Daily Exercise

God’s plan for our life includes daily exercise, and we can’t have good health without it. It is important that we
look not at only the physical development and health of our bodies in isolation from the well being of our
mental and spiritual faculties. Each of these areas influence one another to various degrees, and our loving
Creator wants us to develop these areas to their fullest potential.

In this study we will learn:

1. The benefits of exercise upon our health.
2. The diseases that inactivity produces.
3. The best form of exercise.

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE:
• It makes your heart more efficient. The heart muscle is strengthened, and the cardiac output is increased.
• It normalizes blood pressure. If the pressure is up, exercise brings it down, both systolic and diastolic
pressures. If the pressure is low, exercise will generally bring it up to normal.
• It increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood and allows a greater volume of blood to reach all
parts of the body.
• It lowers the pulse rate. This is important because the heart doesn’t have to work as hard. If your resting
pulse is 80, your heart is working too hard. Exercise can lower it to 60 thus saving you heart about 28 000
beats every 24 hours.
• It promotes better blood circulation. The flow of blood is your river of life. Blood carries oxygen,
nutrients, and other essentials to every part of your body. Furthermore, it picks up the waste products of
metabolism and carries them to the kidneys, lungs and skin, where they are eliminated.
• Through reflex and chemical action, exercise stimulates deep abdominal breathing. The lungs are
exercised and expanded. Because they become more efficient, more oxygen is pumped into the blood and
more carbon dioxide is eliminated.
• It relaxes tense muscles and releases pent-up negative emotions. It makes you feel better about yourself,
reducing anger and frustration when present.
• It charges your brain and nerve cells with electrical energy. It gives better balance between voluntary and
autonomic nervous systems.
• It helps digestion and promotes intestinal activity, reducing gas and constipation.
• It strengthens your muscles, bones, and ligaments. It keeps you from losing bone minerals, thus
preventing osteoporosis.
• It brings a physiological balance to your endocrine system; your pituitary, pancreas, adrenals, and sex
glands become more efficient.
• Exercise sharpens your mental powers and increases your capacity to think.
• It beautifies your figure and complexion.
• It helps you lose excess fat, not only by burning calories, but by turning up your metabolic rate so that
you are losing more weight even when you sleep.
• It adds energy. It actually produces more energy than it uses.
• It slows the aging process. It keeps you younger.
• It increases endurance and delays the onset of fatigue. In fact, it is a specific prescription for emotional
fatigue.
• It stimulates the production of endorphins, which give you a feeling of well being.
Newstart, page 70 –71.
• Helps you to handle stress better.
• Exercise will enable you to sleep better at night
• Stimulates the adrenal hormones which are antidepressants.
• Essential for growth and development of all organs.
• It encourages skin activity, perspiration, and increases the elimination of waste products from the system.
• It can give you the equivalent of ten years rejuvenation.
• Aids blood flow to the skin which increases the body’s supply of nutrients and oxygen.
• Strengthens the immune system.

With all these benefits of exercise and many, many more, we have only much to gain and nothing to
lose, except poisonous waste and maybe a few unwanted pounds of fat.

An Elimination Organ:
The skin is a much needed organ of elimination and can by sweating eliminate as much as 30% of all
impurities that are generated. If it is not being used for the job it is designed to do an added burden rests upon
the liver and kidneys to cope with the poisons built up in the system. Let’s use an analogy to explain this
physical phenomena. A man hired three brick layers to build his house by a certain date, each one working
together as a team to get the job done more efficiently. With all three working together every day the job can be
accomplished within a given time, however one of the workers decides to take a holiday and leaves the other
two workers to cope with the burden of his job. Now they have to each work 50% more to cope with the work
load dumped upon them to get the work done in the appointed time. They perform their building project by
working longer hours which carry them through till night and day after day work with all their might. Exhausted
from their labors after day and night of overwork, eventually leads another worker to take a holiday break and
now the work of three men is placed upon a man already exhausted by his work, and as a result he has a heart
attack and dies on the job. Can you see the point? That’s literally what happens to millions of people a year who
fail to exercise, and the house in which they live becomes dilapidated and comes to ruin.

Diseases that lack of exercise produces:

• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Obesity
• Constipation
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Dyspepsia
• Toxemia
• Insomnia

“Without physical exercise no one can have a sound constitution and vigorous health: and the discipline of
well regulated labor is not less essential to the securing of a strong, active mind and noble character.” CT, page
307.

Do’s and Don’t’s of Exercise:

1.) Exercise should be done in moderation, and regularly

2.) Do not exercise vigorously after a heavy meal as digestion is hindered
3.) Exercise outdoors whenever possible.
4.) Use your exercise as a form of productivity, for example instead of going to the gym, go and dig in the
garden instead, or cut the grass and plant some seeds. As well as being good exercise it will bring
satisfaction knowing that you have accomplished something productive.
5.) Try walking vigorously for twenty to thirty minutes per day.

