Exercise is presented as the closest thing to a "magic bullet" for health, offering unparalleled, system-wide benefits that surpass any single diet, supplement, or routine.
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What is the most important thing [music]
that you can do for your health? Is it
some perfect superfood, diet, or
supplement? Is it some perfect sleep
routine or meditation retreat? Or could
it possibly be cold plunging or use of a
sauna? Is there this magic bullet for
your health? Well, not totally. And
although some of the things that I just
mentioned are definitely important
contributors to your health, I'm going
to make the argument that the closest
thing that we do have to a magic bullet
for our health is exercise. There's not
one thing that touches as many body
systems and improves the health of those
body systems as exercise does. And today
we're going to talk about how and why
that is by discussing [music] each body
system and health parameter that
exercise improves. like how it reduces
your risk of dying from almost anything
and even reduces your risk of certain
cancers. We'll also talk about some of
the key components that you should
include in your exercise routine. And we
will have to spend some time comparing
exercise to diet. It's definitely going
to be a fun one. So, let's jump into
this anatomical and physiological awesomeness.
So if you ask people what is the most
important thing that you can do for your
health, many will often pick some aspect
of diet or exercise. So we will
definitely address diet versus exercise
at the end. But like I said in the
intro, nothing seems to stimulate as
many adaptations in as many body systems
as exercise does. So as defense attorney
for exercise, let me argue why that is.
Starting with the cardiovascular system,
a well-th thoughtout cardio plan that
includes a few steadystate cardio
sessions and even just one highintensity
session per week will improve the
strength of the myioardium of the heart.
So then your heart can pump more blood
with each beat, making your heart more
efficient. It will even increase the
size and number of the mitochondria in
your cardiac muscle fibers. again
contributing to the efficiency of your
heart as your heart can now utilize more
oxygen, process lactate more
effectively, and generate more ATP.
These cardiovascular benefits don't just
affect the heart, but they also extend
to the blood vessels. You will literally
grow more of the tiny exchange vessels
called capillaries to the myioardium of
the heart [music] and to the skeletal
muscles. And this is sometimes referred
to as increased capillarization. And
with more capillaries, you can now
deliver more oxygen and remove more
metabolic byproducts from these tissues.
It also improves the health of the
tunica inima, which is the inside lining
of your blood vessels, making them less
likely to form plaques, which those
plaques can lead to strokes and heart
attacks, which we obviously want to do
our best to avoid. >> [music]
>> [music]
>> And cardiovascular exercise also
improves the compliance of your
arteries, which is a fancy way of saying
that your arteries are more elastic and
supple, if you will. Because if you have
a nice elastic, supple artery, as blood
gets pumped into that artery, it will
stretch, but then recoil, which will
help propel blood further downstream,
making it easier on the heart and
lowering blood pressure. And we're still
not done yet. Exercise will also
increase the number of red blood cells,
increasing the oxygen carrying capacity
of the blood and it will also increase
blood volume, meaning you'll have more
blood circulating throughout your body.
Now, on to the muscular benefits.
Muscles can change quite a bit due to
exercise. Moderate intensity
cardiovascular training or lower weight
high rep resistance training will
improve the number and size of
mitochondria in the slow twitch muscle
fibers. And combine that with the
increased number of capillaries that we
already talked about, those muscle
fibers will be more resistant to fatigue
so that you can now run and cycle longer
and do more repetitions. It will also
increase the amount of myoglobin within
the muscle fibers. And if you haven't
heard of myoglobin before, it is a
molecule that's similar to hemoglobin
and is found in muscle fibers and it
binds to oxygen. And clearly resistance
training will increase the size and
strength of your intermediate and fast
twitch muscle fibers. Now, obviously
increased strength is great for athletic
and sports performance, but this is so
important for longevity and health span.
