Most people think fitness is only important when it comes to losing weight. But fitness has many benefits for your physical and mental health. For example, regular exercise can reduce your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, improve your mood, and help with anxiety.
As you exercise regularly, your cardiovascular endurance increases, which is directly linked to a happier and healthier heart. Regular exercise can also build stronger muscles, improving your posture and making you stand taller. This boosts your confidence and makes you look and feel better.
What Is Physical Fitness?
Physical fitness is the state or condition of being physically fit and healthy. Being physically fit means being healthy, carrying out daily functions without undue fatigue or pain, and carrying out activities without risking injury or becoming ill or disabled. Fitness is achieved through exercise, proper nutrition, and adequate rest. Physical fitness also includes aspects of mental well-being, such as confidence and self-esteem.
For people with certain chronic conditions, keeping fit can play a major role in managing and improving their symptoms. Take diabetes for example. This condition arises from low insulin production and it can have a serious impact on our health. In some cases, it can pose a threat to your feet as well. Due to low blood circulation, people might lose sensation in their feet, which in the future can lead to ulcers, infections, and in some serious cases, amputations as well.
Here is where exercise can help, as it can improve blood flow and keep diabetes in check. Although, experts might insist on the use of Diabetic Socks to keep your feet comfortable and safe while working out so that you are protected from excessive sweating and various injuries that diabetic people are prone to.
Similarly, individuals suffering from cardiovascular diseases can also benefit greatly from working out as well. It can help strengthen the heart, lower blood pressure, manage weight, and improve blood sugar levels. It can also reduce inflammation, reduce stress, improve cardiorespiratory fitness, and more. Hence, it can clearly be seen how fitness helps in keep the body in optimum condition.
What Is Mental Health?
Mental health is an umbrella term for a set of concepts that describe our emotional, psychological, and social well-being-how we think, feel, and relate to the world around us. Mental health is just as important as our physical health, and both must be carefully monitored and managed. Mental health is not only the topic of this post, though; this post is also a part of a series.
Does Exercise Make Us Feel Better, mentally?
Exercise is known to improve our physical health, but did you know that it’s also good for our brains? Regular physical activity can significantly boost your mood, improve your concentration, help you sleep better, and reduce feelings of stress.
Exercise has many benefits beyond helping us stay physically fit. Regular exercise reduces our risk of premature mortality and of dying from heart disease and other chronic health ailments. It may also increase our capacity to concentrate, reduce our risk for depression, and make us less anxious and stressed.
Exercise is positive. It can boost mood, reduce stress, and make you more productive. However, exercising can be more of a chore than a benefit for some people. In a recent study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, researchers analyzed the effects of exercise on mental health. They found that exercise can relieve depressive symptoms, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness. Researchers also found that exercise can reduce negative thoughts and behavior. This makes sense: exercise is a natural depressant, and when you get out and move your body, it provides a “dose” of endorphins.
Exercising for Our Mental Health
Exercising has many health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and improving your mental health and mood. But exercise does a lot more than just help you look nice and healthy.
Do you ever get the feeling that if you just exercise more, you’ll feel better? It’s probably a pretty common thought, but is there actually a link between exercise and improved mental health?
How To Be More Active Every Day
Being active doesn’t have to mean running a marathon. You don’t have to spend hours a day at the gym. Being more active can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking your car farther away from the entrance of your destination. You can walk your dog, play with your kids, or even take your dog for a walk.
Being active every day is important, but many people find it tough to fit physical activity into their busy schedules. Getting home late from work makes it tough to get to the gym or outdoors on workdays. And on weekends, too many of us put ourselves down for inactivity. But that won’t help your health or help you meet your goals to lose weight or be more active.
