10 Amazing Benefits Of Regular Exercise
Regular exercise can have profound impacts on our health and well being. I wanted to take a look into the topic of exercise as I have always heard that exercise is beneficial for us, but why exactly is it so important? How exactly does it impact our health?
I found out that the benefits range everywhere from from helping to protect against common chronic conditions, aiding with our sleep quality as well as our strengthening our immune system, and the benefits don't stop there.
Lets take a look at some of these powerful benefits a little further and also find out how we can actually incorporate more movement into our life as an enjoyable habit.
Hope you find this one interesting.
MAIN GUIDELINES
When starting to do exercise of any type, it is important to keep the following in mind for your own health and well being:
Minimum 30min of exercise per day: This is the generally accepted minimum that allows you to stay in shape and take care of your physical wellbeing.
Warm up before: This warms up your body, increases your range of motion as well as prevents possible injuries.
Stretch afterwards: This increases your flexibility as well as prevents excessive muscle soreness which helps with muscle growth.
Fuel your body before and after: This is fore mostly important for you to have enough energy for movement and proper execution of exercises, as well as promoting effective muscle growth and recovery after exercise.
Drink enough water: Water is needed for practically all bodily functions and biochemical reactions going on within us. Keeping properly hydrated enhances your physical performance and later recovery.
Move because it feels good: This is the most underestimated part of exercise, because movement should after-all be a celebration of our body and everything it is capable of doing for us. Don't treat exercise as a chore or something “you have to do”. Choose to do it because you are fortunate enough to be able to move and it makes you feel great. Focus on moving because it makes you feel good, not because it only yields you good looking physical results.
10 MAIN BENEFITS OF REGULAR EXERCISE
Prevents a myriad of chronic diseases
Type 2 diabetes: Exercise helps with regulating blood pressure, improving our insulin resistance as well as our glycemic control, all of which work to combat diabetes.
Heart disease. Regular exercise has been clearly shown to help protect against cardiovascular conditions, since it strengthens your heart muscle and improves your blood circulation.
Different types of cancer. Some of the cancers which can be prevented through exercise are: Breast, colorectal, gallbladder, kidney, lung, liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
High cholesterol. Doing regular moderate physical activity has been show to increase HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) in our blood and lower the other bad LDL cholesterol that can otherwise block our arteries.
High blood pressure: Those who regularly move their bodies have lower blood pressures, since with exercise your heart becomes stronger meaning that is becomes easier for it to pump blood around your body and which in turn decreases the force exerted on your arteries.
Improves Mood & Mental Wellbeing
For a while now, sleep has been shown to release chemicals such as serotonin and endorphins which have been shown to improve our mood, emotional well being as well as decreasing the chance of developing a mental illness.
Regular exercise is known to decrease feelings of anxiety, depression and stress.
Better & Deeper Sleep
Moderate to vigorous exercise done during the day has been shown, according to the sleep foundation, to reduce the amount of time we need to fall asleep, improve our sleep quality and increase general feelings of relaxation. Additionally, being active means that we have elevated energy levels through the day, which means that we feel less of a craving for sugary energy drinks and caffeinated drinks which could further upset our sleeping patterns.
Read more about how to improve your sleep here
Weight Control / Weight Loss
Exercise is beneficial for helping us with our weight loss goals or just generally keeping our weight levels within our healthy range. It does this, by speeding up our metabolism, which means that we burn more calories during the day just for staying alive. Furthermore, exercise can increase our muscle mass, which furthermore means we burn more calories as we have more tissues to feed.
Increases Energy Levels
While exercising, you increase your pulse and circulation which means that more oxygen is able to enter your body. This allows the cells of your body to have access to more oxygen rich blood which enables them to make more energy, causing you to feel more energized.
Beneficial For Muscles and Bones
When you are physically active, you regularly apply pressure and tension onto your muscles and bones. With the adequate nutrition, your muscle mass starts increasing due to more muscle repair happening. Additionally, putting more pressure onto your bones, causes more cells in your bones to be synthesized which strengthens your bone tissue, helping to prevent further unwanted injuries.
Healthier Skin
Exercise increases blood flow to our cells, meaning that more oxygen and nutrients are deliver to our cells for optimal growth, as well as that any produced waste products and unwanted free radicals are removed by it. This benefits our skin, by improving its elasticity and youthful look.
Increased Cognition and Memory Retention
The direct effect of exercise improving our mood, mental state and lowering our levels of stress, has been indirectly shown to improve mental cognition, thinking abilities as well as memory retention.
The process of physical activity is associated with a greater synthesis of neurons in our brains, which allows us to think faster and have sharper memory. It has also been shown that people who are regularly active have a much lower chance of developing Alzheimers disease in their lifetime.
Here you can find out how diet can impact your brain health.
Boosts Your Immunity
Some studies have shown a link between people who are regularly active and a stronger healthier immune system. The believed reason behind this is that exercise stimulates the circulation of immune cells around our body, which helps our body detect any infections earlier on.
Furthermore, the rise in core body temperature during exercise is believed to prevent the growth from harmful bacteria that could make you feel sick. Lastly, moving our body reduces levels of inflammation and allows us to sleep better, which is again better for out immune system.
You can read more about strengthening your immune system here
Increases Flexibility
By being more active, you warm up your muscles and allow them to become stronger and be able to endure tension for longer periods of time. In this way, your muscles are able to become more flexible (stretch further), by increasing your range of motion with them and in turn being able to execute certain movements more correctly.
Click here to find out more about the benefits of frequent stretching
HOW TO MAKE EXERCISING A HABIT
Make it enjoyable:
Try some of the following ideas to make your workouts more enjoyable:
Use music
Try it with friends
Track your progress
Eat enough and balanced
Do an activity you love (This makes it sustainable in the long run)
Keep it varied (Exercise does not only mean going to gym)
Try doing it outside
Be specific:
When planning your workout, ask yourself the following questions:
When will you do it? (Set yourself a reminder)
How long will you do it for?
Where will you be doing it?
What will you do?
With who will you do it?
Keeping motivated:
In order to continue enjoying your workouts in the long run, try some of the following:
Set realistic personal goals
Start with small steps
Measure your progress over time
Prepare your clothes/ equipment in advance
Don't get discouraged about missing out sometimes
Surround yourself with positive media and people
The topic of this post wasn't particularly new or unique, however it was fundamentally important for our health. It is important for us to understand how exercise affects us, why we should bother to do it in the first place and also how to integrate it as a enjoyable activity into our life.
What ever physical activity or activities you choose to spend your time doing, I am sure your health will be thankful, both your physical and mental well being will profit.
Don't neglect these basic components of our health and also make sure to not take it to extremes (exercising too much all the time).
Enjoy your movement and celebrate your amazing body; It does so much for you already.
