How Much Weekly Exercise Is Needed To Achieve Lasting Health Benefits - Research Paper Example

?How much weekly exercise is needed to achieve lasting health benefits? Introduction Exercise is a form of physical conditioning of the body and is claimed to have substantial benefits to humans. In line with this general information, the proponent of this article tries to identify in particular how much weekly exercise is needed in order to achieve lasting health benefits. This topic has significant implications for nursing practice due to the fact that the proponent tries to point out exercise in this article as a way to provide care for patients. Furthermore, any nursing practice can try to associate the full advantage of exercise as a way to provide maximum care for patient by using substantial results from various scientific studies in this field. Thus, this is just another way of using an evidence-based approach in nursing practice. Exercise needed per week It was found that 10 minutes of exercise per day, two to three times a week may contribute significant impact on physical and mental health. A study was conducted in order to find out if the impact of perceived notion about the benefits of exercise. It was found that a 10-min bout of exercise has substantial impact on mood (Anderson & Brice, 2010). This was found out by having exercise group in the study who jogged for about 10 minutes and then their moods were assessed prior and after of the session. Another study was able to identify which mode and intensity of exercise program is effective (Delecluse, et al., 2004). The study was able to employ older men, 55-75 years old and were assigned to control groups and had undergone exercise two to three times per week within twenty weeks. The result was staggering considering that there were remarkable results in heart rate, work capacity and recovery, waist girth, insulin response, knee exterior strength, body composition, resting metabolic rate and postural control. Based on conducted scientific studies regarding exercise in different field of expertise, the study of Tanji (2000) was able to explore the benefits of exercise for women in the hope that it can relatively contribute to change of one’s lifestyle. It was suggested that an exercise of 30 to 40 minutes per day or everyday per week should be allocated for moderate intensity aerobic exercise. The above results prove that a good quality and regular physical exercise has significant impact on the human body by cultivating sound and healthy mind resulting to good body condition. The other impacts of exercise However, it is not only on maintaining the healthy physical condition of the body exercise has a significant contribution. It also shows significant benefits to healing and prevention of human illnesses and other related health problems. Using an evidence-based approach, Diehl & Choi (2008) found that the lack of regular physical exercise, which in the case of the United States around 50% of the total population was found not to have it, results to significant health problems such as on mental health, disease prevention and productivity. A scientific investigation using randomized trial approach was conducted in New Zealand to find out if exercise has relevant impact on smoking-cessation outcome (Maddison et al., 2010). Home and community-based exercise were found to have significant contribution to smoking cessation. In this study, exercise is particularly determined to contribute to a healthy lifestyle. There was a study conducted employing postpartum-depressed women as respondents (Dritsa et al., 2009). The study was in line with finding the effect of home-based exercise on the reductions in their physical and mental fatigue. This study was part of finding significant mediators for changes in physical fatigue. The result suggests that exercise is a significant activity to reduce physical fatigue especially among postpartum depressed women. Another study was able to determine other significant impact of exercise on the human physical health (Perez, 2008). The study was able to employ significant information from various studies showing strong inverse relationship between a regular exercise and the risk of coronary heart disease. This means that the lack of regular exercise has significant contribution to cardiovascular-related health problems. Thus, a good and regular exercise was pointed out in the study as a good way to prevent any cardiovascular-related health problems. Using meta-analysis, the effect of regular aerobic exercise was observed pm self-reported positive-activated affect (PAA) on 9840 particpants from 105 studies in 1980 to 2008 (Reed and Buck, 2009). There was observed moderate PAA on respondents having regular aerobic exercise. Another study conducted on pregnant women associating the impact of exercise in their pregnancy. The result showed that there was a high correlation between exercise and the common problems encountered during pregnancy (Wadsworth, 2007). This means that exercise is significantly good among pregnant women. It was also found that those who have poor healthy body condition are committed to go for exercise. Study among Korean women with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis revealed that their physical condition was a significant factor for their commitment to a plan exercise (Shin et al., 2006). Results have shown that most of the scientific studies and inquiry about exercise are in line with the need to care for patients. These have considerable impact on the nursing practice. The proponent believes that in nursing practice, a regular exercise should be introduced among patients just to motivate them improve their physical well-being. This in general has something to do with another level of nursing care that has to be put into practice. The exercise needed per week and its important implications on the human body shows a significant contribution to the knowledge of every nurse practitioner. It is good to expose them to evidence-based studies highlighting major ideas so as they would know how they can further maximize their full potential and understanding in dealing patients and the people in general. This is a good chance for them not only to be confined with their basic understanding about health care but the results stated above have shown specific ideas to widen the ideas in nursing practice. References Anderson, R. J., & Brice, S. (2010). The mood-enhancing benefits of exercise: Memory biases augment the effect. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Delecluse, C., Colman, V., Roelants, M., Verschueren, S., Derave, W., Ceux, T., Eijnde, B. O., Seghers, J., Pardens, K., Brumagne, S., Goris, M., Buekers, M., Spaepen, A., Swinnen, S., & Stijnen, V. (2004). Exercise programs for older men: mode and intensity to induce the highest possible health-related benefits. Preventive Medicine, 39, 823-833. Diehl, J. J., & Choi, H. (2008). Exercise: the Data on its Role in Health, Mental Health, Disease Prevention and Productivity. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, 35, 803-816. Dritsa, M., Dupuis, G., Lowensteyn, I., & Da Costa, D. (2009). Effects of home-based exercise on fatigue in postpartum depressed women: Who is more likely to benefit and why? Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 67, 159-163. Maddison, R., Roberts, V., Bullen, C., McRobbie, H., Jiang, Y., Prapavessis, H., Glover, M., Taylor, S., & Brown, P. (2010). Design and conduct of a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to enhance smoking-cessation outcomes with exercise: The Fit2Quit study. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 3, 92-101. Perez, A. B. (2008). Exercise as the Cornerstone of Cardiovascular Prevention. Revista Espanola de Cardiologia (English Edition), 61, 514-528. Reed, J. & Buck, S. (2009). The effect of regular aerobic exercise on positive-activated affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10, 581-594. Shin, Y. H., Hur, H. K., Pender, N. J., Jang, J., & Kim, M. S. (2006). Exercise self-efficacy, exercise benefits and barriers, and commitment to a plan for exercise among Korean women with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43, 3-10. Tanji, J. L. (2000). The benefits of exercise for women. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 19, 175-185. Wadsworth, P. (2007). The Benefits of Exercise in Pregnancy. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 3, 333-339. Read More