The Truth About Exercise

In yesterday’s post, we looked at what happens to our bodies when we stop working out. We all know (really) that we’re meant to exercise regularly, but very few of us prioritise it into our lives every day. Seeing the health of people close to me diminish far too fast, made me write a book which I named The Truth About Exercise. A rule of the universe is that whatever doesn’t strengthen, weakens. This is true for our musculoskeletal systems (our muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, joints etc) as it is for our vital organs – our brain, heart, lungs, kidneys etc. So we exercise, to strengthen every aspect of our body and improve the quality of our lives.

The only way to maintain a healthy brain is to move regularly to get blood pumping around it – this stimulates neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells) and it makes us smarter, think more clearly, rationally, improves motivation, induces creativity, mental energy to name but a few of the benefits movement has for our brains. Our heart, arteries and veins strengthen when we get our heart rate up, our lungs’ capacity increases when we use them to their extent – most notably with high intensity interval training. Studies have shown that short bursts of high intensity intervals increase your heart stroke volume – that’s the amount of blood your heart pumps per beat. Your pulmonary performance also increases – that’s your lung capacity.

You can change your mental state instantaneously by getting up and jumping around. As Tony Robbins says, our psychology (state) equals our physiology. The way we move our body, body language, our posture, gestures, facial expressions, our tonality will all determine our state. Feeling low on confidence? Lacking mojo? Move your body, change your posture, lift weights, strengthen. Power poses can increase your testosterone by up to 20% in a matter of minutes!! Lots of weird and wonderful chemical reactions and hormone release take place when we alter our posture and move.

Low libido? Get your heart rate up, lift weights, burn belly fat, eat fewer carbs, consume way more vegetables (to consume micronutrients – vitamins and minerals), eat more dietary fat, protein and fibre. Do this consistently and you’ll notice a difference. Here’s an outline of what is explained in The Truth About Exercise. You can download it for free by clicking here.

Exercise is essential for our mind, body and soul in a number of ways. Here are jsut 20 benefits exercise brings to our lives which will be explained soon:

1. It feeds the brain with oxygen from your blood
2. Induces creativity, ideas & insight
3. It balances and aligns your body
4. Increases attention, concentration and focus
5. #1 stress reliever and anxiety curer
6. Gets you feeling positive, happier and optimistic
7. It teaches you to relax
8. Helps you sleep well
9. Motivates you
10. Boosts your physical and emotional energy levels
11. Makes you smarter
12. Fends against ageing/memory – when you age, your memory actually shrinks – exercising slows this down significantly
13. Reduces the risk of stroke
14. Reduces risk of heart problems
15. Protects your immune System
16. Strengthens and protects your muscles, joints and ligaments
17. Strengthens and protects your blood vessels and veins
18. Strengthens and protects your heart and lungs
19. It reverses the negative effects of alcohol!
20. Exercise of course makes us fitter!

Not exercising is a depressant and leads to all sorts of illnesses

Many neurodegenerative (brain decline) disorders, such as Alzeimers and Parkinsons have been linked with lack of exercise. Other organs fail because of a lack of exercise.

Not forgetting of course how exercise helps to balance hormones, increase testosterone and improve libido.

Click here to download The Truth About Exercise