Health Benefits of Regular Exercise

We’ve all heard of a run­ner’s high, which is a result of the endor­phins that are trig­gered by phys­i­cal activ­i­ty. Some peo­ple crave it, but for many peo­ple, exer­cise is the last thing on their list of things to do. Exer­cise can cer­tain­ly help you feel good and has numer­ous health ben­e­fits. How­ev­er, its abil­i­ties to help in terms of weight loss aren’t as great as some peo­ple pre­vi­ous­ly thought. Exer­cise cer­tain­ly helps to shed pounds and can even lead to improved metab­o­lism, but the lat­est research shows that the real way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat less. But even if exer­cise isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly the mag­ic tick­et to weight loss, it is cer­tain­ly an impor­tant fac­tor in your over­all health. It can help to pre­vent seri­ous con­di­tions and diseases. There are many rea­sons to do this to your body – and your brain! – Do a favour and make exer­cise an impor­tant part of your reg­u­lar regimen 🙂

1- Active Body, Active Mind

Exer­cise keeps the body in shape, as well as your mind and your mood. Peo­ple who exer­cise report being hap­pi­er and also tend to have sharp­er mem­o­ries and can learn more quick­ly than those who are sedentary. Addi­tion­al­ly, recent sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies have estab­lished that exer­cise sig­nif­i­cant­ly decreas­es the risk of demen­tia. Exer­cise can lead to changes in the brains of old­er adults that lead to reduced rates of dementia. Stud­ies that have tracked adults over decades have estab­lished that exer­cise is the num­ber one fac­tor in keep­ing the mind active and sharp. Sci­en­tists are still con­duct­ing stud­ies to deter­mine the exact details, but one work­ing hypoth­e­sis is that phys­i­cal activ­i­ty stim­u­lates blood flow. That means that the brain has a greater blood sup­ply, which keeps the blood ves­sels healthy and even leads to a new gen­er­a­tion of cells. Researchers have found that active adults have high­er lev­els of BDNF, which is a fac­tor that helps with neu­ron growth and keeps brain cells from dete­ri­o­rat­ing. That leads to over­all improved cog­ni­tive function.

2- Reduction In Type 2 Diabetes

Exer­cise helps to con­trol Type 2 dia­betes among indi­vid­u­als who have a high risk of the dis­ease. Type 2 dia­betes results when there is resis­tance to the hor­mone insulin. In response, the human organ­ism com­pen­sates by pro­duc­ing insulin on its own, and blood sug­ar lev­els increase. That puts an indi­vid­ual at greater risk for devel­op­ing type 2 dia­betes as well as oth­er conditions. Reg­u­lar phys­i­cal activ­i­ty helps to fight against this by devel­op­ing a greater insulin sen­si­tiv­i­ty. This way, your body can process insulin prop­er­ly and not pro­duce excess insulin.

3- Decreases Blood Pressure

Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty is a great way to com­bat high blood pres­sure, which can lead to sev­er­al prob­lems, such as heart attacks and strokes. High blood pres­sure is large­ly attrib­ut­able to poor eat­ing habits, genet­ics, and a lack of exer­cise. Indi­vid­u­als with high blood pres­sure can do some­thing to improve their health by adopt­ing a more active lifestyle.

4- Exercise Helps Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

Because exer­cise can strength­en your heart, it’s a great way to fight against car­dio­vas­cu­lar disease. When your heart is health­i­er, it is bet­ter pre­pared to decrease lev­els of cho­les­terol lev­els and is also able to pump blood more efficiently. These two fea­tures com­bined ensure that your arter­ies remain clear and pre­vent block­ages and clots from devel­op­ing. Exer­cis­es that increase your heart rate are the best type for ensur­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar health.

5- Strong Muscles & Bones

As the human body ages, mus­cle mass and bone mass start to decrease. Exer­cis­es that involve weights or weight-bear­ing activ­i­ties, such as hik­ing, jog­ging, ten­nis, and danc­ing, are the best for main­tain­ing bone and mus­cle mass. That is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for mid­dle-aged peo­ple since a loss of bone mass can lead to osteo­poro­sis, a con­di­tion where bone den­si­ty and qual­i­ty decrease.

6- Exercise & Elevated Mood

Peo­ple often feel bet­ter sim­ply from exer­cis­ing, and it’s even pos­si­ble for these ben­e­fits in the mood to help with depression. Although exer­cise cer­tain­ly ben­e­fits phys­i­cal and cog­ni­tive health, it also pos­i­tive­ly affects indi­vid­u­als’ emotions. When peo­ple exer­cise, the body releas­es sev­er­al dif­fer­ent chem­i­cals , such as endor­phins, which even make some indi­vid­u­als feel euphor­ic. This boost in mood can lead to an over­all more pos­i­tive atti­tude with long-last­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal advantages.

