The Benefits of Exercise

Exercise has many benefits for health, fitness and well being, not only does exercise help with how you look physically, it will also have a positive impact on your mental health as well. So why is exercise so important? Well for starters by exercising you will burn calories and increase lean muscle mass, so your body looks and feels toned, as well as increasing strength. Exercise will also help improve heart and lunge function, and increase joint mobility therefore reducing your risk of injury. Let’s look at these in more detail.

Controls Weight

Exercise is key for controlling your weight because you are getting the body moving therefore you are burning calories. By being more physically active you will burn more calories, and if you burn off more calories than you consume you will lose weight, it’s that simple.

Increase Strength and Lean Muscle

Now this doesn’t mean you are going to turn into the incredible hulk!!, but exercising with weights does have many health benefits. For starters resistance training develops muscle, and the more lean muscle you have the more calories you will burn. Resistance training also helps increase bone and ligament strength therefore reducing the risk of osteoporosis and increased muscle tone will also make you look and feel good as well as reducing circumference size so you will feel better in your clothes or swim suit.

Helps Reduce the Risk of Disease

We are designed to move. Our bodies are not designed to be sitting down for prolonged periods of time. Our ancestors would hunt and move around for hours probably clocking up 30,000+ steps a day, in today’s society we are lucky if we do 10,000. Regular exercise is necessary for good health, it reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. Exercise can also improve your appearance and delay the aging process, helping you to keep your youthful looks.

Improves Stamina

When you exercise your body will use energy to keep going. Aerobic exercise involves continual movement for a period of time to elevate the heart rate such as walking or cycling. It will improve your stamina by training your body to become more efficient and use less energy for the same amount of work you do. As you become fitter and stronger your heart and breathing rate will return back to ‘normal’ quicker and your resting heart rate will become a lot lower.

Improves Flexibility

Stretching and mobility exercises are just as important as cardio and resistance, they help to improve posture and body locomotion. Stretching and stabilisation exercises keep the body limber so that you can bend, reach and move more efficiently. Improving your flexibility through exercise will also reduce the risk of injury as well as improve balance and coordination. If you feel tight in certain areas such as your neck or back, stretch them!

Improves Quality of Life

When you exercise your body releases endorphin's the so called ‘happy hormone’, which helps improve mood, reduces stress, promotes better sleep, reduces anxiety and depression, improves skin tone and gives your whole body an instant glow. Exercise could also keep you looking good and feeling younger throughout your entire life.

The benefits of exercise are endless, but where should you start? Well the benefits of any exercise program will diminish if you interrupt it too frequently. If you follow us at Build a Body you will know that we constantly advise that consistency is the key and a stop – start routine is ineffective. Being consistent is extremely important therefore do not set yourself unrealistic targets or goals.

People often assume more is better and you need to be exercising 2 hours a day, 7 days a week – WRONG!! Doing too much exercise and the same repetitive movements will only lead to injury, muscle strain, loss of lean muscle tissue and plateaus, so if you are looking to train more frequently it is important to schedule in de-load weeks, train different body parts on different days and schedule in complete rest days.

If you are a complete beginner, start off slower than you think you should and build it up, 2-3 times per week is realistic for a beginner, and is safe and effective doing training a mixture of cardio and resistance for no more than 60-80 minutes per day.

Resistance training should be done no more than 3 times a week if you are hitting the same muscle groups, for more experienced trainers use as split body part routine or and upper/lower split so the muscles get time to recover.

Stretching can be done frequently and for many people this should be done daily. Perform 5-10 stretches for major muscle groups such as your back, chest, quadriceps and hamstrings, these should be held each stretch for 20-30 seconds.

If you would like to get more exercise into your life and are struggling with where to start, or have hit a plateau in your current routine, the please contact us today for your FREE lifestyle consultation and let us help you build a body your proud of.