“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being,
while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.”
-Plato

The Body in Motion
Consider the human body. It is obviously made to move. But most of us move far less than we ride, sit, lie, and recline.  Some estimates report the average American watches TV for over two hours each day—usually from the sofa or in bed. Many of us have desk jobs, drive long distances to work, and use machines and labor-saving devices to do our work for us. Let’s look at the benefits of exercise and how our bodies respond to being inactive.

A Motionless Body
A study in the 1990s showed that every day after surgery without exercise results in 1-3% muscle atrophy (loss). It follows that even when we’re healthy, immobility can cause loss of muscle tone. People in chronic pain do become deconditioned when they’re afraid to move. The interesting thing is that losing muscle tone may contribute to increased pain.  

How Exercise Looks Inside the Body & Mind
While we may say I dread exercise or I hate to sweat, that’s our pre-conditioned mind talking. Our body and mind are actually begging for a work-out—a little stretching, toning, sweating, a muscular challenge, and some extra heartbeats. Think about buying a new car, driving it off the showroom floor at 10 miles per hour, and never going any faster than that for its entire life. Denying your car the privilege of performing to its specifications will result in a weak and inefficient engine.  All parts of a car are designed to go fast, heat up, cool down, and work hard. And so are all parts of your body.

BUT, you say, when I exercise or do too much, I hurt.  With my chronic pain, I just have to avoid exercise.

How Exercise Benefits the Body:

• Increases oxygen to the brain and body tissues—a result of increased heart rate and deeper breathing
• Increases energy level, because exercise “charges your battery”
• Increases bone strength & keeps joints healthy (cellular replacement is enhanced when muscles are strengthened and large bones experience impact)
• Lowers inflammation in the body (an active body is more efficient at flushing out the bad stuff)
• Has a calming effect (a warm body is more relaxed than a cold body)
• Helps digestion (activity assists peristalsis—the progressive, wavelike movement of intestines that moves food through the digestive process)
• Reduces obesity, which puts stress on joints & back (just 8 pounds extra weight is like carrying a gallon of milk around)
• Assists in weight management by increasing calorie burn
• Strengthens the cardiovascular system (lower stress on the heart lowers tension in the entire body)
• Regulates insulin/glucose balance
• Elevates the stress threshold (chronic pain is a stress)
  
• Reduces depression, which, in turn, may reduce the risk of dementia
• Boosts the immune system (chronic pain depresses the immune system)
• Builds T-cells (key to fighting cancer)
• Activates cells that repair inflammation of injured tissues 
• Cardio-exercise “dissipates” stress hormones (think of it as an exhaust system)
• Improves sleep (release of stress hormones results in deeper/better sleep)
• Reduces pain (endorphins, the body’s “morphine,” are released; this blocks pain signals to the brain)
• Strength building improves balance (more on this in the lesson on Strengthening)
• Reduces pain in fibromyalgia & rheumatism

Exercise and the Brain

Exercise also benefits us mentally by:

• Regulating our mood (the reason depression can be reduced or alleviated)
• Relieving anxiety (neurotransmitters are released into the body during a good workout)
• Increasing self-confidence as we meet exercise goals
• Improving self-confidence as we learn complex movements

Based on these known benefits, consider how a long-term investment in exercise might help you manage your pain.

When we say we’re stressed, we often mean overwhelmed, overloaded, and anxious. It has been observed that prolonged periods of stress are most damaging to the hippocampus (the region of the brain that plays an important role in long-term memory) in ways that simulate post-traumatic stress disorder. In simple terms, chronic stress causes the hippocampus to atrophy (shrink) and can be a factor in depression and dementia. The good news is that regular exercise bolsters neurons by making proteins that repair this damage. We might think stress is only caused by a high-octane job or major traumas, but many of us live with elevated stress when we are filled with anger, focus primarily on the negatives, get too little sleep, or are controlled by our pain.

On its website, Mayo Clinic documents that exercising 30 minutes, 3-4 times weekly, may reduce depression. And Dr. John J. Ratey has dedicated an entire book to the scientific and evidence-based impact of exercise on the brain (SPARK—The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain). The book’s cover summarizes how impressed he is with the benefits of exercise:  “Supercharge your mental circuits to beat stress, sharpen your thinking, lift your mood, boost your memory, and much more.”  While his research is far too lengthy to cover in this lesson, his conclusion is that inactivity is shriveling our brains and allowing stress to become toxic—both of which can be reversed with regular exercise.

What Stops Us From Starting or Staying with It?
A few seconds with this question, and you will probably have several answers.  A few common barriers:

• Attitude (it seems too hard or too complicated, or we just don’t know where to start)
• Feeling tired (lack of sleep or lack of movement…but remember the benefits of exercise?)
• Planning (prioritizing)
• Being depressed (mentally paralyzed)
• Commitment (staying motivated)
• Family members (if they give us guilt messages or remind us of past failures)

What Can Motivate Us?
Mental roadblocks keep us from starting and break our momentum.  After a few unsuccessful starts, we declare ourselves a failure and go back to being inactive.  Some people use the following tools to provide initial or renewed motivation:

• Make a personal challenge: I’m going to walk/run in a 5k in 3 months.
• Journal/chart progress and feelings
• Log weight, inches lost
• Find a pal, if you hate exercising alone
• Keep the above list of benefits handy, and note any improvements in these areas (it’s easy to forget)