What are the Benefits of Exercise?
Do you do exercise or physical activity? How often do you exercise? If you don’t do any exercise or used to do exercise and stopped doing it for some reason, it is now time to START again today!
Below are some of the Benefits of Exercise:
1. Exercise can change your Brain, Improve your memory and Improve your Reaction time/attention time.
Exercise has a powerful effect on the brain. Based on TED Talk video “The brain-changing benefits of exercise”, a single workout that you do will immediately increase the levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine. A single workout can boost your mood.
With increased exercise over your lifetime, you won’t cure dementia or Alzheimer’s disease as you age, but it may take longer for the disease to actually have an effect. Exercise will protect your brain against dementia or Alzheimer’s.
2. Exercise can make you feel better and healthier.
3. Exercise can make you feel stronger
4. Exercise can help you with weight loss
I hear those who went on a diet to lose weight, this is only a short term solution. Once you get lazy and stop the diet, without exercise, you may gain your weight back.
The best solution is to eat healthy and give yourself cheat day once a week. At the same time, schedule exercise in your routine.
Check out some healthy recipes.
If you are interested in some Salads recipes, check it out here.
5. Exercise can make you feel more energetic.
This is true for me. Every time I finished my exercise, either in the gym, at home or out at the beach playing volleyball, I feel a lot better and have more energy immediately after. What about you? do you feel the same after your workout?
6. Exercise can help you Relax and Improve your Sleep Quality
Every time I do my workout, I can sleep so well at night.
7. Exercise can Reduce Chronic Pain
When I hurt my lower back, I went to see my Chiropractor for acupuncture sessions and Active Release. My Chiropractor always tells me not to rest and do nothing. With lower back pain, the worst thing to do is to sit and do nothing. You have to walk to help you with faster recovery from the pain.
Tips to maintain/strengthen your Lower back, you can:
- Use the Foam roller to roll your back before and after the workout.
This is on Amazon.com, Price is in USD:
If you are in Canada, Shop here for price in CAD:
I find this TriggerPoint GRID Foam Rollover the best one. It costs a little more than other foam rollover but it lasts very long and it works very well for my lower back and knees. Mine is 26 inch and it works very well for your whole body. This comes in different colors too. Orange is another of my favorite color. The 13 inch also works but I find it too short when you have to roll your back.
- Use Lacrosse Ball to roll your lower back by standing against the wall with the Lacrosse ball between your back and the wall and start moving left and right. Make sure to avoid bone area.
I have a Lacrosse Ball myself and I use it every morning for a short period of time. It helps with trigger point massage deep tissue muscle massage .
You can purchase 3 lacrosse balls and share it with your family members or friends. It makes a great gift.
Lacrosse Ball in USD:
If you are in Canada, Please check this link out as price is in CAD:
- Lower back Stretches. Maybe introduce some yoga in your workout routine.
Another chronic pain that I experience when playing too much volleyball is my knee pain. I find exercise helps strengthen my knee especially if you incorporate Squats and Lunges into your workout. But you have to make sure you use the right technique to doing Squats and Lunges.
Tips for doing Squats: make sure to push your knees out when you do Squat.
Squats and Lunges not only strengthen your knees, they also help you strengthen your lower back.
You can also use the above TriggerPoint GRID Foam Rollover to roll the front and back of your thigh. Make sure to avoid the knee cap. Only roll above the Knee cap.
3-4 times a week of exercise per week with a minimum 30 minutes session is the best recommendation to have a better life, to improve your lifestyle. Change up your exercise. Do some cardio, add in strengthening workout using weights, do yoga if you have a gym membership. The classes that I like at GoodLife is “Body Pump”, “Body Flow”, “Yoga”, “CXWORX™”, “Body Combat”, “LES MILLS GRIT™ Strength” and “LES MILLS GRIT™ Cardio”.
If you don’t want to spend money in a gym membership, there are other ways to get some exercise in that DOES NOT cost you anything:
- Walk around the block in your neighborhood or on a path in the park in your power walk.
- Walk up the stairs for 20-30 minutes to get some cardio in. This also strengthens your leg muscles in addition to give you cardio workout.
