Health Benefits of Exercise

Regular exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Everybody can benefit from doing some exercise. People who lead an active life are more likely to live longer and less likely to develop serious diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes and a host of other diseases. It’s important that physical exercise is a part of life for children, adults and older people. Here's a summary of the proven health benefits of exercise:

• Exercise controls weight: Physical exercise helps to reduce body fat by building or preserving muscle mass and improving the body's ability to use calories. Thus it prevents weight gain, promotes weight loss (when combined with a lower-calorie diet), and helps keep weight off after weight loss .
• Exercise combats Heart Disease and Stroke: Daily physical exercise can help prevent heart disease and stroke by strengthening your heart muscle, lowering your blood pressure, raising your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (good cholesterol) and lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (bad cholesterol), improving blood flow, and increasing your heart's working capacity.
• Exercise reduces diabetic complications: Excess weight is the single most important cause of type 2 diabetes. By reducing body fatness, physical exercise can help to reduce your insulin requirements to prevent and control this type of diabetes. Regular physical exercise can help control your blood sugar levels and
  prevent long-term complications.
• Exercise reduces Back Pain: By increasing muscle strength and endurance and improving flexibility and posture, regular exercise helps to prevent back pain.
• Exercise prevents osteoporosis: Regular weight-bearing exercise like running, walking and weight-lifting, help promotes bone formation and prevent many forms of bone loss associated with aging known as osteoporosis.
• Manage Stress, Improve Mood: Regular physical exercise can improve your mood and the way you feel about yourself. Researchers also have found that exercise is likely to reduce depression and anxiety and help you to better manage stress. Exercise can improve or maintain some aspects of cognitive function, such as your ability to shift quickly between tasks, plan an exercise, and ignore irrelevant
  information.
• Exercise promotes a healthy pregnancy: Although exercise might be risky in some cases, the benefits of exercising during pregnancy generally far outweigh the risks and some women can evenexercise up until the third trimester. Relaxation exercises, Kegel exercise that strengthen the pelvic muscles and back exercises are all important for pregnant women.
• Exercise promotes better sleep: Regular physical exercise can help you fall asleep faster and deepen your sleep. Just don't exercise too close to bedtime, or you may be too energized to fall asleep.

Physical exercise is a great way to feel better, gain health benefits and have fun. As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Remember to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have any health concerns.