Exercise in the Cold

Everybody knows that you’re supposed to exercise and stay in shape. But, as we age, we tend to “let go” of a few pounds here and there, or with our commitment to staying in shape.

But, a few pounds, and a more sedentary job, can make an accumulative difference that brings about a staggering change in your body’s systems and overall health.

The importance of exercise and keeping fit cannot be overstated.

Feet

Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. Your feet – they support one and ½ times your weight with each step you take.

If you weigh 150 pounds, each step places 225 pounds of force on each foot. If your are participating in a high impact sport, like tennis or running, you are putting 3 to 4 Xs your weight on each foot, every single time it hits the ground.

That’s 600 pounds hammering on each foot. Do your feet hurt? If they do, it’s no wonder. You face an uphill battle with painful feet, because you can’t participate in most exercises without excruciating pain.

Proper shoes and low- or no-impact exercise is crucial for the person with poor feet.

Knees

Do your knees hurt? If they don’t already, they probably will. It’s a Catch-22 for people trying to get in shape – they need to exercise and get fit, but their knees and feet hurt too much.

Osteopaths tell us that patients who have osteoarthritis in the knees benefit greatly from every single pound of weight loss. For each pound of weight that you shed, you take 4Xs that off of your knees.

That comes to a reduction of 4,800 pounds NOT placed on your knees for every mile you walk. Imagine if you lose 10 pounds! That means that you remove 48,000 pounds of impact from your knees for every mile you walk.

Low impact exercise and weight loss can make a major difference in your joints.

Heart

This will shake you up, so be ready – for every pound of fat you gain, your body has to build 7 MILES of new blood vessels for support.

If you are 10 pounds overweight, that means your body constructed 70 miles of blood vessels, including capillaries and small veins and arteries. No wonder obesity and heart disease seem to go hand in hand!

Your heart has to pump blood throughout all of those miles of blood vessels. Do you get out of breath at the tiniest exertion? Now you know why.

Shed It

So, if you think about it, what is one little pound of weight loss? Really, that diet you are on, where you have reached a plateau and only lost 1 pound in the last month – what good did that really do?

It reduced impact on your knees by 48,000 pounds PER DAY. It reduced impact on your feet by 1.5 to 4 times that. And it removed 7 miles of strain on your heart. No wonder you have plateaued. Give your body a chance to recover, then keep going.