front yard daily to clean up the dried leaves and burn them to generate smoke. That ensures that the tree will continuously bear fruit.

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Big fires come from a Spark

I taught myself how to start a fire. I became so good with fire that I am the go-to guy even today for any chore that has anything to do with flames.

Sometimes the charcoal or wood may be damp. What I do is that I start the fire earlier and be patient.

Beginning to Exercise is Like Lighting a Fire

It is the same thing with exercise. How can someone who is passive turn into someone who runs, pull-up, push-up, deadlift, bench press, and kick-ass overall?

It all starts with one rep or repetition, like starting a fire. Only one matchstick is needed. Then you add dry leaves or kindling to get the l bigger. By then, you can burn smaller pieces of dry twigs. As the blaze gets bigger, you add larger wood to keep the fire going. Soon, you will have a nice fire for warmth and cooking.

How to Make an Exercise Easier

Starting a fire is like an exercise. Any workout can be separated into small steps, making the program less intimidating and less complicated to perform. A YouTube from GMB Fitness is available below that breaks down a push-up.

How Can One Rep Lead to More Reps?

By a process called Training Adaptation. When we start a new physical activity,  changes happen in the whole body, even at the molecular level. The entire body changes to support the demands of the skeletal muscles so that they can perform that new activity.

The Training Adaptations to Exercise.

  1. The muscle fibers get bigger so that they can generate more force.
  2. Exercise triggers the signaling proteins (myokines) to increase the number of muscle stem cells (myosatellites).
  3. The myosatellite cells become new muscle fibers, and more muscle fibers translate to an increase in the capacity to do more work.
  4. Stem cells add power sources called mitochondria to skeletal muscles. The mitochondria make more ATP that increasing the exercise capacity of the muscles.
  5. Dormant muscle fibers shrivel up or atrophy. Exercise reverses muscle atrophy.
  6. The arteries get bigger and become more rubbery than stiff.
  7. The arteries also clean atherosclerosis by raising the “good cholesterol” called the HDL. Clean arteries lower the blood pressure and make the heart work less.
  8. Capillaries are the tiniest blood vessels, and exercise forms more capillaries. Exercise opens up the capillaries (capillary recruitment) to bring more blood, oxygen,  and nutrients. More blood flows not just to the muscles but to all body organs.
  9. Capillary recruitment also increases the removal of waste products like lactic acid. Less lactic acid lessens the muscle pain during activity and prolongs the tolerable exercise duration.
  10. More blood vessels increase the ability to release heat generated by physical activity to make the exercise more comfortable.
  11. The bones get thicker and more robust to support the load.
  12. The heart becomes more elastic and pumps blood more efficiently.

The changes happen incrementally over time—the more intense the activity, the higher the adaptation.

“Ask, and Ye shall receive.”

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The Rewards of Exercise

  1. Exercise helps burn the fat inside the abdomen to decrease bodywide inflammation. Chronic inflammation leads to many diseases.
  2. Bigger muscles use and normalize blood sugar.
  3. Signaling proteins called myokines and exerkines production increases and promotes better health.
  4. An “I can do this!” attitude develops.
  5. Exercise prevents frailty and sarcopenia of aging.
  6. Neurogenesis or new brain cell formation can lower anxiety, remove depression, and prevent different forms of dementia.
  7. Physical fitness gives protection against premature death from all causes and has been proven by many scientific studies to make people live longer.

Proper Diet, Sleep, and Exercise

No one can out-exercise a bad diet. Stay away from too much fat and refined carbohydrates, and sweets. Get enough sleep. Sleeping is when the body makes healthy changes as it adapts to exercise.

Here is an excellent example from Gold Medal Bodies on Learning a push-up.

Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. Teach a man the benefits of fasting and exercise, and they stay healthy and live longer.

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Thanks for reading.

Related Readings:

  1. How to Do Intermittent Fasting
  2. 30 Ways For a Good Sleep Without Drugs
  3. Physical Activity Correlates with Life Span
  4. How Does Exercise Prolong Life?
  5. The Benefits of Resistance Training
  6. The Surprising Benefits of Sweating
  7. The Good and Faithful Servant
  8. What are Exerkines?
  9. Exercise Guidelines
  10. Myokines: An Introduction 
  11. What are Exerkines?
  12. How the Body Saved Itself
  13. How Does Exercise Burn Visceral Fat? – cartoon video
  14. Exercise and Neurogenesis

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