Different Types Of Exercise

Health & Fitness

All exercise is good for you and if done on a regular basis of at least 4 out of 7 days will lead to a healthier you, but exercise comes in many different forms from the simple everyday exercise we all get such as just walking, to more vigorous fitness routines such as an aerobics workout.

All forms of exercise use muscles and using our muscles on a regular basis can increase muscle size, strength and endurance, but not every form of exercise will have the same effect.

Exercises for endurance Forms of endurance exercising are cycling and running, exercises such as these build up and strengthen muscles; this type of exercise has several beneficial effects on our body such as:

• Increasing the amount of oxygen you take with each breath by increasing the capacity of the lungs.
• Enlarging the heart which enables it to pump blood more quickly around the body.
• Strengthens your skeleton.
• Helps with digestion.
• Improves your metabolism making it more efficient.
• Helps with improvements to the co-ordination.

This type of exercise suits someone who wants to improve overall health and strengthen and tone muscles, it is also good for the cardiovascular system but however if your aim in your fitness and exercise regime is to increase the muscles size then this type of exercise is not the best. For increasing the size of muscles resistance training is perhaps the best option.

Resistance training or Bodybuilding

Your muscle size will increase with a fitness plan based on resistance training; most resistance training involves using your muscles to lift heavy loads, which is known as bodybuilding.
Lifting weights of heavy loads forces the muscles to contract, training on regular occasions with weights will then cause your muscles cells to enlarge and as a result your muscles get bigger.
There are some forms of exercise which makes use of both resistance and endurance training, swimming for example is an endurance exercise as you have to push against the water to move and pushing against the water also causes resistance.
If your fitness routine is particularly intense then other parts of your body will begin to help your muscles, for example your heart will begin to beat quicker so that it can provide your muscles with more blood, and this in turn gives them more oxygen and valuable nutrients.
Once you have your muscles toned up with regular exercise and continue with your regime then your muscles will remain toned for they will be in a constant state of partial contraction which keeps them healthy and firm.

How many muscles does a body have?

We have around 650 different muscles within our body and these are divided into 3 different categories, skeletal muscle, smooth muscle and cardiac muscle.
Skeletal muscle gives us our movement and maintains our posture, it also generates heat and stabilises our joints. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs in our body and the cardiac muscle is responsible for your heart.