You roll out of bed at 7am. Endure a sluggish commute on the tube for 45 minutes. Make it into work for 9am and sit in front of your computer. You notice your belly rumbling – it’s 1pm, but you decide to eat your lunch at your desk. Another four hours pass and it’s time to go home. You’re tired so you put your feet up in front of the TV, with a glass of wine and some Chinese take-out. Next thing you know, it’s bed-time… you were meant to go to the gym today, but it’s okay – there’s always tomorrow. You’ve been telling yourself this for a while now.
It’s become easy to ‘not be bothered’ to exercise, especially when you’re working eight hours a day and the last thing you want to be doing is huffing and puffing away on an exercise bike.
26th September marks National Fitness Day and it’s about time we realised the major benefits of exercise and the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle.
Exercise can help prevent a host of diseases
“If exercise could be packaged in a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation.”
- Robert Butler, National Institute on Aging
Exercise truly is a cure that doesn’t require a prescription from your GP. The latest set of guidelines advises that the minimum recommended amount of exercise is 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, spread over the course of a week. Just by doing this, you can reduce your risk of developing heart disease, dementia, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers by up to 50%. We are constantly looking for effortless ways to keep in good shape and health – but instead of looking for these shortcuts, why not just head to the gym?
Exercise is a natural stress-buster
People often underestimate the stress-reducing power of exercise. Stress can be the outcome of working a high-pressure job, looking after kids or lack of sleep, to name but a few causes. Stress can negatively impact your life in several ways – inducing premature aging, weakening your immune system and raising your blood pressure.
Whenever I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, I lace up my trainers and head to the gym. After a workout, I can almost feel all the stress-inducing toxins being flushed out of my body, being replaced by warm, euphoric endorphins. It’s honestly a great feeling. Your uplifted mood can last a while after your exercise session too; a study on 18-25 year olds pedalling exercise bikes for 20 minutes at moderate intensity showed a prolonged positive change in mood which lasted for up to 12 hours!
Exercise can boost your brainpower
Ever find yourself having to read a newspaper article twice before the words start forming sentences your head? It turns out that regular exercise can lead to improved productivity. During a good cardio session, blood nourishes the brain with oxygen, glucose and a cocktail of neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine, which boost your mood and keep you motivated and focussed. Regular cardio activity can contribute to improved mental clarity by stimulating the brain, and in particular, the hippocampus – which plays an important role in memory and learning. Bulking up the hippocampus through exercise can lead to a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, as hippocampal atrophy is observed in the neurodegenerative disorder.
We all know that exercise can help you lose the muffin top, but we often overlook the benefits of exercise on those invaluable parts of our bodies that work behind the scenes. Exercise can improve your mental health, keep your heart strong, prevent osteoporosis in older age, has anti-aging effects, promotes brain health and lowers your risk of developing a plethora of life-debilitating diseases. Whether you’re a semi-professional football player, an occasional gym-goer or a coach potato, it’s never too late to start exercising. Just plug in your headphones and load up the theme from Rocky and you’re good to go!
What better time to make a change than on National Fitness Day, taking place on 26th September?
Get involved by signing up to one of the countless free fitness events that are taking place today to break a sweat and get your blood pumping!
Head over to www.nationalfitnessday.com/activity-finder to get involved and find your nearest event.