Benefits of Regular Physical Activity

The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. Everyone benefits from exercise, no matter their age, sex or physical ability. Exercise is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories. Being active has been shown to have both physical and mental health benefits and may even help you live longer, Here are some examples of them.

1. Weight Management

   The most well known benefit for regular physical activity is to lose or maintain a healthy weight. Inactivity can play a major role in weight gain and obesity, which may lead to health complications. In order to lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficient (burn more calories than you’re intaking). Regular exercise can also increase your metabolic rate, helping you burn more calories in a day.

2. Improved mood

   Regular exercise has been shown to improve your mood and decrease feelings of anxiety, depression and stress. Exercise has been proven to increase serotonin and norepinephrine (hormones that relieve feelings of depression) as well as endorphins, which help produce positive feelings and reduce perception of pain.

3. Reduced risk of chronic disease

   Physical activity is a key factor in reducing your risk of a number of chronic diseases. Some examples are:

   • type 2 diabetes

   • heart disease

   • hypertension

   • high cholesterol

   • cancer (lung, liver, breast, and colorectal, among other types)

   • osteoporosis

   • stroke

4. Building and maintaining strong muscles and bones

   Exercise plays a vital role in having strong muscles and bones. As you age, you tend to lose muscle mass, strength, and function which leads to an increased risk of injury. Regular physical activity is essential to reducing muscle loss as you age. Exercise also proven to help build bone density in the lumbar spine, neck and hips, which may help prevent osteoporosis later in life.

5. Reduced pain

   As someone who has dealt with chronic pain their whole life, I know how debilitating it can be. A key factor in managing that pain for me, has been regular physical activity. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise may serve as a natural treatment option to provide pain relief, improve quality of life and increase pain tolerance over time due to the increase levels of endocannabinoids.

6. Increased energy levels

   Exercise can help boost your energy levels while reducing fatigue. Exertion helps your body to produce more mitochondria inside your muscle cells. Mitochondria create fuel out of glucose from the food you eat and oxygen from the air you breathe. Having more of them increases your body's energy supply.

7. Increased sleep quality

   Regular activity can help with relaxation and sleep quality because the energy loss that occurs during exercise stimulates restorative processes during sleep. Studies have found that people with chronic insomnia had both improved sleep quality and decreased amount of time it took them to fall asleep with resistance training and stretching.

8. Improved brain health and memory

   Exercise can improve your brain function, memory and thinking skills. Exercise increases your heart rate which promotes the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain. It can also stimulate the production of hormones that enhance the growth of brain cells. Regular physical activity is especially important in older adults because it can help slow down the physiological effects of aging in your brain and help reduce changes in the brain that can contribute to conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia.