We all know how important people say staying fit and healthy is, but the real question is why? Why should you focus on improving your fitness levels, what are the benefits for you? The truth is there are more benefits than we can list in this single blog, but there are definitely a few that stand out. So, if you’re debating whether or not to start your fitness journey, here are eight top reasons why you should jump right in.
Helps Control Your Weight
For many people weight can be an issue, whether it’s in medical terms or mentally in terms of your own confidence. However, exercising on a regular basis can help you maintain a weight you’re happy with or allow you to lose those unwanted kilos. While the more you work out the better the results, the truth is that given so many people’s busy schedules it can be difficult to fit in a long workout, but any form of fitness is better than nothing at all. If you’re stuck for time, you can try out a fitness class, hit the treadmill at a tempo that suits you, dive in for a few lengths of the pool, or anything else, as long as you’re active you’re burning calories and assisting in getting to your healthiest weight, remember we were all beginners at fitness once.
Combats Many Health Conditions
Building your fitness is also a fantastic way to fight against a large amount of health conditions and diseases. It has been proven that regular exercise can help people prevent or manage health issues such as strokes, high blood pressure, anxiety, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and much more. The range of things that being fit can combat is incredible and is a great way to improve your wellbeing overall, physically and mentally. As mentioned above, this doesn’t mean you need to train for a triathlon, by simply being moderately active for just 150 minutes a week your health can vastly improve.
Boosts Energy
While you may think that hitting the gym or pool would leave you tired, it also has the complete opposite effect as by increasing your fitness levels you will reduce your levels of fatigue. This is particularly true with aerobic exercises as you build up your cardiovascular and lung health, meaning your body produces more oxygen around your body. Over time, this improvement in heart and lung health allows you to stay active for longer without the need for breaks and increases your energy levels. Developing this form of physical endurance can allow you to make all of life’s little obstacles easier for your body to handle.
Contributes to Socialising
You may be someone that likes to work out alone, and that is perfectly normal. However, if you’re someone who needs a bit of extra motivation to work out, then grabbing a gym buddy or heading to a fitness class is ideal for you. This allows you to get your workout in, while socialising too, which can increase your motivation and accountability as well as your mental health. Overall, no matter if you work out as a team or individually, fitness is a topic of conversation that is easy for anyone to talk about and can be something that breaks down barriers in social circles too.
Improves Your Mood
Who doesn’t want to be happier? Well, the truth is that simply being active leads to a better mood, and can decrease feelings of stress, anxiety, depression, along with much more. This is due to the fact that exercise increases your brain’s sensitivity to serotonin and increases your production of endorphins, which are chemicals that boost your happiness. In the same breath, decreasing or stopping your fitness routine can have the opposite effect, increasing feelings of stress for example, so even by doing a few simple workouts a week you may see a huge change in your outlook on life.
Allows You to Sleep Better
Yes, above we did say that increasing your fitness levels boosts your energy, but in turn this enables you to get a better night’s sleep. By working out during the day you use up that energy resource and tire your brain, thus leading to you needing rest to recharge your batteries. Exercising on a regular basis also encourages your body to rest, which can lead to you getting a deeper, more enriched sleep. However, as exercise boosts your energy after a workout, we’d recommend that you don’t work out too close to bedtime as you might find it more difficult to get some shut eye.
Increases Brain Function
The fitter you get the more you can increase your brain function and protect your memory in later life. Working out heightens the blood flow around your body, which in turn provides your brain with more oxygen as well as stimulating certain hormones that can encourage the growth of brain cells. As mentioned earlier, staying fit as you get older can also contribute to reducing the physiological effects of aging too, which is great as you are reducing the amount of stress on your brain as well. All in all, not only is working out assisting your physical health, but it is actively boosting your brain power too.
Overall Better Quality of Life
The main reason that it’s important to work on your fitness levels is that it quite simply allows you to lead a better quality of life. No matter your age, ability, or anything else, staying fit is a must, as there are so many benefits both physically and mentally. The way people stay fit depends on their goals, which is different for everyone, but ultimately the fitter you are the more you can enjoy life without aches and pains along with a little extra motivation. There’s so much to gain from having an active lifestyle with experts saying it could even increase your life expectancy by up to 30%.
A Fitting End
There you have it, our eight reasons to boost your fitness levels no matter what stage of life you’re at! Whether you want to improve your cardio, hit the weights, add strength, increase balance or flexibility, whatever your target, it all counts towards an active lifestyle. You might hear it a lot that exercise is the way to a healthier, happier life, but from where we’re standing it couldn’t be truer. While we’ve provided eight reasons, there are plenty more benefits to getting fit, but we hope this blog helped you feel a little more motivated to build your fitness levels!
How Aura Leisure Can Help
At Aura Leisure we provide a range of ways to keep fit no matter your age, ability, or experience. From fitness classes to swimming pools, our state-of-the-art gyms to Fit for Life or Lean3 personalised programmes created by our expert teams, there’s something for everyone. Whether you’re a beginner in the gym or pool or a veteran fitness fanatic, our fitness team will help you reach your goals. Even better still, Aura members get access to all of our facilities for free, so there’s no excuses not to up your fitness game with us.