If you’ve ever asked yourself or someone else, “Why do we need exercise?” it’s time to make sure you really understand the importance. The benefits of exercise reach well-beyond weight management and weight loss. Exercise can improve your health, fight disease and help you hone life skills like persistence, confidence and motivation.
So Why Do We Need Exercise?
Your body was built to move. It was designed to walk, run, skip, dance, push and pull. Until the last century, people had to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity simply to perform daily tasks, but as technology has increased, the need for everyday movement has decreased significantly. People now drive cars, work while sitting at a desk and recreate while sitting still watching movies and playing video games. Exercise functions to fill the gap between our decreased daily physical activity and our body’s natural need to move in order to remain fit and healthy.
The 4 Reasons Why Our Whole Body Needs Exercise:
Our Muscles Need Exercise
Our muscles connect to our bones via tendons and ligaments, and they function as levers and supports for our bones. When you use your muscles regularly, you stimulate the maintenance and growth of muscle tissue, enabling you to continue to use your body the way it was intended to be used. Individuals who don’t exercise regularly risk muscle atrophy that can lead to weakness, poor posture and declines in daily functional health. The phrase, “use it or lose it” truly applies to your muscles.
In addition to the maintaining the basic functional health of your muscles, you want to maintain your muscle mass in order to keep your metabolism revving. Muscle mass is more metabolically active than fat mass, meaning that it burns more calories throughout the day, even as you sleep. If you fail to exercise regularly and you gradually lose muscle mass, your metabolism will slow down as well, which may lead to weight gain. The more muscle mass you maintain, the easier it will be for you to maintain your weight.
Squats
Squats are one of the most acclaimed compound exercises, engaging multiple muscle groups like the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and core. While primarily targeting the hips and knees, they also activate the back muscles to support the load. In the absence of a squat rack or to target specific muscles, numerous squat variations exist to enhance your training regimen.
Opt for high-repetition bodyweight squats for a safer alternative that targets endurance and slow-twitch type 1 muscle fibers. Maintain a shoulder-width stance and execute slow, controlled movements, especially if you’re seeking to avoid weighted squats for strength training.
Push-ups
Push-ups are effective for strengthening the chest and are versatile and scalable. With various variations available, they can be tailored to target different muscle groups, making them an excellent addition to any workout routine.
Push-ups and similar bodyweight exercises are excellent for building endurance. While one push-up might feel easy, performing 50 or even 100 becomes challenging, highlighting the importance of muscular endurance.
Pull-ups
Pull-ups are also exceptional for building endurance. Once you reach a level where bodyweight pull-ups feel relatively comfortable, you can either add weight to focus on strength or gradually increase your repetition range to target muscular endurance.
Lunges
Lunges are an excellent starting point for unilateral training, ideal for addressing strength imbalances between your right and left sides while enhancing balance. They activate the quads, glutes, and core and can be intensified using any available equipment.
Lunges are an additional muscular endurance exercise that focuses on the legs. They enhance balance and mobility and engage the smaller stabilizing muscles surrounding the knees, ankles, and hips, which are frequently overlooked.
Traditional Bench Press
Beyond chest strength, the traditional bench press engages various muscle groups. The upward movement relies on the triceps while stabilizing the bench, activating the mid-back and core. Additionally, the deltoids play a role in shoulder stabilization.
Planks
Planks are fundamental for enhancing muscular endurance, primarily targeting the core while engaging the arms and legs to a lesser extent. To progress, aim to increase your plank duration gradually, starting from 45 seconds to 1 minute for beginners.
Sit-ups and Crunches
Sit-ups and crunches are akin to push-ups for the core muscles, emphasizing strength and endurance. Aim to continually increase the number of repetitions to achieve progressive overload and enhance endurance.
