I reckon that most people realize that exercise is good for them. Even if we may not be on any exercise regime, we have all felt the effects of those unexpected work-outs:
………a mad rush to catch the early morning train,
………the heavy-lifting and intense cleaning before you move into your new apartment, and
………keeping up with your toddling two-year-old who drives you anywhere and everywhere.
So, whether it’s the sense of accomplishment or the longer-term invisible health benefits, I think it’s safe to say that most of us agree that exercise is good.
Unfortunately, for exercise and like many other good things, knowing doesn’t translate so easily to doing. We recently touched on the power of habits in last month’s newsletter.
That may be something you would like to read up on if you need some structure for habit-setting and habit-starting. Further down in today’s article you will find helpful ways to start exercising and keep you motivated.
Exercise is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories.
There’s just so much variety when it comes to exercise. You have individual sports like running and swimming and cooperative sports like basketball and football. You have HIIT training and aerobic exercises for your heart, pilates, and yoga to build flexibility and improve coordination and strength and muscle training for strength and muscle tone.
In this article, I will share the benefits of exercise for your body and mind. New developments in neuroscience are showing us how exercise is directly changing our brains. Traditional thought supports the idea that exercise has an indirect effect on the brain but more recent studies have shown that exercise may influence brain health directly. I will dedicate a section to explaining this in a little bit more detail.
We are also going to learn ways that can help us start exercising and stay motivated. Finally, I’d like to end with an interesting article: The Swedish CEO Who Runs His Company Like a CrossFit Gym.
Let’s go.
The Benefits of Exercise for Mind and Body
The internet is replete with articles on the benefits of exercise for your mind and body. Here is a rundown of what I have found from my research. Scroll down to see my references.
Exercise can improve your mood and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. This is linked to changes in parts of the brain that regulate stress and anxiety. In addition, exercise can increase endorphins which promote positive feelings and can help to reduce stress and depression.
Exercise can help with weight loss by supporting a healthy metabolism. Resulting in you burning more calories to help with weight loss. Bear in mind that to lose weight, calories expended must be greater than calories consumed.
Exercise helps you build muscles and strong bones. Exercise helps release hormones that promote your muscles’ ability to absorb amino acids and this helps muscles grow. It has also been found to build bone density. Muscle-strengthening activities can help increase or maintain your muscle mass and strength.
Exercise can increase your energy levels. It helps fight fatigue and has a big impact on cardiovascular and lung health.
Exercise can reduce the risks of chronic disease. Lack of regular physical activity is a primary cause of chronic diseases so on the flip side exercise would do you a lot of good. It has been shown to improve your blood sugar and insulin levels, heart health, decrease blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Exercise can help skin health. Regular moderate exercise can increase your body’s production of natural antioxidants which help protect cells. It can also promote blood flow. Both work to protect your skin and delay signs of aging.
Exercise can help your brain health and memory. The increase in heart rate promotes blood flow and oxygen to your brain and stimulates hormones that enhance the growth of brain cells. Exercise has also been shown to cause the growth of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is vital for memory and learning. It also works to reduce changes in the brain that can contribute to conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Exercise can help with relaxation and sleep quality. The energy depletion that occurs during exercise stimulates restorative processes during sleep. One study showed that getting back to sleep after waking, sleep duration, and sleep quality improved after both stretching and resistance exercise.
How Exercise Changes the Brain
In this section, we will be looking at two recent articles both written in February 2022, and learn what the authors conclude about how exercise changes the brain.
In ‘Why Moving Your Body Changes Your Brain”, author Ali McMurray starts by writing about Sardinia, an island with the densest population of nonagenarians and centenarians. Scientists and sociologists have studied this population and concluded that genetics, diet, community, and exercise drive healthy aging.
But how exactly can moving the body benefit the brain? Here is an excerpt from the article to explain how physical activity was essential to humankind’s survival.
“What is it about the brain? The idea that we have developed and worked on is that movement itself, in the context of our evolutionary history, was likely cognitively demanding,” Raichlen says. “As a hunter-gatherer, which is what we've been for the last two million years, physical activity was generally done in the context of cognitively challenging activities like navigating and using spatial memory; executive function demands like decision-making, inhibition, and multitasking; and sensory demands on your sensory system.”
