Exercise helps us stay fit both physically and mentally. The act of working out forces our muscles to work, which burns calories in the process. This helps people lose weight, lowers the risk of various diseases, like heart disease, and just generally keeps your body healthy. Additionally, exercising also helps with anxiety, depression, and tiredness.
What Are the Benefits of Regular Exercise?
Losing Weight
Exercise often prevents weight gain, maintains weight, or initiates weight loss, which are all appealing for most of us. When you partake in a form of physical activity, you burn calories due to the exertion of your muscles, and this loss of calories, along with the reduced consumption of additional calories creates a calorie deficit, thus leading to weight loss.
Stronger Bones and Muscles
Regular exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining strong bones and muscles. It also slows the loss of bone density in older people, thus reducing their risk of bone disease and injury.
Improved Relaxation and Sleep
Exercise helps many to fall asleep, relax faster, and stay asleep for longer periods of time. Furthermore, the temperature that our body reaches during exercise is known to improve sleep quality and keep people calm throughout the day.
An exercise routine also helps to reduce stress levels in many. Just five minutes of exercising daily increases the anti-anxiety responses in your body, which leads to less worrying during your day. Mind-body exercises, such as stretching and yoga, can help you relax, lower your cortisol levels, and lower blood pressure.
Increased Happiness
Many types of exercise, including walking and cycling, make people feel more energized and happier, due to the relieved feelings of depression. This is because exercise releases chemicals like serotonin and norepinephrine, which reduce the perception of pain, lighten moods, and relieve stress. Exercise is also shown to boost your confidence, therefore being an excellent method to combat feelings of insecurity.
Improved Skin
Your skin may be affected by any oxidative stress in your body, which is actually removed by working out. When you exercise, blood flows to the skin at a more rapid pace, which delivers more nutrients and oxygen to our face. This improves skin health and helps heal wounds and blemishes faster. Regular exercise also increases our body’s production of natural antioxidants, stimulates blood flow, and induces skin cell adaptations that help decrease skin aging.
Improved Memory and Brain Function
Daily exercise helps to reduce inflammation and insulin resistance, and stimulates the release of growth factors. Regular exercise can place chemicals in the brain which promote the growth of new blood vessels, which increases the health of current brain cells and ensures the survival of new brain cells. Many theories and studies also suggest that people who workout regularly have stronger brains in the control, thinking, and memory departments when compared to sedentary people.
Source of Information:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389
https://time.com/4474874/exercise-fitness-workouts/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007165.htm
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320484#How-exercise-helps-nicotine-dependent-mice
https://www.choosept.com/resources/detail/top-10-benefits-of-physical-activity