EXERCISE: 7 BENEFITS OF REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
You know exercise is good for you, but do you know how good? From boosting your mood to improving your sex life, find out how exercise can improve your life.
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Want to feel better, have more energy and perhaps even live longer? Look no further than exercise. The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. And the benefits of exercise are yours for the taking, regardless of your age, sex or physical ability. Need more convincing to exercise? Check out these seven ways exercise can improve your life.
and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your selfesteem.
No. 4: Exercise boosts energy Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance. Exercise and physical activity deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about your daily chores.
No. 5: Exercise promotes better sleep Struggling to fall asleep? Or to stay asleep? Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep. Just don't exercise too close to bedtime, or you may be too energized to fall asleep.
No. 6: Exercise puts the spark back into your sex life
Do you feel too tired or too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy? Regular physical activity can No. 1: Exercise controls weight leave you feeling energized and looking better, Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain which may have a positive effect on your sex life. or help maintain weight loss. When you engage But there's more to it than that. Regular physical in physical activity, you burn calories. The more activity can lead to enhanced arousal for women. intense the activity, the more calories you burn. And men who exercise regularly are less likely to You don't need to set aside large chunks of have problems with erectile dysfunction than are time for exercise to reap weight-loss benefits. If men who don't exercise. you can't do an actual workout, get more active throughout the day in simple ways — by taking the No. 7: Exercise can be fun stairs instead of the elevator or revving up your Exercise and physical activity can be a fun way household chores. to spend some time. It gives you a chance to unwind, enjoy the outdoors or simply engage in No. 2: Exercise combats health activities that make you happy. Physical activity can also help you connect with family or friends in conditions and diseases Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent a fun social setting. So, take a dance class, hit the high blood pressure? No matter what your hiking trails or join a soccer team. Find a physical current weight, being active boosts high-density activity you enjoy, and just do it. If you get bored, lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol and try something new. decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly, which The bottom line on exercise: decreases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. In Exercise and physical activity are a great way to fact, regular physical activity can help you prevent feel better, gain health benefits and have fun. As a or manage a wide range of health problems and general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, activity every day. If you want to lose weight or meet type 2 diabetes, depression, certain types of specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Remember to check with your doctor before cancer, arthritis and falls. starting a new exercise program, especially if you haven't exercised for a long time, have chronic No. 3: Exercise improves mood Need an emotional lift? Or need to blow off some health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes steam after a stressful day? A workout at the or arthritis, or you have any concerns. gym or a brisk 30-minute walk can help. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed. You may also feel better about your appearance
Get moving Bethlehem!
6
Open House: Saturday, January 10th 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
is pleased to welcome back…
Jen Anderson, M.S. & Fitness Potential Personal Training
We are OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT for the 2015-2016 school year! We have openings in our 3 and 4-year-old classes!! Please contact Jenn Hammond at 439-1455 or
trivillagenurseryschool@yahoo.com for more information or to set up a tour of our school!!
Starting January 20th, 2015 Jen returns with an expanded menu of services… •Functional Movement Screen (FMS) •Functional One-On-One Private Training •And now…PEAK Pilates Mat Classes & Private Training •With all NEW Peak Pilates equipment
Registernow nowforfor 2015 classes! Register 2014-15 classes!
Offering classes in Acting, Voice, and Musical Theater www.broadwayboundacademy.webs.com broadwayboundcamp@yahoo.com
Please contact Jen for her NEW class & private training schedule
518-300-8844
Online at www.ourtownebethlehem.com
7
Then
& Now Dairy Farming In Bethlehem By Susan E. Leath Inside the barn at Normasnkill Farm #2, standing behind the cows from left to right, are Bernie Parker, Richard Myers and Henry West. Standing on the left is possibly Nelson Einhorn.
450 acres and 225 Holstein cows. New York census records from 1925 indicate that William Heath, age 33, lived on Bethlehem Road. His occupation is listed as dairyman. Elvira, also age Bethlehem’s roots as a dairy farming community 33, and their 4 children (Aileen, Jerald, Margaret run deep. Over 200 years ago our town was and William) are also listed as is Heath’s mother described as being “very fruitful in pastures, and Elizabeth (age 72.) Heath’s Dairy included a has large quantities of excellent butter.” Butter of home delivery service and a store located on the course is made by churning milk to separate the premises. In the 1950s, store customers could butter fat from the butter milk. The USDA Census enjoy a glimpse of the milking parlor located next of Agriculture reports that in 2012 there were door. William H. Heath died in 1987 at age 96. By 1,431 milk cows in Albany County providing this the time the dairy closed operations in the late 1980s, it was owned by Barry Dance. vital fluid. Cover: George Stoffel stands ready to deliver milk. Note the milk cans that fill the back of the wagon. The Stoffel family dairy farm was just north of Shady Lawn Dairy on today’s Route 9W.
Long time residents remember the days when Bethlehem had many working dairy farms. These included Heath’s Shady Lawn Dairy and the Normanskill Farm Dairy. Today, only Meadowbrook Farms Dairy just over the New Scotland town line in Clarksville still delivers milk door to door. Shady Lawn Dairy was established at the corner of today’s Wemple Road and Route 9W by William and Elvira Heath in 1920. They started with 67 acres and 19 cows and grew their operation to
This appealing color postcard from the early 1900s shows the cows that would have been a common sight in Bethlehem.
24
Dating from 1946, this photo shows the Normanskill Farm #2 as seen from Route 9W. The large windows to the right allowed folks to look in on the milking parlor.
The Normanskill Farm Dairy was a large operation ranging from the cows on the farm to the delivery of milk products door to door. It was established in 1900 by Mark Stevens and had their peak years from about 1920 to 1960. The original Stevens farm where cows were pastured and milked was located in Normansville. Another was known as Normans Kill Dairy Farm #2 and was located on today’s Route 9W, a site now occupied by WalMart. These farms and others in Albany County sent their milk to be processed and bottled at the company plant in downtown Albany at 120