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Did you know? As per a US Department of Health and Human Services report on exercise and physical activity, regular exercise can significantly reduce causes of mortality by up to 30% for both genders. Not just that, but these health benefits appear to be consistent across all age and racial/ethnic groups of people (DHHS, 2002). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 30 min of moderate to high-intensity exercise for a minimum of five days a week .
Our body is not designed to stay relaxed all the time and consume unhealthy food. Even if you are eating healthy, you still need regular exercise to stay in shape. And to live a life that gives you a sense of fulfillment and is free of chronic illnesses.
As per research, regular exercising is known to lower the risk of chronic disease(s). There is solid evidence to support that 120 – 150 minutes of exercise per week is sufficient to reduce the chances of chronic disease(s).
Before the invention of luxury items like we have today, we had to do everything on our own. The regular walk and use of manual tools made us use calories from the food, made use of almost every muscle of our body, and we lived healthy through our daily tiring routines.
But when technology took over, manual tools and machinery started reducing our muscular input in everything we do. Our lifestyle has changed a lot, making our bodies and mind suffer the most.
So without making ado, let’s explore the top 12 benefits of exercising.
1. Increased Happiness
There is no better medicine for stress and depression than physical exercise itself. According to research, physical activity helps people elevate their moods and fight the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Scientists at NASA tend to increase their physical exercises when they are stuck in a problem and cannot solve a situation at hand.
Physical activities in the form of exercise regulate the part of the brain associated with controlling stress and anxiety. The use of physical activities helps people fight the stress of work and daily routine. The people who do regular exercise daily are likely to perform better than the people who don’t. There are also some health benefits regarding hormones. Serotonin and norepinephrine are natural depression relaxants produced by our bodies due to healthy physical activity.
These hormones are formed as the result of strenuous physical activities and help people increase their sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. People who exercise daily have increased happiness levels because of the sense of accomplishment, release of happy hormones, and reduced stress in their daily routines. Regular exercise also keeps people from committing suicide in the time of extreme depression and anxiety. Endorphins are produced in the body by exercise, and it is associated with the positive feelings and thoughts. Research reveals that the presence of endorphins in the body help people fight the fears and negative thoughts to focus on how to solve the bigger problems in life.
2. Weight Management
There are some myths about weight management. Some people think that when you decrease the level of food intake, your body will automatically start losing weight, well this is not the case. These trusted sources break this myth by explaining the whole work and mechanism of human metabolism and how it works under the different condition to help your body lose or gain weight.
According to these researches, metabolism is the function of your body responsible for digesting the food you eat and help your body maintain body functions. When there are no increased physical activities, and you reduce the body intake, your metabolism will slow down, and it will tend to store all the energy and calories to your body from the food you eat. This energy will be stored in the form of fat and extra body weight.
On the other hand, when you increase your physical activities, the metabolism will speed up, and it will help your body use energy and calories from the food. The rest will be secreted through the excretion process. In simple words, when you want to lose weight, reducing daily intake without physical intake will do you no good. But regular exercise and healthy eating habits will help you maintain body weight, stay fit and live an extended healthy life.
3. Muscles and Bones Health
You need muscle strength in old age more than required in the youth. When you are old, you lose all the power and strength to increase muscle weight and body strength. All the strength and power that you have given to your body in youth will help you live a happy and healthy life in your old age. If you start non-impact exercise even in your old age, it would still save you from various bone problems, muscle injuries, and medical issues associated with musculoskeletal problems in old age.
If you want to increase body mass to look fit and appealing and want to have muscle and bone strength, exercise and adequate protein intake are the only natural helpful treats for you. When people use hormones or some unhealthy synthetic techniques to gain muscle, the consequences might be fatal in some rare cases.
Regular physical exercise is scientifically proven to increase muscle strength and save people from osteoporosis and severe medical conditions in their old age. Physical activities and regular exercise make your muscles absorb more amino acids and, in return, get the ability to grow more with more strength. Your bones also gain an increased amount of density when you do regular exercise to prevent them from unwarranted medical conditions and emergencies in the future.
