Ongoing physical activity is key to preventing and managing health problems including heart diseases. The health benefits of exercise can result in reductions in health problems.
The health benefits of exercise include lower cholesterol, improved blood glucose levels, controlled triglyceride levels, and blood pressure. Exercise reduces the risk of obesity, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer.
Read about the benefits of exercise on mental health and health benefits of exercise on your physical well-being.
The health benefits of exercise on mental health and physical well-being are amazing!
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Exercise improves health in so many ways!
It is vital to consume healthily and exercise to reduce your risk for health problems. These may include reducing cholesterol, blood glucose levels, triglyceride levels, and blood pressure.
The health benefits of exercise are astounding in the many ways they impact our lives. By intake of healthy food and exercising regularly, you can promote optimal health!
Since regular activity reduces the risk of developing these diseases that harm the quality of life, why wouldn’t more people make time for it?
23 health benefits of exercise
Following are 23 health benefits of exercise on mental health and physical well-being:
It reduces the risk of health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
When we exercise, our heart has to work harder to supply our body with blood and oxygen. As a result, our heart health improves over time. The health benefits of exercise also include lower cholesterol, blood glucose levels, triglyceride levels, and blood pressure. It helps in improving the risk of obesity, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer.
Exercise boosts your immune system:
A regular workout strengthens your immune system by increasing antibodies and white cells. This combat infection while at the same period reducing the level of stress hormones. This can suppress immunity
Exercise helps you breathe better:
People out of shape often have to take rapid shallow breaths to compensate for their shortness of breath or gasping. Especially when engaging in physical activity like walking or climbing stairs. Exercise improves your breathing overall.
Exercise helps you sleep better:
Studies show that two weeks of moderate aerobic exercise like walking a minimum of 30 minutes a day five days a week significantly improves sleep quality in older adults who have trouble sleeping.
Exercise speeds up your metabolism:
An increase in physical activity is associated with an increase in metabolic rate. Especially during and immediately after the activity has been performed. This increased metabolic rate also occurs when sitting and decreases when our muscles are at rest.
Exercise helps you lose or maintain weight:
One pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. And health experts recommend that to lose 1 lb a week. This means 500 calories should be cut from the diet every day. If you do some physical activity and cut some calories, it speeds up the weight loss process.
Exercise helps maintain healthy bones and muscles:
Regular exercise can help counteract aging on muscle mass and strength. As per one study, the older men who weight trained three times a week increased their muscle size by 10 percent after a ten-week study. The health benefits of exercise were noticeable as they could lift almost 1 lb. Even more after training than before the beginning of the experiment.
Daily exercise improves blood pressure:
Physical activity is an essential part of reducing blood pressure. It decreases the heart rate while strengthening our heart simultaneously!
Exercise helps improve the health of your blood vessels:
Exercise should be done moderately for 30 min a day, thrice a week. It reduces the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease in overweight adults.
Exercise makes you happier:
Physical activity directly impacts mental health. It does by protecting against age-related memory loss and depression.
Regular exercise strengthens your muscles:
By supporting our muscles through physical activity like strength training or weight lifting, we can prevent muscle atrophy. Especially as we age. These activities can increase lean muscle mass. They can also help maintain healthy bone density and protect healthy muscle mass while decreasing fat in the body.
Exercise makes you powerful:
People who do regular physical activity like playing sports are less likely to break a bone. They are powerful and strong physically as well as mentally.
It reduces health risks of colon cancer:
In one study by health experts at Harvard, examiners found that women who had five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily cut their threat of developing colon cancer by 30 percent. At the same time, those who exercised regularly lowered the health risks of colon cancer by 50 percent. It is because exercise helps the body get rid of carcinogens before they damage cells.
Exercise boosts health memory:
People with minor dementia who did aerobic exercises three times per week for six months improved their health learning and memory skills, according to health experts from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Physical activity keeps you looking younger:
People who exercise regularly tend to stay thin. They have more muscle mass than those who are inactive. Health experts say less body fat means fewer wrinkles!
It prevents health problems in menopausal women:
In a recent study, health experts found that one hour of daily physical activity reduced the health risks of obesity and heart disease in postmenopausal women. All while decreasing health problems like high blood pressure, type II diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.
Exercise helps you deal with stress better:
Physical activity increases health endorphins in your system. It promotes healthy mental functioning by helping you feel relaxed, happy, and alert. As a result, you can be more productive throughout the day.
Exercise helps you eat better:
Researchers at health experts from the University of Buffalo found that young adults who exercised with their families ate healthier meals regularly.
Exercise reduces health risks of Alzheimer’s disease:
In recent studies, health experts discovered that moderate physical activity like walking reduced health risks of Alzheimer’s disease in elderly subjects.
Exercise helps you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer:
Physical activity improves sleep quality by regulating health melatonin levels, health experts say.
