The effect of physical exercises on

health

Many people who are frequently ill become healthy, or are ill less often, when they start regular physical exercises which condition the body. However, it is no secret that regular doing sports can have not only positive but also negative consequences for our heath. Thus, three-quarters of people who practise swimming or go walking at weekends often catch a chill. Up to half of professional sporting people regularly suffer from colds, regardless of the kind of sport or where they train (indoors, outdoors or in a swimming pool). It was found that the higher the achievements of a sportsman, the greater the risk of colds, and sporting people had worse illnesses and longer ones. Under high stress, sportsmen work at full stretch, and quickly collapse.

But a low level of physical activity does not improve health either. In France a study was made of 76,600 people over the age of 60 who visited sports clubs. Surprisingly it was discovered that attending a gym did not improve their health. The reason was not the type of exercise involved, but the low level of physical exertion.

Numerous studies have shown the parabolic relation between the level of a person's daily activity and sickness rate (Figure 1).

Figure 1

The low activity level (hypodynamia) and high activity level (hyperkinesia) increase the risk of disease. A sedentary life causes cardiovascular, nervous, gastrointestinal and other diseases. It leads to muscular, osteal and cartilaginous changes. Hypodynamia leads to irritability and anxiety, and it decreases the attention span amongst other effects.

An excessively active lifestyle (including intensive training and competition) causes marked stress which under overload leads to exhaustion. The most common cause is when a person wants to achieve his training goals very quickly and significantly increases the demands on his body. Against the background of a modern lifestyle with its psycho-emotional overloads such hasty measures will be counter-productive. It must be noted that hyperkinesia can appear, not only after doing sports, but in every activity where the physical effort exceeds the body's capabilities. Special care should be taken not to over-tax physically growing children.

People who undertake intensive sporting activities pay a high price for their adaptation to stress. Hyperkinesia virtually wears out all the organs and body systems. It promotes the onset of diseases, and of untimely and sudden death.

Thus, practical and scientific experience show that both a lack of and an excess of physical exercise affect the body adversely. Only optimal effort improves health, leads to cheerfulness, lowers strain and improves the psychological condition.

But how can we discover what this optimal effort is?

There are three main approaches. The first is based on using medium levels of effort for groups of people differentiated by sex, age and so on. These levels of effort have been used for decades and are still standard for different cultures. For example, Japanese consider 10,000 steps a day as an appropriate norm while for Finns it is 500 km of skiing per season. However, such standards don’t take into account individual variations or lifestyle. Such standards can be used only as a guideline.

The second approach aims to achieve maximum improvement in health. But as there are many definitions of the term “health”, this method is too general and not very practical.

The most widespread approach is based on specific physiological guidelines for pulse, blood pressure, blood composition, etc. An index of the optimal effort is determined by specific values reached by these parameters during or after training. But there is still a problem, for it is hard to identify to what extent the chosen guidelines meet the body's needs and abilities. This method takes little account of individual variations. For example, the normal pulse rate for some people is 65 beats per minute; for others, it is 85 or even higher. Moreover, everybody reacts to stress in a different way. Therefore, the advice about the right level of effort to choose needs constant revision.

So the main problem with choosing the optimal physical effort is that it is very individual, and depends on a person's abilities and lifestyle. A self-made plan doesn’t usually take into account all the necessary factors. As a result, searching for the optimal level of effort by trial and error doesn’t lead to a quick achievement of goals.

However, it is now possible to identify the optimal effort by evaluating the dynamics of the changes in a body’s functional state, using our diagnostic equipment. This makes it possible to take account of individual variations when planning the optimal level of effort which will lead to a maximum improvement in health. It is the quickest way to improve physical and mental health.

But the question arises: if it is possible to improve health significantly with optimally chosen physical exercises, then what is the effect of taking “Evig Vår” and “Phoenix”herbal mixes? This effect is presented graphically as a dotted curve in Fig. 2 (the relation between age of death and physical effort, shown as solid line, is analogous to that in Fig. 1).

Taking “Evig Vår” and “Phoenix”herbal mixesdecreases the probability of falling ill under a range of stresses and widens the range of stresses that the body can operate under without a negative effect on health. By taking “Evig Vår” and “Phoenix”herbal mixes,you move towards your cherished goal of great health much more quickly!

Figure 2