And you can think of health span as the
number of healthy and functional years
that you have as you age. But the muscle
fibers that atrophy first as we age are
the fast twitch fibers. And this is
because you mostly only engage them
through higher intensity resistance
training. So heavier weights and lower
reps or through speed work. So even if
you have an elderly person that is
active with activities of daily living
like yard work or maybe they even do
moderate cardio, yes, these activities
are great. Keep doing them, but they
still won't fully engage the fast twitch
fibers, which can lead to atrophy of
those fast twitch fibers. So engaging in
heavier resistance training once or
twice a week can make all the
difference. And I'll get a little bit
more into those exercise protocols when
we give a sample exercise program at the
end. Now, even though the point of
today's video is to discuss why exercise
is kind of the king of your health,
towards the end, we will talk about how
diet and supplements contribute. And so,
as a teaser to that, I want to say thank
you to the sponsor of today's video,
Create. These guys created the first
creatine monohydrate gummy, which is
awesome for multiple reasons. One, they
use the highest quality of Creapure
creatine monohydrate, which has been
third party tested for quality. Plus,
they taste great as they come in
multiple flavors like blue raspberry or
sour green apple, which has actually
been a little bit of a problem at my
house because people keep getting into
my stash of creatine gummies. But once
you get past the thievery and treachery
of your family members, you can revel in
the joy of how convenient these gummies
are. No need to mix it in with a drink
or shake. You can just pop a few of them
into your oral cavity and chew them up,
which I especially love when I go out of
town. I no longer have to pack a whole
bottle of creatine or transfer some of
it into a little Ziploc bag. Now, I have
been taking creatine personally for
years now, and I talk a lot about its
benefits with patients and friends, and
I find very few reasons for people not
to be supplementing with creatine
because yes, it clearly helps improve
exercise performance, but it also can
improve cognitive function and even help
with sleep deprivation. So, if there's a
highquality creatine product like
create, I can definitely support that.
So, if you're interested, go to trycreate.co/human
trycreate.co/human
anatomy and use our code humanan anatomy
to get 30% off. That link will also be
in the description below. And now, let's
get back to those benefits of exercise.
Right now, you are looking at the
abdominal cavity. And you might be
wondering, why are we looking here?
Well, if I reflect the stomach out of
the way, you can see this awesome
insulin producing organ called the
pancreas. And with all the improvements
in your mitochondrial number and
density, and with all the metabolic
activity going on in your cardiac and
skeletal muscle fibers, you get some
major spillover with your metabolic
health. Exercise is a metabolic marvel.
It enhances insulin sensitivity, helping
to regulate blood sugar, and preventing
type 2 diabetes. Improve mitochondrial
function in your cells, improves energy
use and fat metabolism. This leads to
better cholesterol profiles, reduced
inflammation, and weight management. For
those with pre-diabetes or other
metabolic issues, regular activity can
reverse these trends, lowering risk for
metabolic disease in a dose dependent
way. And it's not just about burning
calories. Exercise reprograms your
metabolism for efficiency. I will often
tell my students and patients that with
diabetes, your body struggles with
properly utilizing the macronutrients
like carbs and fats. But exercise can
help restore the balance. And speaking
of the macronutrients, with exercise,
your body increases its glycogen storage
capacity in the liver and especially in
the skeletal muscles. And so, I probably
should have mentioned this as one of the
muscular adaptations, but increased
glycogen storage capacity has influence
on your metabolic health, so I guess it
works here, too. And now, we present to
you Jeffrey the skeleton. He's been so
excited for his cameo today. Can't you
tell? Exercise is crucial for bone
health. As we age, bone density
naturally declines, raising risks for
osteoporosis and fractures. But
resistance training and weightbearing
exercises like squats, hiking, or
running can stimulate these cool little
bone cells called osteoblasts. And these
osteoblasts lay down new bone tissue in
response to exercise, thereby increasing
bone density and reducing the risk of
fractures as we age. It's especially
vital for females post-menopause as
females are four to five times more
likely to develop osteoporosis than
males. And we'll learn about why that is
in our future osteoporosis video. So,
Jeffrey, did your cameo fulfill all your
deepest osteological hopes, desires, and
dreams? I hope so. And we can't forget
about the health of your command center.
