Tips on Exercise

Five keys for health are:  a natural, unprocessed diet; fresh air; good water; and exercise.  Exercise is crucial for circulation of both blood and lymph.  It strengthens the cardiovascular system and improves oxygenation.  It aids in fat burning.  It increases an overall sense of well-being.  The amount of exercise should match your abilities.  Gradually increasing exercise time is recommended.  Do not wait until you are feeling great to exercise.

Building movement into your day by taking stairs, walking rather than driving when possible, parking at a distance, etc is helpful in our sedentary lives.  Walking, especially outdoors, is a great exercise.  An ideal exercise that can be done in a short time, in home, office, or outdoors without much time is either the ‘rebounder’ or ‘wobble board’.  The following points about rebounding are taken from the book, “Jumping for Health,” by Morton Walker, DPM.  NASA studied this form of exercise and concluded that compared to jogging it is 68% more effective.

• Rebounding works with gravity rather than against it to strengthen and cleanse every cell.  It helps squeeze wastes out and pull nutrients into the cell.
• Skeleton and muscles exert as if carrying heavy weights which will tone muscles, strengthen skeletal mass, squeeze toxins out of arteries, lymph and cells.   It is the equivalent of lifting two to four times your body weight; yet the impact is not enough to cause strain.
• It can develop limberness, pliability, strength and flexibility.
• It helps strengthen the heart, helps control blood sugar, aids body fat elimination, helps bone density, stimulates metabolism, enhances digestion and elimination, improves sleep and possibly vision, stops premature aging, and increases HDL.
• It improves tone of muscles (including the heart) and blood vessels, changes fat weight to lean weight, increases endurance and oxygenation.
• It increases lymph circulation.  The lymph system having no pump depends on movement for circulation.  The less cluttered and more flowing the lymph is, the better you tend to feel.  Indications that lymph is not flowing well include bad breath and feet and armpit odor, flaky skin, breaking nails, falling hair, drooping eyelids. 
• It is a vertical rather than horizontal exercise.  It is at least as good, if not better than, many exercises; e.g. jogging, rowing, swimming, hiking, racquet sports, etc.  It is a low impact and whole body exercise (not just certain muscle groups).
• It is an aerobic exercise that saturates the blood with oxygen molecules helping get more oxygen to the brain.
• It may be used by a person of any age, as well as disabled persons.
• Start slowly (5 minutes a day) and build up as able.  When able, arm and leg weights may be added.  Even one minute is worth doing to improve lymph circulation.
• It can be done while listening to music, tv, etc.