Kenneth Gardner - FITNESS CLUB

Many of us are overwhelmed by daily challenges and find it difficult to put exercising on our schedule. However, exercising and physical activity improves the quality of our lives.

An active lifestyle not only prevents the onset of poor health and the associated discomforts, but improves our agility or our ability to move quickly and efficiently. Many of us are unable to appreciate this simple fact until we get hurt or face challenges in getting very simple things done.

Exercise also improves our balance and coordination. If we have difficulties integrating our movements in response to the cues that we receive, we are likely to encounter grave danger in our ability to respond correctly and efficiently to the challenges we face.

Everything appears to move faster these days. The fast pace of life has left many of behind, thus almost everything becomes a challenge. Regular exercise is an excellent antidote to improve our speed and conditions us to enhance the way we move and think. The quality of life many of us enjoy rests on our ability to avoid danger or situations that could result in disability. The improvements we experience in strength when we exercise literally empower us to overcome routine physical challenges and counter sudden unexpected ones that could overwhelm us. The improvement of our strength due to exercise is not just a physical phenomenon; it is indicative of our mental prowess and likewise, our ability to surmount the mental challenges that would ordinarily be daunting.

Reaction time

If you cannot make it to a gym, improvise with things around the house, like a mop stick, which can be used when doing squats.

Our response to challenges sets the tone for the level of success that we are likely to experience. Our reaction time is indicative of success or failure. Our reaction time improves tremendously as we improve our physical fitness through regular exercise. Many of the difficulties we face have their genesis in our inability to keep up with the rate at which things have changed. Likewise, if our reaction time is slow, we tend to fall further behind. It is frustrating to see others getting ahead as we fall behind. Exercise speeds up our reaction time so we lose less ground, if any at all.

Those of us who have the ability to endure will be around to reap the benefits of the investment we make by committing to regular exercise. The improvements in our endurance that accrue from exercise are directly related to the improvements in all the systems of the body with the reproductive system being the only possible exception. An exercise programme is an insurance policy we can all afford and it is never too late to maximise our chances of getting the returns to buffer life's hard knocks.

Dr Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at Holiday Hills Research Center; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.