4. Increased Energy Levels
The use of technology, machines, and unhealthy food consumption takes its toll on our bodies, and we have to suffer the loss of energy as a result. The stress and strain of our daily routine and work conditions consume all the energy, and we end up exhausted all the time. The use of medicines and therapies does little good in this situation.
Here comes exercise to rescue you from oblivion and help you reclaim your life to get the maximum out of it. Energy exhaustion is not the only issue for sick and unhealthy people. There are various indications and proofs that healthy people also complain about exhaustion and energy drainage in their daily lives.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is common in people who live under stress and strenuous working conditions. CFS makes them feel tired and awry all the time, and medicine doesn’t benefit their case. Regular exercise has shown a dramatic improvement in people suffering from CFS.
5. Reduced Risk of Chronic Disease
Chronic diseases have been a primary focus of health scientists for the past many years. And they have concluded that the lack of physical exercise and activities in the daily routine leads to various types of chronic disease in people. There is no specific time for people to develop a chronic condition in their bodies. But one thing is sure, a lack of exercise will make you suffer in your life.
Health specialists advocate that people should make exercise and regular physical activities a necessary part and parcel of their lives if they want to protect against chronic diseases. Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases nowadays. And when it gets worse, people have to depend on insulin to save their lives from the adverse effects of auto-immune disease.
People with insulin sensitivity can control it with the help of regular exercise, and they also get the chance to save themselves from the severe adversaries of cardiovascular diseases. If you want to live a healthy life without the fear of getting affected by chronic illness, a lifestyle with healthy food and regular physical activities will help you stay fit for the rest of your life.
6. Skin Health
You must have seen someone in life with younger-looking skin and radiant vibrancy on the face. Expensive creams and secret formulas are not always the reason behind glowing skin. The real reason behind healthy-looking skin is a regular exercise routine that aids the skin to increase collagen and fight oxidation stress in your skin cells. People who do regular exercise tend to have younger-looking skin free from damage and pigmentation.
HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is also known to boost Human Growth Hormone (HGH) production, which is directly responsible for keeping your body young in both function and looks.
Your skin, just like other body organs, has to repair the damage and fight the unhealthy particles and factors that accumulate in and around it. The most significant factor that breaks your skin and can change the whole texture is aging. You cannot fight the time itself, but you can make your body fight the side effects of aging and loss of self-repairing ability.
Your skin has to suffer from the toxins and harmful chemicals accumulated in your skin cells. These toxins come from the food and the polluted environment around us. Antioxidants help our body fight these notorious chemicals and provide us with damage-free younger-looking skin. Regular physical activities proved vital to make our body produce antioxidants and offer far better results than the most expensive skincare products.
7. Boosts Brain Health and Memory
Your brain needs an enhanced oxygen level in the blood flow to work more productively than normal performance level. And regular exercise will keep a high level of oxygen in your blood to provide ample energy to your brain to boost health and enhanced memory. When you do regular exercise daily, you save yourself from chronic diseases, brain issues, and medical conditions.
Exercise increases the growth of brain cells. In old age, this can protect against Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease, and various other medical conditions that are likely to affect people when their body grows old. The benefits of physical activity and exercise can’t be confined to diseases prevention in the body and brain cells. Various other benefits are associated with memory boosting and enhanced cognitive abilities.
Regular exercise is proven to enhance the structure and functioning of the hippocampus that is associated with the memory and learning of the human brain. The children who participated in physical exercises and sports are also more likely to live productive student and professional lives.
8. Relaxation and Sleep Quality
The human body needs sleep to sustain itself in this world; it cannot stay healthy and fit in sleep deprivation. The change in lifestyle and use of technology has made people deprived of good night sleep in most cases. When you have to sustain severe pressure at work, the most affected thing is sleep at night. You cannot maintain your productivity without regular daily sleep at night. And when you are suffering from sleep deprivation, the only natural remedy that has no side effects is regular exercise that will help you sleep better. Regardless of the amount of pressure or the time of sleep-deprived conditions, you are suffering. Medications and drugs can take a heavy toll on your health and productivity if you rely on them to elevate the situation.
Regular exercise helps healthy people in sleep-deprived conditions and supports people who have insomnia and other sleep disorders. Psychologists and psychiatrists advocate the benefits of regular exercises in sleep disorders and various mood swings and depression.
