Exercise Is Good - Man Walks From San Diego To NYC

I heard about this story several months ago, but forgot all about it until today. A southern California man who was massively overweight decided to do something about it, so he started walking from San Diego to New York City. He is just about finished with his walk after many months and to date he has lost 110 pounds and his wife. When asked about whether it was worth it today on a news program, he said that he had not felt this good in years.

The truth is that exercise has a way of building self esteem better than almost anything else does in the world. The body may ache from head to toe, but the brain loves hard exercise and it rewards the person doing it with some kind of inter reward system which is hard to explain or prove to a medical certainty. However, this inter-peace that people get when they exercise on a regular basis is real and if one is not careful it can be very addictive.

I read some research about how the brain discharges some kind of chemical, which is very similar to morphine, when people exercise heavily on a regular basis. The more a person pushes their body within a workout program, the more of this adrenaline type substance is produced and released within their bodies. This may explain why marathon runners always seem so happy after a 26 mile run. Sure their bodies are worn out, but something inside is making them feel good and in the long run this natural drug within the body does cause these folks to live a longer and happier life.

Until one year ago my life consisted of sitting in a chair and working at a computer monitor for 10 to 12 hours per day. At that time I could hardly walk for more than a couple of blocks without my back giving out and being out of breath. One year ago I started a new job where I had to stand for five or six hours at a time. The first month was absolute hell and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to survive the new job duties. However, I hung in there and over a few month period of time my body began to strengthen again and today I can do many things which had been impossible for me to do for the previous 10 years.

I think the human body has a "use it or lose it" mentality at its core. Our whole existence is somehow built on using our muscles and doing hard work. Maybe this is an old throw back to ancient times when man had to work hard just to survive. In modern times, smart people have learned that they will earn more money if they use their brains rather than their muscles, but maybe nature hasn't caught up to this new way of thinking yet.

One thing for certain is that a hard physical workout either at the gym or in a daily job does pay dividends to the person who makes the effort to challenge their body. In time scientist will connect the dots of why our bodies work better when taxed than when at leisure and I look forward to reading that report, with great interest, when it is released.