Health Benefits From Being Active
by Lizzie Griffin in Training
There are so many health benefits from leading an active lifestyle, it’s actually incredible what it can really do for the body, mind and soul.
Being active doesn’t have to mean going to the gym 5 days a week because who can actually fit that in these days? We are either busy at work or at home looking after kids, in my case looking after Lola, our gym dog. Being active can mean going out for a bike ride or a long walk at weekends. Doesn’t have to be in the gym.
Here are just a handful of benefits that exercise can give you and this is why it’s so important to lead a healthier lifestyle.
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Improve Flexibility
Which increases range of motion around your joints. Limited range of motion can lead to pain, injury and poor overall performance. So just by being a little more flexible can help you so much more in your everyday life.
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Reduces Stress
Most of us will lead very stressful lives and some of us won’t even realise it. We can be in a stressful job, which if you run your own business then this is going to be pretty high at times. Unhappy relationships can cause your stress levels to increase. Money troubles can also lead to higher stress levels. By being more active you will lower these levels as our body produces endorphins, that feel good hormone everyone talks about.
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Lowers Blood Pressure
Well this is an important one. If you lead an unhealthy lifestyle, so no exercise and not really eating very healthily your blood pressure could be slightly on the high side without you knowing about it. Exercise makes you stronger, helps improve circulation, this in turn will prevent your heart working as hard so your blood pressure will naturally lower. There are signs and symptoms to look out for, for high pressure which i’ll discuss on a different day.
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Improve confidence and self esteem
This for me is a huge health benefit. Our mental health is so important and exercise can do wonders for it. Just by moving more and being more active, the body releases hormones that makes us feel better about ourselves. The better we feel, the more confidence we will have. We can wear those clothes that we always want to wear but never felt comfortable enough to.
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Weight Loss/ Weight Gain
Exercise can help with many things including these two benefits. The more calories we expend during activity, we will drop body fat, obviously with this comes healthier eating as we can’t out train a bad diet. But exercise can help with weight gain too, especially those that suffer with being underweight. The more lean muscle we have the stronger we become and this will help with both of these goals.
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Improve Bone density
As we pass the age as low as 30 our bone density and muscle mass starts to decrease so with regular activity and exercise we can help improve this and keep our bones healthy and strong.
Hope these benefits help you lead a healthier and more active lifestyle.