Benefits of physical exercise
If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can share the progress you get from training, so we look forward to seeing how you experience the benefits of physical exercise. Download it here.
Today we are going to talk about how beneficial the practice of physical exercise is for our health, both physical and mental. In the 21st century, being overweight is one of the biggest problems worldwide, being a major cause of death or diseases that can lead to death.
We live in a world in which technological advances are immense, which encourage a sedentary lifestyle. This generates diseases such as obesity and diabetes, something that should not happen.
We are going to tell you about the benefits of practicing physical exercise, even if it is only about 30-45 minutes a day, about 4 days a week, which will help you lock down a sedentary lifestyle and you can benefit from countless benefits.
WHAT IS PHYSICAL EXERCISE?
Physical exercise is any activity that improves and maintains a person’s physical fitness, health, and well-being. That is why these activities imply both psychological and physical benefits. It is one of the activities with the greatest impact on health, preventing even countless diseases. The benefits of physical exercise in our body are many, which we are going to talk about in this article.
BENEFITS OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE
Regulates our weight: exercise accompanied by a good diet are the main enemies of obesity. By doing this, we will control our weight more easily. It is important to understand that in order to lose weight, we are going to have to burn more calories than we consume, therefore, diet and sports are essential to achieve it. If you want to know more about how to lose fat, we recommend our article about it.
Helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases: if we exercise, we will strengthen our heart, and therefore, our circulation will undoubtedly improve. If we increase our blood flow, oxygen levels rise, helping to lower high cholesterol and heart disease. In particular, improving our cardiovascular health is one of the benefits of aerobic exercise, although any type of physical exercise will have positive effects.
Control of sugar levels: another of the benefits of exercise, the practice of this can help reduce blood sugar levels, thus making insulin work better in our body. This is very helpful for diabetic people.
Goodbye to tobacco: if you smoke, exercising can help you quit something as harmful and addictive as tobacco. The practice of exercise helps us reduce cravings at a general level, thus reducing the urge to smoke if one is quitting.
An exceptional state of mind: when we do sports, our body releases chemical substances, such as endorphins. These make our mood improve and we feel more relaxed. Sport is undoubtedly a great enemy of stress, anxiety and depression.
Strong muscles and bones: if we exercise regularly from our childhood, we will see how stronger muscles and bones develop. In addition, one of the benefits of anaerobic exercise throughout life can help us reduce the loss of bone density in the long run, in addition to increasing or maintaining our muscles and strength.
Restful sleep: by exercising, we will be able to sleep more and better, according to a systematic review of the scientific evidence in this regard that relates both ideas.
Sexual health: physical exercise is related to greater confidence and vitality in the sexual sphere, and it has also been shown that it can improve problems of erectile dysfunction and low libido.
Better quality of life: if you do sports regularly, you will reduce the risk of dying prematurely, since you will avoid heart problems and some types of cancer.
Great for the elderly: Different studies have shown that physical exercise helps the elderly to avoid declining cognitive levels.
Respiratory improvement: exercise helps regulate respiratory capacity, being a great ally against asthma or allergies.
Help at work: physical exercise helps us face our day-to-day work much better, both physically and mentally. It makes us feel more relaxed, without so much stress, and therefore, we will perform better in our work.
Improves the skin: the practice of exercise will help to stimulate circulation, something that will improve the skin of our entire body. In addition, it is an exceptional ally against cellulite.
Prevents cancer: exercise can help prevent colon cancer, since exercising accelerates the passage of waste through our intestines. In addition, by exercising we regulate hormonal levels, being something great to avoid cancers such as prostate cancer due to excess testosterone, and even breast cancer.
BIOLOGICAL BENEFITS
Optimization of the resistance and physical form: strength training has great benefits when it comes to gaining muscle mass and on the other hand one of the benefits of cardiovascular exercise is fat loss, the result of the combination of both is the improvement of body composition and physical performance.
Control blood pressure: being heart-healthy is one of the most common goals of people who are new to sports and are in luck since one of the benefits of physical exercise is the improvement of arterial health.
Maintains and increases bone density: Strength training and increased bone density is one of the most studied benefits of physical exercise. This is especially interesting for women, whose menopause has negative effects on bone density and osteoporosis.
Greater flexibility: many times improving flexibility is not a goal for people when they start training, however, greater flexibility and postural health end up having much more positive implications than is usually thought for the health of recreational fitness practitioners.
Improvement in muscle tone and strength: in relation to the first point that we have discussed, doing sports will create adaptations in our muscle mass, whatever our activity and as long as we accompany the exercise with an adequate diet for this objective.
PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS
Increase our happiness: the practice of exercise helps us to release endorphins, the hormones that give us that feeling of happiness. Different studies have shown that the practice of sport is a great ally in order to reduce the symptoms of depression.
Less stress levels: many times at the end of the work day, one reaches very high levels of stress, which is dangerous for one’s health. Simply by practicing a little sport before or after work, you will almost immediately experience a drop in stress levels.
A great self-esteem: when doing sports, we will see how our body begins to look better. This generates a certain pleasant sensation when having a beautiful body, improving the image that one has of oneself. Physical exercise can help improve one’s perception of oneself, making one value oneself more.
Better social relationships: this is linked to the previous point, because if we improve our self-esteem, we will be able to improve in terms of social relationships. This is so because if you are sure of yourself, you will have a better chance of reaching out to others, making yourself seen and heard.
Goodbye anxiety: as we have already discussed in another article, the practice of exercise is the biggest enemy of anxiety. With doing a little exercise a day we can see how the symptoms of anxiety are gradually reduced.
Memory optimization: when doing sports, we see how our memory improves and the ability to learn things we were unaware of. This is so because physical exercise increases the production of hippocampal cells that are responsible for memory and learning.
Greater productivity: different studies have proven that exercising helps to increase productivity, both in students and workers. Above all, doing physical exercise before the day helps us stay more active throughout the day.
Control of addictions: when a person has sex, uses drugs or does something that gives them pleasure, the brain releases dopamine, which generates an immense pleasant stimulus. This is a problem, as many people become addicted to drugs for this reason. Exercise can help addicted people to recover little by little, since exercising has a positive effect, delaying the desire to use drugs. In the case of alcohol, we see how its consumption alters the consumer’s life, since it generates certain sleeping problems, for example, among many others. If we do sports, we can have a more conciliatory sleep, being something of great help for this type of person.
CONCLUSIONS
Although we all think we know all the benefits of physical exercise, these are such numbers that it is practically impossible to be aware of all of them. We hope that this brief repository has provided you with useful information and if you liked it, we ask you to share our article to reach more people.
