17 reasons to get fit

	A recent study found that exercising not only immediately speeds up the decision-making process but also reduces the risk of senile dementia in later life

You may be questioning your sanity. You may be tired and sore and concluding that a cup of tea and a lie-in with Cat Deeley is a far easier way to start your weekend than a run in sub-zero darkness or enough bench presses to make your arms feel as if they belong to someone else. You may be – whisper it – fed up with fitness.

That’s why we’re here. Not to preach to you, certainly. Fitness should be fun, which is why we spend so much time trying to find new ways to enjoy it. But sometimes it helps to be reminded of why you’re doing it.

Thanks to the good bearded men and women who keep the test tubes boiling in the world’s universities and research centres, it’s well known that being fit helps keep the weight off and makes you feel better. But how else does maintaining a decent level of fitness benefit your body and mind? You may be pleasantly surprised.

1 Fitness… makes you live longer
Regular exercise could extend your life by 15 years, according to the Get Fit Foundation. This doesn’t mean 15 years of gibbering dotage on the prom at Weston-super-Mare but an active, enjoyable old age chasing skirt. Scientists at Liverpool John Moores University claim men’s hearts beat as strongly at the age of 70 as they do at 20 if regular exercise is maintained for life.

2 Fitness… boosts immunity
Long-term moderate exercise can enhance the immune response against infection, according to researchers at Acadia University in Canada. They studied 22 volunteers who were signed up for three 30-minute sessions of home-based exercise over a period of several months. The results showed an increase in muscle strength and a decrease in cholesterol (naturally), while the response of natural killer cells – a vital component of the immune system – was enhanced thanks to the power of exercise.

3 Fitness… fights fat
Not just around your waist, but the stuff in food as well. Research at Glasgow University suggests that walking before eating a meal high in fat and carbohydrates lowers fat levels in the blood and improves blood vessel function. Levels of triglycerides (blood fats) are reduced by 25 per cent before and after the meal.

4 Fitness… makes you look better
Or at least feel better about how you look. ‘Brisk walking and abdominal muscle stimulation aid body image,’ say researchers from the University of Ulster’s School of Health Sciences. Their long-term study, which compared sofa spuds with moderately active folk, found that even those who did a minimum amount of exercise ‘had greater self-esteem and more satisfaction with their bodies’.

5 Fitness… protects against arthritis
Regular runners are less likely to develop osteoarthritis, and even if they are stricken by it, exercise can offer up to 12 years’ protection from symptoms. Osteoarthritis is often thought of as developing from ‘wear and tear’ on the joints, but Professor Jim Fries of Stanford University says this isn’t strictly true. In fact, the ‘wear’ of running increases bone density and lessens mineral loss; it’s the ‘tear’ of twisting the joint (while playing football, say) that accelerates the onset of the disease.

6 Fitness… heightens bedroom bliss
Not only does exercise give you a better body (which should, if there’s any justice in this cruel world, lead to more sexual liaisons), it heats up your sex life too. In 2004, researchers at the University of California at San Diego put 78 middle-aged men on an aerobic exercise programme. They worked at a moderate intensity for an hour, three or four days a week. After nine months they reported having more – and more satisfying – sex and orgasms. By comparison, 17 other men who worked at a less intense level reported no improvement in the sack.

7 Fitness… protects against Parkinson’s
Long-term exercise and a lifelong reduction in the number of calories consumed may help you avoid Parkinson’s disease. According to the US National Institute on Ageing, keeping fit switches on dopamine-producing mechanisms which protect brain cells that have been found lacking in people with this degenerative disease. Nicotine produces a similar result but, compared with exercise, it has the slight drawback of killing you.

8 Fitness… fights off strokes
The Stroke Association believes 50,000 strokes a year (that’s 40 per cent of the total) could be prevented if people made a few simple changes to their lifestyle – keeping fit and watching their blood pressure, basically. Job done.

9 Fitness… prevents bowel cancer
You can halve your chances of contracting one of the UK’s biggest killers by keeping fit, according to the Scottish Cancer Foundation, which has combined and analysed the results of more than 50 separate studies into the disease. However, it’s not yet clear why exercise should help. It may reduce the levels of cancer-causing hormones in the body or perhaps alter the speed at which food moves through the bowel, which may also help maintain general gut health.

