We live in a fast pace society that will take a toll on a person without any warning. People’s daily lives inherit many side effects such as: stress, insecurity, poor health and lack of motivation. These problematic situations can arise from numerous reasons. Some of these triggers include busy schedules, poor relationship matters, work and depression. These negative impacts can discourage individuals and even threaten the well-being of their health. When people encounter these outcomes, they can experience the “snowball effect”. This is where stress can lead to more stress, depression can drive isolation and bad health potentially lowering the body’s chance of recovering.
Our culture ranges from doing nothing to expensive treatment in response to the adversity. When people attempt to overlook or ignore these problems, they often seem to realize that these problems don’t go away and sometimes get worse. Others find their selves stressing or worrying about these things. That additional stress or worrying does not solve anything and it typically pushes the issue into a worse condition. Keep in mind, there are many approaches that can potentially troubleshoot these matters; however, there is a well-rounded solution to face many of these troublesome outcomes effectively head on. The counter to many of these issues is working out. This practice comes with many great benefits, while pushing back or postponing disruptive matters.
One of the major factors that people deal with today is emotional insecurity. Increased anxiety and stress are growing trends with individuals. With this rise, more people are struggling with a mental health disorder called depression. During depression, the brain will release chemicals called serotonin and norepinephrine. These chemicals will drive sadness and loss of interest. Working out has been linked to suppressing the releases of these chemicals. Therefore, exercising is viewed as a means of containing depression. In addition, physical activity not only suppresses a release of chemicals that cause depression, but it encourages the body to release a chemical that helps reduce stress. “Exercise can increase the production of endorphins, which are known to help produce positive feelings.” (Semeco) Since working out withstands depressions and promotes positive feelings, this combination also is known to increase an individual’s sex drive.
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Another angle working out provides is boosting one’s self-esteem. Some people still struggle with emotional issues, but it may not be linked to just depression. A major portion of the population struggles with self-confidence. Fortunately, exercising provides many reasons to boost self-esteem. The first reason is it can improve physique. Working out can alter a person’s body by reducing body fat and increasing muscle mass. The next confidence boost is an increase in strength. As muscles are broken down from physical training, then they pull nutrients stored in the body and recover even stronger than before. The more strength an individual has, the more confidence they can inherit. Another improvement to self-esteem is a sense of accomplishment. Working out typically comes with an agenda. Goals will be set to meet that specific persons needs. Then, an individual will put forth effort to meet those objectives. Once those goals are met, they will feel a sense of accomplishment; therefore, increasing their self-esteem.
Exercise also directly affects the brain’s health and memory. Physical activity will increase oxygen and nutrient flow to the brain. This increase in supplies will improve cognitive thinking. Also, working out will promote the production of hormones that can provide the growth of brain cells. Brain cells take on many functions, one example is sending and receiving chemicals signals back and forth between the brain and nervous system. According to Harvard Health Publishing,” It acts directly on the body by stimulating physiological changes such as reductions in insulin resistance and inflammation, along with encouraging production of growth factors.” (Exercise can boost your memory and thinking skills) This practice has been linked to growing the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a part of the human brain that plays a major role in learning and memory. In addition, a bigger hippocampus can prevent Alzheimer. Alzheimer is categorized as a type of dementia that affects memory, behavior and overall thinking for middle aged to elderly people. All in all, thinking and memory are increased through physical activity.
Another major benefit to working out is weight loss. This improvement is one of the main reasons why people pursue working out. It is very common for people to struggle with how much they weigh. Mainly because a lot of people are overweight.
Luckily, being active is the best way to tackle this issue head on. The body depletes energy in three different ways: consuming food, physical exercise and sustaining bodily tasks, like the heart beating. As your body activity increases, so does your metabolic rate. “Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy.” (Metabolism and weight loss: How you burn calories) Therefore, the higher the metabolic rate, the better the weight loss. Keep in mind, weight loss only happens when more calories a burned than consumed. This trade-off can be viewed as a motivational incentive to push harder and be more discipline during one’s exercise routine.
Coincidentally, physical exercise directly affects health and durability of the body’s bone and muscles. As a person exercises, they release a hormone that help absorbs amino acids. Amino acids are commonly referred to as the building blocks of protein. Simplistically put, different combinations of amino acids will make protein. As mentioned earlier, physical training increases muscle strength, with adequate protein intake. Furthermore, strong muscles can protect the bones of the body from injury. Also, robust muscles can support and protect joints from arthritis.
