What Are the Benefits of Exercise and Health?

Regular exercise is good for your body and mind. Besides helping you to keep off extra pounds, it also provides health benefits that may surprise you.

Try to get 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week. Moderate-intensity activities include walking, jogging, swimming and cycling. Vigorous-intensity activities include mowing the lawn, aerobic dancing and using weights or resistance bands.

Strengthening of Bones

Exercise and health can help strengthen bones, especially as people age. People with high levels of bone mineral density (BMD) in their 40s tend to keep it into their 50s and beyond, whereas people who don't exercise can lose bone mass rapidly, leading to osteoporosis.

Bones provide support for the body, protect vital organs and store minerals like calcium and phosphorus. A diet rich in these minerals, particularly from dairy products, leafy vegetables and nuts, is also important for bone health.

To increase your bone strength, try to do weight-bearing exercises on a regular basis. This includes walking, running and jogging; dancing and playing sports such as tennis, badminton or ping-pong; and using resistance bands or your own body weight for muscle-strengthening activities. The Department of Health and Human Services recommends 150-300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 minutes a day of vigorous-intensity physical activity.

Lowering of Blood Pressure

Whether you already have high blood pressure or want to prevent it, exercise keeps your heart and blood vessels healthy. It also boosts high-density lipoprotein (or "good") cholesterol and decreases unhealthy triglycerides.

Moderate exercise that gets you breathing faster and your heart pumping a bit harder is good for your body, but even vigorous activity is better than nothing. Examples include walking, jogging, swimming and cycling. A workout that includes a combination of short bursts of intense activity and periods of light activity is known as high-intensity interval training.

It's important to talk with your doctor before starting an exercise program, especially if you have high blood pressure or are taking medication for any condition. It's best to start slowly and gradually build up your exercise. Getting at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, such as brisk walking, on most days is good. Adding in strength training and stretching helps as well.

Lowering of Cholesterol

In addition to helping your body build strong bones and muscles, regular exercise can help a variety of other health issues. Exercise can help lower cholesterol levels, including triglycerides, which are often associated with heart disease. It also can help raise HDL, or "good" cholesterol. In addition, people who exercise regularly are less likely to smoke and may lose weight.

The best part is that anyone can get the benefits of exercise. It doesn't matter what age or health condition you are, as long as you are active.

You should aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. Moderate intensity includes activities like walking, swimming and biking. Vigorous intensity exercises include running and aerobic dancing. Incorporating strength training exercises is important too. This can be done by using weights, resistance bands or your own bodyweight. Ideally, you should exercise the major muscle groups twice a week.

Lowering of Blood Sugar

If you have diabetes, exercise can help lower your blood sugar by improving insulin sensitivity and increasing the efficiency of your muscles' use of glucose. It can also lower your risk of developing diabetes by helping you control your weight and cholesterol.

Even if you can't devote large chunks of time to exercise, you can get the same health benefits by exercising regularly throughout your day. Try taking the stairs instead of the elevator or revving up household chores.

Aerobic exercise, such as walking, swimming or dancing, can improve your mood and lower stress. It also strengthens your heart and lungs and boosts healthy high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, while decreasing unhealthy triglycerides. These benefits of exercise can cut your risk of heart and blood vessel disease and improve your overall life expectancy. In addition, exercise can decrease your chances of getting cancer and helps you deal with it if you do.

Boosting of Immune System

In addition to eating a well-balanced diet, getting adequate sleep and managing stress levels, exercise plays an important role in strengthening your immune system. Research shows that regular moderate-intensity activity improves immune function and reduces the risk of infection, particularly upper respiratory tract infections.

When you exercise, muscle contractions elicit the release of cytokines and myokines that help regulate immune cell activity. In addition, exercise promotes the 'deployment' of lymphocytes (white blood cells that are one of the main types of immune cells) to peripheral tissues for surveillance during and after each bout of physical activity.

These cells are more likely to recognize bacterial and viral invaders if they patrol the body on a consistent basis. This is why it's so important to exercise regularly rather than just occasionally. It's also a good idea to take breaks from intense training to allow your immune system time to recover.

Lowering of Stress

Physical activity boosts mood, improves sleep and lowers feelings of anxiety. It also helps to relieve muscle tension caused by stress, and it can help to balance hormones that are influenced by anxiety.

It can also improve the body's ability to use oxygen and increase blood flow, which can help prevent oxidative stress that can damage cells and cause aging. This can be achieved with any exercise that increases your heart rate, including walking, jogging, running, swimming, dance, cycling or using weights and resistance bands at home.

Conclusion

The repetitive movement involved in exercising is like meditation in motion, which can help to focus the mind on a single task and produce a sense of energy and optimism. It can take the focus away from stressful daily problems and help you feel in control of your life. Those positive feelings can last well after your workout, too.