What Are The Surprising Benefits of Exercise?

Exercise is good for you. It’s good for everyone. No matter what age you might be, no matter what health conditions you suffer from, no matter what you want to gain – or lose – from exercising, it’s always a good thing, and lack of exercise is going to lead to many different health conditions that can be life-limiting or even fatal. Yet there is much more to exercise than ‘just’ getting (or staying) fit and healthy and losing weight. There are, in fact, some rather surprising benefits to having a good exercise routine in your life; read on to find out what they are, and you might be even more motivated to get fit than ever before.

Stimulates The Brain
Keeping the brain healthy and active is just as important as keeping the body healthy and active. When the brain continues to work well, it is much less likely that someone will develop any cognitive disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Even if the condition still occurs, having a stimulated brain can certainly delay its onset.

Strangely, exercise is something that can stimulate the brain. Therefore, the more you exercise, the healthier your brain will become as well as your body. Scientists have discovered that exercise actually changes the brain’s structure, enabling it to stay healthier. As you might expect, there is a lot of research going on in this area right now, and although we don’t have an answer as to exactly why this happens, the point is that it does, and therefore exercise is crucial.

Protects Your Eyesight
Our eyesight is a precious thing; imagine life without being able to see, and you’ll understand just why it’s so important to take care of your eyes and visit an optometrist on a regular basis. Of course, as well as seeing an expert for help, there are some things we can do ourselves to keep our eyes healthy, including using screens less, getting as much natural light as possible, and, surprisingly, exercising more.

Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the chances of developing age-related vision issues, including glaucoma. Although exercise won’t be able to prevent long or short-sighted vision from worsening, being able to prevent glaucoma and similar conditions is certainly a benefit to consider.

Good For Your Skin
Your skin is the largest organ in your body, but a lot of the time, apart from some cleansing and moisturizing, we don’t really do a lot for it. By exercising, you can make your skin glow and look extremely healthy. It’s all down to the amount of oxygen flowing around the body. When you exercise, you are stimulating the blood flow, and more is being pumped through the body, which means that more oxygen is getting to all the parts too.

When this happens, your skin will look much healthier and prevent dullness. Another benefit is that more oxygen promotes faster cell healing, so if you have suffered any injuries, exercise – potentially in moderation depending on the injury itself – can ensure you heal more quickly.

This is a guest blog entry.