When you workout, a lot more is happening to your body then just being in pain and sweating. The benefits to exercise and fitness is like manipulating your body into fixing itself, it is quite remarkable. Let’s dive a little deeper.
When you exercise, your entire body is working to ensure you are working at your most capable self. Exercise moves blood from your liver and digestive system over to your skeletal muscles. Your hormones are telling your body to convert fat into glucose, which reduces the pain you feel and improves your mood. Let’s break this down a little more.
Your brain – your brain, on any given day, makes neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine and when you exercise this is the reason why your brain consumes more energy. It’s like putting your brain on fast speed.
Your heart – when you exercise, your heart beats faster, meaning your adrenaline levels rise, which stimulates your heart to beat faster. Your capillaries in your muscles, open wider which increases the blood flow by up to 20 times. This in turn, helps to reduce your risk of heart disease/heart problems.
Your lungs – as you workout, the muscles in your rib cage assist the diaphragm to pull in up to 15 times more oxygen than at rest, which means, your breathing gets faster but also deeper. This, in the long run, helps to reduce your resting beats per minute, which in turn, assists you to be ‘fitter’.
Your bones – exercise, more specifically, weight lifting and high-impact exercises, stimulate your bone formation and reduce the rate of calcium loss as we get older. This essentially means, the more you weight train, lifting heavy (safely, with good form), actually prevents your bones from deteriorating early.
Your muscles – as you exercise, your body calls on glucose, sugar in the body that has been stored from the foods we eat, for the energy required to contract muscles and create movement. This also uses a very important energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). After using up the small amount of glucose and ATP our body has stored, it requires extra oxygen to create more ATP, hence, why we breath heavier during exercise. More blood is then pumped to the muscles that are being used to deliver additional oxygen. Without enough oxygen, lactic acid is formed instead, and this is typically flushed from your body within 30-60 minutes after finishing a workout.
As you can see, a lot is happening to your body whilst you workout. The above information, in turn, helps your physical life in many ways. These include, but are not limited too, improving your overall fitness, reducing your resting beats per minute, keeping your bones healthy, boosting your mood, lowers blood pressure, increases energy levels, strengthens your heart and many more.
Although your physical self is helped when you exercise regularly, there has also been research into proving that regular exercise helps in curing/lessening depression and anxiety. Let’s dive deeper into this.
When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These chemicals, interact with the receptors (of the neurotransmitters) in your brain that actually reduce your perception and idea of pain. Endorphins, also, trigger positive feeling in the body and creates a ‘euphoric’ feeling after a workout.; This can also be connected to a positive and energising outlook on your life. Endorphins, act as analgesics, this meaning, they get rid of the perception of pain, and they basically act as a sedative. Endorphins are manufactured in your brain, spinal cord and many other body parts, and are released as a response to your neurotransmitters. The receptors that are connected to endorphins are connected to the same ones that are connected in some pain medicines. Literally reducing pain in your body, in this case, your mind. Endorphins help boost levels of vitamin D and your overall mood. Therefore, regular exercise is proven too, reduce stress, ward of anxiety and feelings of depression, boosts ones self esteem, improve sleep and so much more.
I know that was a lot to take in, so let’s wrap this up. Exercise has been proven to improve your overall life and wellbeing. Someone who regularly exercises, will reap the benefits above and live in longevity. This could help shape a better future for not only individuals, but communities. If we start to interpret fitness, and wellbeing, even in the smallest ways such as going for a walk or taking the stairs, you will literally be able to change your entire life. I know that working out for some is hard and uncomfortable, but starting small, is all you need.
I was once told, that to step outside of your comfort zone, all you need to do is put a toe out and then you can go right back. You know why? Because you putting your toe out, even if it was one cm, you have extended your comfort zone. And that, is better than nothing.
See you soon, Ruby
Resources
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-happens-to-my-body-when-i-exercise/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/body-on-exercise-what-happens-infographic_n_3838293
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