Physical Exercise: Exercise is closely related to a healthy lifestyle, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Many scientific lessons have shown the health benefits of sport, showing that it prevents disease and improves life quality. Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle and exercising regularly has many positive short-term and long-term effects.
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Improved Cardiovascular Health And Respiratory Resistance
Aerobic sports like running, swimming, biking, or brisk walking have many benefits for our cardiovascular system. Prolonged exercise increases heat resistance, improves oxygenation, and keeps muscles and joints in good shape.
Regular exercise has been shown to offer these benefits:
- Improved circulation.
- Slow heart rate
- Lower blood pressure
- Increased lung capacity.
- Optimization of the functioning of the heart.
- Fatigue reduction.
Increases Strength, Flexibility, And Coordination
Physical exercise well done provides greater flexibility and mobility to the joints and improves concentration and reflexes. Aerobic exercise, added to strength training, forces us to maintain or develop muscle mass while eliminating fat accumulation. When we replace muscle with fat, our metabolism also speeds up.
Stretching after cardio is very important to prevent injuries and because it increases the flexibility of your joints, making them more robust in the long run. Therefore, it is important to incorporate these exercises into our sports practice.
Prevents Chronic Pathologies And Ailments
Physical exercise reduces the risk of many diseases and problems that can greatly affect our lives. Numerous scientific studies show that exercise prevents diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, various types of cancer, and many others. In addition, it is the best way to avoid metabolic syndrome, a group of diseases that carry a high risk to health and include cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and being overweight.
Physical activity reduces the concentration of LDL (bad) cholesterol, improves glucose tolerance, improves bowel function, and promotes stability of ligaments, tendons, and joints. Thanks to this, the risks of contracting diseases are significantly reduced:
- 40% against metabolic syndrome.
- 35% against cardiovascular diseases.
- 40% against diabetes.
- 30% in colon cancer.
- Between 13% and 25% in liver cancer.
- 19% in stomach cancer.
Sports can also help relieve back pain by strengthening muscles and increasing flexibility. In addition, it prevents bone diseases and reduces the risk of future fractures.
Reduces Stress, Tension, And Negative Moods
The energy rush associated with exercise has many mental and emotional benefits. On the one hand, it relieves stress and improves rest. But sports have also been shown to reduce anxiety and stress. It also eliminates these ailments’ physical and emotional effects, such as migraines, constipation, constant fatigue, poor concentration, and irritability.
According to medical research in sports and mental health, physical activity can reduce feelings of distress and depression by 30% and the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia by 20-30%.
Improves Quality Of Life And Sociability
Good health is not a lack of disease, it also means good physical and psychological well-being. Sport plays a very imperative role in the perception of quality of life. It makes us feel stronger, healthier and more energetic, increases the level of self-esteem, and promotes socialization.
Therefore, it is important to incorporate physical activity into our daily lives and, if possible, avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Even so, we must do sports, adjusting the intensity, frequency, and duration according to our abilities, and approach it as always as a pleasure activity. Otherwise, it can negatively affect health, both physical and mental, due to excessive demand on oneself.