Nobody ever questions that exercise helps to strengthen the striated muscles, the skeletal muscles also known as the voluntary muscles. Health clubs and exercise programs, books and magazine articles depend on the ability of these muscles becoming stronger with increased resistance, but are they the only cells that are improved by exercise?

The other two classifications of muscles, involuntary muscles and cardiac muscles are made up of cells that have much the same material. All muscle cells have the ability to contract enhanced by some type of increased physical stimulation. Aerobic exercises are designed specifically for strengthening the cells of the heart and the cells of the walls of the arteries making them stronger and more elastic.

People who exercise regularly find that their skin (the largest organ of the body) is stronger and suppler. Skin cells are not muscle cells but they do react to various types of stimulation.

Lack of exercise weakens bones of the skeletal system (space flight) while a vigorous exercise program causes the cells of the bones to request more bone material from the extracellular fluid and deposit it in the bone matrix, thus making the bones mineralized dense and strong.

The cells anti-gravity muscles (muscles of posture) are challenged with any kind of consistent body movement and the cells of the vestibular system in the inner ear adjusts to physical activity. Properly stimulated the cells of the balancing mechanisms become more sensitive to any and all body movement. Better balance, coordination, and rhythm are the result.

Vision is a talent and as such can be improved by exercise and proper stimulation. From the time we are born until the time we die we are constantly exercising the cells of the eyes. Sadly we do not think of looking to see as a form of exercise so most people do not concentrate on exercising the cells of the eyes. Rather they prefer to compensate a weakness with glasses. Vision therapists have been using trampolining very successfully to strengthen the cells of the eyes and improve vision for over forty years.

In the past, connective tissue, the ligaments and tendons were thought not to react to exercise, but now it is known that that is simply not true. Although the connective tissue reacts differently than muscles and bones and possibly slower, it is now accepted that exercise will tighten and strengthen the ligaments of the body.

The way we learn, or gain knowledge is by stimulating the brain. Brain cells of the cerebellum are constantly monitoring the movements of all of the skeletal muscles. Typically, when a person first performs a new motor skill it is almost always incorrect. But after the act has been performed many times, these individual events become more progressively precise, sometimes requiring only a few movements before the desired result is achieved. We now know that the brain increases in the number of synapses, or connections from one brain cell to another in people who are involved in an active exercise program.

White blood cells of the immune system move faster through the body – as much as fifteen times faster during and just after a vigorous exercise program. Not only that but they become more numerous –as much as three times normal in the blood stream after just a single minute of extremely hard exercise. Just like any other cell group of the body, white blood cells have the ability of becoming stronger individually and thus collectively becoming a stronger fighting force. Studies reveal that a regular exercise program will reduce your chance of cancer by as much as 40%!

Conclusion: Of the more than three hundred types of cells, all cells need exercise and each will react favorably in their own way.