General Physical Fitness

It is important to participate in Aerobic Training which is literally 'with oxygen'. This training builds up your stamina and endurance by providing a greater supply of oxygen throughout your body and brain.

Forms of exercise include:

The aerobic formula is very simple and has profound effects. To become and stay aerobically fit, you need to exercise only three times a week by warming up for five minutes and then exercising aerobically for a minimum of twenty minutes.

What are the effects of this training?

An aerobically fit person can process twice as much oxygen in any given time period as an unfit person. The lungs of a healthy person can expel wastes and poisons from the body with a far greater efficiency.

The body will produce more blood in response to the demand for more oxygen (remember that red blood corpuscles transport oxygen). Aerobic training increases your supply of oxygen, decreases probability of certain diseases, allows the body, its brain and senses to function more naturally and increases the probability of a long life.

The heart will be strengthened, and an athlete's heart is larger, stronger and more a more healthy muscle than average. More blood can be pumped with each beat, and the heart beat will be lower than a non-exercised heart.

Oxygen and the Brain

The brain is the primary beneficiary of aerobic fitness. The brain weighs only two to three percent of your total body weight, yet it takes as much as 40-50% of all the oxygen you inhale.

Other benefits of aerobic fitness

Muscle speed and endurance are supplemented by muscle tone.

The digestive system will be fed more regularly and cleansed more effectively.

Aerobic exercise increases the quality of sleep and will often lessen the amount required.

Because of the intimate connection between the body and the mind, physical fitness can now be seen to be in many ways equivalent to mental fitness. People in good aerobic condition tend to be more self-confident, more optimistic, more determined and generally have a higher energy level, and a greater lust for life.

Other aspects of fitness

Muscular strength through weight training.

Flexibility through stretching, dance, yoga, gymnastics, aikido and aerobic 'stretchercises'.

Poise allows fluidity of movement, and natural flow of all energies throughout the system. Poise can be developed with yoga, aikido and the Alexander Technique.

Notes based on Tony Buzan's Book of Genius published by Random House 1994

Last updated: 2nd October 1996 (following my morning run of 30 minutes!)