As a fitness professional or enthusiast, you know that exercise is good for you. In fact, we all know this and it’s something that we’re told from an early age. But do you really know what the benefits are?
We’ve delved a little deeper into why regular exercise is so important so that you know the facts and can share them with your clients.
As a fitness professional or enthusiast, you know that exercise is good for you. In fact, we all know this and it’s something that we’re told from an early age. But do you really know what the benefits are?
We’ve delved a little deeper into why regular exercise is so important so that you know the facts and can share them with your clients.
Exercise is a major mood booster. You know how good you feel when you complete a workout or training session, and it’s not just because you’ve accomplished something. Numerous studies show that exercise can help to fight depression and anxiety. When you exercise, your body releases feel-good hormones such as endorphins and serotonin and your brain chemistry changes for the better. Additionally, exercise helps to reduce the level of cortisol, the stress hormone.
Exercising regularly strengthens the muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments. For younger kids and teens, regular exercise helps to build strong bones, while for older people it reduces the inevitable bone density loss that comes with ageing.
This allows you to move easily without aches and pains and to avoid incurring injuries. The stronger your body is, the better your balance and stability. By building strength, you reduce the risk of falling or injuring yourself doing day-to-day activities.
If you battle to sleep, this has a negative effect on every aspect of your life. A lack of sleep influences your physical and mental wellbeing and can wreak havoc on your work and home life. Studies show that regular physical activity will help you fall asleep faster, and to enjoy better quality sleep. However, it’s important not to exercise just before bed, as the endorphin rush can keep you awake.
Endurance is something we all need, whether we’re fitness professionals or simply keeping fit to stay healthy. If you do regular aerobic exercise, you’ll strengthen your lungs and heart and your circulation will improve. This helps you to build up your endurance and improves your athletic performance.
Stamina and endurance are often thought to be one and the same. But there are subtle differences between the two. Endurance is part of physical fitness, while stamina is the result of getting fitter and being more active. Increased stamina means that you have more energy and can keep moving for longer.
Although you can lose weight without exercising, the weight will drop off faster if your diet is combined with regular exercise. When you exercise, you develop muscle strength and your metabolic rate increases, enabling you to burn calories even during resting periods.
While there’s plenty of talk about body positivity, if you don’t feel happy with your body and comfortable in your own skin, it’s hard to feel confident. The more you exercise, the greater the results. You’ll see and feel the difference, and this can improve your confidence and give your self-esteem a boost.
Additionally, you’ll have more confidence in your body’s abilities as you know you’ve pushed it to reach new heights and achieved previously unattained goals.
If you find you struggle with brain fog and regularly feel drowsy, exercise can help. Being active keeps you awake because it stimulates oxygen levels and blood flow to the brain. It increases the release of brain chemicals in the hippocampus—the part of the brain that controls learning and memory. This boosts your cognitive ability and your capacity to concentrate, focus and remember.
Exercise also helps to reduce the risk of cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. It does this by increasing the blood flow to the brain, thus reducing the rate of cognitive decline. Much like the heart, the brain needs a healthy, well-oxygenated blood flow.
Regular exercise helps avoid or manage many health issues, including:
With regular exercise, the cardiovascular system gets an increase in oxygen and nutrients to the muscles. This helps to keep your circulatory system healthy and to ward off diseases.
If your immune system is compromised and you’re susceptible to bugs and viruses doing the rounds, exercise is a great tonic. It not only improves the body’s capacity to pump oxygen and nutrients, it also stimulates cellular immunity and increases the circulation of the immune cells. This ensures that your body can better fight off infection and detect it earlier.
People who are either genetically predisposed or who have high cholesterol benefit enormously from exercise as it reduces LDL—the bad cholesterol—and increases HDL—the good cholesterol. It also reduces blood pressure, thereby strengthening and lowering stress on the heart. This helps to ward off heart disease.
You can keep type 2 diabetes at bay with regular exercise. If you’re active and maintain a healthy weight you can control your blood glucose levels and prevent obesity—a crucial factor in the onset of this type of diabetes. It also helps to reduce the chances of metabolic syndrome or to manage it.
Improved health, reduced risk of illness and a healthier, more robust immune system all help you to live a longer, healthier life. Regular activity increases your lifespan and decreases the chances of dying from leading causes of death such as cardiovascular disease or cancer.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, there’s indisputable scientific evidence that being physically active helps you lead a healthier, happier life.
Exercising on a regular basis is the antidote to our increasingly sedentary lifestyles and should be something everyone does. From benefiting your overall health and wellbeing to giving your mental health a boost, there’s every good reason to get up—and keep—moving.