Your mind benefits, too. Exercise is a
natural anti-depressant. It releases
endorphins, boosts serotonin and
dopamine, and reduces stress hormones
like cortisol. Regular activity sharpens
cognition, improves memory, and combats
anxiety and depression. It even promotes
neuroplasticity, potentially growing new
neuronal connections in certain areas of
the brain. For older adults, it keeps
judgment and learning sharp, potentially
delaying dementia. It also enhances
sleep quality, helping you fall asleep
faster, stay asleep longer, and enjoy
deeper rest by regulating circadian
rhythms and reducing stress. And on the
immunity front, regular moderate
exercise strengthens your body's
defenses, improving immune cell
circulation and reducing chronic
inflammation, which lowers the risk and
severity of infectious diseases like the
flu and other respiratory infections.
And so active individuals are less
likely to get sick or suffer severe
outcomes if they do get sick. So clearly
there are a lot of health benefits to
exercise. But this is kind of where the
rubber meets the road. All of these
health benefits add up to an overall
risk reduction in all cause mortality.
In other words, exercise decreases your
risk of dying from many leading causes.
Recent studies confirm that 150 to 300
minutes of moderate activity weekly
reduces all cause mortality by 20 to
21%. While 300 to 600 minutes reduces
the risk even further by up to 31%. But
even small doses matter. Based on
large-scale studies, 15 minutes daily
cuts risk by 14%. And this actually
makes a lot of sense. If you take some
of the biggest contributors to death
like cardiovascular disease,
neurodeenerative diseases, metabolic
diseases like diabetes, we already
discussed how exercise improves the
health of all those systems. But regular
exercise even reduces your risk of
certain cancers. Now, I do want to have
a little bit of a checkpoint here. As
I've been discussing all of the benefits
of exercise, I was thinking to myself,
am I being a little hyperbolic? Am I
exaggerating here? or am I going to give
the wrong impression to the viewer? And
the answer to that is no. We are not
exaggerating the benefits of exercise.
And I do believe that it is the closest
thing to a magic bullet that we have to
maintaining and improving our health.
And certainly one of the best things
that we can do to improve our
functionality as we age. Yes, people
that follow an exercise routine can
still get sick. They can still deal with
certain health conditions, but this is
about reducing your risk or reducing
your odds of negative health outcomes
and mortality and we are talking about a
significant reduction in risk that
exercise provides and again is one of
the best things that you can do for your
health. So definitely a worthwhile
endeavor. But if there was anything that
I might be bordering on giving the wrong
impression on that might be that
exercise is the only thing that is
important and that is certainly not the
case. There are obviously other things
that we can and need to do to maintain
and improve our health. And this is
where exercise versus diet comes into
play. Clearly, the ideal situation is
that exercise and a proper diet go
handin hand. Eating crappy food isn't
going to do you any favors. You need the
proper fuel and nutrients for your cells
to perform their essential functions.
But let me give you one last plug as the
defense attorney for exercise. There is
not one superfood or one supplement that
promotes all of the adaptations and
benefits that exercise promotes. Are
there foods and supplements that enhance
your health and enhance these exercise
adaptations? Absolutely. But it needs to
be a combination of multiple highquality
foods. And let's say you were eating the
perfect diet. You were in caloric
balance. You got enough vitamins,
minerals, and you were getting your food
from clean whole food sources. But you
never did any cardio. you never did any
resistance training. You never did any
mobility work. Do you think that perfect
diet is going to magically maintain
muscle strength and stop your muscles
from atrophing? Do you think that
perfect diet is going to maintain the
strength of your heart and stimulate all
the other cardiovascular benefits that
we talked about? Do you think that
perfect diet is going to stimulate those
osteoblasts and lay down the new bone
tissue and maintain bone density? I
could go on, but you probably get the
point. A perfect diet will not promote
those adaptations without the proper
stimulus of exercise. You definitely
wouldn't be putting harmful substances
into your body with a great diet, and
you could maintain a healthy weight.
