We all know how important it is to live a healthy lifestyle. Eating a balanced diet and being physically active can do wonders for our health as well as our body. It can boost our immune system and keep our body in tip-top shape. But let us look closer into the myriad of benefits exercise can do the body, shall we? This list of benefits might just give you that extra push whenever you feel postponing your daily workout.
Weight Control and Promotes Digestion
Exercise is one of the best methods for losing weight. Of course, if you wish to maximize the effects of exercise when it comes to burning your body fat, you will need to combine it with a proper diet. The key thing you need to remember is to always take the same or fewer calories to the calorie you burn per day.
However, you must find the perfect balance between calorie intake and calorie burned. If you burn too many calories per day you might not only lose body fat but muscle mass as well, which is something you definitely need to avoid.
The best method here is to develop a diet plan alongside your daily workout routine. It is all in numbers and you have to be more conscious with your calorie intake as well as the number of calories you burn throughout the day.
Another advantage of keeping your muscle mass is that muscle is significantly more metabolically active when compared to fat. This, in turn, can help reduce one of the most common effects of weight loss which is a slowed down metabolism. This is why health experts advise you to maintain your workout routine and diet. Once you stop them even for about a month, you will quickly gain your body weight.
Exercise can also help improve your digestion. In fact, certain exercise is designed to stimulate the stomach area (i.e. digestive system). Some of these exercises include the ‘Bird-Dog’ exercise and the lying down leg lifts.
These exercises are designed to promote easier digestion and in turn regular bowel movements. You should try the two exercises above after a snack or a light meal.
Exercise can help you control your weight and improve your digestion. However, you should also take note to make sure that you maximize the fat you burn off your body while minimizing muscle loss. Plan out your exercise routine if you wish the best possible result for weight loss.
Prevention of Health Issues and Diseases
It goes without saying that people who lead a sedentary lifestyle tend to be more susceptible to illnesses and another disease. Compare that to people who are physically active and the difference will be even more glaring.
Studies that were made during 2006 in 2010, 40 papers in total, showed that regular exercise can help prevent at least two dozen ailments that affect both physically and mentally. Exercise routines that fall within the moderate to intense are connected to the reduced risk of heart diseases, hemorrhagic stroke.
Other ailment risks that are significantly reduced due to regular exercise include type 2 diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, obesity. In fact, even by walking or cycling at least 30 minutes a day can help reduce the risk of cancer by as much as 16%.
Studies have also shown that physical activities can help aid in the recovery of cancer patients as well as improve the positive results during treatment. Exercise can also prevent erectile dysfunction in men as well as reduce the risk of dementia in the elderly.
Mental Health Improvement and Improved Mood
Stress should never be ignored as there is a reason why it’s called a silent killer. Stress throws our hormones into a flux and forces the body to produce higher levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. Constantly elevated levels of these hormones are bad for one’s mental health and can cause problems ranging from headaches to depression.
One of the most effective ways to alleviate stress is by doing some exercises. There are specific types of exercises recommended for those who wish to alleviate stress or simply improve their mood. A good example would be a combination of aerobic exercises such as swimming, jogging, and cycling combined with resistance training like weight lifting. These two are universally suggested to help reduce the effects of depression.
The exercise types pointed out above helps your brain produce chemicals that positively affect one’s mood and leave a person feeling happier and more relaxed. If you are having some difficulty maintaining a regular exercise routine you can try out the following tips below:
Try to exercise along with a friend, family member, or a group. It turns this physical activity into a social activity as well which has some positive effects on one’s mental state and can motivate a person better.
Try mixing different exercise routines to prevent monotony. Switch between jogging, to cycling, and swimming to make things more enjoyable.
Increases Energy Levels
Fatigue is a problem that is quite common in today’s fast-paced world. However, there is one effective way to help reduce the amount of fatigue you experience. By simply incorporating an exercise routine into your daily life you can help boost your energy levels thus preventing fatigue in the process.
Psychological Bulletin has published a study that encompassed a total of 70 studies that proves a connection between people who are physically active and fatigue. Sedentary people who started working out daily reported a huge improvement with their energy levels and noted how they felt less fatigued than usual.
So how exactly does exercise boost the body’s energy levels? It’s quite simple really, after a good amount of exercise our body starts to release a chemical known as endorphins. Endorphin is a chemical produced by the brain that delivers a feeling of euphoria. This helps our mind and muscle relax better.
This can improve the quality of sleep as well as stave off stress. A more relaxed body and mind offer a slew of advantages, a boost in strength is just one of many. This also helps the heart become more efficient in delivering oxygen throughout the body which helps optimize physical performance.
Other Benefits of Exercise to the Body
Exercising also has a bunch of little health benefits besides the four major ones I discussed earlier in this article. So, let’s give the spotlight to the ‘little guys’ this time around and point out other helpful benefits that exercising daily can give to your body.
Exercising helps improve sleep quality.
This one I’ve actually proven myself. I’ve had sleep disorder issues ever since I was a young lad. This went on through my college days where I averaged a sleep of around 3 to 4 hours each day. Obviously, this impacted my overall health negatively.
However, shifting to a more active lifestyle after college helped improved my sleep steadily. Nowadays, I get a healthy 6 to 7 hours of sleep each day. I exercise sometime in the afternoon which greatly helps once it’s time to hit the sack. Just remember not to exercise if you are planning to sleep within an hour or so as the energy boost might backfire and make it harder to sleep.
Re-invigorates a couple’s sex life.
Exercising can also help improve a couple’s sex life. It actually acts on two specific elements here, it can help boost energy and improve your shape. A fit body can have some positive effects on one’s self-confidence.
Exercising daily also increases sexual arousal in women and prevent erectile dysfunction in men. Keep this in mind if you feel as if the ‘spark’ in the bedroom is dimming.
Exercising can be a good reason to be social.
Exercising can be a fun activity to do, especially if you are doing with friends or family members. With that put into consideration, it can help strengthen relationships with the people around you. Join an exercise class, join a marathon, hike with friends. They do say that we should enjoy life a bit more, so why not enjoy life with people you love while also keeping your body in shape? I don’t see any downsides to that.
Final Thoughts
Exercise is a simple way not only to lose weight but also improve your health, your mental state, and even your bonds with other people. You should start planning on doing at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of intense exercise per week. You should also try and mix it up so that you won’t feel as if the activity is becoming a little stale.
Combine aerobic with weight training exercises for the best results in both physical and mental states. If your plan is to become fit then escalating your routine might be in order. Of course, you should always put your safety first. Consult with a health professional before starting a specific exercise routine. Intense workouts like CrossFit should not be attempted by a beginner. If it has been a long time since you’ve done an actual exercise then try starting slowly to avoid injuries.
