Keeping active and staying healthy is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health. Exercise has great physical and mental health benefits that we can all benefit from. It is something that you should make a regular part of your life so you can maintain a happy and healthy lifestyle.
These benefits appear in many different areas of your body and your life. Things like mental health, strength, weight, disease prevention, and quality of sleep are just a few of the ones that we will go over in this piece.
1. Mental Benefits
Exercising does much more than help your physical health. There are major mental health benefits that come along with it. During exercise, the body releases endorphins which have been shown to have great effects on your brain. One positive effect we see is an overall increase in energy. This increased energy allows you to be more productive throughout your day and helps fight fatigue and illness. This added energy also comes with a sense of mental clarity. Regular activity promotes good circulation which allows your brain to work faster. YOu can see improvements in your memory and cognitive function.
Consistent exercise can also be a great overall mood booster and stress reliever. It has been shown that consistent physical activity has been linked to reduced feelings of anxiety and depression. Increased amounts of exercise also produce endorphins. These endorphins have been shown to help produce positive feelings in those who exercise consistently.
2. Muscles and Bones
Exercise is very important to promote longevity and strength in your muscles and bones. This should not come as a surprise, but it is important to mention. Consistent exercise stimulates growth for strength in your muscles and bones. Exercises like weightlifting are most commonly associated with these gains.
As you age, it is common to lose strength in your muscles. Implementing consistent training helps reduce this loss of muscle. Especially as you age, the loss of muscle begins to speed up. Keeping active is very important to maintain a healthy and lively body as we grow. This loss in strength can increase the chance of you getting injured, which nobody wants to deal with.
Building bone density is another great benefit of exercise. This build-up of bone density also provides aid in preventing problems like osteoporosis in the future. Osteoporosis is a condition that causes bones to become weak and brittle which makes bones easier to fracture. High impact training (running, tennis, skiing, gymnastics) seems to promote this bone strength more than others.
3. Helps With Maintaining and Losing Weight
Weight maintenance is a popular reason people will get into exercise. While diet also plays a major role in weight management, it is shown that adding a consistent exercise program alongside your diet is more effective to lose weight. Exercise is a great way to burn calories alongside the calorie deficit of your diet. It also helps boost your metabolism, and a healthy metabolism only assists in burning calories.
Incorporating a balanced exercise routine that includes anaerobic exercise, weight training, and other things like yoga will help achieve your weight maintenance goals. Anaerobic exercise should be implemented in any program you decide to start. It is the best way to improve cardiovascular health and endurance while getting your heart rate up and your blood pumping. Weight training will help you lose fat, and replace that fat with lean muscle. That muscle you build will help you burn even more calories.
Exercising with a good diet is the most efficient way to manage your weight and stay healthy for the long term.
4. Disease Prevention
Regularly exercising has been shown to reduce the risks of health complications and diseases. Lack of physical activity is also one of the major causes of chronic disease. Consistent exercise has been shown to improve heart health, decrease blood pressure and cholesterol and improve insulin sensitivity.
Exercise can be a great deterrent to chronic disease and aerobic exercise has been linked to many of them. Moderate aerobic activity has been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension.
5. Quality of Sleep
Good quality sleep is an important aspect of health and wellness. If you find yourself struggling with this, exercise can help you fall asleep faster, and stay asleep. Exercising regularly has been shown to help your circadian rhythm balance and develop more of a structure.
Even moderate exercise can increase the amount of deep sleep you are able to achieve. When you are able to achieve deep sleep it lets your body begin to rejuvenate. This sleep helps boost energy levels and lets you decompress mentally.
An important thing to find out is how exercise affects you. People have different endorphin responses to exercise so finding out how that affects you can help you figure out when the best time to exercise is for you. When you find that perfect time you can get the best sleep benefits from it.
Final Thoughts
Exercise can impact your life in a very positive way. It comes with benefits far greater than looking stronger or running faster. Making an effort to consistently exercise can greatly improve different areas of your life!