This is a key benefit to individuals who are dealing with a previous injury or older individuals in general. Additionally, fit muscles have a higher capacity to use oxygen. This means that exercise will boost the stamina in the muscles. Moreover, physically training the body can increase the bone density. “Bone cells migrate to the stressed area and begin the process of laying down new bone.” (Hunt) The body can withstand strong and awkward impacts better with a denser bone structure. This is a great benefit for those who play sports or work in a physical demanding atmosphere.
The typical person claims that they struggle with having enough energy. This lack of drive ranges from being too busy and getting worn out to just being lazy overall. It is very common for people to just assume that working out will just take away even more daily energy; however, exercise promotes a boost in energy. Physical activities will train the heart to pump even more blood to the brain. This will raise the overall alertness for an individual. Likewise, exercising will drive more oxygen to the other organs, too. With the increased oxygen flow, the body’s organs can perform better. With more oxygen generated to the brain and other organs, the higher the overall energy that person will feel. Now overall energy to function and physical exhaustion are treated as two different topics. We will discuss next how physical exhaustion will aid in regulating sleep patterns.
As mention earlier, physical activity will promote an increase in energy levels; however, physical exhaustion from working out will signal the body that more sleep is required. So, in order to regain the lost energy, the body is then guided into sleeping longer. The more consistent the exercising, the better the body is trained into sleeping longer on a constant schedule. Also, with the release of endorphins (feel good chemical), the body is more relaxed after a workout takes place; therefore, this can increase the quality of sleep. This practice can benefit a person, because it can guide them into a consistent sleeping schedule. Overall, working out is known to boost energy levels during the time of activity and known to guide the body into longer, quality sleep at night.
Physical exercise provides benefits towards a person’s health, too. People can have a reduced chance of a chronic disease with an adequate amount of training. This includes lowering the chance of having a stroke or heart attack. There are three key factors that contribute to reducing the chances of these events. These three factors are lower blood pressure, reduce blood fat build up and regulating insulin production. Many people struggle with high blood pressure. This is a major threat to people’s health, because high blood pressure will put a strain on the vessels and heart.
The higher the tension on the vessels and heart, the higher the chance of a stroke or heart attack. “Physical activity is commonly recommended as an important lifestyle modification that may aid in the prevention of hypertension.” (Diaz and Shimbo) Similarly, fat build up is another concern for people. If too much fat is built up on the walls of the blood vessel, then this can trigger a potential stroke or heart attack, too. The last factor is an unstable amount of insulin production. If appropriate levels of insulin are not obtained, then there is a higher chance of obtaining type two diabetes. Type two diabetes is another way of increasing the chances of a heart attack or stroke. Thus, working out can be viewed as preventative action against chronic diseases like strokes or heart attacks.
The next health benefit working out provides is improving skin health. Unhealthy skin is another common health concern for people. Luckily, exercise can directly affect skin health in a positive way. As a person works out, they increase their blood flow. The increase in blood flow means that more oxygen and nutrients are being carried to the skin cells. The additional oxygen and nutrients will nourish the skin cells and keep them vital. This is a key benefit considering that humans on average shed between thirty and forty thousand skin cells each minute.
In addition, sweating is a way the skin will remove waste from the body. The can prevent pores from clogging up and leaving blemishes. Note, sweating is natural way of removing waste, but proper self-cleaning must take place. If sweat is still left on the skin surface, then this can lead to bacteria build up and bad odor smells. Moreover, exercise can regulate healthy levels of cortisol release. Cortisol is stress related hormone that can directly affect the well being of skin. “A high cortisol level could lead to acne breakouts or cause the collagen in your skin to break down, which can increase wrinkles and sagging.” (Benjamin)
A psychological benefit can be gained from working out as well. Exercising is a physical demanding action. In other words, the body is being pushed into non-comforting situations. Coincidentally, the body will eventually adjust to the physical demands and build a tolerance. Once the tolerance is built, the body can then be pushed to take on more physical challenges. With that being said, the body has an increase in pain tolerance. This is due to taking on the physical demanding task. Similarly, the body experiences a decrease in pain perception. This is from building a tolerance to discomfort. In addition, working out assists with chronic pain relief. As people train to get stronger muscles, they are also strengthening the muscles around crucial joints. When the muscles surrounding a joint a strong, this can reduce joint pain. This is common practice used in physical therapy settings.
We receive several perks from working out. Coincidentally, all these provided perks create an additional benefit. That extra benefit is motivation. Setting and meeting goals is already satisfying, but there are several additional benefits gained in the process, too. Luckily, the sky is the limit for working out. There is always room to squeeze out more and more of these great benefits. In addition, working is known to increase awareness; therefore, promoting healthier lifestyle choices. As people buy in to working out, they build a consciousness about making better decisions outside the gym as well.
