Many Texans are making healthier choices this fall season. In addition to optimizing Vitamin D levels, exercise plays the next best role in helping families avoid the flu. Natural health advocates have always taught that exercise improves your immune system response, hence reducing your chances of contracting illness, including viral illness such as the flu.  A recent Reuters article supports this finding: Regular exercise may help battle the flu.

Previous research has found that regular exercise boosts your immune defenses in such a way that it helps limit a viral attack or help clear a virus from your body more quickly. Exercise can boost your body's innate antiviral defenses, and needs to be an integral part of your families lifestyle for optimal health, year-round.

Ideally, you should include five types of exercises in your week:

Aerobic: Jogging, walking fast, and using an elliptical machine are all examples of aerobic exercise. As you get your heart pumping, the amount of oxygen in your blood improves, and endorphins, which act as natural painkillers, increase. Meanwhile, aerobic exercise activates your immune system, helps your heart pump blood more efficiently, and increases your stamina over time. Aerobic exercise: Top 10 reasons to get physical - Mayo Clinic

Interval (Anaerobic) Training: Research is showing that the BEST way to condition your heart and burn fat is NOT to jog or walk steadily for an hour. Instead, it's to alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods. Interval Training Builds Fitness Fast -  Sports Medicine:about.com

Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.   Strength training: Get stronger, leaner and healthier - Mayo Clinic

Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.  Core Training - Good Core Training Takes More Than Ab Exercises - Sports Medicine:about.com

Stretching/Flexibility:  Stretching is the most neglected exercise of all, mainly because many people simply do not know how to stretch properly.  One of the easiest, most effective instructional stretching techniques around is the WOW Stretch. It is the most versatile, all in one, easy to use product that promotes flexibility, mobility, stress reduction, and overall fitness. -  The Cooper Institute Dallas, TX.

Even a simple workout is better than none at all, like the little shuffle in the video below. Your whole family can follow along....fun with a fitness flare!

More Information:   Primary Principles of Exercise: Aerobic, Interval, Strength, Core