Besides an evolutionary explanation, another way the brain benefits is by releasing factors into the blood collectively called “exerkines” during exercise. The article quotes a study done by Saul Villeda, associate professor of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, and associate director of the Bakar Aging Research Institute.
In this study, a positive impact was found on the levels of neurogenesis and enhanced cognition in sedentary lab mice that had received transferred plasma from active mice. A protein identified as Glpd1 was identified as responsible for conferring this benefit.
In the next article, ‘How exercise changes our brains’, author Sarah Berry highlights the positive impact of exercise on the hippocampus.
Dr. Joshua Hendrikse of Monash University BrainPark and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health conducted a study among 40 healthy men and women with an average age of 25. The results:
Those engaging in high levels of exercise had better associative memory, a form of memory that is dependent on the hippocampus and relates to our ability to link faces to particular times and places or use different cues to navigate our environment. “In terms of brain structure, we saw evidence that higher cardiorespiratory fitness was positively associated with hippocampal volume,” explains Hendrikse, who adds that such “demonstrable benefits” are among the first effects to appear at this life stage.
While this study looked at aerobic exercises like running, swimming, and cycling, other research has found that resistance exercise has striking benefits to brain function:
“There might be slightly different mechanisms through which resistance training and cardio-based training might be impacting the brain.”
The key is to mix up your exercises.
How to start exercising and stay motivated
So now that we have seen how exercise is good for your mind and body, here are some ways to start exercising and keep you motivated:
1. Make a plan and set realistic goals.
Start small. Break down your goals into bite-sized chunks. For instance, if you have a goal of running 5 km, break it down to 30 min run slots 3 times a week. Remember to make it realistic. Unrealistic goals like exercising for an hour 7-days a week may kill your motivation and derail you off your exercise track. Don’t forget to celebrate your daily wins.
2. Make it a habit.
There are lots of habit tracking apps like Coach.me and Strides on IOS that can help you keep track of your progress and also serve to motivate you.
3. Build a sample exercise program.
I suggest having a one-week exercise plan with a variety of exercises built into it. For instance, on Monday, you could focus on aerobic exercises for 30 minutes, Tuesday, pilates, Wednesday, strength training, and so on. Don’t forget to build in rest days into your week. Your body needs time to rest and recuperate from the physical stress that your body goes through when exercising. If a ‘do-nothing’ day irritates you, try reframing it positively to something like ‘restorative exercise’. To make your exercise routine resilient, build in activities that you can do even if the weather turns on you.
4. Have fun.
This is so important! Build fun and excitement into your workout. Listen to some upbeat music. Watch a TV show. If you love dancing, go for it. Dance can be a great way to work out.
5. Work out with friends and family.
Join a group of like-minded people who share a common interest like cycling, tennis, or mountain climbing. If meeting new people seem intimidating, rope in your friends and family members, people whom you are comfortable with. If you have a family of your own, get your spouse and children to work out with you. Remember to set realistic expectations. Having a family with young children may not allow you to achieve your calorie burn but look at it differently, and enjoy the other perks that come from hanging out with your family. Enjoy the laughter, enjoy the company, enjoy the outdoors together. There’s so much to be thankful for.
6. Build in social activities that involve work-outs.
This is a little different from point #5. If you are planning to go for a mini holiday with your college friends, build some exercise-type activities into your holiday itinerary. A long walk by the beach, a hike in the hills, or snorkeling at the beach.
7. Make everyday activities more active.
This is not all that hard, all it takes is some creativity. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Park further away when you go to the grocer or when you pick your kids up from school. Do some stretching exercises when you are listening to Audible.
Here are some additional handy reminders:
Do your warm-ups and cool-down exercises to prepare your body and prevent injuries.
Listen to your body. If your body is telling you to stop, then stop. There will be another day to exercise, and
Don’t forget to eat, sleep and manage stress well.
