Consult your physician before starting any exercise program. Research in the area of exercise suggests that the initial exercise program emphasize stretching and low level muscle conditioning exercises. Recommended is a combination of walking and jogging or fast and slow walking performed on a regular basis three to five times per week. For those individuals who have not exercised in a long time, the recommendation is to restrict your initial exercise to 5 to 15 minutes per session, and do it twice per day until you begin to feel comfortable with the exercise program. It is known that physical activity protects against the development of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, some cancer and even clinical depression.
Exercise involves the transformation of chemical energy stored in muscles into mechanical energy.
As this stored chemical energy is used up, new sources of this chemical energy must be tapped to regenerate the energy. This involves muscular glycogen and triglycerides as well as circulatory glucose and fatty acids from adipose tissue. The result is improved functional capacity of your body, which can delay the infirmities of disabilities of old age. All this improvement can be measured, and is reflected in functional improvement of the enzyme system, augmented blood flow in skeletal muscles due to increased diameters of blood supplying arteries, as well as increased numbers of capillary vessels. Behaviorally, you don't tire as easily as you did before exercising,and you have more energy, thus enabling the body to maintain, repair and improve itself.