Our Bones Need Exercise
Maintaining strong bones as you age can help prevent osteoporosis, a degenerative disease that occurs when your bones lose mass and begin to thin. Individuals with osteoporosis are at greater risk for falls, fractures and long-term disability. You may know that calcium and vitamin D play a major part in developing strong bones, but exercise plays a key role as well. Individuals who regularly participate in weight-bearing exercise experience greater stimulation of bone cell production, ensuring that bone mass increases or remains steady with age. Weight bearing exercise includes:
Consistent physical activity is vital for maintaining bone health. In particular, weight-bearing and resistance exercises are key in developing robust bones and muscles. Weight-bearing exercises involve placing a load on your bones.
Strength Training
Strength training is a comprehensive fitness regimen. It aids in fortifying bones, as the stress placed on them during strength exercises can boost bone density and lower the likelihood of osteoporosis.
Walking
Walking serves as an exercise that combats bone loss and preserves bone integrity. The mechanical stress induced by walking stimulates bone formation, contributing to bone strength. This low-impact activity is particularly advantageous for beginners in fitness programs due to its moderate intensity compared to other exercises. Studies indicate that regularly walking individuals exhibit higher bone density, which is crucial for enhancing skeletal strength and resilience.
Dancing
Dance is a multifaceted activity renowned for enhancing fitness, coordination, and balance across all skill levels. Unlike conventional exercises, dance offers a dynamic and enjoyable approach to refining these skills, fostering spatial intelligence, physical expression, and imagination. Moreover, specific dance forms have been observed to impact posture, enhancing overall musculoskeletal health and fitness positively.
Jumping
Jumping serves as a potent method for fortifying bones. As you age, bones naturally weaken, making them susceptible to fractures from minor incidents. Engaging in regular physical activity can preserve the robustness of bones reminiscent of youth. Jumping, in particular, imparts consistent stress on bones during landing, stimulating bone strength development. Additionally, it enhances blood circulation to the bones, contributing to their vitality and overall health.
Gymnastics
Effectively utilizing bones is vital for maintaining their health. Children can significantly enhance and develop their bone health through gymnastics.
Gymnastics involves bearing weight, as participants learn to support their body weight, sometimes even with just one arm. This exercise aids muscle development and strengthening, fostering overall health and strength.
Particularly for women, who tend to experience bone mass loss as they age, engaging in sports like gymnastics can help preserve bone density.
Our Minds Need Exercise
Exercise increases blood flow to the brain and stimulates increases in brain mass, particularly in the hippocampus – an area of the brain critically important in memory and reasoning. Maintaining brain mass as you age can help prevent or slow down cognitive deficits and dementia.
Studies also show that children and adults who participate in exercise and sports have better mental and emotional health than individuals who don’t exercise regularly. Exercise releases endorphins that stave off depression and anxiety, and regular exercise can even improve the symptoms of depression.
Physical activity offers numerous cognitive and emotional benefits, including enhanced thinking, learning, problem-solving abilities, and emotional well-being. It can also bolster memory and alleviate feelings of anxiety or depression.
Regular exercise is linked to a decreased likelihood of cognitive decline, including conditions like dementia.
Research suggests that inactive adults are nearly
twice as prone to cognitive decline as their active counterparts.
Moreover, regular physical activity promotes better sleep and overall mood improvement, decreases the likelihood of certain cancers, and contributes to longevity.
Dancing
Engaging in twisting and turning movements can provide an enjoyable physical activity. Dance is an exercise that can activate brain regions responsible for rhythm and balance. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates, exercise contributes positively to cognitive health, impacting memory, planning, and organization.
Sports Exercises
Some sports demand physical and mental prowess, necessitating cognitive abilities like sustained attention, planning, multitasking, and rapid adaptability to changing circumstances. According to a 2019 review, elite athletes in high-demand sports typically exhibit enhanced attention and quicker information processing speeds.
Tai Chi
Tai chi, a type of physical exercise incorporating gentle body movements, rhythmic breathing, and meditation, was the subject of a 2019 study comparing brain function and connectivity between practitioners and non-practitioners. The research revealed that tai chi practitioners exhibited enhanced connectivity among various brain regions, suggesting potential cognitive benefits and a possible reduction in memory decline.
