Why exercising is good for you
- Web Developer
- Jul 28, 2020
- 7 min read
Want to feel better, have more energy and even add years to your life? Just exercise.
The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. Everyone benefits from exercise, regardless of age, sex or physical ability.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you know that exercise should be an essential part of your routine. But the benefits of physical activity go far beyond just physical fitness. Increasingly, more and more research is showing that working out regularly can boost other aspects of your health as well, including cognitive function and emotional well-being.
A regular fitness routine has been shown to have a wide-range of positive health effects, such as a lower risk of cancer and stroke, better cardiovascular health, stronger muscles, and slowing of bone density loss associated with age.
Exercise has also been linked to better brain health and emotional well-being. It has been found that exercise, even without weight loss, may help you live longer. It is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories. There are many types of physical activity, including swimming, running, jogging, walking and dancing, to name a few.
Maybe you’ve been meaning to start but just haven’t found the right routine … or even the right regime! Perhaps you’re recovering from an injury or haven’t gotten around to it. Whatever your excuse, I’m here to tell you that today is the day to start working out.
That’s because the benefits of exercise are far more than just losing weight or achieving that “bikini body” or “beach body.” Exercise benefits everything from your sleep quality to your energy level, and even your memory. From making you happier to helping you live longer, regular exercise is key to living a healthy, balanced life.
It can help in weight loss: Let me start with the most attractive of them all (for the majority of us out there). To understand the effect of exercise on weight reduction, it is important to understand the relationship between exercise and energy expenditure. Your body spends energy in three ways: digesting food, exercising and maintaining body functions like your heartbeat and breathing.While dieting, a reduced calorie intake lower your metabolic rate, which will delay weight loss. On the contrary, regular exercise has been shown to increase your metabolic rate, which will burn more calories and help you lose weight. Additionally, studies have shown that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training can maximize fat loss and muscle mass maintenance, which is essential for keeping the weight off. Regular trips to the gym are great, but don’t worry if you can’t find a large chunk of time to exercise every day. Any amount of activity is better than none at all. To reap the benefits of exercise, just get more active throughout your day — take the stairs instead of the elevator or rev up your household chores. Consistency is key.
It is great for your muscles and bones: Exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining strong muscles and bones. Physical activity like weight lifting can stimulate muscle building when paired with adequate protein intake.This is because exercise helps release hormones that promote the ability of your muscles to absorb amino acids. This helps them grow and reduces their breakdown. Also, exercise helps build bone density when you’re younger, in addition to helping prevent osteoporosis later in life. Interestingly, high-impact exercise, such as gymnastics or running, or odd-impact sports, such as soccer and basketball, have been shown to promote a higher bone density than non-impact sports like swimming and cycling. As people enter their forties and fifties, muscle mass starts to decline because of aging and, in some cases, decreased activity levels. Muscular atrophy can also occur because of health conditions, such as joint pain. As we age, it’s important to increase or maintain muscle mass through strength training, not only because it helps burn calories, but also because muscle mass is essential for strength and balance.
It boosts energy: Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance.Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle daily chores. Exercise can be a real energy booster for healthy people, as well as those suffering from various medical conditions. Additionally, exercise has been shown to increase energy levels in people suffering from progressive illnesses, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Reduced risk of chronic diseases: Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent high blood pressure? No matter what your current weight is, being active boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol, and it decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly, which decreases your risk of cardiovascular diseases. A lack of regular exercise — even in the short term — can lead to significant increases in belly fat, which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and early death.
Glowing skin: Exercise speeds up blood flow, which makes for better skin — oxygen and nutrients are carried to cells throughout the body and waste products are moved out. Oxidative stress occurs when the body’s antioxidant defenses cannot completely repair the damage that free radicals cause to cells. This can damage their internal structures and deteriorate your skin. Even though intense and exhaustive physical activity can contribute to oxidative damage, regular moderate exercise can increase your body’s production of natural antioxidants, which help protect cells.
Improve brain health and memory: As we age, it is inevitable that some of us will experience cognitive decline while others may not. Learning new information may become more of a challenge, but the risk of cognitive decline can be reduced by becoming more physically active. Are you constantly misplacing your keys or struggling to recall names? Exercising regularly can help jog your memory. A 2014 study found that aerobic exercise, like running or swimming, boosts the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning, in women with a recognized risk factor for dementia. Besides looking to brain food to boost your memory, and mental skills, start breaking a sweat! Regular exercise may play an important role in protecting your brain from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, and may help improve brain function and symptoms such as depression or anxiety in those who have these conditions.
Help in managing stress and better mental health: Exercise can have a number of emotional benefits. Stress can be caused by elevated levels of the hormones cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine. Exercise lowers these hormones, and increases serotonin, otherwise known as the happy hormone, which helps reduce stress. Working out can help keep depression and anxiety at bay. Plus, coping with mood disorders that are often associated with stress can be a little bit easier when you are in good physical shape. Exercise and physical activity release endorphins, which are hormones in the brain and nervous system responsible for relieving feelings stress and anxiety, and increasing feelings of pleasure, euphoria, and pain relief. Low levels of endorphins are associated with the opposing effects such as stress, anxiety, physical and emotional pain, and addiction.Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier, more relaxed and less anxious. You may also feel better about your appearance and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem.
Sleep better: Struggling to snooze? Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster, get better sleep and deepen your sleep. Just don’t exercise too close to bedtime, or you may be too energized to go to sleep. If you can’t sleep and instead are prone to tossing and turning, exercising can help you sleep better. By strengthening circadian rhythms, exercising can help keep you more bright-eyed during the day and bring on sleep at night. It also promotes better quality sleep.
Better sex life!: Do you feel too tired or too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy? Regular physical activity can improve energy levels and increase your confidence about your physical appearance, which may boost your sex life.But there’s even more to it than that. Regular physical activity may enhance arousal for women. And men who exercise regularly are less likely to have problems with erectile dysfunction than are men who don’t exercise. Physiologically, libido is increased due to better muscle strength, increased endurance and flexibility, and increased blood flow, though doesn’t end there.
Males who exercise one hour a day, three to five times a week may experience more frequent erections, better bone density, as well as increased strength and sexual urges. In contrast, due to higher testosterone levels from working out, women may experience intensified arousal, higher energy levels, improved strength, and increased sexual urges. However, it is important to note too much exercise may produce the opposite effect.
Feel happier: Whether we’re fully conscious of it or not, we’re always looking for how to be happy. And exercise is one of the most obvious steps to take, as it’s not a coincidence that you feel better after a good workout: It’s science. It produces changes in the parts of the brain that regulate stress and anxiety. It can also increase brain sensitivity for the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine, which relieve feelings of depression. Interestingly, it doesn’t matter how intense your workout is. It seems that your mood can benefit from exercise no matter the intensity of the physical activity. The effects of exercise on mood are so powerful that choosing to exercise (or not) even makes a difference over short periods.
So get up and get moving!!
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