Exercise releases endorphins and feels good:
A health expert from the University of North Carolina says, “Exercise is probably not the most important option for weight loss. However, it does help promote weight loss”. It is because physical activity also releases health serotonin improves self-esteem.
Exercise makes health stress go away:
Researchers at health experts from Loyola University found that moderate-intensity exercise for health 20 to 30 minutes regularly improved health cortisol levels. This decreases health levels of stress hormones that are linked to heart disease, obesity, type II diabetes. Working out regularly can help improve other chronic health conditions, as well.
Exercise keeps your lungs healthy:
A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology reports that physical activity supports lung health. It does by maintaining health elasticity in airways and increasing the surface area in alveolar sacs where oxygen exchange occurs.
Best Exercises to do for your health and fitness
Sitting at work all day can be detrimental to your health as many people spend hours sitting down.
Experts have been long claiming that after the invention of television and cars, a number of life-threatening diseases were developed. It is because of lack of physical activity. Even though it can’t be denied that we are living busy lives in this fast-paced world, some physical activity cannot be missed.
All you need is some time for the right kind of exercise to get rid of harmful toxins released in your body while sitting all day at work or driving.
Exercising once a week won’t do any good but it has to be done regularly.
Exercises can be done without much effort and time. They will not only keep you fit but also boost up your mood and energy levels.
So here are some effective exercises you must do every day:
1) Cycling:
Cycling is one of the best ways to exercise. It gives more flexibility compared to running or walking. If cycling can’t be done, then try jogging or brisk walking for 30 minutes every other day.
2) Stretching:
After working out your muscles, it is important to stretch them. This will prevent your muscles from getting stiff and also reduce any chance of injury.
3) Swimming:
Swimming is very important for those who don’t like the idea of exercising. It not only helps in keeping your body toned but also tones up your butt and thighs without causing much stress on your joints.
4) Dancing:
Dancing can be done at home as well. So, beat the boredom by making a jamming session at your place. Try some good music, candles, drinks, and snacks. Mark my words – it’s a fun way to shed calories while listening to great beats.
5) Power walking:
If you’re away from home or too busy with work to work out seriously then power-walking is the best way to keep yourself active and fit. It is easy, simple, and effective.
6) Yoga:
Master yoga if you want your health to be perfect. It is not just a great way of stretching your muscles but also exercising all the pressure points in your body by which you can be tension-free and rejuvenated.
7) Aerobics:
Aerobics is the best exercise. Warm-up before doing any aerobic exercise. So, that you don’t get hurt or injured while performing it. Make sure that your entire body – arms, legs, back, stomach, etc – gets involved during an aerobics session. This will ensure toned muscles across the body.
8) Strength training:
This type of training is very important for those who want toned muscles as they do not involve too much cardio work. Basically strengthening your bones making them stronger over time. After strength training don’t forget to do stretching — it will help in reducing any chance of injury.
9) Jogging
One of the most effective ways to burn calories is through jogging. It is a kind of exercise which is also known as running at fast speeds. It has been observed that people who do jogging in their free time are able to reduce more weight than those who take part in other forms of exercises like aerobics and lifting weights etc. If you want to burn more calories and lose weight then jogging is the best exercise for you.
The secret of why jogging is so effective to get rid of extra pounds lies in the fact that it makes our body work harder than usual by increasing heart rate. By getting our heart working faster, it becomes possible to burn more calories as compared to a normal state when a person is resting or sleeping, etc.
For an average person weighing 150 lbs, about 860 calories can be burnt within one hour through light jogging. Similarly, if a person weighs 200 lbs, he/she can burn around 1100 – 1200 calories by doing jogging within the same duration. The health benefits of exercise on mental health and physical well-being, for example jogging, are many to count.
Conclusion:
These exercises can be done at home, outdoors, or at the gym. What’s more interesting, you need little or no equipment at all. So make sure you do them on a weekly basis if not every day. It would be great if you combine yoga with strength training for the best results. And make the most of the health benefits of exercise on mental health and physical well-being.
You can either do these exercises before a workout or as a part of a warm-up. It is important to remember that the order in which you train your muscles makes all the difference. For example, if you start with a barbell bench press and then move on to dumbbell flyes, your strength endurance is better than if you had started with dumbbell flyes first and gone on to bench press without rest. The same rule applies when doing yoga: there is an order in which each muscle has to be trained so try not to mix things up too much.
Now you know the health benefits of exercise on mental health and physical well-being, lose weight and feel healthy! Get up off the couch and get active today. I hope you liked it.
Good Luck!
References:
Benefits of Exercise – MedlinePlus https://medlineplus.gov/benefitsofexercise.html#:~:text=Exercise%20strengthens%20your%20heart%20and,blood%20pressure%20and%20triglyceride%20levels.
The Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise – Healthline https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise
Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity – Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389
Top 10 Fitness Facts – WebMD https://www.webmd.com/men/features/exercise-benefits