Surprising Benefits of Exercise, + How to Get Yourself Moving!
We all know we need to Find 30. We all know we need to move our bodies. We knoowwww, we really do!!
But are we actually doing it?
If you aren’t - read on for some more motivation and practical tips on getting off the couch!
If you are - read on for some extra ammo as to why you should keep doing it.
Why we should exercise
The most obvious and spoken-about reason to exercise is weight loss and weight management. This is, of course, really important. Maintaining a healthy weight helps “prevent and control many diseases and conditions”, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and breathing problems, according to the National Institute of Health (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, n.d.)
The importance of exercise goes far beyond weight control. Here’s some other very important things exercise does for you:
1. It improves your mood. In an age of increasing rates of mental health illness this is super important! (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2024) Exercise gives us a boost of happy hormones like serotonin and endorphins. Even better, it’s been shown that even 5 minutes of exercise can lift our mood. However, for more “long term, profound effects”, 15-20 minutes three times a week is better (Hunt, 2022)
2. It prevents bone loss. Studies have shown that exercise improves bone health at all ages, and can reduce your risk of hip fracture later in life. Importantly, for adolescents and young adults, exercise-associated bone loading leads to improved bone health in their middle to older adult years, meaning making sure your kids get enough exercise could be a factor in preventing osteoporosis for them in later years! (Carter, 2014)
3. It can stimulate your immune system, helping prevent illness. Studies have shown that regular exercise not only reduces how often you get sick, but also reduces inflammation in the body. (Wentz, 2018)
How to exercise more
Struggling to get started, or keep going? Here’s some tips:
1. If you’re planning on getting up early to exercise, lay out your exercise clothes the night before. Seriously. It helps reduce the apparent hurdles and excuses the brain will come up with. If you’re planning on exercising after work, change into your workout gear as soon as you get home. Even if you’re not planning on going for another hour. It helps with motivation, making you feel like you’re already halfway there.
2. Find a workout buddy, even if it’s just for walking. It’s been said a thousand times for good reason - having other people expect you to show up will drastically reduce your chances of making up an excuse not to exercise that day!
3. Join a gym or club, and make sure you sign into your classes in advance. I do this for myself at the start of each week. It’s like making an appointment - it’s booked, plugged into my calendar and off my to-do list. There’s no choice I have to make, I just show up and work out. Also, going to a group fitness class can help us work out for longer and push ourselves a bit harder. Speaking from experience, it’s way easier to finish earlier than planned or slack off when its just us!
Finally, and most importantly, find an exercise you enjoy. If you don’t like it, almost guaranteed it won’t stick. People always ask me in my practice what’s the best exercise to do - the answer is, whatever you’re going to like enough to keep doing it!!
There’s a caveat to that - it’s important to find something that will get your heart rate up, and we should be doing a mix of aerobic exercise, for example for our heart health, and resistance training, for our bone density and muscle tone. But if you hate going to the gym? Find an outdoor group fitness class. Hate running? Try swimming. Can’t exercise outside because it’s too hot? Join the gym and go walk or jog on the treadmill.
Of course, if you have an injury or pain preventing you from moving, it’s important to get that assessed and helped before you dive into exercise. Often you can (and should!) keep moving whilst we work to fix the problem, however seeing a qualified health professional and getting advice on what to do, and what to not do, is important.
Trust me, I’ve heard every excuse under the sun why exercise is too hard and we aren’t doing it (including excuses from myself, to myself). The fact is, you have to move your body in order to be healthy. So get those joggers on and get moving!
At Cable Beach Chiropractic we care for patients of all ages, from all walks of life. Contact our office or book online today for an appointment.
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