- A 1/2 hour run at High Park or any park close to where you live.
- Do Sprint at the Hills in High Park will strengthen your legs.
- Do Squats and lunges at home
- Do Push Ups at home
- Do Abs and Stretches at home. All you need is a Mat.
- If you have weights at home, you can do some weight lifting at home.
- If you have resistance bands at home, you can also work on your legs, your arms using the resistance band.
I have 2 Inspiring Stories to share below. It gives no Excuse to NOT Start your workout today once you read the 2 real stories of the benefits of exercise.
Inspiring story from a Mom who just gave birth to a baby:
I was at the gym today doing the “LES MILLS GRIT™ Strength” class.
“LES MILLS GRIT™ Strength is a 30-minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout, designed to improve strength and build lean muscle. This workout uses barbell, weight plate and body weight exercises to blast all major muscle groups. LES MILLS GRIT Strength takes cutting edge HIIT and combines it with powerful music and inspirational coaches who will be down on the floor with you, motivating you to go harder to get fit, fast.” – from GoodLife.
This class is amazing! It combines cardio with weights work out. The class is so efficient. It only lasts 1/2 an hour but you sweat like crazy during the class and after the class. This is great for the mom who just has baby or have kids at home and can’t spend a lot of time at the gym yet want to get some work out in.
I saw the lady in the class and she looks familiar to me. I just can’t recall where I have seen her. After the class, she started the conversation with me in the change room and complimented me on the skin tone. I told her my skin is a little darker than my siblings. I do put sun block on when I play volleyball at the beach. I just get darker in the summer. She loves my even tan. I then recalled that she is also a fitness instructor! I joined her fitness class before she went on maternity leave.
She told me that she just had a baby 19 days ago.She started going back to the gym after 5 days! 19 days in!!!! And she is already at the gym she did the 1 hour Body Combat class before this half hour LES MILLS GRITS Strength class. She looks amazing!!! She looks exactly like before when I was in her class. She looks fit and she has abs!!! You can’t tell that she just gave birth and is on maternity leave.
She told me her experience with labor. She went through natural birth at the hospital. Her contraction was long but the labor/push only took 10 minutes. She made record for that. This was as a result of the muscles she has been building throughout her daily life before having the baby. She said she continues going to the gym when she was pregnant until her due date.
She said a lot of Moms make excuses and won’t go to the gym. Or they don’t spend time to take care of themselves after giving birth. Excuses like “my baby is my priority”, “I don’t have time”, “I am too tired. When the baby sleeps, I have to sleep” and so on.
This instructor pumped milk and left it at home for her husband to feed the baby when she comes out to get some work out in. Then she goes back and go on her mommy duty again.
Inspiring story from a Man with one arm at Goodlife:
At one of the Goodlife gym uptown, my friend told me that this man with one arm is always at the gym . This makes us think what excuse do we have of not going to the gym if this man is there.
Tips of the day: keep working out! Keep fit! Spend a little time every day and the benefit in the long term is amazing! You are healthier and fitter! This is for YOU yourself!!! Of course you have to stay healthy if you want to spend more time with your baby or child. The little sacrifice now is worth it in the long run.
This is also a tip for those who work full time 9am to 5pm job. Their commute time to get to work is an hour or more. By the time they get home, they are tired. Then they have to cook for dinner and prepare food for next day’s lunch. They rather relax and watch television or a movie. This will not benefit you in the long run. If you are in this situation, make time! Go to the gym during your lunch hour if the gym is close to your work place. If not, maybe take an hour or so our on the weekend. You will feel better and fitter.
Tips: To stay healthy, make time to do your work out. Either half hour walk/run or a little time at the gym every day or every other day. This adds up. You don’t have to spend hours and hours at the gym.
If you rather do your workout at home, you can also do the 10 minutes P90X every day. My favorite is 10 minute P90X ABS workout, Core Cardio, Lower Body. You can find the ABS version on YouTube.
or you can do the above at home suggestions to get your workout in.
Share in the comment on how exercise affect your daily lifestyle.
NO MORE EXCUSES. DO IT NOW! START YOUR WORK OUT TODAY!