Lose weight
When exercise is combined with a balanced diet, it can help you slim down and keep weight off in the long-term. It raises your metabolic rate (the speed at which your body burns energy) and helps build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more kiloujoules your body burns - and the sooner you'll fit back into those skinny jeans.
Improve cardiovascular health
Your heart is a muscle, and, as with other muscles, regular exercise helps to strengthen it, so it can pump blood more efficiently and with less effort, delivering nutrients and oxygen where they're needed in the body. Exercise also lowers blood pressure and helps clear fatty deposits out of the arteries, preventing blood clots that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Sleep better
Exercising the right amount at the right time of day improves your quality of sleep and makes you feel more awake during the day. Avoid too much activity within the three hours before bedtime as it will stimulate your brain and raise your body temperature, making it more difficult to drop off, but after that time, your body temperature drops lower than if you hadn't exercised, improving sleep.
Manage stress
By increasing blood flow to the brain, exercise helps you think more clearly and work through problems more efficiently, reducing stress. Many people find exercise can be an outlet for frustration and stress, easing these negative emotions. On a more physical level, exercise helps relax the muscles in your neck and shoulders that tighten during stressful times, leading to tension headaches.
Prevent osteoporosis
Weight-bearing exercise, including walking, running and stair climbing cause the muscles and tendons to pull on your bones, stimulating the cells to produce more bone. This leads to stronger, denser bones, and less of a risk of developing osteoporosis in later life.
Build confidence
As well as making you slimmer and more toned, exercise helps improve your posture. Your clothes will look better on you and you'll generally feel fitter and healthier. Plus, knowing that you have managed to achieve your exercise goals when you look in the mirror or step on the scales is a real self-esteem boost.
Reduce diabetes risk
The body stores sugar in the muscles and burns it off as energy during exercise. A lack of activity means the muscles have no room left to store sugars from food, so this goes straight into the bloodstream, sending your blood sugar levels soaring, which can lead to type-2 diabetes. Exercise also helps reduce body fat, which makes your cells more resistant to insulin - the hormone that helps regulate the amount of glucose in the blood.
Improve mood
Exercise releases ‘feel-good' chemicals called endorphins into your blood, giving a feeling of happiness and increasing your overall sense of wellbeing. So what are you waiting for?
