Most people work out to lose weight, and build muscle. There are other, less known benefits to working out, however. It can help motivate you to know how many hidden benefits of exercise quietly help you when you make it a regular part of your life.
Exercise helps you feel less anxious
If you’ve ever begun to work out feeling stressed out, and felt nothing but positive feelings by the end of your workout, you aren’t alone. A study from Princeton University has found that getting exercise changes your brain chemistry. It enhances the release of a neurotransmitter called GABA, whose function, among other things, is to lower anxiety.
Exercise helps you keep infections away
Not only does exercise help your body stay free of diabetes and heart disease, it helps you fight infections such as cold or the flu, as well. One study has even found that people who exercise only a little, or get no exercise at all, see their colds last more than forty percent longer than those who do get exercise.
It can help with insomnia
If you routinely have trouble sleeping well at night, and make use of sleep aiding medications, you may have a healthier alternative. You only need to get more exercise. Raising the amount of exercise that you get can help you sleep better in as little as ten weeks. You will have less trouble falling asleep, and rely less on medications.
Exercise can calm down difficult PMS episodes
In a survey that studied hundreds of women in New Zealand, researchers found that women who got regular, vigorous exercise experienced lower levels of PMS than women who only took health supplements or followed other DIY advice.
It helps make your brain healthier and stronger
From fading memory to Alzheimer’s, working out can help cancel out some of the effects of aging. Exercise can even help improve other brain processes such as the ability to plan, reason and solve problems.
It’s important to understand that these health benefits that come from exercise are simply the result of living life the way nature intended. When you get enough exercise, you experience better mental and physical health.