This amazing fact will make you want to exercise more

Let this phrase from the American Heart Association fuel your motivation.

Researchers have recently discovered a worrying new trend: Heart attacks are on the rise among young women (aged 35-54). Being a woman of this age, I took to heart, so to speak, and I keep coming back to the American Heart Association (AHA) website for articles on prevention, especially more than the increase in the number of heart attacks in women was largely related to the modifiable disease. risk factors. In other words, they could have been potentially avoided by addressing such issues as high blood pressure, smoking, weight, physical activity, and so on.

On the page of physical inactivity on the AHA website, I came across this nugget. I'm a crazy person who likes to exercise, but even so, I sometimes find excuses to stay and, you know, eat lemon curd instead of spoonfuls. Whatever the case may be, this sentence is now my mantra:

For every hour of regular physical activity, you gain about two hours of extra life.

Reading this, I immediately started doing the math and figured out that I could live up to about 193 years old, yay! Ok, not really. I do not know how they calculated that and obviously there are parameters, otherwise we would see all kinds of nonagenarians put one hour to gain another.

But even in this case, regular activity is crucial and has many benefits. Among other things, a lack of physical activity can lead to blood clots, high blood pressure, heart attack, strokes and other heart problems. All of this leads to shorter lives, more expenses and wasted resources.

"On the other hand," according to the AHA, "being more active can lower your blood pressure by 4 to 9 mm Hg, which corresponds to the same reduction in blood pressure as that achieved with antihypertensive drugs." Physical activity can also increase your levels of good cholesterol. "

Since heart attack is the leading cause of death among women in this country – moderate to vigorous regular activity can reduce heart disease by 30 to 40% and stroke by 25% – it seems difficult to 39; ignore. And that does not even mention all the other benefits of exercise, such as more energy, ranging from more energy and a better mood to less stress and insomnia.

A good goal is to aim for 30 minutes a day. And all activity matters; think about brisk walking, housework, gardening, biking, taking the stairs instead of the escalator.

So, if you come from the camp of "life is too short to do exercise", know that with a return on investment of 200%, life may be too short not to do the same. # 39; exercise. As for me, I put the lemon curd and I go running.