Exercise
For a healthy and disease-free life, the most important element is physical activeness. If you stay active, you are less likely to suffer from any illness. Those who live a sedentary lifestyle and are too lazy to work out tend to get easily hurt and get acute physical pains. Any form of exercise at any time of the day is effective for you. Not just physical health but exercising also boosts your mental wellness by keeping stress and anxiety at bay. Learn all about exercising, forms of exercising and their advantages.
What are the benefits of exercising?
If you think exercising is done only to lose weight or build body, you are wrong. Exercising is a physical activity that provides innumerable benefits to your holistic health. If you don’t know them yet, scroll down to read all the benefits of exercising.
Weight management
Indeed one of the biggest advantages of exercising is weight management. If you keep yourself physically active, you are highly unlikely to gain extra weight. If you have gained, you can easily lose it through exercise. This burns calories and helps you to dissolve the extra fat accumulated on different parts of your body.
Uplift energy
If you are feeling lethargic or low on energy, engage in some low-impact exercise. It will give you a sudden energy boost to take over the day. It is a myth that exercising consumes energy but after exercising, you can feel a boost in energy. Also, your mood will be better.
Disease prevention
Living a long, disease-free life is a dream that we all want to live. Daily physical activity can fulfil this dream by keeping your vitals such as blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. under control. These vitals can prevent many chronic health diseases.
Exercising uplifts mood
If you are not feeling great or happy or gloomy, exercise. You would be surprised to see that exercising would better your stressed mood. This happens as exercising promotes blood circulation that helps the brain to release happy hormones. Relaxation is guaranteed after a good workout session.
Sound sleep
If you are insomniac or you don’t get sleep easily at night, you must exercise. When you tire your body, it will signal the brain to rest and then, you will start to feel sleepy. Not just that, you’ll sleep better than ever after tiring the body.
The Four Types of Exercises
Do you know that there are different types of exercises that you can perform? Innumerable exercise forms are classified into four major categories.
Aerobic exercise
This exercise form is one whose aim is to increase breathing and heart rate. These are most effective when it comes to providing faster benefits in terms of bodily functions and physical ailments. Aerobic exercises work out your organs to boost endurance. For example, if you get easily drained after climbing some stairs, it indicates your poor strength. Doing aerobics can revive your endurance by promoting blood circulation to the organs and allowing the muscles to work efficiently.
Aerobics lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, control blood sugar, increase good cholesterol(HDL) and decrease bad cholesterol(LDL) in the body. These also uplift mood so that you don’t feel gloomy post-workout. Doing aerobics regularly can cut down the risk of many chronic diseases including stroke, diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, to name but a few. Brisk walking, swimming, cycling, jogging, dancing, etc. are some examples of aerobic exercises.
Strength training
This type of exercise focuses on increasing strength and muscle mass. While we all tend to lose muscle mass with age, you can certainly restore it through strength training exercises. Gradually, you will regain your lost muscle strength to perform and lift the heaviest things with ease. Besides, strength training would also increase your stamina and endurance. Not only it will strengthen your muscles, increase muscle mass but also promote bone growth, aid weight management, improve body posture and balance, decrease physical joint pains. However, a strength training regime should be performed under professional guidance. The workout program is designed differently for different people considering their health status and physical abilities. Squats, push-ups, weight resistance, lunges, etc. are some common strength training exercises.
Balance exercises
Finding body balance is an important part of physical fitness. When you have a balanced body, you are less likely to fall off the feet but stay steady. Body balancing problem is mostly with older adults whose bones and joints become weak with age. This wear and tear cause them poor balancing and they need a stick for movements. Doing balance exercises right from adulthood can prevent balance loss and even if you practice it in later years, you can reverse balance loss. Even senior citizens can perform balance exercises without any issue. These are simple and there are many forms of balance exercises that allow you to push your boundaries without impacting your health factors. For that, you must understand your weak areas or where balance is very poor. One may even consult a therapist to suggest balance exercises that are safe.
Generally, balancing exercises include walking heel to toe, standing with one foot on the ground, walking with eyes closed, etc. The advanced level balancing exercises include walking on uneven surfaces. To achieve balance, you can also perform strength training along with balancing.
Flexibility Exercises
This is probably the one point where most people fail- body flexibility. Can you twist your waist without getting an ache? If not, you are not flexible. Flexibility allows you to rotate your body in whichever direction you want without experiencing any aches and falls. When you don’t exercise your muscles, they become stiff over time and prone to injuries. Tendons lose their flexibility with age and this makes you less flexible. Not only for physical pains but you need a flexible body for a healthy life. Increased flexibility allows you to enjoy movements and exercises without worrying about cramps, pains, strains and muscle damage. There are so many flexibility exercises that can be performed and stretching is one of them. Static stretches to dynamic stretches, you can perform so much to increase your range of motion. Take out few minutes daily to stretch and increase the flexibility of your body.
Tips for Healthy and Safe Exercising
Exercising is not sufficient if you are doing it with a purpose. You must take certain precautions to prevent injuries during exercising. Here are some tips for you:
Check with your doctor before you start any specific exercise program. This step is a must for people who have any medical or health condition that can get triggered by exercises.
It is preferred that you exercise at a particular time of the day every day. This would build a routine and your body would become used to it. Preferably, exercising in the morning or evening is better to form a routine.
Take smaller sessions throughout the day if you cannot exercise for a prolonged time period. For example, go for a walk in the break you get. Or small yoga sessions can work wonders. Moderate exercises for 5 days a week can bring benefits.
Do warm-up exercises for 5 to 10 minutes before indulging into some serious exercising session. This would prepare the body for exercise. Also, give a 5-10 minutes break after exercising to relax the body.
Make sure you are maintaining the right posture and form during exercise. It is very important or else you may injure yourself and not get benefited from this hard work.
If you have any medical condition, consult a trainer or therapist to guide you about suitable exercises for you.
Keep variations in exercise so that you don’t get bore and the whole body receives benefits. This would make exercising enjoyable.
If you feel dizzy or discomfort or lightheaded during exercise, call your doctor to get the right aid.
References
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/exercise-health-benefits/
https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/pa-health/index.html
https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/the-4-most-important-types-of-exercise
http://www.secondscount.org/heart-resources/heart-resources-detail?cid=43ad397a-f78b-4e38-b121-d915327ae30e#.YKal5agzY2y
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