I enjoyed reading these next few chapters because physical fitness is incorporated in many aspects of our bodies. It affects our cardiorespiratory, muscular strength, flexibility, and body composition. Its benefits also help increase our lifespan. Reading about cardiovascular diseases makes me cherish my health and I should treat my body right. It was also fascinating reading about infectious diseases and how it compromises our immune system.
Chapter 10
This chapter describes the components of physical fitness. Some examples of this would be cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition. Cardiorespiratory fitness is the ability of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels to supply the body with oxygen. We can improve this by doing aerobic exercise. Aerobic meaning “with oxygen.” One activity I do to improve my aerobic capacity is by jogging and hopefully swimming sometime soon.
Muscular strength refers to the maximum amount of weight you can move at one time or one repetition maximum. I don’t usually focus on this as I exercise because I feel it is more important to improve on endurance and flexibility. I have been improving on my endurance by doing more repititions of push ups, sit ups, planks, wall sits. I feel it has been improving more as I work on my core strength. I feel improvements everyday. Being flexible helps reduce soreness and offers a wider range of motion from the joints. I used to not be able to touch my toes but I have gradually reached them and it feels great. Body composition is the amount of fat in proportion to my lean body parts (muscle, bone, water, organs.) Taking care of my diet and my body has left me feeling less fat compared to before.
Core strength is everything. You would not be able to do anything without your spine with the back and pelvis muscles attached to the pelvis. I grew up not having good posture and it wasn’t until high school where I started sitting up straight. Back pain is a thing I do not want to have growing old. Having good core strength would lead to a more stable center of gravity and longer endurance. Yoga, tai chi, and pilates is forms of exercise that can lead to greater core strength, balance, coordination, and agility. I have seen one of my friends do yoga and she really enjoys it.
Chapter 11
The heart is what allows us to function. It can take deoxygenated blood and pump it through the arteries into the lungs. Then blood picks up oxygen and discards carbon dioxide in the lungs. Then back down into the heart where oxygenated blood is pumped through into the rest of body’s blood vessels. In the right atrium is the sinoatrial node which sends an electrical impulse that directs the heart to start beating rhythmically.
Cardiovascular disease can be fatal with many being heart attacks or cardiac arrest causing death. As an asian male, I saw that we had a higher percentage of CVD deaths and I cant help but to be a little fearful. Death is unavoidable sadly and we can only pray that we can leave a legacy behind. Growing older, there is a higher risk of getting diagnosed with hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, stroke, angina pectoris, arrhythmia, congestive heart failure or metabolic syndrome.
To avoid CVD, you must reduce the risks sooner rather than later. I used to eat a lot of eggs growing up because it was freaking delicious but I have learned to cut back on it no matter how good it is. Some things to avoid is cigarette smoke especially second hand smoke, cutting back on saturated fat. Cholesterol has been researched a lot and it is the fatty substance found in the bloodstream and cells. There is good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). Next time you go to the doctors for the yearly check up. Check if it is <200mg/dL, HDL levels less than or equal to 60mg/DL, LDL levels less greater than 100mg/dL, triglyceride levels greater than 150mg/ Dl because that would normal levels anything higher or lower than recommended would be beneficial to your health.
- Eat lots of fiber – 5-10 milligrams of soluble fiber from sources such as coat bran, fruits, vegetables, legumes and psyllium seeds
- Consume about 2 grams per day of plant sterols, found in fruits, vegeetables nuts, seeds, cereals, vegetable oils
- Cut down on dietary sodium. Too much salt is bad.
Chapter 12
Our bodies are like a space suit that is constantly protecting us and our organs help protect and kill pathogens. There is a higher risk of infection for college students when there is too much stress, not enough nutrition, low fitness, level, lack of sleep, abusing drugs, and poor personal hygiene. I would say I am a germaphobe so I try to avoid unsafe environments but it is hard to prevent against pathogens that you cannot see. It is also unpreventable when risk of disease is hereditary, or due to aging, environmental conditions, or organism virulence and resistance. There are superbugs out there that are starting to be resistance to drugs and it terrifies me.
This chapter also describes how mindfulness can help bolster our immune systems. It is described in this book that we can improve our health and immune systems. It involves eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep. When going to the doctors it is important to be vaccinated to prevent specific diseases .
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