All my life I’ve played sports, so I never really had to worry about fitting in a gym session. It was a big transition coming to Penn State and having to plan out what times I could go/ if I could even fit it in with my busy schedule. I started to see a change in my body that I didn’t like, so all I cared about was getting my high school self back. What I never thought about were the other benefits that exercise brings for your body. I wanted to learn more about how exercise can really help your body in more ways than just looks.
According to the Mayo Clinic, there are 7 benefits of regular physical activity. The first one is that it controls weight. I think this is the most obvious one that people automatically think of. The second reason to exercise is that it fights diseases. It can help with heart disease, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. #3: improving your mood. Exercise triggers a series of chemicals in your brain that relax you and can improve your mood. Reason 3 lingers into reason 4. Since exercise improves your mood, it also improves your energy. It obviously gives you more muscle and stamina, and these things cause your lungs and heart to function better, increasing energy. #5: better sleep. Exercise helps you fall asleep faster and be able to achieve a deeper sleep. Number 6 states that exercise can improve your sex life. Youll be more energized and feel more confident in yourself. Lastly, It gives you away to enjoy life and have a new hobby.
“Stress in America” did a survey to see what percent of Americans participated in exercise. “The survey found that more than one-third of adults (37 percent) report exercising less than once a week or not at all. Only 17 percent of adults report exercising daily.” Knowing the benefits of exercise may motivate people to work out more. “”Fifty-three percent of adults say they feel good about themselves after exercising, 35 percent say it puts them in a good mood and 30 percent say they feel less stressed.” This is a great statistic for college students. Stress is such a horrible thing that can cause awful things to happen to our body.
Knowing that exercise can help fight these issues, why not take an hour out of your day to exercise. It can help you be calm and clear your head, so you can study smarter, not harder. (like Andrew says)
Exercise is very important for our bodies. Now I exercise about 4 times a week, and I can feel that I don’t get cold as much as those who don’t exercise at all. I think the best part of exercise is that you can see the progress over the time, and keep you going to reach your goal. I think I learn many things from exercise. Because we need to maintain our body shape, I can’t quit the exercise just because I feel lazy. We can’t quit easily, because that will ruin everything, so we have to keep working. But we also need to be careful when we exercise, it’s not worth to get serious injury. Here is the source I found talking about the good and bad of exercise, The good and the bad . Hope you enjoy exercising, good post!
I loved this blog because I personally workout when I am really stressed! It takes my mind off of the problem and distracts me from everything around me. I love how exercising releases stress but is also obviously good for your body, so it’s a win-win scenario. An interesting thing, on the other hand, is that food is also a stress reliever. There are many foods that actually do release stress besides junk food. So when you want to stress eat, you should look for the healthier options that do the trick! I just did a blog on what foods help to release stress and I suggest you check it out! Here’s the link:
http://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/11/25/can-food-really-make-me-less-stressed/