Fitness: Why bother?

Good levels of fitness benefits everything from how you feel in the morning, how well you can perform sexually, to how long you’re going to live disease-free.

Since fitness only relates to how efficiently we use oxygen, a skinny person can be unfit whilst a fat person may be very fit.

Wait… why should I care about fitness if it doesn’t automatically mean being skinny?

Let’s look at what happens when you get fitter. As you slide up the fitness scale, one of the first things you’ll notice is that everything just feels easier. Hooray! 

Climbing stairs no longer puffs you out! Running to catch the bus feels like a breeze. For the same activity or sport after getting fit, you don’t need to breathe as hard nor your heart to beat as hard.

You’ll also be able to run faster, cycle harder or row further with a newer fitter body.

On the inside, you do some great things:

• Capillaries grow to deliver more blood to working muscles; 
• Heart health and strength improves; 
• Fat burning and blood sugar control get a boost.

Take a step back and you notice even better things. Large scientific studies show clearly that the fitter you are:

• The longer you live; and 
• The less likely you are to develop: 
• Cardiovascular disease 
• Diabetes 
• Kidney disease 
• Erectile dysfunction; and 
• Some mental health disorders. 
• You get lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol, triglycerides and systemic inflammation.

So get fitter, even without losing weight and you can do more, feel better, have more energy, look better, feel more confident, last longer, reach more places, achieve more goals, live longer and enjoy life more. Why the hell wouldn’t you?