7- Exercise for a Younger You!

Giv­en all of its dif­fer­ent ben­e­fits, it’s no sur­prise that exer­cise can increase life expectancy. A recent study shows that indi­vid­u­als who engage in 150 min­utes of mod­er­ate phys­i­cal activ­i­ty every week live 3.4 years longer than seden­tary indi­vid­u­als. That may be because mod­er­ate exer­cise can slow down the age­ing process. Con­sis­tent­ly active peo­ple tend to have greater immu­ni­ty, strength, and cho­les­terol levels.

8- Exercise for Healthier Skin

Engag­ing in phys­i­cal activ­i­ty improves blood flow to the brain and mus­cles as well as to the skin. For this rea­son, it’s impor­tant to get as active as pos­si­ble when you have an injury. With phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, the blood can help wounds heal faster by pro­vid­ing the skin with the oxy­gen and nutri­ents it needs to do its job. In the long term, exer­cise also builds up the num­ber of cap­il­lar­ies and blood ves­sels lead­ing to the skin, ensur­ing greater wound repair over­all. On a day-to-day basis, this improved blood flow to the skin also helps it to replen­ish itself and stay healthy.

9- Feeling Active!

By pay­ing atten­tion to your body and treat­ing it well, you’ll invari­ably feel bet­ter about how you look and feel in your skin. Reg­u­lar phys­i­cal activ­i­ty will change the way your body looks, and as you devel­op greater pride in your appear­ance, you’ll grad­u­al­ly feel bet­ter about your physique and your over­all attractiveness. Your clothes will fit bet­ter, and you’ll feel more in tune with your body. That leads to over­all improved con­fi­dence, which is always awesome!

10- Conquering Addictions Through Exercise

Being active and hav­ing greater con­trol over your body trans­lates into an over­all health­i­er lifestyle that can help you work through addictions. The chem­i­cals released dur­ing exer­cise are sim­i­lar to those in many addic­tive sub­stances. It also can pro­duce what some call a “euphor­ic” effect. Learn­ing how to get the “nat­ur­al highs” that come with vig­or­ous phys­i­cal activ­i­ty can help you to over­come addic­tions that deliv­er highs at much high­er costs.

How to Make Sure You Exercise Regularly?

First, check with your doc­tor before set­ting up a new exer­cise rou­tine. That is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant if you haven’t been very active for a long time or if you are over the age of 40. If you end up expe­ri­enc­ing con­sis­tent pain in your mus­cles, joints, or chest fol­low­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty or if you are exhaust­ed. It’s also impor­tant to dis­cuss these mat­ters with your physician. The most impor­tant thing is to have a con­sis­tent rou­tine and stick to it. Whether you are jog­ging, hik­ing, or hit­ting the gym, choose an activ­i­ty that you’ll be able to do regularly. It’s also impor­tant to set real­is­tic goals for your­self. While it may be tempt­ing to start climb­ing a moun­tain or run­ning a marathon, it’s best to start small and then work your way up to more ambi­tious goals. If you aim too high at first, you may not suc­ceed and then end up dis­cour­aged. You can make small changes to your rou­tine, like walk­ing more when pos­si­ble, tak­ing the stairs, and doing exer­cis­es while watch­ing television. A good rule of thumb is to exer­cise 4–7 times per week. These peri­ods of activ­i­ty should be at least 10 min­utes, but being phys­i­cal­ly active for longer amounts of time will increase the health benefits. For more intense activ­i­ty, be sure to stretch before­hand; and stay­ing hydrat­ed is also essen­tial to max­i­mize the health ben­e­fits and keep you energetic. Work­ing out to music makes exer­cis­ing more fun. Addi­tion­al­ly, the com­bi­na­tion of exer­cise and music may even have cog­ni­tive benefits. One recent study has shown that when peo­ple lis­ten to music while engaged in phys­i­cal activ­i­ty. Their lev­el of moti­va­tion increas­es, and their thoughts move away from the neg­a­tive bod­i­ly sen­sa­tions that they are experiencing. They focus less on dis­com­fort and are bet­ter able to get into the “zone,” which helps fight fatigue and increas­es the over­all enjoy­ment of the activity.

Last but not least!

With all of the great ben­e­fits that exer­cise has to offer, from look­ing great to an improved mood, it’s always a good idea to do your­self a favour by becom­ing more phys­i­cal­ly active. Your body and mind will thank you 🙂