Whether you are overweight and trying to lose weight or want to improve your physical fitness, well-being and quality of life, exercise can be part of the equation.

Gradually building up to a regular exercise routine has many benefits, but sometimes it’s easy to fall into some of the disadvantages associated with exercise.

By obtaining your doctor’s approval beforehand and creating a solid game plan, you can make sure you’ll enjoy the long-term benefits of exercise.

Advantages of Regular Exercise:

Enjoy Better Health:

One of the long-term benefits of exercise is that it can help you live a longer and healthier life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The CDC states that regular exercise reduces your risk of many health conditions, including Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Additionally, if you exercise on a regular basis, you can keep your bones, joints and muscles strong, enjoy better sleep at night and increase stamina. You are also less likely to suffer from cognitive decline and depression.

Pleasant Physical Changes:

Regular exercise can make you look better. Whether you want to lose weight, improve muscle tone, increase muscle mass or simply maintain your current physique, exercise — often paired with a healthy, well-balanced diet — can do the trick.

By keeping your body well-conditioned, you’re less likely to have physical limitations. Everyday activities, like carrying grocery bags, climbing stairs and mowing the lawn, are done with ease and your athletic performance might also improve.

Also read- Physical Fitness is More Than Personal Health Fitness

Help you control your weight:

Along with diet, exercise plays an important role in controlling your weight and preventing obesity. To maintain your weight, the calories you eat and drink must equal the energy you burn. To lose weight, you must use more calories than you eat and drink.

Reduce your risk of heart diseases:

Exercise strengthens your heart and improves your circulation. The increased blood flow raises the oxygen levels in your body. This helps lower your risk of heart diseases such as high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, and heart attack. Regular exercise can also lower your blood pressure and triglyceride levels.

Help your body manage blood sugar and insulin levels:

Exercise can lower your blood sugar level and help your insulin work better. This can cut down your risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. And if you already have one of those diseases, exercise can help you to manage it.

Improve your mental health and mood: During exercise, your body releases chemicals that can improve your mood and make you feel more relaxed. This can help you deal with stress and reduce your risk of depression.

Strengthen your bones and muscles:

Regular exercise can help kids and teens build strong bones. Later in life, it can also slow the loss of bone density that comes with age. Doing muscle-strengthening activities can help you increase or maintain your muscle mass and strength.

Things to Keep in Mind

There has long been an obsession in the world for being skinny. Everyone wants to be skinny, but skinny does not mean healthy. There are a lot of problems that come from merely being skinny, and aerobics will only work to make you skinny.

Just like with a bad habit, it is not enough to just get rid of the bad, but you have to also replace the bad habit with good habits. The same is true for health and weight loss. You can lose weight, but just because the number on the scale has changed, it doesn’t mean that you are increasing your health.

You must replace the bad habits with a number of good habits that will support your new lifestyle and healthy weight. Challenge yourself to cut out a portion of your daily intake of sugar. Even though you will still be able to lose weight even with this sugar in your diet, it is better for you if you don’t have it. Whenever you cut something bad out of your diet, replace it with something good.

If you cut a soda out of your day, replace that soda with a glass of milk. Not only will you get the benefits of cutting the sugar, you will have added benefits of calcium and protein in the milk. Watch the labels of the food you by, and cut down on the highly processed foods. You don’t need to cut these things out completely, just use moderation.

Moderation in everything is the key, even in your weight training. The benefits of moderation make a diet that you can stick to, as well as an exercise regime you can stick with.

The final thing that you want to keep in mind in your weight training verses aerobic exercises, is that the number on the scale is deceiving. It is better that you pick a favorite way to look or feel than to worry about the number on the scale. You would actually be surprised on how much the most athletic people actually do weigh.

This is because muscle weighs more than fat, and the number on the scale is going to say one thing when you may actually be reaching a very athletic figure. 130 pounds of fat and skin is going to look a lot different than a person who is 130 pounds of athletic muscle. It is always better to base your weight loss goals and success on how your clothes fit, and how you feel when you look in the mirror, than by what the scale tells you.