7 Exercise Health Benefits (That’ll Give You A Reason To Exercise)

I know you know that exercise is healthy for you, but do you know what the exercise health benefits actually are? Are you just doing exercise for the sake of doing it? Maybe you are getting to the point where you are dragging yourself to get your gym bag together and head to the gym. That trip might not be so hard if you really understand what the exercise health benefits truly are for you. Read on!!

7 Exercise Health Benefits

Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke

Heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of death for adults in the US. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines, engaging in 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise per week can reduce your risk of these diseases. Regular exercise such as this also can lower your cholesterol and blood pressure levels. As the Mayo Clinic describes exercise helps keep your blood flowing smoothly through your body decreasing your risk for these diseases.

Reduce Risk Of Diabetes

Exercise helps to regulate your blood sugar and makes insulin work better in your body. Exercise can also help manage your weight better which also helps you to reduce your risk of diabetes overall.

It Can Lower Cancer Risk

Exercise can help you reduce your chance of developing certain types of cancers like colon, breast, and uterine cancers. Being overweight can increase the chances of some cancers and exercising can help reduce that risk. Exercise can help to regulate your hormone levels too. Hormones that are not regulated properly can increase the chances of cancer according to the MD Anderson Cancer Centers.

Builds Strong Bones and Muscles

Regular strength training types of exercise helps to build and maintain strong muscles. It also helps with balance and agility and can prevent falls and injury Exercise is important for the development of strong bones and this can be particularly helpful in older adults who tend to lose some bone density with aging making them more prone to fractures.

Exercise Can Help You Lose Weight

The use of exercise is extremely helpful in losing weight because of the calorie burn involved. You can lose weight with the CDC guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate-brisk exercise per week and if you’d like to do more that is okay as well. Burn even more calories! As was noted on some of the previous points, obesity can lead to so many health problems and exercise can really help to reduce weight. It has so many benefits, just losing weight!

It Has Mental Health Benefits Too!

Have you ever felt, or heard people say they feel so much better after exercising? There is a reason for that! Exercise releases hormones that put you in that “feel good” mood. Exercise can relieve stress and also gives you a sense of accomplishment which boosts your self-confidence and boosts your self-esteem.

Improves Brain Health

According to Healthline, exercise can improve your brain health by protecting your memory and thinking skills. Exercise also increases your heart rate which increases the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain which can promote the growth of brain cells. Exercise also stimulates hormone production which is needed for more brain cell growth! Exercising can also decrease or slow the progression of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Exercise Is Good For Your Health

As you can see through these examples there are a lot of exercise health benefits and many of them are inter-related. It benefits so many areas. Are you still a bit resistant to exercising and find it hard to get started when you aren’t exercising at all? Just think about baby steps. Starting out easy is best and seek out medical advice if you aren’t sure if exercise is something you should be doing with your current medical conditions. For more tips on getting started with exercise when you are resistant to it read my blog post, “How To Exercise For Weight Loss (When It’s Not Your Thing)”.

Exercise has so many benefits from physical and mental standpoints. Once you get started out easy and slowly build yourself up, you will begin to feel good both physically and mentally. Exercise-what’s to lose? Try it out and start reaping the benefits starting today!