Nothing can beat the benefits of exercise. Running, walking, cycling, even gardening - it's good for your body, your heart and your head. Exercise helps to lose weight, against cardiovascular disease and can cause a tremendous feeling of happiness. The runner's high is no myth.
Less stress and better memory
When you play sports or exercise, endorphins, the neurotransmitters which are primarily designed to counteract pain stimuli, but which also give you a euphoric feeling.
Exercise lowers stress and improves your memory, although those effects are sometimes temporary: in a study of the long-term effects of exercise on your brain, the greatest positive effects were seen in subjects who were on the day of test had exercised, and not just in the four weeks before.
Not to mention losing weight!
American research among more than 2,000 men between the ages of 22 and 55 showed the link between exercise and weight loss. The results were open to only one interpretation: the men who moved a lot lost weight; the men who moved little gained weight.
The advice, based on this research: middle-aged men should exercise actively for three quarters of an hour to an hour a day to lose weight. Other American research also focused on women. In this, men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 were followed, and re-examined 2, 5, 7, 10 and 15 years later. Again, the outcome was that at least half an hour of walking a day has a positive effect on your weight. The researchers also noted something else: the heaviest participants in the study benefited more from walking than the lighter participants. Many participants gained weight over the course of those 15 years, but those who continued to walk actively gained less weight than those who were less active.
Cardiovascular diseases
That the benefits of exercise also prove to be related to your heart has often been proven. An important American research among 12,516 - male - alumni of Harvard University shows that when you burn about 1,000 calories a week more by exercising, your risk of cardiovascular disease is shown to decrease. Those who work out up to 2,000 calories a week also reduce their risk of high blood pressure and heart attack.
