5 Reasons Why Exercise Is Important
It is no secret that exercise can help you to live a healthier, more fulfilled life. In fact, routine physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your overall health and wellness. The best part is that anyone can reap the benefits of exercise, including people of all ages, sizes, and abilities. The benefits of exercise can decrease your risk of disease, improve your mood and cognition, better your quality of sleep, and strengthen your muscles and bones. These top 5 reasons why exercise is important for your health should motivate you to improve your daily habits!
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Post Workout Feeling
The benefits of exercise extend beyond just the physical, as engaging in physical activity can also have profound effects on your mental health. Not only can exercise enhance your mood immediately after completing physical activity, but it can also reduce your long-term risk of mood disorders such as depression.
One study randomized sedentary adults to receive either regular exercise, antidepressants, or placebo. After four months, participants in the exercise and antidepressant groups had similar rates of remission, suggesting that exercise can be just as effective as medication for certain mental illnesses. This phenomenon does not just apply to those with mental illness, either. Anyone can experience the proven mental benefits of exercise, thus helping individuals to live happier and more fulfilled lives (1).
Testosterone levels can also increase for a short period of time during exercise such as weightlifting. Consistent strength training can help to elevate and sustain these testosterone levels over time. Increased testosterone can also help to improve your mood (3).
Improve Heart Health
The two leading causes of death in the United State are heart disease and stroke. Luckily, there are various lifestyle modifications that can help to decrease your risk of heart problems, one being exercise. Engaging in a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week can significantly lower your risk of developing certain cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and high blood pressure. It can also help to reduce your risk for other kinds of diseases, such as type II diabetes and some cancers (2).
Better Sleep Quality
Recent studies demonstrate that exercise can have beneficial effects on your sleep quality. Specifically, exercise can lessen insomnia symptoms and reduce complaints associated with sleep. In studies where patients were given either regular aerobic exercise or sleeping medication, both the exercise and sleeping pills groups had similar sleep outcomes.
If you struggle with sleep, physical activity can help you to fall asleep quicker and better your overall quality of sleep. There is some debate, however, as to what time of day is best to exercise to positively influence sleep patterns. Some experts recommend against exercising too late in the day as this may end up keeping you up at night (4).
Strengthened Muscles and Joints
With normal aging, certain parts of our bodies may not work as they used to. Therefore, it is important to protect these parts of the body, such as your muscles, joints, and bones. By keeping active, you can improve the health of your physical body. For example, lifting weights can help you to increase your muscle strength and mass, keeping you strong.
One of the main benefits of building muscle mass as you age is increasing bone density. Like many things in the human body, bone density tends to decline as we age. Weight lifting to maintain muscle mass and strength will improve the density of bones, as well as the connections between muscles and bones. This results in improved resistance to injury in daily life and exercise.
Better Results From Preworkout
Preworkout and caffeine aren't a magical cure for fatigue and general tired feelings. Eventually, without proper sleep and exercise, they will lose their effects. Regular exercise and a high quality diet will keep your body in top shape, allowing for your body to most efficiently use all of the great energy boosting nutrients found in preworkout and energy boost supplements.
This principal goes for other supplements as well. If you're taking a multivitamin, your body can more effectively make use of the nutrients and vitamins if your muscles, organs, and body in general are in healthy shape.
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