Last month I wrote about how to “Make Your Resolutions Stick”, and if your new year’s resolution was to start exercising, this month’s blog will give you even more reasons to “Stick to it!”
Exercise is not just about cardiovascular fitness and toned muscles. Sure, exercise can improve your health, trim your waistline, tone your muscles, but it also provides an enormous sense of well–being and will add quality and longevity to your life. Regular exercise can make you feel positive about yourself, and you may feel more energetic throughout the day, and sleep better at night.
First find an exercise that you enjoy, and adjust the intensity and duration to your needs and you can improve your own life, and experience many of these benefits of exercise:
- Easing stress and anxiety. A twenty-minute workout won’t sweep away all of your life’s troubles, but exercising regularly helps you take charge of anxiety and reduce stress. Aerobic exercise releases hormones that relieve stress and promote a sense of well-being.
- Lifting your mood. Exercise can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressant medication. Exercise also releases endorphins, powerful chemicals in your brain that energize your spirits and make you feel good.
- Sharpening brainpower. The same endorphins that make you feel better also help you concentrate and feel mentally sharp for tasks at hand. Exercise also stimulates the growth of new brain cells and helps prevent age-related decline.
- Improving self-esteem. Regular activity is an investment in your mind, body, and soul. When it becomes habit, it can foster your sense of self-worth and make you feel strong and powerful.
- Boosting energy. Increasing your heart rate several times a week will give you more get-up-and-go. Start off with just a few minutes of exercise a day, and increase your workout as you feel more energized.
Do something Nice for your Heart this Valentine’s day! If you have not already started an exercise program, or if your New Year’s resolution is waning, now is the time to jump start your exercise program back into action.
Most of our patients want to improve their health and live productive, pain-free lives as they age. If it is not already, regular chiropractic treatment needs to be part of your preventive health strategy to maintain a pain-free active lifestyle.
The chiropractic physicians at Performance Health Center are here to assist you in the functional part of your health which includes your posture and spine. If you have any questions, please contact me.
Thomas Ball, M.S., D.C.