Your body is simply amazing, just as it is, since the day you were born.
Imagine if you challenged your body with moderate physical activity on a consistent basis, starting right now, so that you learn to move, strengthen and lift in new ways that help you to feel, move better and transform your outlook on life.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 20% of us get the recommended amount of exercise each week, so the new year might be the perfect time to start moving.
How can exercise transform your daily life? Exercise impacts your relationships, your work, your play, your overall health and prepares you to make an impact on others.
With the new year, people are thinking about exercise in relation to losing weight, but that is only one potential benefit, so I challenge you to look more deeply into the truly transformational role consistent exercise can play in your daily life:
• Experience the thrill of learning something new. It is exciting to learn a new skill and engage the brain and the body in thought-provoking activity. We know that exercise promotes neurogenesis – the brain’s ability to adapt and grow new brain cells – at any age. Humans are meant to learn and thrive at all stages of life, and exercise gives you a daily dose of this.
• Be the most energetic person you know. What you eat plays a role in your energy level but so does the number of mitochondria you have. Mitochondria are often referred to as the powerhouse of the cell. Mitochondria transform energy from food and turn it into cellular energy. Exercise increases the number of mitochondria in your body, therefore improving the body’s ability to produce energy. This helps you exercise with a higher energy output (i.e., faster and longer), and the result is you feel great. Side note: Train moderately with light, medium and heavy training days with joint mobility work, but more important, train consistently (two-three-four-five days a week, and listen to your body). Learn the amount you need, and you will train well into your elder years.
• Feel calm and peaceful with more mental clarity. Exercise normalizes insulin resistance and boosts the natural “feel good” hormones and neurotransmitters associated with mood control, including endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate and more. The feeling of calm after exercise is real. With regular exercise, changes in the heart occur, including potentially a decreased heart rate that can help you feel calmer. There are positive changes in the circulatory system. Many physiological and neuromuscular changes occur in the body during exercise that contribute to your overall sense of feeling good and feeling well.
• Tune in to your true appetite. It is widely accepted that exercise, along with eating to match activity level, can help individuals achieve optimal body weight. Exercise directly impacts appetite along with the individual’s resting metabolic rate, gastric adjustment to ingested food, changes in episodic peptides (such as insulin) as well as the amount of tonic peptides, such as leptin. So, starting a new exercise program does not necessarily mean you will eat more; you might feel like eating less (and hydrating more), eating healthfully or begin craving specific foods that your body needs for muscle repair.
• Enjoy increased creativity, productivity, optimism, joy and confidence. When the body feels peaceful, strong, conditioned and purposeful, there is the potential for increased joy and confidence in daily life. Isn’t that what we want most? Research shows that exercise can enhance cognitive abilities related to creativity, productivity and optimism.
Lori Crock is a SoulCore Rosary prayer and exercise leader and a St. Brendan parishioner. Lori is online at holyandhealthycatholic.com, where she shares her passion for faith and fitness.