Surprising Benefits of Exercise

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be easy to become a couch potato and skip your usual exercise while socially isolating yourself at home.

Even though binge-watching your favorite shows for hours can be tempting, not moving your body can have negative effects on your health. These include weakening your immune system as a whole and raising your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression. We need to work on improving our overall health now more than ever.

So, how much exercise should we do? To lower your risk of heart disease, experts advise participating in moderate aerobic exercise for at least 150 minutes each week. To maintain a healthy weight, experts recommend exercising for at least 200 minutes each week.

It's okay if these numbers seem out of reach right now. The study is clear: Your health can benefit from even the smallest amount of exercise you do. Even though gyms are closed, we can still choose to exercise or not. Even though we need to change how we do things, exercising can still help us through these trying times.

If you decide to get moving right away, look for these nine surprising benefits of exercise on a regular basis. You can benefit from increasing your activity

1. Ensure a steady weight

Getting active burns calories. You will burn more calories the harder and longer you work. Maintaining a healthy weight will be easier if you burn calories.

2. Control your appetite

After working out, exercise can help you feel fuller and less hungry.

3. Boost mental capacity

Brain tissue begins to break down as we get older. Over time, exercise has been shown to slow that loss.

4. improve cardiac health

Improved circulation and lower blood pressure are both aided by regular exercise.

5. Enhance immune system function

Immunoglobulins, which aid in the fight against infection, have been shown to increase with regular exercise. Our overall health risks are also reduced when we exercise regularly. The likelihood that we will quickly recover from illness increases with our level of health.

6. Enhance metabolism

Lean muscle mass can be increased through regular exercise. Your basal metabolic rate goes up when you have more muscle mass. This means that even when binge-watching your favorite shows, you'll burn more calories at rest.

7. Prevent harm

Muscles become stronger when you exercise regularly. Stronger muscles reduce your risk of common aging-related injuries like "pulling your back out."

8. Reduce levels of cortisol

Regular exercise has been shown to lower cortisol levels, which can help you sleep better and feel less stressed.

9. Enhance bone wellness

It has been demonstrated that engaging in weight-bearing exercise on a regular basis keeps our bones stronger as we get older. Age-related fractures can be reduced and osteoporosis can be prevented with this.

So, where do we start? Making a plan is a good plan. Start where you are and keep pushing yourself every week. I advise patients to be as specific as possible about their goal. For instance, "I will walk for ten minutes after breakfast at least three days this week." Make a note of your goal and revisit it each week. You might find that this helps you remember where you've been and where to go next.

Numerous occurrences are currently beyond our control. We may not have control over what is going on around us, but we do have control over how we spend our time. Wouldn't it be wonderful to end this time feeling healthier and more powerful? Your decision is final. Take advantage of the nine surprising advantages of regular exercise today by getting active.