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Benefits of Exercise

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

  • 43 Accesses

Synonyms

Exercise; Motor behavior; Physical activity

Definition

Physical activity is defined as body movement produced by skeletal muscle that results in energy expenditure above resting level and can be accumulated at any time, for example, during work, household, transportation, or during leisure time. Exercise is a subset of leisure-time physical activity that is usually structured, planned, repetitive, and has the purpose of providing recreation, improving or maintaining physical fitness, or enhancing other components of health or well-being (US Department of Health and Human Services 1996). Physical fitness includes cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, body composition, and flexibility (Thompson et al. 2003). Metabolic fitness is also increasingly recognized as an important component of fitness which is closely related to physical activity levels, as well as cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness (Hassinen et al. 2010).

Description

Physical activity recommendations were...

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References and Readings

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

    Klaus Gebel

  2. City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Klaus Gebel

  3. Graduate School of Public Health/Department of Family Preventive Medicine, San Diego State University/University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Ding Ding

Authors
  1. Klaus Gebel
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  2. Ding Ding
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ding Ding .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Marc D. Gellman

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Gebel, K., Ding, D. (2020). Benefits of Exercise. In: Gellman, M.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_1128

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_1128

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39901-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39903-0

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