Page 50 - BBC - The Scientific Guide to a Healthier You

EXERCISE

A cure for all ills

Our ability to run, ride, swim and play sports offers us

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words by ROB KEMP

P erhaps the best advertisement for the Health and Applied Science at St Mary’s University in
But Prof John Brewer, head of the School of Sport,
natural ‘cures’ exercise can provide comes
London, warns: “Listen to your body. Exercise is about
in the shape of the warnings we get if
we abstain from regularly breaking into
a workout-enduced sweat. Depression, obesity, adaptation, you put your body through stresses that
it has to adjust to. As a result, rest and recovery are
lethargy, heart disease, insomnia, dangerously high as vital as the workout itself to ensuring exercise is
levels of fat around the internal organs, impotence, effective in the long term. Always seek out expert
breathing difficulties, poor concentration, low self- advice, or talk with your doctor.”
esteem and a weakened immunity to illness are The key is to get the right balance – you need to
just some of the conditions from which science says push your body to achieve the best results from
regular exercise can save us from. the natural benefits of exercise, but you also need
GETTY IMAGES tary lifestyle becomes the norm for too many of us, to give it time to recover. So what does science
As an increasingly convenience-focused, seden-
say are the exact health benefits of exercise?
Read on to find out… 5
the need to get active has never been greater.

50 BBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE COLLECTION