Physical Fitness
Physical Fitness
The human body is a mechanical structure unique in that its continued use results in greater efficiency. We know from the training of athletes that if we increase the work load, the body adapts to meat the increased demands by anatomical and physiological changes of its organ systems, with the result that it functions more efficiently. For example, in a trained runner, the heart beats more slowly, yet with force, and thereby provides more blood per unit time than the heart of the sedentary person. Oxygen delivery and transport systems become more efficient in reaction to endurance exercises, and programs that are planned for the improvement of muscular strength result in the toughening and strengthening of muscular tissue. The human body was made to be used and therefore thrives on being active .
In our highly mechanized and specialized society, work is often not a source of activity. The many application used in the home have reduced the level of activity for the housewife. The man at work is often reduced to watching the dials on a machine performing the task that formerly required his physical effort. Some industries have gone so far as to give their employees exercise breaks to encourage activity. In West Germany, industrial concerns have made some efforts to develop broad-scale physical reconditioning programs for thousands of their sedentary workers. The question that physiologists are now faced with is, what happens to an organism that thrives on activity when it is placed in an environment that strongly discourages it? At what level of lowered activity will disfunctions appear in the human mechanism? What form will they take? As expressed by Morehouse, “If man lies too quietly, bones dissolve, pressure reduces circulation causing death of tissues, muscles atrophy, fascia contracts, and neuromuscular and vasomotor coordination’s are forgotten. Habitual quiet sitting produces similar, but lesser effects.”
A great deal of evidence points to inactivity as at least one factor related to cardiovascular disease. The fat American is no doubt one whose caloric intake exceeds caloric output. Overweight is invariably accompanied by a greater susceptibility to a number of diseases and a shortened life-span. In recent years, the increases in mortality from cardiovascular disease among relatively young men have caused particular concern. Numerous studies have indicated a higher incidence of cardiovascular disorder among those in occupations requiring little activity. This factor in combination with emotional stress, cigarette smoking, and overweight often proves to be lethal. The need to reverse this trend relates not only to the desirability of increasing longevity of life but to a higher quality of living as well.
When young women lack proper muscle .tone and strength for such natural functions as childbirth, we begin to realize how basic fitness can be. The vigorous, successful, professional often needs the physical mechanism as well as the mental abilities to carry on a strenuous schedule of professional activity. While the “tired old man” can be related to the aging process, the “tired young man” can be more closely associated with inactivity and its erosion of youth .
Suffice it to conclude here that the development of obesity is to a large extent the result of the lack of foresight of a civilization which spends tens of billions annually on cars, but is unwilling to include a swimming pool and tennis courts in the plans of every high school .