Health And Hope

A rocking chair? ….
Such does not immediately come to mind as a piece of exercise equipment.
We think of steps, exercise bikes, rebounders, and skipping ropes.
But a rocking chair?!

Often, as people get older, movement is difficult, but it is now thought that the push required to make a chair rock, however gently, can be important. To move the chair in a soothing way,, the big muscles of the leg have to work and the ankles and knees are flexed rhythmically. This unconscious exercise is helping the blood circulate and keeps more freedom of movement in all those joints. And not just for the more advanced in years! Yes, and there can be a rocking chair in the garden, too.

Our bodies are living machinery.
We have joints, muscles, a blood system, and a need for oxygen. Some part of the body system is on the move all our lives; the heart is pumping, our lungs are expanding and contracting, the digestive organs are responding to food and drink. They all work better for us with regular exercise.

THE PRESCRIPTION
EXERCISE - to be taken daily, with sunshine and fresh air for maximum benefit.

HOW OUR BODY BENEFITS

The Blood. We have about five litres of blood, which move regularly around on a great traffic system of arteries, veins, and capillaries. These are firstly like motor ways, then roads, and then the small drive right down to the garage door. All components in the blood circulatory system work to keep the blood moving freely.
But then we interfere. We lie down on the sofa to relax, we sit to work, we slouch in a chair, we travel sitting down, we take the lift to go upstairs - in fact we move as little as possible, and then we go to bed and move very little for about seven or eight more hours. It is possible to do this year after year - perhaps right back from the time we stopped doing P.E. or sport at school?
What happens to the blood when we do not exercise? Billions of blood cells can get into traffic jams. The blood gets stale, stagnant, and ready to form a sludge and then clots which can get into the brain and heart and become killers.

The Heart. A 'TV heart' is not a happy heart. It is unfit and does not work enthusiastically. It does its task sluggishly. The blood is not pushed out into the blood stream with any enthusiasm or vitality, and the timing of the two electrical signals which keep the pumping rhythmical is less effective.

The Bones. Osteoporosis can begin to develop from the age of 35. The bone mass gets less and, when we are elderly, we are in danger of breaks. Regular and consistent exercise, using the big muscles of the legs can assist, in conjunction with good nutrition, in maintaining the minerals that slow down the loss of bone mass.