We always hear, “You have to exercise regularly to improve your health”,
but just how much does physical exercise actually benefit your health overall?
Definition of exercise and its benefits
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Exercise is a physical activity that helps enhance physical and mental
health. Physical exercise can decrease the risk of developing several physical
and mental diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
Physical activity has immediate
and long-term benefits for health. Also, regular exercise makes a major role
in improving your quality of life. At least 30 minutes/day make you enjoy all
benefits.
Types and classification of exercise
Aerobic exercise is any activity that uses large muscles and causes the human
body to use more oxygen than it usually needs while resting. Its major aim is to
enhance cardiovascular endurance.
Examples of aerobic physical activity are cycling, swimming, brisk
walking, running, skipping rope, dancing, playing tennis, hiking, and long-distance running.
Anaerobic exercise includes strength and resistance training and can
strengthen, and increase muscle mass. It also improves bone density, body balance,
and coordination.
Examples are push-ups, pull-ups, bench press lunges, and squats. It also
includes weight training, functional training, interval training, and sprinting.
High-intensity interval training enhances short-term muscle power.
Flexibility exercises lengthen body muscles. Examples such as stretching
activities help to enhance joint flexibility and maintain muscle range of
motion which can decrease the possibility of injury.
Physical exercise may be classified as dynamic or static. Dynamic and
steady running leads to improve blood flow, and then lower diastolic blood
pressure.
Conversely, static weight-lifting can cause a transient increase in systolic blood pressure during the performance of the exercise.
Aerobic activity sub-classification
Moderate aerobic activity
Moderate activity will increase your heart rate and breathing rate and makes
you feel warmer. The way to inform you're doing a moderate activity is if you
can still speak, but not sing.
Moderate activity has many examples including brisk walking, water aerobics, riding a
bike, dancing, doubles tennis, hiking, and rollerblading.
Vigorous activity
Vigorous activity will make your breathing harder and faster. If you're at
this level, you can't speak more than a few words without breathing. Moderate intensity activities can become
vigorous if you spend more effort.
Vigorous activities include: swimming, riding a bike fast or on hills, walking
up the stairs, football, rugby, netball, running, skipping, aerobics, gymnastics,
and others
Very vigorous activity
Very vigorous activities are activities that need spending maximum
effort for a short time followed by rest. Also, it may be referred to as High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).
Very vigorous activities include: lifting heavy weights, sprinting up hills, interval
running, running up stairs, circuit training, and spinning classes.
How to maintain regular exercise?
• Make your daily activities more active. Even small changes you can do will
help. A lot of examples are available like the usage of the stairs instead of the
elevator. Park away from your destination, and walk the remaining distance.
• Be active with friends and family. Having a partner helps you enjoy and
maintain regular exercise. You can join exercise groups, such as a hiking
club, dance class, or volleyball team.
• Always keep a log of your
progress. Also, you can use a fitness tracker to help you put goals and stay always
motivated.
• Try to make exercise more fun. As an example, you can enjoy TV or music and
exercise at the same time. Also, doing different types of activities will make
you less liable to get bored.
• Choose physical activities
that are possible to be done during bad weather. For example, you can walk in a
mall, climb stairs, or exercise in a gym even if there is bad weather outside.
Exercise benefits
We all know that exercise is good for us, but do you know that it can boost
your mood, and improve your sex life. Also, it can improve your whole life.
The benefits of regular physical activity for your health are several. All
people can benefit from exercise, regardless of their age, gender, or physical fitness.
These are some of the benefits you will gain from exercising. See now how you can change your life and become healthier.
1. Control your weight
It helps maintain weight loss and prevent excess weight gain. Physical
activity makes you burn a lot of calories. If you do a more intense activity, you
will burn more calories.
Regular visits to the gym are better but don't worry if you can't find
a long time to exercise daily. It is better to do any exercise, even mild than to do nothing.
2. Mood improvement
If you want to relieve your stress and improve your mood, physical
activity will help you. Activity releases many brain chemicals that will make
you feel happier and less anxious.
Also, you will feel better about yourself when you do physical activity regularly.
As well as it will increase your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem.
3. Energy boosting
Maintaining regular physical activity will enhance your muscle strength
and improve your endurance.
It helps deliver oxygen to your tissues and helps your heart and
blood vessels to work efficiently. And when your heart and circulation become
healthier, you will have more energy to do daily needs.
4. Better sleep
Regular activity will help you get better and faster sleep. Also, it deepens
your sleep. Try not to exercise too close to your bedtime, or you may have great
energy to prevent you from sleeping.
5. Improve your sex
life
If you usually feel tired, regular physical activity will improve your energy
and boost your self-confidence about your physical fitness, which will make
your sex life better.
Maintaining regular physical activity will promote sexual arousal for
women. Also, men who do regular physical activity are less prone to have problems
with erection than those who don't exercise.
6. Exercise can be fun and social!
You can enjoy doing physical activities. They help you enjoy the
outdoors or simply participate in activities that will make you happier. Also,
it will help you connect with family members or friends in a fun social grouping.