9. Reduced Pains
There are various medical conditions and diseases where people have to live with the pain for the rest of their lives. This debilitating situation will worsen as time passes by, and people tend to take some unhealthy steps like moving towards addiction or trying to seek ways to end their lives. Exercise and physical activities also offer hope to such people in these grave scenarios. This research reveals that physical activities help chronic patients with the power and strength to bear the excruciating pain.
Regular exercise provides people with the elevated pain-bearing ability that will keep them at bay from alcohol abuse and various other drugs to stay away from the severe pain and bear it with an enhanced level of self-esteem and strength. Patients can only tackle fibromyalgia, chronic pain in the low back or soft tissue by exercising regularly.
Physical activities make you suffer some pain initially, but your body will feel an increase in the pain-bearing threshold within a week of regular activities. And within a month, the body and mind will show the indications of bearing pain to some greater extent without compromising your productivity and affecting your life.
10. Better Sex Life
If you want to add colors to your life, you need to engage in physical activities to get an enhanced sex drive. Physical activities and exercise increase blood circulation, providing flexibility to the body. You get the chance to have enhanced sex drive and better physical strength that will offer you the thrill and adventure in life that you have always been missing.
Some medical evidence suggests that regular exercise can play a vital role in improving sexuality. Exercise may improve an individual’s libido, and in turn, overall sexual satisfaction. Another study researched women to explore physical activity and sexual life. The study reveals that the women who used to perform regular strenuous activities had more orgasms than women who were not doing any exercise.
Even the regular walk of 40 minutes a day increased the participants’ satisfaction, frequency, and sexual functioning in controlled research. The people who perform regular exercise tend to stay sexually active longer, get more pleasure and enjoy good sexual health because of their strenuous activities.
11. Enhanced Self-confidence
When you talk about self-esteem and positive self-image, money is not the only thing you need to feel accepted and acknowledged in society and your eyes. The people who remain fit and perform strenuous daily activities tend to have a positive self-image in their minds. This self-positive image enhances their confidence and approach towards life.
When you are struggling in your life at any stage of your career, you need the motivation to stay on track with hard work and focused activities. Physical exercise offers you a positive approach, and you feel in your mind that you are capable of doing things that could be difficult and somewhat impossible for others.
If you want to achieve more in life, you must perform more in the gym, track, pool, or the ground. The more you perform during the exercise, the more confidence you will get in your abilities. You can use this confidence to achieve in your professional and emotional life.
12. Help Manage Addiction
Dopamine is associated with happiness and pleasure. People tend to go on adventures or do dangerous tricks to get a dose of this reward chemical. But you don’t need to risk your life to get the extensive amount of dopamine in your daily routines. People who do physical activities get their daily dose of dopamine to live a healthy, productive, and prosperous life.
Drug addiction is the most harmful thing to people, taking productivity and meaning away from your life. The people who want to return to their lives can pursue regular physical exercise benefits and advantages. Physical activities will provide a kind of catharsis to the body, and people get the chance to leave their addiction without severe side effects.
Exercise distracts people from their negative habits, routines, and drug abuse. Smokers also get power from the activity to quit smoking and start living a healthy lifestyle that makes them enjoy every single day with full enthusiasm and joy.
Over to You
There are various benefits to be derived from regular physical activities and exercises. You don’t have to stick with some insane activities or bone-bending sports. Any physical activity that makes you burn calories and get sweaty will make your body sustain a healthy lifestyle and stay away from various diseases and harmful medical conditions.
When you are doing regular exercise, there are numerous benefits of these activities that will add value to your life. You get the chance to say fit and healthy with younger-looking vibrant skin. The chances of getting a chronic disease also get low. Any physical activity will help you increase your mental health and memory. You get more confidence, productivity, and an enhanced level of performance in everything you do.
People who do regular exercise do not have to rely on medications and drugs to live healthy lives. These physical activities offer hormonal balance, endorphins, and other beneficial chemicals that make people stay healthy and happy even in worse scenarios. People who do regular exercise tend to live more, explore more and get more out of life till their last breath on this earth.