A recommended guideline
If you are wondering how much exercise you should do, here is a recommendation from healthline.com.
If you aim for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity spread throughout the week, you’ll meet the Department of Health and Human Services’ activity guidelines for adults.
Throw in at least 2 days of muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms), and you’ll exceed the recommendations.
You can use weights, resistance bands, or your bodyweight to perform muscle-strengthening exercises. These include squats, push-ups, shoulder presses, chest presses, and planks.
The bottom line
Exercise offers incredible benefits that can improve nearly every aspect of your health. It’s your daily multi-vitamins and probiotics and organic turmeric all rolled into one.
Regular exercise may lower your risk of heart disease, keep you healthy with age, aid in reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, boost mood and brain health, strengthen the immune system, help your body manage blood sugar and insulin levels, strengthen your bones and muscles, improve your sleep and increase your chances of living longer.
It doesn’t take much movement to make a big difference in your health. Try it and you’ll know.
The Swedish CEO Who Runs His Company Like a CrossFit Gym
Before we end, let’s look at how a CEO runs his company like a CrossFit gym. Henrik Bunge is the CEO of Bjorn Borg, a Swedish sports fashion company named after the tennis star. He uses “fitness leadership” to run his company. According to him, “we have so much to learn from sports culture”.
When Henrik Bunge joined Bjorn Borg in 2014, the company wasn’t doing great. Bunge launched a new strategy to turn the company around. One of his strategies involved training harder. He made “sports hour” mandatory. (“Sports hour” is a mandatory fitness class for all employees every Friday from 11 am to noon). To Bunge, sweating together was not just about staying healthy but it was about fun and fostering stronger bonds between employees to help them reach their goals.
“Fitness leadership” can be seen throughout the company through wall squat competitions, push-up competitions, and even a game of ping-pong.
Has “fitness leadership” helped to improve company performance? Yes, measured by some indices and ‘there’s-still-room-for-improvement’ for others.
So what can we learn from here? Working out together has benefits for teamwork and cooperation. You can foster teamwork at home and even in your place of work by working out with your family members and those with whom you work. Why not give “fitness leadership” a chance?
Try a Bjorn Borg workout, from your home!
My journey
I have been exercising regularly for about 3 years. My earliest motivation was to lose postpartum fat and to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I started out using an elliptical trainer at home. It worked for me because time was a precious resource with young children to care for. I could hop on and off and I could even do it in my PJs or underwear!
Do what’s easiest for you. You don’t have to purchase a machine. You can start by just walking up and down the stairs.
What I liked about exercise then was the evening distraction that it gave me. It was a time to pull away from the other mundane things that I did daily. After all these years, I have kept up with my evening exercise cum alone time. I couple it with important things that I like or need to do on a given day such as Audible and MOOC. This daily ‘me’ time is something I guard zealously.
Build an exercise routine. Start with 10 minutes, and slowly work your way up. Couple it with something fun for you.
Over the years, my exercise routine has evolved to include more outdoor exercises and group activities such as cycling. My husband and I enjoy these activities and it has given us many opportunities to be together.
What are some activities that you can do with your spouse, family, and friends? Start a group if you can’t find one. Use the internet to find social groups in your local area.
Exercise has also been important for me as a place where I get to challenge myself a little bit more. When I look back, I’m encouraged to see the growth and the benefits I have reaped along the way.
Hang on and you’ll see the benefits. Good things take time…..and learn to enjoy the walk.
One important aspect of exercise for me is the spiritual lessons and significance I draw from it. I am a Christian. Life here on earth is a journey until I reach my heavenly home. Exercising reminds me of that. It’s hard work. It’s long. It calls for perseverance. Having family and friends will make it easier. If I fall, I get up and try again. Every day I’m moving closer to the finish line and I want to end strong.
If you are off the tracks, get on in. If you are down, pick yourself up. If you are still at the starting line, time to move to the finishing line. You are not alone, let’s do it together.
References:
https://medlineplus.gov/benefitsofexercise.html
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise
The Swedish CEO Who Runs His Company Like a CrossFit Gym
Love,
Anne C