[Benefits of exercise in healthy population and impact on disease occurrence].

Physical exercise is defined as any activity that produces body motion due to muscle contraction dependent on energy consumption and which has progressive benefits on the state of health. The effects of exercise on health in both primary and secondary prevention are becoming increasingly better known. A large part of current society has not been able to widely incorporate exercise into daily routine, with a progressive decrease in the amount of time devoted to exercise. There has also been a trend to the abuse of hypercaloric food, while the amount of time devoted to sedentary activities, such as watching TV or using personal computers, is increasing. The literature widely shows the benefits of physical exercise on several indicators of health, including cardiovascular mortality and death for other reasons, as shown in a recent meta-analysis. Many prospective studies conducted in several countries report the high prevalence of sedentary lifestyles and their association with poor health outcomes. A study showed a risk of premature death attributable to the lack of physical exercise of approximately 9%. This would lead to an approximate calculation of 5.3 million deaths