The Exercise Prescription

You know exercise is good for you, but do you know how good?
From boosting your mood to toning your quads, find out how
exercise can improve your life.

Regular exercise can be a prescription for better health.

Who says so? None other than the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Based on the guiding principle that exercise and physical activity are important to health and the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases, the AMA and ACSM collaborated to create a sustainable national initiative: Exercise is Medicine™.

As part of its overall vision, Exercise is Medicine™ seeks to make physical activity and exercise a standard part of disease prevention and treatment in the United States, encourage physicians and other health care providers to counsel patients as to their physical activity needs and to create broad awareness that exercise is indeed medicine.

Exercise makes you look and feel better. It helps you fall asleep and sleep soundly.

It energizes the body and can literally make you happy, by stimulating certain brain chemicals called endorphins.

Exercise burns calories to help you maintain a healthy weight, which in turn lessens your risk of many diseases. So you enjoy freedom from illness and reduce the need for prescription medicines.

When you exercise, you also build up your muscles, including those in your heart. And a strong, healthy heart is one of the keys to living longer.