One of the things I most often hear from busy people is that they don’t have time to exercise. Their life is already too chaotic to add one more thing to do. While it’s true that exercise takes time, it’s a stress reliever that can clear your head. It also helps you become more productive. That means you save time doing other things while you stay healthier. The healthier you are, the less time you spend at the doctor’s office and the more energy you have.
Stress triggers the fight-or-flight response.
The flight-or-fight response was beneficial for cavemen. It prepared their bodies for battle or running as fast as possible in dangerous situations. The situations that cause stress today are different. Instead of being chased by a saber-toothed tiger, people feel stress caught in a traffic jam. Instead of fighting off a warring tribe, people are under stress fighting to return a defective purchase. You don’t even need the stress-causing person to be there. Doing your taxes is a perfect example of that. The hormones cause bodily changes that can affect good health if they don’t return to normal.
Exercise burns off the stress hormones.
Cortisol is one of the stress hormones. It causes inflammation, which is good in the short term but dangerous when chronic. A chronic overload of cortisol weakens your immune system. It causes high blood pressure and increased blood sugar. It clouds your thinking, affects metabolism, and affects the sleep-wake cycle. Exercising burns off the stress hormones and replaces them with ones that make you feel good.
Mental health professionals and medical doctors are prescribing exercise.
Stress can cause anxiety and depression. It’s why mental health professionals use it as an adjunct therapy. It helps relieve both as well or better than prescription drugs and has only positive side effects. It aids patients with declining mental acuity and helps them think clearer, slowing the effects of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. It also helps lower blood pressure and decreases insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a precursor of diabetes.
- When you work out, it changes your focus. Exercise may put you in a meditative state. You’re focusing on each movement, not the office squabble or the guy who cut you off on the road.
- The stress hormone cortisol is linked to the accumulation of belly fat. Belly fat is visceral fat, the most dangerous type that’s the hardest to lose. Studies show that strength-building exercises are good stress busters.
- The diversity and population of beneficial microbes in the gut affect your emotional well-being. Exercising increases microbial diversity and boosts the beneficial population.
- When you’re under stress, your muscles often remain under tension. That tension makes the feeling of stress continue. Exercise breaks muscle tension and helps the muscles relax.
For more information, contact us today at VIP Fitness Center