Good Tone It Up Thursday! It won’t take anyone long to notice that I value health and fitness, and understand it’s importance to our whole self. Exercise has a variety of benefits and can be done safely at any age. I encourage everyone to start early with your children, to instill healthy habits.
In fact, children are more likely to be active themselves if they grow up with active parents, as they learn to mirror their parents at an early age. If parents have a healthy relationship with exercise and fitness, children will learn to love it as well, as they see the enjoyment it brings. My children enjoy being outdoors running, walking or riding their bikes and have been known to jump into my workouts every now and again.
Maybe you are a veteran to exercise but need some new motivation or maybe you have never been active but have been contemplating it. I believe it is important to first know why exercise is important and what it can contribute to your health. Having reasons to exercise or knowing how it can positively affect one’s health, gives us a higher motivation to start an exercise plan and to stick with it. You may have your own reasons for exercise, from being healthy for your family to loosing weight or simply because you love it. I run because I love it and have since I was a youth. I do resistance training because I understand the importance to my running performance and in injury prevention.
It’s no secret exercises benefits! Lets look a my 5 Top Reasons to Exercise:
- Exercise Boosts Metabolism / Immune System: It’s no secret that exercise is great medicine to increasing our health and energy. One 30 minute strength training session burns calories for hours after the workout is completed. This helps with weight loss, while at the same time improves our immune systems health, making it stronger.
- Exercise Makes You Sweat and Sweating releases Toxins: Exercise has been proven to help detoxify the body. As your sweat, you are releasing toxins from your body, which helps to detoxify your body of all the harmful chemicals, additives, bacteria, toxins and even toxic thoughts.
- Exercise Boosts Creativity / Productivity: Multiple studies have show that those who exercise regularly are more productive at work and in school. Studies done on children and college-aged adults, have shown that those who exercise regularly perform better on tests and other educational activities. Creativity is often improved in those who are physically active, due to it’s effect on the brain.
- Exercise Helps Release Endorphins: Endorphins are our “feel good” hormones, thus exercise helps to boosts our mood, decreases stress, anxiety and depression, and creates a positive mindset. This is why we use the phrase “Runners high” – as after a good run our mood has improved and we may experience an overwhelming sense of joy.
- Exercise Builds Strong bones and Improves Cardiovascular Health: Our heart health improves with physical exercise, such as walking, running, hiking, biking and swimming. Our bones will benefit from strengthening and conditioning, and will become stronger with every workout session.
So what are you waiting for!! Even 10 minutes a day can improve one’s health. I suggest starting with 10 minutes a day if you are new to exercise and working up to 30-45 minutes each day. It is recommended to perform 150 minutes of cardio each week, or 30 minutes 5x a week (as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services and the American Heart Association), as well as 60-90 minutes of strength training / resistance training per week or two 45 min sessions a week of all major muscle groups.
Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit