Exercise helps you to become happy, says Sharjah-based Dr Biju Pankappilly

Gulf News

Exercise is powerful medicine, which improves the overall metabolism of your body and burns calories. This results in better functioning of your heart, reduces your weight, burns fat and improves fitness which is very important for a healthy lifestyle, explains  Dr Biju Pankappilly, Specialist Orthopaedic Surgeon, NMC Royal Hospital, Sharjah.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/special-reports/fitness-quest-how-important-is-exercise-and-how-long-should-you-workout-1.1660207776134  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #exercise  #health

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00:00How do you get fit? A well-directed exercise program along with a proper diet will help

00:13you to attain your goals. But when I say about a well-directed exercise program, I mean structured,

00:22disciplined and regular workouts that will help you to maintain a good lifestyle and

00:27make a good body out of it. I would like to highlight the important benefits of exercise.

00:34It's a powerful medicine which improves the overall metabolism of your body, burns the

00:40calories which results in a better functioning of your heart, reduces your weight, burns

00:47your fat and improves your fitness which is very important for a healthy lifestyle. The

00:53workouts improves the strength and endurance which is very important for your day-to-day

00:59activities. Exercise helps you to become happy because while doing the exercises, those hormones

01:08which helps to improve your mood gets into the body system and you get to be happy. Trust

01:16me, there are times in our lives when we feel sad, depressed, anxious and tense. We

01:24all go through it. But trust me, a few hours of workout in the gym, getting together with

01:30your friends will definitely get you back on track. Another important point is that

01:35the exercises helps to make your bones stronger, tone up your muscles and the exercises helps

01:43in increasing the density of your bones which prevents osteoporosis in the future. It's

01:48an energy booster and reduces fatigue. Kindly note that the lack of exercises and a sedentary

01:56lifestyle are the causes for chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia

02:04and even some types of cancer. Exercises can improve your brain function, helps you to

02:11think properly, improve your thinking skills, your memory and that helps in the productivity

02:19of your work. We need to have a good sleep. After a tiring day, exercises will definitely

02:26help you to relax well and to have a good sleep. Ideally, you should have about 7 to

02:328 hours of a sound sleep and the exercises, your workouts definitely gets you to that

02:40level that you get a very very sound sleep. Workouts and regular exercises helps the production

02:48of those hormones which can make you happy, can improve your mood and subsequently you

02:54can get a good sleep. They can definitely help in reducing the chronic pain by toning

03:00up, by strengthening the muscles around those particular area. Because I come to see a lot

03:05of patients with knee problems, it's very common in the society and they may have arthritis

03:13and arthritis can never be treated, can never go. Once arthritis is sensed, it's going to

03:18be there and if you can develop those thigh muscles, the muscles around the knee, it helps

03:26in distributing the load across the knee and thus reducing the pain. It's a proven fact

03:32that exercise can boost up your sex drive. Many of us do exercise without considering

03:40our body types which sometimes amounts to doing nothing at all. I'm sure all of you

03:48would have come across quite a few people who are unhappy and complaining of not seeing

03:58the changes in their body structure which they were aiming for even though they were

04:02doing regular disciplined workouts. They may even quit the journey in the midway because

04:09they were not able to see the changes in their body, they couldn't get fit as they wished.

04:17So that's pretty disheartening. One size doesn't fit all. So we need to tailor made the exercise

04:23program according to one's body. The body type or the shape is genetic and unfortunately

04:31you cannot change it. I would like to give a small description about the body types.

04:37There are predominantly three types, ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs. The long, lean

04:46and the tall ones, they are the ectomorphs. Whatever they eat, how much ever they work

04:52out, they tend to gain less. They have a small body structure with narrow shoulders

04:58and narrow hips. They are going to work harder with heavy weights and probably need to eat

05:04pretty well. Minimal cardio workouts are recommended for them. Let's talk about the endomorphs

05:10now. They've got a bigger bony structure with a pear shaped body. They tend to accumulate

05:16fat in the mid portion and the lower portion of the body that's about the hips and the

05:21thighs. One important tip or advice to them is cardio, cardio, cardio. That's the main

05:28stay. You've got to focus on your lower portion of the body and incorporate cardio along with

05:34weight training. The weight training should include a lot of reps and should have compound

05:41exercises. That means you've got to involve multiple muscles during the time of workouts.

05:46For example, squats and lunges. You're lucky if you're on the next subgroup, the mesomorphs.

05:53They're generally well built and they tend to gain mass and build up the body pretty

06:00fast. They are very responsive. They can easily maintain their fitness level, but if they

06:06want to gain the weight and increase the size of the body, they've got to work out harder

06:12and eat pretty well. Now coming to the duration, how much do you want to spend in your gym

06:19or how much do you want to work out probably in the gym, probably in the park? Well, that

06:25depends on what you want to achieve from the exercise or from the workout. The goals set

06:32the duration of your workout. As a rule of thumb, a 30 minute moderate physical activity

06:39can keep you stay healthy. At the same time, if you want to gain weight or if you want

06:46to lose weight, you've got to be ready to devote more time during your workouts. In

06:53general, if you want to gain the muscle mass as well as to improve the body composition,

07:00the body frame, you've got to be ready to lift heavy weights for about three to four

07:06times a week. That's totaling up to about five to six hours per week. If your goal is

07:12to burn out the unwanted fat, then you've got to add an additional one to two hours

07:19of cardio along with your resistance training. Remember, the fat loss and the muscle gain

07:25is also determined by your nutrition. Take at least one day's rest. This will help the

07:32recovery of the burned out muscles which had burned out during your workouts. Intensity

07:38is an important element of your workout. Your health and fitness goals, along with your

07:44current fitness level, determines the correct amount of intensity during your workouts.

07:51When you work out at a sufficient intensity, your body grows stronger and one gets to see

07:58changes in your endurance, strength, body shape, and fitness. The intensity of the exercise

08:07can be low, moderate, or vigorous. Definitely increasing the intensity can improve your

08:13mood, improve your metabolic rate, and the caloric burnout. I came across a research

08:20paper which came out in 2019, and the finding is pretty interesting. It says that the higher

08:27intensity workouts actually reduces the risk of death. One needs to work harder to get

08:34maximum health benefits, but not to push harder beyond your limits. The adult population should

08:42get involved in at least five hours of workouts with moderate intensity, and two hours of

08:49workouts with vigorous intensity with aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination

08:55of moderate and vigorous aerobic physical activity. They should also get involved in

09:03those activities for strengthening the muscles with moderate intensity or higher that involves

09:10major muscle groups, and this has to be performed two or more days per week. A special advice

09:18to the elderly. They got to perform balance training and fall prevention exercises more

09:25than three times a week. Children and adolescents should perform at least one hour of moderate to

09:32vigorous physical activities daily. As part of the 60 minute or more of the physical activity daily,

09:39they should include resistance training and bone strengthening exercises at least three times a

09:46week. Exercises and fitness should become an integral part of our lives. Fitness makes you

09:55look better, give you a good body, improves your mood, give you happiness, and end of a stressful

10:06day, you can sleep well.

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