Many people feel that when they are sick the best way to recover is to do nothing and lie in bed all day,
certainly that may be the case for someone who has overdone it in straining their physical powers, but in the vast
majority of the sick a moderate amount of useful exercise will pay dividends worth their weight in gold. There is
an old saying that if you don’t use it you lose it, and that is certainly the case when it comes to your muscles.
Some people who have had their limbs immobilized for long periods of time have found that they are unable to
use them as they did before as they have atrophied.

Medical researchers of Washington University studied exercising and non exercising women aged between
55-70. In 9 months the non-exercising women lost 1% of their mineral content. After 17 months of workouts the
exercisers had increased their mineral content an average of 6.2%, a significant gain. 13 months after they
stopped exercising, the exercisers’ bone mineral content had dropped 4.8%, which was still better than when
they started. Hence, as indicated in another experiment also, exercise was shown to be one of the best ways to
prevent age-related bone loss. By 70 a sedentary women has lost up to 30% of her total bone mass. By age of
65, 25% of women have OSTEOPOROSIS. The Divine Philosophy and Science of Health and Healing, page 84.
THE BEST FORM OF EXERCISE:

One of the best exercises that you can do is walking, and it is the simplest, most controlled and stress-less
exercise that you can do. Walking brings all the organs into use and is one of the best remedies for disease
known to man. Walking stimulates thought by increasing the oxygen supply, it elevates one’s spirits through the
release of natural mood-elevating chemicals called endorphins. Walking acts as the tranquilizer without a pill: It
is the cosmetic not sold in a drug store: it is the therapy without a psychoanalyst: is the fountain of youth that
can extend your life-span: it is the vacation that doesn’t cost a cent: it is the exercise that needs no gym: it is the
gym that needs no equipment: it requires no lesson from the pros: it requires no expenditure beyond the price of
an extra pair of shoes a year, can take away anger, anxiety, solve a problem, and untangle physical and
psychological knots. It can be engaged in individually or in groups. Its time is anytime: its place anyplace: and it
fits into everybody’s schedule. Try walking regularly each day, and progressively build up, and see if you don’t
get a blessing out of walking.

Regular exercise is the single most important thing you can do for yourself if you want a long and healthy
life on this earth.
Rash statement?

Lymphatic System
Lymphatic capillaries in the capillary bed around cells draining interstitial fluid. Up to 1/7th of blood and
plasma leaving the heart leaks out into the spaces between cells. It must be returned to the heart somehow! Also
cellular wastes, etc. Filaments or endothelial cells anchored to connective tissue at one end for flaps.
Lacteals in digestive villi- Absorb digested fats from the intestine and delivered to the blood through vessels.

Stagnant Lymphatics

NO exercise - Stagnation - Disease (systemic and auto-immune)

Lymphatic system is like the back lane - Historic significance! Not given much emphasis by Real Estate
Agent, but vital to remove waste.

Filters
Lymph Nodes contain macrophages which engulf and destroy bacteria, cancer cells, and any other invader in
the lymphatic stream. Nodes also have lymphocytes which mount an immune response to pathogens or foreign
matter that flows past. 1 Trillion lymphocytes in the average adult (approx. 1kg!)

Exercise allows cell wastes and other toxic substances to be eliminated quicker from the cellular environment
through the lymphatic system!

Can exercise help the elderly?

Many of the symptoms we associate with aging are

not really inevitable, but more often symptoms of
inactivity! Weight gain, decreased muscle tone and
flexibility, diminished aerobic capacity, bone mineral
loss, slowing down of reflexes, depression, etc.

The middle aged and elderly can even reclaim

ground they have lost!
Q. How? Exercise!

Aging and exercise study

A group of men between 60&72 were given leg
exercises to test their ability to build strength,
elasticity and endurance. After 12 weeks, their knee
flexion strength had improve 107%, and their knee
extension strength by 227%! Their rate of
improvement @ 5% per training session is similar to
that of young adults.

Application of this principle

Prevent or reduce incidences of injury. Improve well-

being, usefulness, peace of mind, happiness, health!

It is true that inactive old people are dying old people.

NO DRUG offers such promise for health and vigor as exercise!

Physiologists tell us that every hour spent in moderate exercise buys us another 2 or 3 hours of life!

Mavis Lindgren
As a child and adult she suffered whooping cough, pneumonia, and severe bronchitis.
When she was 62, overweight and sickly, she began a regular walking program.
She slowly increased her walking distance and ultimately began running.
Soon she found herself running 4-5 miles a day
At 70 years of age, she began running marathons.
In the next 17 years she ran in 65 marathons!
Her aerobic capacity was studied, and her levels improved till she had the capacity of a moderately fit woman in
her 20’s.
Even at 87 her capacity was that of a woman 1/2 her age!