10 Fitness… prevents broken bones
Taking part in vigorous sports such as tennis and badminton massively increases the strength of the human skeleton – especially the hip bone – making it less susceptible to fracture. According to a study at Cambridge University, low-impact sports such as swimming and fishing have no effect. But then, the risk of breaking a bone while disengaging a hook from a carp’s mouth is much, much lower.

11 Fitness… strengthens the heart
Although it’s widely known that regular exercise makes for a healthy ticker, scientists from Duke University, North Carolina, believe they’ve found out why. In a nutshell: training stimulates the production of a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which encourages the growth of new blood vessels and switches the muscles to aerobic metabolism. This breaks down fat for energy, optimising the body’s whole system.

12 Fitness… cures dyslexia
Supporters of a controversial treatment, as yet tested only on British children, claim that exercise can provide dramatic results in combating dyslexia. The treatment involves balancing, catching and throwing, which are thought to stimulate the cerebellum, the part of the brain used for movement, directing attention and many other motor and cognitive functions.

13 Fitness… reverses the signs of ageing
Regular exercise slows the ageing process and can even reverse its effects in some cases, according to researchers at the University of Texas. They argued that some decline in physical activity is an inevitable result of ageing, but that physical inactivity hastens this decline and leads to the rapid onset of muscle wastage, decreased endurance and loss of flexibility. The team cited several studies that demonstrate the benefits of exercise on ageing, including one in which a walking programme reversed 22 years of declining lung capacity in 22 weeks.

14 Fitness… sharpens the brain
A recent study found that exercising not only immediately speeds up the decision-making process but that long-term fitness also reduces the risk of senile dementia in later life. A University of Virginia study involving more than 2,000 men found those with the lowest fitness levels had almost twice the risk of developing dementia as those who exercised regularly.

In a second study, involving 18,000 women, those who exercised regularly also scored better on mental agility tests. Dr Jennifer Weuve, who carried out the studies, says, ‘The benefits of greater physical activity were similar to being about three years younger and associated with a 20 per cent lower risk of cognitive impairment.’

15 Fitness… helps you sleep
A study carried out at the University of Oklahoma in 2003 found that fit people doze off 11 minutes sooner than couch potatoes, get an average 42 extra minutes’ sleep a night, have less desire to nap during the day and feel more refreshed in the morning. The human guinea pigs did low-impact aerobics and walking at 60 to 70 per cent of their heart rate for 16 weeks to feel the benefits. The scientists also found that it takes more than eight weeks of regular activity to begin seeing improvements in sleep. Or rather, when you think about it, not seeing.

16 Fitness… improves productivity
If your company provides you with a personal trainer (as Microsoft in Dublin does), it’s not because your boss wants you to look good in a cap-sleeve T-shirt. It’s because studies have proven that regular exercise has a huge impact on employees, making them more motivated, responsive and energetic. The positive effect is felt by the employer in the form of higher staff morale, reduced absenteeism and improved creativity and productivity. The bottom line is you’ll work harder and make them more cash.

17 Fitness… beats the blues
The positive effects exercise has on conditions such as anxiety and depression have been studied since the 1980s. The euphoria that follows acute exercise, known as ‘runner’s high’, was discovered by Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Institute, who cited the case of a man ‘who was so despondent, he wanted to die. Because his heart was weak, he thought the best way to commit suicide without embarrassing his family was to run around the block as fast as he could until he killed himself. After several futile attempts at causing a fatal heart attack, he discovered that he began to feel better and eventually chose to live instead.’

The phenomenon is caused by the release of endorphins in the brain, but it’s unclear if they promote long-term mental wellbeing. Other research identifies serotonin and norepinephrine – also elevated by exercise – as mechanisms for improved mood. Many antidepressants increase the brain’s levels of these neurotransmitters, so it seems reasonable to assume that this is how exercise improves mental wellbeing.

Exercise makes you feel better, remember? What were you waiting for?