You'd have reduced risk for many
conditions, and you definitely maintain
baseline physiological processes. But
again, just eating great food alone
won't stimulate your muscles, your
heart, or your bones to adapt or have as
great of influence on your metabolic
health. But overall, I hope you get my
point. You do need both. But a well-th
thoughtout exercise program in some ways
casts a wider net, so to speak,
especially when we're talking about
maintaining functionality as we age. And
then you use that great diet and
potentially some high quality
supplements to fuel the development of
those adaptations that you just
stimulated through exercise. And of
course, sleep, mental health,
environment, etc. are important
contributors to your health that we'll
save for another video. But what are
some general exercise principles that
should be incorporated into your
exercise routine that can stimulate
these adaptations and therefore lead to
these different health benefits? Well, I
do want to say that there are so many
different ways to build a very effective
exercise program. And I get so excited
about this because you can tweak it and
personalize it to your specific goals.
But there are a few general principles
that need to be in each of these
programs. some steadystate cardio, a
highintensity cardio day, and a
well-balanced resistance training
protocol. You want to do about two to
three hours of steadystate cardio per
week. The level of intensity for this
would be in zone 2, which is about 60 to
70%, some will say 65 to 75% of your max
heart rate. If you don't have a heart
rate monitor, you could do the talk
test, which means you could maintain a
full conversation with some friends if
you were running with them in zone 2.
Yes, you would need to take some big
breaths between sentences, but in
general, you could get full sentences
out. Then, we want to do one
highintensity cardio day per week. You
could see some benefits doing this every
other week, but ideally once a week. I
personally do 4x4s on a treadmill, but
you could do this on a track, on a
stationary bike, even on a rower. But I
set the treadmill at a constant speed,
and then I go for four minutes, and then
I rest for three minutes at a steady
walk. And then I do that for a total of
four times. And if you see me starting
to kind of react to this emotionally,
it's because if you do this right,
meaning you pick the right speed or
intensity so that you don't come out too
fast or come out too slow on those first
sets, by the fourth set, those last 30
to 60 seconds, you should be questioning
your life decisions, or in other words,
questioning if you want to keep going. I
will often hit my max heart rate by that
fourth interval. So, if you're new to
cardio, it might be best to just start
focusing on the zone two for a few weeks
to build up your aerobic base and then
you could start incorporating the
intervals and may even start with one or
two intervals and then work yourself up
to four. For my patients, I usually set
up cardio on like Monday, Wednesday,
Friday. They could do an hour of zone 2
on Monday, then an hour of zone 2 on
Wednesday, and then do their
highintensity interval on Friday. If
they want to get closer to the three
hours of zone 2, then we have to get a
little bit more creative. You either
have to do like an hour and a half on
Monday, an hour and a half on Wednesday,
or you could keep Monday and Wednesday
to an hour, and then do 30 to 45 minutes
of zone 2 on Friday, and then follow
that zone 2 session up with the 4x4s to
finish out that Friday cardio workout,
which is a little bit of a tougher
session. Or you could add the 4x4s to
the end of the strength days that we're
going to talk about now. For my
patients, I'll often set up resistance
training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays. Now again, you can go crazy
with all sorts of different strength
training protocols, but one of the most
simple ones that we start with is an
upper lower split. Meaning on Tuesday,
you would do upper body, then on
Thursday you would do lower body, and
then on Saturday you go back to upper
body. And then that flip-flops the next
week where you would do lower body on
Tuesday, upper body on Thursday, and
then back to lower body on Saturday. We
focus on compound movements with rep
ranges of six to 10. And if you have the
time, ending those sessions with some
mobility work. And we have a free
workout chart in the description that
goes over what we just talked about. So,
if you want to check that out, like I
said, that'll be in the description
below. But hopefully that gave you some
useful information about why exercise is
so important for your health. Thank you
for supporting the channel, everyone,
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