Principles of exercise

• Regular and consistent

To reap the benefits of exercise we must be consistent.
A little exercise regularly is better than a lot spasmodically.
Plan your exercise as if your life depends on it!
It is important to stick to it if you are to achieve the benefits!
5 weeks of inactivity will cause you to loose 50% of fitness gains
After 10 weeks off you’ll need to start again!
It is important to have a regular time to exercise instead of just trying to ‘fit it in’. Our busy lives will
make sure that it does not fit!

Mornings are best. 75% of people who start a program and choose to exercise in the morning will still
be at it 12 months later. Only 25% of those who choose to exercise in the evening will still be exercising
regularly.

• Start slowly and build up. Avoid placing too high a demand on your ticker and rest of your body.
Walking is the best overall exercise, and the perfect place to start any program. It is moderate for the
elderly, and can lead to more vigorous exercise for the young.

• Establish realistic goals

When beginning an exercise program, establish realistic goals of how often you will do it, how far you
will walk, how quickly you want to improve, etc. Realistic short term goals will give much satisfaction
when you reach them, and will keep you motivated!

Do Not aim to win the Marathon at the Sydney Olympics! Concentrate on getting your pulse rate down
after walking around the block, or on keeping up with the dog! Think about the Olympics later.

• Know your tolerance. Recognize that you are overdoing it by the danger signals - chest pain, dizziness,
nausea, loss of muscle control, continued muscle soreness, undue shortness of breath.

• Extend yourself . Always attempt to extend yourself (within reason) just that little bit further. This will
build both your stamina and satisfaction. Slowly increase your distance while at the same time slowly
decreasing the time you do it in.

• Reach and maintain your target heart rate. Your target heart rate is where you should be aiming for as you
exercise. By keeping your heart rate in your target area for at least 20 minutes each time you exercise you
will receive maximum benefits to be received from moderate exercise as outlined in “The Blessings of
Exercise”. Your target heart rate will vary with age, fitness, health, cardiovascular strength etc.

Target Heart Rate Chart

You can check your exercising heart rate periodically as you go along. To get beats per minute, count
pulse for 15 seconds, multiply by 4, then add 10%. This 10% will account for the little bit your heart has
 slowed as you took your pulse. If your heart rate is below your target heart rate, pick up the pace a little
(unless you are experiencing warning signs).

If your rate is above your target, ease off a little, unless you are an experienced exerciser that is very fit
for your age.

• Exercising and meals don’t mix

Light exercise such as a leisurely stroll after meals greatly benefits the digestive process. But as always,
too much of a good thing is not a good thing! More strenuous forms of exercise will decrease the
blood flow to the stomach and cause the meal to digest more slowly - leaving opportunity for
fermentation.

Blood flow during strenuous exercise

It is best to wait about 2 hours after a meal before exercising. It is also not advisable to eat after excessive
exercise when one is exhausted or heated. Wait for a period until the pulse, temperature etc. have
normalized.

• Warm up and cool down

Warming up is an important part of exercise. It increases body and muscle temperature, and increases the
blood and oxygen levels available to the muscles. In effect, it lubricates muscles and joints and avoids the
possibility of sudden stretching of cold muscle tissue. Thus it prepares your body for the coming
movement and also minimizes the risk of injury.

Warming up can be as simple as walking slowly at the beginning of a brisk walk. More strenuous exercise
may call for a warm up walk or jog, or some stretching. Cooling down after exercise is the opposite to
warming up - a period where the body returns to its normal state of heart beat, temperature, etc. Stopping
strenuous exercise suddenly is not advised, so spend up to 5 minutes slowing down. This will help the
body recover from the exercise by helping the removal of muscle wastes, returning the blood flow to
normal, reducing muscle soreness, and improving flexibility.

• Stretching as exercise
Stretching is beneficial to the health of all.
It acts to lengthen muscles, tendons and other tissues, reduce muscle tension, promote blood circulation
and enhance performance.
It is in a sense a form of self-administered massage.
It improves flexibility, which is important in reducing risk of injury.
The elderly especially can benefit from simple stretching exercises.

• Exercise outside (Do some gardening)

 Whenever possible, do your exercise outside where you can receive other blessings as you go along. Why
not get a dose of Fresh Air, a shot of Sunshine, maybe a tincture of nature in a flower, bird, or the sunrise. Better
than in a gym? Maybe you will be able to administer a bit of medicine yourself – a “good morning” or a
pleasant “Hello” as you walk or run past a neighbor. And who knows who may be motivated to get out there
and receive some of the Elixir of Life themselves by seeing you each morning enjoying your exercise!

