Health & Well-being
Not everyone works out to look better aesthetically. Or gain a competitive advantage over others in a chosen sport. Many people choose to pursue an active lifestyle in order to improve or maintain their health. The human body has a long evolutionary history of exerting high amounts of energy daily. It is only with the introduction of modern agriculture and commerce based economies that it became possible to maintain low levels of activity every day. Allowing your body to stagnate as you enjoy all the comforts of modern life is a bad idea. This type of lifestyle attracts a variety of potential health problems.
Why Does Working Out Make You Healthier?
It Combats Stress
around half an hour after a period of intensive exercise, the body releases a rush of endorphins that will result in a natural and healthy increase in feelings of happiness and subsequently a decrease in stress. Stress is a major cause of illness in the western world as a result of high pressure work environments. Stress can increase your heart rate, cause tension in your muscles and cause issues with digestion. High enough levels of stress flood your body with cortisol, which causes your digestive system to shut down as part of your fight or flight response. Cortisol also shuts down other non ‘non-essential’ functions in your body and can result in clogged arteries, weight gain and a variety of other ailments. Stress has even been found to be directly linked to fatalities caused by heart-attacks or stroke.
Stress also affects your ability to learn and memorise, which is partially why cramming for exams is such a bad idea, and partially why you can fail an exam if you panic too much.
It Detoxes Your Body
Exercise works in a similar way to running the engine in your car to stave off deterioration. When you run a car engine and drive it briefly, you ensure that oil is pumped around where it needs to be pumped and that all of the moving parts won’t fall prey to rust or other issues as quickly. Exercise is very much the same in the sense that it pumps blood around your body much more efficiently and ensures more oxygen is getting to your vital organs. This has the advantage of allowing the organs in charge of removing toxins from your body to run more efficiently. If your exercise pushes you into a calorific deficit, your body will also begin burning off fatty tissue which is capable of storing all manner of nasty toxins.
It Helps You Fall Asleep
Exercise is often recommended to those suffering from extreme cases of insomnia, some of the thermogenic processes involved with training seem to help many people fall asleep at night. The previously mentioned mood boost generated from exercise also strengthens your circadian rhythm allowing you to adjust to a new sleeping pattern quickly. Lack of sleep is incredibly unhealthy, so much so that it can kill you. If you are getting under 5 hours of sleep a night for an extended period of time you may encounter illness. This is due to your immune system being weakened. You could potentially encounter irritability due to higher levels of stress hormones. You will definitely encounter memory problems. In extreme cases even psychological symptoms such as full on psychosis may present themselves.
