1. Improves mood and increases happiness
When you exercise regularly, it actually lowers feelings of anxiety, depression and stress while improving your overall mood.
This is because it has a positive effect on the aspects of your brain that are responsible for dealing with anxiety and stress. Additionally, it makes your brain more sensitive to norepinephrine and serotonin which help to naturally lower depression.
When you exercise, it causes the body to make more endorphins which are excellent at reducing pain and increasing feelings of positivity.
Exercise also helps to deal with symptoms of anxiety and lowers feelings of stress.
What is interesting to note is that the intensity of exercise doesn’t particularly matter. It doesn’t matter how intense your workout is, you will still enjoy the benefits listed above.
There was a study done with 24 depressed women that clearly showed exercise significantly helped to reduce their depression.
Exercise has been found to be very effective and powerful when it comes to enhancing mood, it works well, even when done for short periods of time.
A particular review done on 19 studies showed that people who were already active who ceased exercising actually experienced greater amounts of anxiety, depression and related symptoms in only a couple of weeks after stopping their exercise routine.
2. Aides in weight loss
Studies indicate that one of the main reasons for obesity and weight gain is inactivity.
So, in order to understand how exercise impacts weight and causes a reduction in weight, it is necessary to realize that energy expenditure and exercise are interlinked.
The body uses or expends energy in 3 main ways and they are as follows:
1. Exercising
2. Digesting consumed food
3. Undergoing various bodily functions such as breathing
When you diet you reduce how many calories you consume and this, in turn, reduces your metabolic rate. This can cause weight loss to be delayed. However, it has been found that when you exercise, this actually improves your metabolic rate. This allows you to burn even more calories which leads to weight loss.
There are studies that indicate when you do resistance training along with aerobic exercise, you can increase your muscle mass and maximize how much fat you can lose. This is quite important for losing weight and making sure it stays off. If you are looking for a personal trainer to help you reach your personal goals I would highly recommend checking out Profound Fitness.
3. Great for bones and muscles
Exercise is quite essential for maintaining as well as building bones and muscles that are strong.
Therefore, resistance training such as weight lifting can help you to build muscle, especially when you consume sufficient protein.
This is due to the fact that exercise assists the body in releasing particular hormones that encourage your muscles to take in amino acids. This in turn allows your muscles to grow and not get smaller.
When people get older, they naturally lose function and overall muscle mass. This increases the chances of getting injured. Therefore, in order to maintain your strength and ensure you don’t lose muscle, it is important to exercise and engage in physical activity throughout your life.
Additionally, when you exercise as a younger person, this aids in building bone density. It also aids in the prevention of osteoporosis as you age.
Particular types of exercise that are high impact have been found to improve bone density drastically such as running, basketball, gymnastics, soccer etc. These types of exercise improve bone density to a higher degree than non-impact type sports such as cycling or even swimming.
4. Boosts energy
Exercise can help to boost energy for lots of people, even those who have particular medical issues.
There was an old study on 36 people with persistent fatigue that showed that 6 weeks of consistent exercise actually helped to lower their levels of fatigue.
Additionally, it was found that exercise can greatly improve energy in persons who suffer from serious conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome.
In comparison to other treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome, exercise is actually very effective. It is more effective than stretching, relaxing or even no treatment.
It was also found that exercise can improve energy in persons with serious illnesses such as cancer.