Exercise - Why We Need to Embrace it Because of the Lesser Known Healthy Benefits - By: Grant Weston

Scientific research has shown that people who lead active lifestyles are less likely to suffer from illness and more likely to live longer. There are naturally many benefits to exercising besides just making you physically fitter. It improves your general sense of wellbeing and stimulates mental health.

Obviously we put on weight when we eat more calories than we use. Exercise can help us to manage our weight but combine this with a healthy diet and you'll lose weight faster. Statistically if your BMI (body mass index) is over 30 you are regarded as being obese thereby doubling the risk of heart disease, stroke, joint problems and some cancers. The imbalance between your energy intake from food verses energy output through exercise and metabolism creates overweight people.

Regular exercise reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke, lowers blood pressure and improves cholesterol levels. An equally as important benefit but less understood is the impact it has on our bones.

Osteoarthritis affects nearly everyone over the age of 60 as it is the most common joint problem. Low bone density enhances the chances of our bones becoming brittle and more susceptible to fracture. Regular moderate low impact activity at these later stages of our lives lowers the risk level but we can improve the changes of extending the age at which we will incur such symptoms. Encouraging high impact exercises such as running, jumping and skipping puts weight on our bones increasing the bone density particularly in younger people and hence reduces the degeneration process.

We are now beginning to discover through detailed analysis that exercise can even reduce the risk of certain cancers. Evidence supports the facts that being physically active protects us against lung, colon and breast cancer. Exercise has also shown to prevent and treat mental illnesses. Studies suggest regular exercise is as effective for treating depression, phobias, panic attacks and stress as that of taking medicine but with less of the side effects.

Let me give you a brief guide to getting started.

The average adult needs to do 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day on 5 days a week and children are required to be active 60 minutes everyday. Many people need to do more though to prevent obesity if they are not making the appropriate dietary changes. You do not need to spend hours at the gym pounding the treadmill. It's just as effective to break your sessions into three simple equal amounts and probably more manageable to maintain.

Another way to sustain an exercise habit is to incorporate it into your daily routine. Tomorrow why don't you get off the bus stop or train stop one earlier and walk to work or back home. Use the stairs instead of the lift and being more active outside in the garden will all increase your energy output.

Finally, it is hard to get motivated if you are not use to physical activity. The first step is to change the way you think about exercise. Keep reminding yourself that it will not only make you feel so much better, it will improve the quality and length of your life. More importantly it is fun!

About the Author

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