Yoga
In addition to its physical advantages, yoga offers significant benefits for managing stress, which can adversely affect both the body and mind. Dr. Nevins notes that stress can manifest in various forms, such as back or neck pain, sleep disturbances, headaches, substance abuse, and difficulty concentrating. According to Dr. Nevins, yoga can be highly effective in cultivating coping mechanisms and fostering a more positive perspective on life.
Through its integration of meditation and controlled breathing, yoga contributes to enhancing mental well-being. Dr. Nevins emphasizes that regular yoga fosters mental clarity and tranquility, heightens body awareness, alleviates chronic stress patterns, induces mental relaxation, improves focus, and bolsters concentration. Furthermore, she underscores the value of body and self-awareness, as they facilitate the early identification of physical issues and enable proactive preventive measures.
Brain exercises can enhance brain function and promote connectivity between various brain regions, potentially safeguarding against age-related degeneration. Since individuals may have varying preferences for brain-training activities, it’s advisable to explore multiple options initially and focus on the most enjoyable or rewarding ones.
Our Heart and Lungs Need Exercise
When you perform cardiovascular exercise, your heart and lungs must work harder to provide your muscles with the oxygen they need to perform movement. As you breath harder to take in more oxygen, your heart has to pump faster to deliver the oxygen to your cells. As this happens, your veins dilate to handle the increased flow of blood. All-in-all this process helps keep your veins and arteries flexible and free of plaque build-up or clots.
Also, cardiovascular exercise can lead to an increase in lung capacity, enabling you to increase your fitness level and do more work with less effort. All-in-all cardiovascular exercise improves your fitness level while preventing heart disease and stroke.
Aerobic exercise and strength training are paramount for maintaining heart health. Studies indicate that integrating aerobic exercise and resistance training into one’s regimen may increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels and decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise, characterized by its rhythmic and repetitive nature, engages large muscle groups, elevating the heart rate and oxygen consumption. Activities such as walking, cycling, and swimming fall under this category.
By promoting increased oxygen intake and heart rate, aerobic exercises effectively mitigate the risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and elevated cholesterol levels. In aerobic workouts, the term “aerobic” denotes the utilization of oxygen to support muscle function, with breathing regulating the oxygen supply to muscles for energy expenditure and movement.
Resistance Training
Resistance training has a targeted impact on body composition. For individuals with excess body fat, particularly around the abdomen—a known risk factor for heart disease—it can reduce fat and promote lean muscle mass development.
Walking or Jogging
Walking or jogging is among the simplest aerobic exercises, adaptable to varying fitness levels. While jogging is faster than walking, it may strain joints more and should be avoided if injured. Minimal equipment, such as athletic shoes, suffices for walking, which can be done indoors or outdoors throughout the year, making it an accessible choice for beginners.
Cycling
Cycling offers a versatile workout option, whether on a stationary bike or outdoors. It provides adjustable intensity and is gentle on joints, making it suitable for those with arthritis or joint issues. Outdoor cycling is weather-dependent, limiting activity in inclement weather.
Swimming
Swimming, a low-impact activity, engages upper and lower body muscles and is especially beneficial for joint pain. Water aerobics and walking provide alternatives for those seeking gentler exercises, leveraging water buoyancy to alleviate joint stress. Supervision by a lifeguard is recommended for swimming activities.
Cardio equipment, including rowing machines, stair climbers, ellipticals, and treadmills, elevates heart rate with repetitive motion. While effective, these machines vary in impact and space requirements, necessitating experimentation to find the most suitable option, particularly for those with injuries or health concerns.
Conclusion:
Now that you understand the importance of exercise, pass your knowledge along. The next time you hear someone as, “Why do we need exercise?” you’ll know exactly what to tell them.