Any physical activity that promotes physical fitness and overall health and wellness is called exercise. It is a movement that makes your muscles work and burns calories.

There are several types of exercise, including balance, strength, endurance, and flexibility.

Being physically active can be beneficial not only to your physical health but also to your mental health. It may even promote longevity.

Here are 12 benefits of exercise that will surely motivate you to stay active.

1. Exercise encourages weight loss

Inactivity has been shown in some studies to be a major contributor to weight gain and obesity.

Your body spends energy through exercise, food digestion, and other body functions like breathing and heartbeat.

While dieting reduces your calorie consumption, it also decreases your metabolic rate, thus delaying weight loss. Regular exercise, on the other hand, has been found to do the opposite: it increases your metabolic rate, thus improving weight loss.

In addition, aerobic exercise and resistance training combined together has been shown in studies to maximize muscle mass maintenance and fat loss.  This is essential for losing weight and keeping it off.

2. Exercise strengthens your bones and muscles

Exercise can help build and maintain strong bones and muscles.

Aging comes with muscle mass and function loss, thereby increasing the risk of injury.  Practicing regular exercise can help counter this effect.

In addition, regular exercise may help build bone density, prevent osteoporosis, and reduce the risk of fracture in the future.

In fact, odd impact sports, like basketball, or high impact exercise, like jogging on a treadmill, has been suggested in some research to help promote a higher bone density than low-impact sports like walking and cycling.

3. Exercise reduces chronic disease risk

Living a sedentary lifestyle can result in increased risk of chronic disease.

Studies show that regular exercise may decrease blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, promote heart health, improve insulin sensitivity, and manage obesity.

The following chronic health conditions can be avoided or reduced with regular exercise:

High cholesterol. High intensity aerobic activity has been shown in research to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Heart disease. Exercise has been suggested in one study to be an important tool to combat cardiovascular disease. It is also an important therapeutic treatment for patients with cardiovascular disease.

Hypertension: Research suggests that exercise can be an initial lifestyle therapy to control, prevent, and treat patients with hypertension.

Type 2 diabetes. One study recommends that exercise should be prescribed to patients with diabetes, although specific recommendations and precautions will depend on the activity done by the patient, age, and the type of diabetes. For instance, regular aerobic exercise may prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes, and it can also have considerable health benefits for people with type 2 diabetes.

Certain types of cancer. Interestingly, exercise has been shown in one study to help reduce the risk of certain cancers, including lung, liver, kidney, colorectal, endometrial, pancreatic, gallbladder, prostate, breast, thyroid, gastric, and esophageal cancer.

Not getting enough physical activity, on the other hand, can contribute to increased belly fat, which is also a risk factor of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Having regular exercise is therefore recommended to drop belly fat and reduce the risk of developing these health conditions.

4. Exercise promotes skin health

Oxidative stress is characterized by an imbalance between antioxidants and free radicals in your body. With an excessive amount of free radicals comes damaged cell structures and aging.

While extreme physical activity may increase the risk of oxidative damage, regular moderate exercise can actually help protect cells by increasing your body’s production of natural antioxidants.

It also helps delay skin aging by inducing skin cell adaptations and stimulating blood flow.

Improved skin health is definitely one of the many benefits of exercise you can enjoy.

5. Exercise improves brain function

One known importance of exercise is that it helps improve brain function.

Exercise can stimulate the production of hormones that support brain cell growth. Plus, causing an increased heart rate, it may also promote the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain.

Its ability to prevent chronic disease can also be beneficial to your brain since these conditions can negatively affect your brain function too.

Exercise has also been found to increase the size of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays a major role in learning and memory. This can help improve brain function in older adults.

What’s more, it has also been found to reduce brain changes that may contribute to dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other brain conditions.

6. Exercise reduces chronic pain

Fortunately, reduced chronic pain, which can be debilitating, is also one of the benefits of exercise. .

Rest and inactivity has always been the recommended treatment for chronic pain for several years. However, exercise has been shown in recent studies to help relieve chronic pain.

In fact, exercise has been found in one review of several studies to help people with chronic pain ease the pain and improve quality of life.

In addition, it has been shown in several studies to help control pain associated with certain health conditions, including fibromyalgia and chronic low back pain.

What’s more, physical activity also increases pain tolerance and reduces pain sensitivity.

7. Exercise boosts energy levels

Interestingly, exercise can help rev up energy levels for most people, even those with certain conditions.

In fact, 6 weeks of regular exercise has been shown in one older study to reduce feelings of fatigue for people who experienced persistent fatigue.

Plus, the lung and heart health benefits of exercise can positively affect energy levels. Yes, regular exercise can definitely help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently, and with improved lung and heart health comes more energy to perform your day-to-day tasks.

What’s more, research suggests that exercise may also boost energy levels in those with other conditions, including cancer.

8. Exercise improves sleep quality

Another importance of exercise is that it helps improve sleep quality.

Your core body temperature is elevated during exercise, signaling your body clock to be awake; after exercise, about an hour or so, the core body temperature starts to drop, thereby facilitating sleepiness.

Several studies evaluating the effects of exercise on sleep have come up with similar findings.

For example, participating in an exercise training program has been found in a review of six studies to help reduce sleep latency and improve self-reported sleep quality.

In addition, stretching and resistance exercise has been shown in a 4-month study to lead to improvements in sleep duration and quality for those with chronic insomnia. Participants in the stretching group also experienced reduced anxiety.

Either aerobic exercise alone or combined with resistance training appears to help improve sleep quality, but you can choose any kind of exercise depending on your age, health, lifestyle, or just personal preference.

9. Exercise promotes a better sex life

Yes, you read it right! Regular exercise gives you the energy you need to enjoy physical intimacy.

It basically improves blood circulation, strengthens the heart, tones muscles, and enhance flexibility – all these can help improve your sex life.

In addition, regular exercise has been shown in one study to be linked to increased sexual desire and function in postmenopausal women.

A 160-minute weekly exercise over a period of 6 months has also been found in a review of 10 studies to significantly enhance erectile function in men.

Also, a simple routine of a 6-minute walk has been shown in another study to help reduce men’s erectile dysfunction symptoms by 71%.

10. Exercise makes you feel happier

Feeling happier is actually among the several benefits of exercise.

Research has found that exercise can help decrease feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression and enhance mood, regardless of the intensity of the physical activity.

Exercise increases brain sensitivity to norepinephrine and serotonin—hormones that help relieve feelings of depression. In addition, it can also increase the production of endorphins, which can help reduce pain perception and produce positive feelings.

In fact, exercise of any intensity has been demonstrated in a study of 24 depressed women to significantly reduce feelings of depression.

11. Exercise is fun… and social!

Exercise and physical activity allow you to unwind and enjoy the outdoors. It can also help you connect with your friends and family in a fun setting.

So try walking with a friend or jogging with siblings every morning. Or, just do something fun with family and friends outdoors.

12. Exercise keeps you motivated

Exercising regularly and seeing results can motivate you to create more good habits in other areas of your life, such as healthy eating.

This can make you feel great and confident more than ever.

The Take-Home Message

Regular exercise and physical activity are a great way to lose weight, get better sleep quality, improve your overall health, feel better, improve sex life, and have fun. There are certainly a number of benefits of exercise you can enjoy.

You can try moderate intensity aerobic activity, like cycling or walking, or vigorous intensity aerobic activity, like running. Or, you can use your body weight to perform muscle-strengthening exercises, including planks, push-ups, and squats.

Regardless of your workout intensity as long as you do it regularly and consistently, you can inevitably improve your overall health in ways you could never imagine.