We want to share two short articles today. Both have to do with the importance of movement. We send these out to encourage everyone reading to move more. For those of you who are considering the September Challenge to Move More, these articles contain information that may help you make your decision.
The first article has to do with telomeres. You may not have heard of these before, but they are found at the tips of your chromosomes.
As we age, these get shorter, creating an opportunity for a number of illnesses.
Guess what helps keep them long?
You got it!
EXERCISE!
Here’s the link to the article. It’s a short read!
The second article makes this first one even more significant. It describes recent research that included 123,000 people 60 and older. These folks were followed for 10 years.
The study found that people with high levels of physical activity reduced their risk of dying by 35%. Those with medium levels reduced their risk by 28%. Here’s the clincher. Those with as little as 15 minutes of exercise per day reduced their risks by 22%.
Geico was on to something.
Some of you may be thinking, ha, 15 minutes sounds a lot easier than the September Challenge. You’re right. But who wants only 22 when you can have 35?
And, here’s the other thing. Motivation. Left on our own, many of us fail to exercise even as little as 15 minutes. Together is always better!
The Challenge is not just about you moving more, it’s about you making a strong commitment to yourself to be as healthy as possible by engaging in more activity than you normally would. The research is there to back this up. Finally, the Challenge is also about working out together and encouraging one another to be our best. (The reward of community building is another theme we can explore in another post.)
We’re half way to September. How many of you are in for the Challenge?
Note that we are adding another fitness class to our line up for September. This class will be 30 minutes long, focus on raising the heart rate, engaging in functional movements, and be especially geared for all who would also want to get in their yoga practice right after.
Here’s the line up for September:
