Commentary: Make exercising correctly, not exercising more, your new year resolution (2023)

FAQs

Why is it important to exercise correctly? ›

Performing exercises correctly ensures that the load is placed on the muscles and joints that are being specifically targeted through the movement. Performing an exercise incorrectly can quite often lead to other joints and muscles being loaded or not getting the full benefit from the exercise in the target muscles.

Not getting enough physical activity can lead to heart disease—even for people who have no other risk factors. It can also increase the likelihood of developing other heart disease risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.

Physical activity reduces many major mortality risk factors including arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

1. Aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise, which speeds up your heart rate and breathing, is important for many body functions. It gives your heart and lungs a workout and increases endurance.

Not getting enough physical activity comes with high health and financial costs. It can contribute to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, several cancers, and obesity.

After a year of exercise:

Your ability to keep your muscles contracted and muscle endurance will be better, and you should be finding that you can lift more. Your body will be more agile and in general you should have less joint and muscle pain.

Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier, more relaxed and less anxious. You may also feel better about your appearance and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem.

Does exercise lead to a happier life? ›

Exercise helps reduce anxiety and depression

"When you exercise, it increases endorphins, dopamine, adrenaline and endocannabinoid -- these are all brain chemicals associated with feeling happy, feeling confident, feeling capable, feeling less anxiety and stress and even less physical pain," McGonigal says.

Exercise not only helps you live longer — it helps you live better. In addition to making your heart and muscles stronger and fending off a host of diseases, it can also improve your mental and emotional functioning and even bolster your productivity and close relationships.

Most Common New Year's Resolutions

Improved mental health (45%) Improved fitness (39%) Lose weight (37%) Improved diet (33%)

Research shows that physical activity can also boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, clinical depression, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities.

How does exercise help my mental health? Exercise causes your brain to release 'feel good' chemicals like endorphins and serotonin that help improve your mood. It also improves your fitness, which can help lift your mood. Doing physical activity can also distract you from negative thought patterns.

Exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your step every day. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits. It pumps up your endorphins. Physical activity may help bump up the production of your brain's feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins.

Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness.

What are the 3 main reasons people do not exercise? ›

“Overtraining can lead to overuse injuries such as muscle strains, stress fractures or tendon injuries.” Plus, when you exercise too much, you may lose your motivation or simply no longer enjoy your sports or workouts,” said Amy Jo Overlin, MD, a sports medicine physician at Banner Health in Phoenix, AZ.

Exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function. Exercise has also been found to alleviate symptoms such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal.

Exercise is Essential for Good Health

It's impossible. Being sedentary, or an absence of exercise, is an inherently pathological state, and a risk factor for basically every single metabolic disease: Heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, dementia and Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, colon cancer, and more.

Over the long-term: Physical inactivity can lead to greater risks for major health problems, from heart disease and diabetes to early death.

You'll need three months to gain it all back. It might come back even faster. Sports scientist Greg Nuckols noted that a 3-month detraining period might require a month or less to regain all of your lost muscle.

“If you have been out of shape, or not working out for 10 years — or forever — it will generally take about 2 months of working out most days of the week to get to a moderate level,” New York-based Nikki Glor, creator of NikkiFitness videos, told Healthline.

Between two and four weeks of regular exercise you will start to see measurable improvements in your strength and fitness. If weight loss is a goal and your exercise program is being complemented by healthy eating then you may start to see desirable changes in your weight.

It can improve memory and reduce anxiety or depression. Regular physical activity can also reduce your risk of cognitive decline, including dementia. One study found that cognitive decline is almost twice as common among adults who are inactive compared to those who are active.

How long do you need to exercise to feel good? ›

Exercise doesn't have to be strenuous, structured or take a long time to have benefits. Any exercise is better than none, but experts recommend adults should be active most days, aiming for a total of 2.5-5 hours of moderate physical activity, or 1.25-2.5 hours of vigorous physical activity per week.

Researchers report that small amounts of daily activity are better for muscle strength than less frequent, more intense workouts. Experts add that exercising every day is also better for overall health and can reduce the risk of injury.

Walking, stretching and low-level strength training can all be effective in combatting stress and anxiety. Studies have shown that more physical activity throughout the day has been linked to individuals who report feeling happier.

Exercise increases happiness and wellbeing, and it reduces depression and anxiety. According to a study by the University of Michigan more exercise leads to more happiness, but even small bouts of exercise have positive benefits. Exercise has also been proven to have positive effects at all ages.

When you exercise, your body releases chemicals such as dopamine (pronounced doh-pa-meen) and endorphins (en-door-fins) in your brain that make you feel happy. Not only is your brain dumping out feel-good chemicals, but exercise also helps your brain get rid of chemicals that make you feel stressed and anxious.

Exercise provides a full array of anti-aging benefits, and looking better is just one of them. Regular workouts fight aging from the inside out. The benefits of staying active extend to your physical, mental, and emotional health and even your sex life.

Your exercise intensity must generally be at a moderate or vigorous level for maximum benefit. For weight loss, the more intense or longer your activity, the more calories you burn. Balance is still important. Overdoing it can increase your risk of soreness, injury and burnout.

Exercise involves engaging in physical activity and increasing the heart rate beyond resting levels. It is an important part of preserving physical and mental health.

Exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function. Exercise has also been found to alleviate symptoms such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal.

Keep physical activity interesting

Choose from a range of physical activities. If you feel bored by an exercise routine, try something new or challenge yourself. Try to walk a bit faster on your 30-minute walk, or choose a different route. Set new fitness goals.

What process is the best way to correct the intensity of an exercise? ›

Gradually increase the intensity of your workouts as your fitness improves. Also, your heart rate should stay in the lower ranges during warm-up and cool-down periods. Using a heart rate monitor is an easy way to keep track of your heart rate while you're exercising, or you can take your pulse (see below).

And the people who had the best health outcomes engaged in at least 450 minutes of moderate exercise each week; they were 39 percent less likely to die. Kicking it up a notch with high-intensity interval training – or short, intense bouts of exercise – is undeniably superior for improving fitness, Wasfy said.

Engaging in regular physical activity may produce improvements in an individual's physical health, cognitive performance, and psychological well-being.

JERRY Diaz, a certified National Academy of Sports Medicine personal trainer, said there are seven principles of exercise: individuality, specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, recovery, and reversibility.

When you do aerobic exercise, you feed your brain with valuable nutrients and oxygen, improving cognitive function. After exercise, you tend to feel more focused, alert and able to complete the tasks of the day more efficiently, thus improving your self-esteem.

Although not a cure-all, increasing physical activity directly contributes to improved mental health and better overall health and well-being. Learning how to routinely manage stress and getting screened for depression are simply good prevention practices.