There are many, MANY benefits to maintaining a healthy lifestyle with regular fitness exercises. Most of these benefits, like lowering your body weight, improving physical appearance, lowering body fat and decreasing risk of disease, are obvious. But there may be some benefits of which you may not be aware. Here’s a number of reasons why you should workout!
- Exercising regularly not only helps your body, it can help your mind as well. It can give you more positive self esteem, help you experience better and more sleep, give you more energy, help you handle stress and reduce depression.
- Strength training will help to increase your metabolism. Muscle requires more calories than fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Because your metabolism slows as you get older, your body also gradually begins to lose its muscle. If your workout levels and calorie intake both stay the same, you will end up gaining weight. You can combat this by exercising with weight and doing aerobic activity on a regular basis. Then you won’t notice much change in your metabolism as you age.
- Strength training can also help your bones. Studies have shown that weight training can increase bone density by 13 percent in just six months. That is a powerful tool for fighting off osteoporosis.
- Exercise helps to improve your cholesterol levels and improve cardiopulmonary function by decreasing blood pressure and lowering your resting heart rate. Working out three or more times a week will make your heart stronger and pump blood with less effort. Your blood pressure will go down and so will your cholesterol level, lowering your risk of heart disease.
- All forms of exercise help to reduce the risk of injury, especially lower back strain. While some injuries require a lot of rest, most lower back pain can get better if you stay active. Exercise will help reduce lower back pain and help you recover faster and prevent re-injury.
Working out can help you experience all of these benefits and more. Exercise regularly to improve your overall health, lose body fat, prevent injury, lower your metabolism and maintain a healthy mind. You’ll be glad you did!
