Running Your Way to Better Men's Health
With the growing concern of the obesity epidemic, exercise is an important step in maintaining a healthy body weight. Luckily, that's an easy task to achieve and you do not need to go to the gym to get it done.
The average weight of American man, over the age of 20, is around 194 pounds according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using these average rates, burning calories can be achieved with any physical activity.
Physical activity is a vital part of maintaining a healthy weight for men. Obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease risk can be decreased with taking some time out of your day to engage in physical activity.
Fine, maybe you don't have time to really engage in a lot of physical activity. Work, family and other obligations may limit the time you have for yourself but that doesn't mean you can't stand, literally, up for health. Standing, alone, for just 30 minutes can burn 61 calories for an average American man. While standing, maybe you need to take care of some chores at the office or at home. While doing these tasks, you are actually burning around 228 calories in an hour. That's not bad for someone who has no time to do anything.
That "honey-do" list you need to get cleared can also improve your health. Cleaning those gutters or mowing the lawn can burn around 450 calories in an hour. Taking the dog out for a walk can burn over 300 calories in an hour. Cleaning up the garage or that time you spending working on your car will also help burn calories.
Elsewhere in the home, sex can burn over 350 calories in an hour.
Maybe those little boosts for your calories are not cutting it for you and need the ultimate calorie burning exercise. Turns out, nothing can really beat a good run. An eight-minute mile pace can have you burning over 1,100 calories in an hour, or around 550 calories in 30 minutes. The faster the pace, the more calories you'll be burning with a six-minute mile pace burning over 1,400 calories. Cycling at a racing level is also a great way to burn calories fast, in just 60 minutes, you can lose up to 1,400 calories cycling at a fast pace.
All these lost calories will add up in the long run as you improve your health. Maintaining a healthy weight will help reduce cardiovascular disease risk, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels.
If all that talk about losing weight and calories is boring maybe talking about sexual health will get you moving. In Medical Daily's interview with Dr. Michael Eisenberg, Director of Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, reducing cardiovascular risk will also reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction, something that's very important to any man.
Calories burned was measured using Findthedata.org.