Weight Loss Fitness is the Goal

Your heart is the most important muscle in your body

It 's the size of the first, but your heart is the powerhouse of the cardiovascular system. You can pump more than a gallon of blood around your body every minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours a day. What is round trip of over 1,400!

Journey through the arteries, the blood carries oxygen and nutrients essential to the ends of your body. After returning to the heart through veins, blood is pumped to the lungs, where carbon dioxide and other waste gases are removed and oxygen is supplied.

All the while, your heart is doing the work. This process goes on when you're awake and when you are asleep. And you could not live without it.


Your heart during exercise

If the speed of normal movement is about 10.5 liters per minute, the rate during exercise is much greater than that. It is not just blood pumped at a rate faster, but its destination is altered during exercise. More blood is sent to the muscles - as much as 12 times the normal volume - and away from the digestive system, which can be examined by a third less blood than usual during this period.

The heart of overweight

You already know about the health risks of being overweight. Many of them have to do with the heart. The simple fact is that overweight and inactive is a broad negative effects on the entire cardiovascular system.

In addition, people who are overweight tend to have less resistance, so it's hard for them to engage in constant physical activity. It 's a vicious circle, since it would help them to become active in better shape, but their own lack of fitness prevents them from being active. The best way to break the vicious circle is to start slowly, with a small amount of exercise at low intensity. Walking is a good choice. Stretching is another.

If you are very overweight or have or suspect you have heart problems, not starting any exercise program, however modest, until you have spoken with your doctor.

What about all those other muscles?

If the heart is the most important muscle for strength, then strength and flexibility are the territory of skeletal muscle. These are the muscles that make it possible for us to move, lift things, and even to stand. Muscles also give shape to the body. Without muscles, there would be little more than a bag of bones.

The way to increase muscle strength is to make the muscles do the work that has been designed to do. Work against resistance - thrust or lift - sets the tone muscle. The more you do, the stronger you become. Within certain limits.

Hormones, especially testosterone, playa part in muscle development. The more testosterone you have, the more you will be able to strengthen and develop muscles. Although women produce some testosterone, men produce much more. This is why men look more muscular than women, and why working out produces a more sculptured look in men.

Before puberty, the testosterone is in short supply in both sexes, so preteens should be discouraged from "Pumping Iron."

Preteens should not work. Do not give them bulging muscles, but may damage the growth of bones and connective tissues.