Admit it. Exercising is a drag. You’ve always hated the feeling of getting ready and preparing your mind and body for something you call a “chore” more than anything else. You would rather dedicate your precious time counting the strands of hair on your scalp.
So you go in, you do what you think is “right” which is exercise, but still your mind wanders, your thoughts are floating around looking for a valid reason as to why you should continue to exercise. And nothing. The motivation starts fading away faster than that last bit of sitting water in a scorching desert. The only thing you’ve gained lately is depression with trying to get over the hump.
You go into a downward spiral and start making bad diet choices, have low energy, and put yourself in a worse situation than where you started from. Think you need a personal trainer beside you to smack you with motivational lines?
Don’t bother. Once you understand how your health is at stake if you don’t exercise regularly, you’ll easily do an about-face and appreciate every ounce of sweat you pour out. This could be all the motivation you need to get up, get moving, and finally working out to reverse these warning signs.
1. You’re Getting Stupider Everyday
The mind is a terrible thing to waste. And yet do you go above and beyond to protect it? You might find yourself feeling that you’re not sharp enough, not thinking critically, or in a problem solving manner. Or maybe you find it difficult to learn and memorize at times.
Thinking critical, problem solving and memorizing are all areas that can be compromised from a functional standpoint of your brain. And proper nutrition and sleeping aren’t a sure bet to help you protect your brain. But can exercise help prevent all problems that can possibly be damaging?
Well, according to The Society for Neuroscience in Brazil, researchers ran a study on how the levels of brain activity respond to exercising and weight training.
Results showed that subjects that were on a training regimen performed better on tests of learning and memory, as opposed to subjects that were sedentary.
Simply put, the higher the workload and the more rigorous the training program the subjects had to manage, the more brain plasticity was produced within their brains. This increase of plasticity is caused by neurotropic factors, these factors promote the initial growth and development of neurons in your central nervous system and peripheral system. These same factors and neurons keep the nervous system sharp and on point in transmitting the messages to and from the brain.
The nervous system is extremely crucial – it is a network that relays messages back and forth from different parts of the body. Without these proper functions, the onset of brain fatigue, a decline in processing information, and comprehension could arise. The human brain is extremely complex, but also extremely vulnerable. Exercise can help you revitalize and keep these parts sharp.
Factoring the benefit that exercise has on the brain is outstanding and should help keep your brain where it needs to be: both processing and functioning more effectively than your own home computer. But, more importantly, a healthy and strong brain can help ward off depression, boost your happiness and make a workout session that much more enjoyable.
2. You Are Aging Faster Than You Thought
Do you long to return to your youthful days? Or better yet, just to arrest the effects of aging? Well stress can damage your body and is also be known as “the silent killer”.
With that, below are a few consequences of stress:
- High Blood Pressure
- Increased Heart Rate
- Constricted Blood Vessels
- Sleep Deprivation
- Hormonal Imbalance
- And cell damage, which has been linked to Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer
The amount of stress you absorb can dictate how you age. One of the best remedies against aging is, yes you guessed it, exercise.
We now know that a quick 30-45 minute session of exercise can increase levels of your feel-good hormones like, serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. The hormones that are notorious for helping you deal with stress.
But here’s the kicker: not only has research helped us confirm that exercise helps block stress, but research from Princeton University found that physical activity reorganizes the brain and helped reduce its response to stress.
In addition, anxiety is less likely to interfere with normal brain function. Physical activity in particular produces a large increase in the number of new neurons in the hippocampus. This region in the brain has been shown to regulate anxiety.
You deserve to be feeling your best, even exercising at least 30 minutes can ignite the “feel-good” hormones your body needs to help ward off stress and keep those ageless years in front of you. Your body will thank you.
3. You’re Sure that You’re Going to End Up Living in an Alzheimer’s Unit
Here’s something you should know: The Hippocampus is an important component of the brain in humans. It plays critical roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation.
