that exercising sounds like something that’s hard to fit into your daily routine or isn’t worth the trouble, make sure you know the 5 great health benefits of exercising regularly.
1) Exercise helps you lose weight
A recent study found that people who exercised regularly were 60 percent more likely to loose weight than those who didn’t. Exercise also helps you stay fit by toning your muscles and keeping your joints flexible, as well as boosting your energy levels and mood. Finally, regular exercise helps protect against some diseases, including diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. In fact, exercise is one of only a few things we can do that might actually help us live longer! But even if it doesn’t add years to your life it will most certainly add quality.
2) Exercise helps boost energy levels
One of exercise’s many health benefits is that it gives us more energy. We typically associate energy with physical activity and fitness, but those things aren’t entirely to blame. Sure, a good workout session will give you a pick-me-up and make you feel better throughout your day, but exercise also releases hormones in our brains that boost our mood and increase focus. The endorphins released by physical activity can even improve brain function and reduce pain sensations. If you want more energy during your day, start exercising regularly—you’ll be surprised at how much better you feel!
2) Exercise reduces risk of cardiovascular disease
Exercise has a number of cardiovascular benefits, and reducing your risk of stroke is just one example. If you are overweight or obese, losing weight through physical activity reduces blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Over time, it can also lower your overall stroke risk. These findings come from a study published in JAMA Neurology in 2015 by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Birmingham, both in Boston. The results showed that people who were active at moderate to vigorous intensity for more than an hour per week had a 31 percent lower risk of stroke compared with those who engaged in less than 30 minutes of exercise each week. Being active on more than three days each week reduced their stroke risk even further—by 36 percent.
4) Exercise improves mood and sleep quality
Exercise is a healthy way to relieve stress and manage anxiety, and it also increases your endorphins, which helps you improve your mood. For people with sleep disorders, exercise can be a particularly effective tool. There’s evidence that people who exercise regularly get better sleep than those who don’t. This makes sense because physical activity boosts energy levels during daylight hours, which can help you feel less exhausted at night.
5) Exercise lowers the risk of heart disease
Not only does exercise reduce your risk for heart disease, but it lowers blood pressure and triglyceride levels. Many studies have shown that a regular program of aerobic exercise reduces resting blood pressure and triglyceride levels by approximately 10 to 20 percent. Studies also indicate that in addition to these benefits, endurance training has positive effects on cholesterol levels. Endurance training increases HDL (good) cholesterol while decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol—and these changes are more profound with regular exercise than with infrequent activity. Moreovere reasearch suggests that exercise might be more effective at reducing cardiovascular risk factors than drugs such as simvastatin (Zocor), a widely prescribed medication commonly used to lower cholesterol.
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