The Power of Why…
It’s no secret that I love to work out! I’ve always loved being active in some way shape or form. But what about other people who haven’t grown up being active? Or what about those who used to do it but fell off? Why should you even bother with working out if it’s not already a part of your daily life? I have FIVE compelling reasons why you should incorporate exercise in your daily life.
Yes I’m going to say it, the most obvious of obvious. It’s just plain conducive to living a longer, healthier life. Your body is supposed to move, and the old saying “if you don’t use it you. lose it” rings true. When you get used to being sedentary, movement becomes painful, and incredibly tiring…ESPECIALLY when you’re overweight or old…or in most cases both (speaking as one who’s seen it in my family all too often.) But I won’t beat a dead horse, I’m sure if you’re here you’ve heard things like this before, so lets get into some benefits of keeping an active lifestyle.
Bone health: Weight-bearing exercises have been shown to increase bone density which is awesome because it helps to combat the effects of Osteoporosis! The great thing about that is that the term “weight-bearing” applies to more than just weight lifting! So if that isn’t your speed you can do a bunch of other things. Good examples would be things like running, jumping rope, doing push ups, or even walking! So there you have it, all kinds of answers to the excuses for not getting up and moving.
Cardiovascular health: One thing a lot of people tend to forget is that the heart is a muscle as well and it’s probably the most important one we have in our bodies. It’s responsible for pumping blood to all the areas of our bodies including the brain! But why exactly is that important? Well Red Blood Cells or RBC’s carry things like oxygen and other nutrients throughout our bodies, without blood flow, we can’t get the air we so direly need. So keeping a healthy heart makes it that much more efficient at doing it’s job so that we can be here longer!
More energy for daily activities: I’m willing to bet that a lot of you out there only see exercise as picking heavy things up and putting them down, or something to that effect. I often get that kind of feed back when I take on new clients. But what if I told you that it’s all in how you look at it and that it’s all in how you TRAIN…that’s right, I said train instead of workout. See, there is a difference between training and working out. The latter can and often times IS in fact doing it for the sake of doing it. But the former is preparing you for a specific thing. And that thing is unique to each individual person. Lets say you are a fire fighter, in that kind of profession you’d see a lot of running, carrying and the like. If your training reflected what your daily demands are going to be, you’d be better prepared and have more energy for those tasks…makes sense right?
Better sleep quality: Especially when your workout is in the latter half of the day. I don’t know about you but after a hard day’s work AND a workout, I am SPENT! I sleep like a rock most nights if not all, and I wake up ready to do it all over again! The best part is, the body repairs itself far better when you have a good night’s sleep so it’s a win/win!
Put your calories to work!: When we find ourselves sitting around all day or partying all night, drinking, eating and all that it’s so easy to overindulge! And because of that kind of lifestyle it’s easy to pack on the pounds. See, your body burns a certain number of calories daily just to function. Eating just as many calories leads to maintaining weight, eating less = weight loss, and eating more = weight gain. Thing is, it’s SOOO easy to eat more than you need in a sedentary state. The great part about incorporating exercise into your daily regimen is you can put those extra calories to work! Let me give you an example: Person A has a job working with computers all day. He doesn’t workout and so he has a Basal Metabolic Rate(BMR) of 2000 calories per day(hypothetically). Now Person A likes to snack a lot at the desk. Coupled with his meals he takes in around 2500 calories each day. Now because he burns only 2000 and brings in 2500 he is in a surplus of 500 calories and in a week’s time he’ll have gained about 1lb. Multiply that by 52weeks and you get the picture. Now lets go back and say his BMR is 2500 and he eats that much too BUT we throw in exercise and he burns off 500 of those calories…now he’s in a deficit of 500 calories and if he keeps that up he’ll lose 1lb and compound that by 52 weeks and you get what I’m trying to say!
I hope you guys enjoyed this article. If you’re not currently active, hopefully this inspired you even a little bit to get to it! And if you are currently active, hopefully you’ll show this to someone you know who may not be. And I hope you readers contact me for help in your fitness journeys! I really hope to walk with you in that! Til next time, this is Allan at Iron Forge Athletics, and I’ll see you soon!