• Make the most of your time. Select an exercise that will do the most for you with the least demand of
your time.

The little things we do each day quickly add up.

Walk where possible, don’t drive.
Don’t send someone, go yourself.
Increasing general activity levels increases our BMR, increasing weight loss.

• Make your exercise enjoyable. One of the most essential ingredients of an exercise program is that it is
enjoyable and convenient. Drudgery exercise will not only make you hate it more, but will actually fail to
deliver all of the benefits - another instance of how important our mental attitude is to our health.

NEWSTART by Vernon Foster

A group of medical students were volunteers in an experiment conducted by the LLU School of Health. They
were placed on diets where each person received the same amount of cholesterol, fat, protein and carbohydrates.
Then they were free to select exercise programs they liked – swimming, volleyball, tennis, running, etc. Daily
blood cholesterol levels were taken.

The level dropped in all cases in 3 days. By the end of the week the drop was substantial. Then the activities
were stopped. Soon, the cholesterol in the blood returned to pre-Experiment levels. In some cases the levels
were a little higher. Next the students were placed on treadmills – no more enjoyable sports activities! The
exercise was just as strenuous as the previous sports. Then came the surprise when the blood was tested. The
cholesterol failed to drop in most cases. In a few cases it went up! Returning again to the activities they
enjoyed, the students had a drop in cholesterol in every case!

This experiment shows the importance of attitude.

A negative attitude produces enough stress to counteract the benefits of exercise!
The message is clear – learn to like your exercise, or change your exercise to one that you like!

• Vary your exercise

A change is as good as a holiday!
If you cannot do something that has you bounding out of bed at 5 o’clock rearing to go, it is important
that you put in place strategies to help you enjoy your exercise.
Find an exercise partner for company.
Take the dog occasionally.
Log your exercise/heart rate etc. so that you can monitor or chart progress.
Vary both your exercise, and where you do it.
E.g. A walk/run at the beach is a great change to the same old neighborhood.
If you go looking, you will find many ways to increase the enjoyment of your exercise.

• Reward yourself for goals reached

Reward yourself, not with indulgence, but with a special outing or experience.

• Choose the best exercise

Walking best!
Swimming near perfect. Avoids possible mechanical damage etc.
Gardening highly recommended by SOP
Others follow

“Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing, have become schools of brutality.
They are developing the same characteristics as did the games of ancient Rome. The love of domination, the
pride in mere brute force, the reckless disregard of life, are exerting upon the youth a power to demoralize that
is appalling. Other athletic games, though not so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the
excess to which they are carried. They stimulate the love of pleasure and excitement, thus fostering a
distaste for useful labor, a disposition to shun practical duties and responsibilities. They tend to destroy a relish
for life's sober realities and its tranquil enjoyments. Thus the door is opened to dissipation and lawlessness,
with their terrible results.” Ed. 210

• Do not exercise too much

Studies show that to acquire and maintain fitness and health between 20 - 45 minutes of brisk walking a
day.
BUT REGULARLY!
Every person’s requirements are different! Some more, some less.
Watch the signs for both too much and too little!
Avoid jogging or doing other strenuous exercise every day!
 Give the body a break every second day to avoid the “over-training syndrome.”

• Consider useful labor as exercise

“The greatest benefit is not gained from exercise that is taken as play or exercise merely. There is some
benefit in being in the fresh air, and also from the exercise of the muscles; but let the same amount of energy be
given to the performance of useful work, and the benefit will be greater. A feeling of satisfaction will be
realized, for such exercise carries with it a sense of helpfulness and the approval of conscience for duty well
done.” CT 308

Useful labor uses all of the muscles, helps control the appetite, develops resourcefulness, improves
judgement, develops decision making, diverts the mind.

Adam’s exercise
Adam’s exercise. “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to
keep it.” Gen. 2:15

“Useful occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind, and to
develop the character.” Ed. 21

Exercise in heaven. “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the
fruit of them.” Isa. 65:21

GOD’S PLAN is not given just for now, but to prepare us for ever!

3 - 4 hours/week of your time - a small price to pay for the benefits we reap!

“To man is allotted a part in this great struggle for everlasting life--he must respond to the working of the
Holy Spirit. It will require a struggle to break through the powers of darkness, and the Spirit works in him to
accomplish this. But man is no passive being, to be saved in indolence. He is called upon to strain every
muscle and exercise every faculty in the struggle for immortality, yet it is God that supplies the efficiency.
No human being can be saved in indolence. The Lord bids us, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I
say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Luke 13:24.” CT 366

Our exercise would be useless without God’s power working in our bodies!

Praise Him for His mighty works!

 Praisethe
Praise God for this
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exercise, feel so good
makes !
me
feel just so good!!!