Have you been searching for a sign to get started with a fitness regimen? Or do you just need a kick in the butt to get off the couch and onto your exercise mat?
Well, consider this your sign and your kick in the butt to go workout. Exercise is literally saving lives out here, adding years to people’s lives, curing diseases, and even keeping people from falling ill in the first place. As if you needed more reasons to get to the gym or turn on your home workout, here are some life-saving benefits of exercise. We’ll give you a minute to hop on the treadmill and continue reading . . .
1. Diabetes? What Diabetes?
You’ve probably heard, but diabetes has been hitting the black community hard for decades. While we may be more genetically prone to having diabetes, we can defend against it, or at least keep it at bay with the help of exercise.
Diabetes generally occurs when the body’s blood sugar level is too high and the body has difficulty regulating it. However, exercise is a natural way to help the body use sugar or glucose in the blood to fuel muscles to workout. When people exercise, their bodies naturally take sugar from the blood to power muscle cells.
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This eventually increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin, improving the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels naturally. Of course, whether you are pre-diabetic or have diabetes, talk with your doctor before starting up a new exercise regimen.
2. Hypertension Be Gone!
Hypertension is another health condition that affects the black community at a disproportionate rate —almost twice as much as it affects the white community. Hypertension is the same thing as high blood pressure and it’s caused by a number of uncontrollable factors, like genetics and age, as well as factors that can be controlled like weight, lack of activity, and consumption of too much sodium or salty foods. It can also lead to heart disease, stroke, and death.
The good news is that exercise can actually lower blood pressure. The way it works is by strengthening your heart. Your heart is a muscle just like any other, so the more you use it, with regular exercise, the stronger it becomes. And strong hearts pump blood through your body with ease, thereby lowering your blood pressure. So make a goal to walk at least 30 minutes every day.
3. No Asthma Around These Parts!
This may come as a surprise, but exercise can be extremely helpful to people with asthma. The tricky thing is to be careful about how extreme that exercise is, as it can lead to an asthma flareup. But, by gradually increasing the intensity and frequency of exercise, asthma sufferers can improve their lung capacity, encourage weight loss, and improve the immune system to avoid respiratory illnesses and more flareups.
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Depending on one’s level of asthma, the first step to beginning a new exercise regimen is to consult with a doctor and make sure the exercise is not too strenuous at first. Yoga, swimming, and walking are great ways to kick off a new fitness regimen for someone who suffers from asthma.
4. Don’t Stress Depression
Depression is a health condition that likely anyone breathing has dealt with. It comes in all shapes and sizes and can make someone feel fatigued, sad, or darn near paralyzed. Regardless of how depression takes form, exercise has been found to ease the effects of depression.
Exercise is a natural mood booster, causing your body to produce chemicals in the brain that actually improve the brain’s functions and balance out changes in mood. In addition, exercise can help to regulate sleep patterns and thereby prevent one of the major side effects of depression, sleeplessness. If you are already working with a therapist, talk to them about adding exercise to your treatment plan.
5. Oh No You Don’t, Osteoporosis!
Osteoporosis is a disease that affects the elderly population. It happens due to a loss of calcium in the bones and, as people age, it becomes more difficult to absorb calcium. In turn, this makes the bones more brittle and susceptible to breaks or fractures. You may have guessed by now, but exercise can help with that too.
Regular exercise can help to increase bone density because your body responds to your physical activity and produces more bone cells to keep up with you. In addition, your body will likely become stronger in the process, helping to reduce the risk of falls, which is the main cause of bone fractures among the elderly. Obviously, someone already suffering from osteoporosis may not want to jump into CrossFit tomorrow, but rather east into low-impact physical exercise like walking, biking, and swimming.
If you were looking for more reasons to start moving now, we hope this helps!