Unfortunately, without stimulating this area with exercise, it is one of the first regions susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects millions of people each year but it is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age.
A fascinating piece of research from Dutch researchers found that inactive people who were in fact genetically prone to Alzheimer’s were four times more likely to develop the disease than those who carried the trait but worked out regularly.
This proves that exercise helps stimulates even the most vital of places with a great payoff for your future in overall brain function and health. Remember that a disease that affects a vast majority of the population is not a disease to take lightly, just like an exposed grape from its vine, the brain can also deteriorate.
4. You’re Afraid That You’ll Get Cancer
It is extremely difficult to experience or even fathom the thought of cancer. While it can be frightening to know of the consequences that arise from cancer, exercise can help in preventive care.
To start, regular exercise can prevent obesity, which is linked to many types of cancer. Obesity has an effect on:
- Estrogen – producing too much of estrogen contributes to many forms of cancer, such as breast cancer
- Insulin – excessive insulin can possibly lead to the overproduction of cells, which can result into cancer.
If that’s not enough, another benefit of being physically active is that it can help boost your body’s immune system and how it responds in reducing inflammation, which in turn helps your own body fight the development of cancer.
But how much time should you dedicate to working out? Well according to the American Institute for Cancer Research, a recommended of at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, and 60 minutes of daily activity is even more beneficial.
Anything that gets your heart beating more quickly and makes you breathe more deeply can count as moderate exercise and help you create a great defense against cancer.
5. You Don’t Know How to Strengthen Your Heart
Now do you know what the top leading cause of death in the United States is? Heart disease. There’s no other disease in the United States that kills more Americans than Heart Disease. But there is relieving news revolved around the benefits for cardiovascular health and heart disease prevention.
A captivating study by Scott R. Collier, Ph.D., of Appalachian State University, the research measured blood vessels and how it widened in response to an increased blood flow from exercising and how it can lead to a longer-lasting drop in high blood pressure after exercise, a contributor to heart disease.
The results support previous studies reporting which stated that exercise has an effect on arterial stiffness, high blood pressure and limb blood flow. With the rate of deaths correlating with heart disease, this is not a matter to take lightly. A heart attack sometimes doesn’t give second chances and one can put you six-feet deep.
Now ask yourself, why take the risk? Why not tackle this epidemic now? Exercise is your savior for this deadly disease, now get up and zap it away with 10 reps!
6. You’re Not Aware of How To Prevent the Constant Pain of Athritis
More than 21 million Americans suffer from arthritis, a disease that practically immobilizes individuals.
Many traits or risk factors are associated with arthritis, below are the most common:
- Obesity: Being overweight puts extra stress on your joints, which then increases wear and tear, and increases the risk of arthritis, especially osteoarthritis.
- Age: As we get older, the risk of developing arthritis, especially osteoarthritis, will increase.
- Gender: In general, arthritis occurs more frequently in women than in men.
- Other factors: Some jobs that require heavy lifting without proper technique or form can stress the joints and/or cause an injury, which can lead to arthritis.
But, it still can affect practically anyone at any time. The onset of pain is one that can lingers and affects you permanently. And if addressed to late, would need to be addressed by surgery or waived with other drastic alternatives.
However, great news from Tufts University on arthritis: There was a program was conducted with exercise on patients with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. After the sixteen-week program, the patients confirmed a 43% decrease in pain, an increase in muscle strength and general physical performance.
This is because, exercise will supplement muscle strength and help by protecting joints from the surrounding muscle that are worked on in that area. For example, squats and deadlifts focus greatly on your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. The muscles that surround the knee joint then help protect the joint (medial and lateral meniscus, anterior and posterior ligaments, along with others).
Your biggest fight against joint pain is exercise. This might not have enough value to you unless its too late and those areas are affected and it becomes a greater issue later on. Help by exercising now, you’ll protect and help lubricate your joints, your body will thank you later.
So start exercising now because you only have one life to live. Now go out there and make it count.
Featured photo credit: CC0 Public Domain via pixabay.com