So, you can take a dance class, or join a sports team. Try to find a
physical activity you are interested in. Is it boring? Try a new one, or do any
activity with your friends or family members.
7. Prevention and improvement of health conditions
Some of us are worried about many physical and mental health conditions, especially obese persons. Regular activity
helps prevent and treat many health conditions including:
Enumeration of all of the medical conditions that can be at least
partially managed and controlled by exercise would be very extensive. However, here
are a few of the most significant health conditions and how
exercise can help in each condition.
Physical health conditions
Allergies: exercise is one of the body’s major efficient tools to
control congestion of the nose.
Angina: regular aerobic activities help dilatation of blood vessels,
increasing blood flow. Then, it will improve the body’s ability to get oxygen
from the blood.
Arthritis: activity enhances the joint's movement, and it promotes the synthesis
of synovial fluid. After that, it helps to distribute it over the cartilage and
to circulate throughout the joint.
Back pain: activity helps to strengthen your abdominal muscles and also
the lower back muscles.
Cholesterol: activity will elevate your HDL which is the good
cholesterol in the blood and decrease your LDL levels (the bad one).
Diabetes: activity helps control excess blood sugar and increases the sensitivity of body tissues to circulating insulin. Also, it decreases your body
weight which is very important to diabetics.
.
Heart disease: activity reduces your risk of getting heart disease by burning
your body fat, decreasing your LDL levels, and controlling your blood pressure.
Also, it will reduce your heart rate and enhance your lung and heart efficiency.
Knee problems: It helps strengthen the muscles, tendons, and ligaments
of the knee and thus helps it withstand physical stress.
Menstrual problems and PMS: it helps to overcome the hormonal changes
often associated with PMS by promoting the release of beta-endorphins inside
your body.
Osteoporosis: it enhances bone density, and decreases the risk of having
a bone fracture.
Obesity problems: it inhibits your appetite, raises your body metabolic
rate, burns more fat, and enhances lean muscle mass.
So, the benefits of regular activity are worth the effort you will exert. As
you see, in many ways, your life may change totally and become better.
Mental health problems
Exercise not only improves your physical health, but it improves your
mental health also. Sure, exercise can improve your physical health, but that’s
not what encourages most people to keep exercising.
People who maintain regular physical activity always feel a state of well-being.
They are more energetic, sleep better, have sharper memories, and are more
relaxed. It makes them have a positive about themselves and their lives.
Exercise and depression
Many studies prove that exercise can manage mild to moderate depression
effectively like antidepressant drugs. However, it hasn't any side effects, unlike medications. Also, another research proves that continuing on an
exercise schedule can prevent depression relapse.
It is a powerful tool against depression for many reasons. As it affects
the brain in many ways as neural growth, and reduced inflammation help
people become calm and relaxed.
As well as, it promotes the release of endorphins; powerful chemicals in
the brain that give you more energy and supply you a sense of wellbeing. Lastly,
it can break the circle of negative thoughts that enhance depression.
Exercise and anxiety
Exercise is an effective method of relieving anxiety. It relieves your
stress, enhances physical and mental energy, and promotes well-being through
the effect of endorphins.
Really try to focus on your body and how it looks when exercising. You’ll
not only enhance your physical fitness faster, but you can be able to interrupt
the thoughts of constant worries in your head.
Exercise and stress
Many changes occur to you when you are under stress. The
muscles in your face, neck, and shoulders will be tense making you feel back
pain, neck pain, or headache.
Also, you can complain of chest tightness, a rapid pulse, or muscle spasms.
Problems like insomnia, heartburn, diarrhea or frequent urination can occur
with stress.
Then, the discomfort associated with all these physical symptoms will
lead to even more stress. After that, it will create a vicious circle between
your brain and your body.
Generally, one of the major benefits of exercising is its efficacy in destructing
this vicious circle. Also, physical activity aids in relaxing your body muscles
and relieving body tension. There is a close relationship and link between our bodies
and minds. So, when your body is good, your mind will be also good.
Exercise and ADHD
Maintaining physical activity is one of the easiest and most efficient methods
to improve the symptoms of ADHD, and enhance concentration, motivation, and
mood.
Physical activity raises the brain’s dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin.
All these chemicals will enhance memory and concentration. So, exercise works
in a similar way to ADHD medications.
Exercise and PTSD
Researches suggest that focusing on your body and how it looks while
exercising will actually aid your nervous system to begin to move out of the
immobilization stress response that presents in PTSD.
Exercises such as walking in sand, running, swimming, or dancing are
some of your best choices in managing and improving PTSD condition.
Outdoor physical activities such as rock climbing, hiking, sailing,
mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and skiing will also help to reduce the
symptoms of PTSD.
Finally, you should check with your doctor before initiating any
exercise plan is it suitable or not. Especially if you have chronic health
problems, your doctor will determine the type, intensity, and duration of physical
activity.
Conclusion about exercise benefits
Exercise helps in improving our mental and physical health. Irregular
vigorous physical activity for hours has less benefit than short regular
activity (at least 30 minute daily).
There are many applicable options that would encourage us to maintain regular activities. Any patient should ask his doctor about suitable intensity and duration of exercise to avoid harming himself.