Five Exercise Benefits You May Not Know About

exercise benefits

If someone tells you that it’s important to exercise more, the first question on your mind probably wouldn’t be, “why?” By now, you’re probably aware of several of the main exercise benefits – lose weight, gain muscle, battle depression, live healthier, and so on.

However, it seems like with each passing day, we’re learning more and more about all the potential benefits of exercise. Here are a few exercise benefits you may not have heard of before, all backed by research.

It Can Protect the Brain from Alzheimer’s

The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease recently published a study that involved 93 adults who had at least one parent with Alzheimer’s, putting them at high risk for developing the disease. All participants wore an accelerometer for one week to measure their physical activity and received PET scans to measure their glucose metabolism. The goal was to find a relationship between brain activity and exercise levels.

Glucose metabolism is a good indicator of neuron health and activity across different regions of the brain and people who have Alzheimer’s tend to have a low glucose metabolism. The researchers found that people who engage in just over an hour of moderate physical activity per day, had better glucose metabolism that those who spent less time exercising. Although further research is needed to show a cause-and-effect relationship, the connection between moderate-intense physical exercise and brain health has been established.

It Can Slow the Aging Process

How to increase lifespan is an age-old question that humans have been trying to solve forever. New research from Brigham Young University (BYU), published in the medical journal Preventative Medicine, has answered that question – at least at the cellular level.

The study, which analyzed data from 5,823 adults between the ages of 20 and 84, focuses on Telomeres, the nucleotide endcaps of human chromosomes. Telomere length is highly correlated with age, shortening in length the older one gets. The study found that high levels of physical activity accounted for significantly longer telomeres and equated to nine years of less aging at the cellular level. High levels of physical activity was defined as at least 30-40 minutes of running, at least five days a week.

It Can Lead to Better Sex

A study in the International Academy of Sex Research showed enhanced sexual behavior in men who exercise. This study involved 78 sedentary, but healthy men who exercised in supervised groups for an hour each day, 3-4 days a week. Each participant maintained daily diary of exercise, diet, smoking, and sexuality.

The study, which not surprisingly showed that vigorous aerobic exercise reduced heart disease risk factors, also revealed greater sexuality enhancements according to the analysis of the diary entries. The exercisers reported an increase in the frequency of intimate activities, more adequate functioning, a greater percentage of satisfying orgasms, and more. The degree of sexuality enhancement was also directly correlated with the degree of one’s improvement in fitness over the course of the study.

It Can Combat Chronic Kidney Disease

Over 26 million American adults are faced with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). A University of Delaware research team set out to find whether or not exercise training could improve the health of blood vessels by studying early-stage CKD patients who participated in a special exercise program.

The study was a resounding success, showing improved blood vessel health and exercise capacity in the participants. Additionally, as the patients became more active, they reported major improvements in their everyday quality of life.

It Can Help Chronic Fatigue

200 patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) recently participated in a guided exercise program over the course of 12 weeks. Aside from extreme fatigue, CFS patients suffer from muscle and join pain, headaches, as well as memory and sleep issues. They received support over the phone and online during this study as their amount of physical activity slowly increased each day.

The study, published in The Lancet, set out to help CFS patients who have trouble traveling to a clinic to receive the help they need. Lead author and research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, found this approach to be very effective: “We found that a self-help approach to a graded exercise program (GES), guided by a therapist, was safe and also helped to reduce fatigue for some people with chronic fatigue syndrome,” she said.

If you suffer from CFS, CKD, or are at a high-risk for Alzheimer’s, you should strongly consider a consistent exercise routine. Even without a condition, exercise benefits have been proven to include better sex, better sleep, less depression, a longer lifespan, and of course – a stronger, fitter body that will age well. Getting started is easier than you think too! You don’t need a gym membership, you don’t need a trainer, and you don’t need a therapist. Just shop BODYCRAFT’s award winning fitness equipment and get a full body workout in the comfort of your own home. Exercise benefits have never been more apparent and as the research continues, there will be more and more reasons to workout!

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