e Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise

Regular exercise has been shown to help boost energy levels and enhance your mood. It may also be associated with many other powerful health benefits, including a reduced risk of chronic disease.

Exercise is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories.

There are many types of physical activity, including swimming, running, jogging, walking, and dancing, to name a few.

Being active has been shown to have many health benefits, both physically and mentally. It may even help you live longer (1Trusted Source).

Here are the top 10 ways regular exercise benefits your body and brain.

1. Exercise can make you feel happier

Exercise has been shown to improve your mood and decrease feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress (2Trusted Source).

It produces changes in the parts of the brain that regulate stress and anxiety. It can also increase brain sensitivity to the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine, which relieve feelings of depression (3Trusted Source).

Additionally, exercise can increase the production of endorphins, which are known to help produce positive feelings and reduce the perception of pain (Trusted Source3Trusted Source).

Interestingly, it doesn’t matter how intense your workout is. It seems that exercise can benefit your mood no matter the intensity of the physical activity.

In fact, in a study in 24 women diagnosed with depression, exercise of any intensity significantly decreased feelings of depression (4Trusted Source).

The effects of exercise on mood are so powerful that choosing to exercise (or not) even makes a difference over short periods of time.

One review of 19 studies found that active people who stopped exercising regularly experienced significant increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety, even after only a few weeks (5Trusted Source).

SUMMARY

Exercising regularly can improve your mood and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression.

2. Exercise can help with weight loss

Some studies have shown that inactivity is a major factor in weight gain and obesity

To understand the effect of exercise on weight reduction, it is important to understand the relationship between exercise and energy expenditure (spending).

Your body spends energy in three ways:

• digesting food
• exercising
• maintaining body functions, like your heartbeat and breathing

While dieting, a reduced calorie intake will lower your metabolic rate, which can temporarily delay weight loss. On the contrary, regular exercise has been shown to increase your metabolic rate, which can burn more calories to help you

Additionally, studies have shown that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training can maximize fat loss and muscle mass maintenance, which is essential for keeping the weight off and maintaining lean muscle mass .

SUMMARY

Exercise is crucial to supporting a healthy metabolism and burning more calories per day. It also helps you maintain your muscle mass and weight loss.

3. Exercise is good for your muscles and bones

Exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining strong muscles and bones.

Activities like weightlifting can stimulate muscle building when paired with adequate protein intake.

This is because exercise helps release hormones that promote your muscles’ ability to absorb amino acids. This helps them grow and reduces their breakdown (12Trusted Source, 13Trusted Source).

As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass and function, which can lead to an increased risk of injury. Practicing regular physical activity is essential to reducing muscle loss and maintaining strength as you age (14Trusted Source).

Exercise also helps build bone density when you’re younger, in addition to helping prevent osteoporosis later in life (15Trusted Source).

Some research suggests that high impact exercise (such as gymnastics or running) or odd impact sports (such as soccer and basketball) may help promote a higher bone density than no impact sports like swimming and cycling (16Trusted Source).

SUMMARY

Physical activity helps you build muscles and strong bones. It may also help prevent osteoporosis.

4. Exercise can increase your energy levels

Exercise can be a real energy booster for many people, including those with various medical conditions (17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source).

One older study found that 6 weeks of regular exercise reduced feelings of fatigue for 36 people who had reported persistent fatigue (19).

And let’s not forget the fantastic heart and lung health benefits of exercise. Aerobic exercise boosts the cardiovascular system and improves lung health, which can significantly help with energy levels.

As you move more, your heart pumps more blood, delivering more oxygen to your working muscles. With regular exercise, your heart becomes more efficient and adept at moving oxygen into your blood, making your muscles more efficient (20Trusted Source).

Over time, this aerobic training results in less demand on your lungs, and it requires less energy to perform the same activities — one of the reasons you’re less likely to get short of breath during vigorous activity (21).

Additionally, exercise has been shown to increase energy levels in people with other conditions, such as cancer (22Trusted Source).

SUMMARY

Engaging in regular physical activity can increase your energy levels.

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