Muscle Enlargement: Not Necessarily the Most Beneficial Effect of Exercise

One of the most significantly discernible facts associated with exercise is muscle enlargement with accompanying increased strength. This exceptional circumstance of muscle enlargement, which is one of the effects of vigorous exercise, is not really due to an increase in the number of muscle fibers as might be imagined to be likely or true. Rather, it is a result of an increase in the size of each of the muscle fibers. The exact mechanism involved in this phenomenal effect of exercise, however, still remains to be fully understood.

The influence of nerves and nerve impulses conveyed to the muscle via the efferents appears in some way to have to do with the muscle enlargement which results from exercise. If, for instance, the number of nerve impulses is reduced (most likely from prolonged disuse of the muscle), the muscle fibers become smaller. Consequently, the whole muscle becomes smaller and weaker.

In the more unfortunate instance involving a disease or an accident which results in the destruction of the efferent nerve of a muscle, the nerve impulses to the muscle are cut off. In such a case, the muscle becomes much smaller or, worse, vanish altogether. Accordingly, fibrous connective tissue takes the place of the muscle, leaving no vestige of the erstwhile structure.

There is no quarrel that muscle enlargement is an important effect of exercise. However, it is not necessarily the most beneficial one. The most beneficial effects of exercise are, in fact, those that apparently have much greater importance than mere enlargement in size and increase in strength of muscle. Foremost of these is the improvement in the circulation of blood throughout the body, resulting from an increase in the heart's capacity to pump blood. This certainly is a significant effect of exercise as it makes the person less susceptible to heart attack.

Another very important effect of exercise is the improvement in the efficiency of the lungs, thereby providing a readily available supply of oxygen to the body. Improvement in the functions of the many tissues in and to every part of the body, through the increased metabolic activity of all the tissues, is likewise a beneficial effect of exercise. Also, because surplus calories are used up during exercise, body weight is controlled. This, obviously, should count as one of the most beneficial effects of exercise.

Three other beneficial effects of exercise are worth mentioning here: the promotion of a feeling of well-being, the reduction of fatigue at day's end, and the diversion created through which the day-to-day emasculating monotony or ennui is relieved. [Read the Original Article]