The New Year comes with a great opportunity for fresh starts in areas where your life could do with a bit of improving. If you haven’t been exercising on a regular basis, there are several reasons that you might want to consider making that your resolution for 2018.
Not convinced? Perhaps that’s because you don’t realize how good regular exercise really is for your body. Exercising consistently gives you more energy, makes you feel better overall, improves your mental health, and can add years to your life.
Check out these additional advantages that might help you to get motivated for an amazing resolution you’ll actually stick to in 2018.
• Better weight control – You may not want to exercise for weight loss, but you may be surprised at the difference it makes to your ability to control your weight both when you’re moving and when you’re not. While you’re blasting through your cardio, for example, you’ll also be burning calories from the food you ate and you’ll use body fat as well. That said, when you strength train, you’ll build lean muscle onto your body which is a natural metabolism booster. The longer you maintain that lean muscle mass on your body, the more you’ll turn yourself into a fat burning machine both when you’re exercising and when you’re not.
• Lower risk of illness and pain – When you exercise, you encourage a range of processes within your body that helps you to be more comfortable, to reduce symptoms of conditions you may already have and to decrease the risk of developing new conditions. Regular exercise reduces inflammation, which means that you will decrease swelling which is the source of many types of pain. It boosts good cholesterol levels while lowering bad cholesterol and triglycerides. It also improves your heart and lung health while it lowers your risk of many kinds of cancer, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, stroke and even the risk of falling and hurting yourself.
• Exercise improves your mood and mental health – If you suffer from depression, anxiety, or even the winter blues, you can help to reduce your symptoms simply by exercising on a regular basis. A walk almost every day, a weekly yoga class and a couple of strength training sessions per week can actually make you into a happier and more relaxed person. You’ll have better control over your stress levels, too, and who doesn’t need that?
