Breathe Magazine

I got a really good question on my blog the other day about incidental exercise. The questioner asked if she is very active throughout her day with walking and work and whatnot, did she really need to hit the gym?

It’s easy to lose sight of why we exercise in the first place. Everyone gets so wrapped up in calories and weight, that they forget that’s not the only reason to exercise. If it were, everyone one of a healthy weight wouldn’t need to exercise- but they do, so ha.

Aside from burning calories, exercise does a whole host of other things for your health:

Lower Resting Heart Rate

Getting your heart rate up is probably the biggest reason to exercise. The more your heart beats, the more blood circulates through your system. Your blood carries oxygen to your muscles which they need for fuel and pumps blood through your arteries and veins. Blood pumping hard through your veins breaks up cholesterol deposits, lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure- which is are huge risks for women. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and cardiovascular exercise is the best way to prevent that. The more cardiovascular exercise you do, the more efficient your muscles become at converting that oxygen in your blood to energy. The harder you push your body, the better it rises to the challenge which it means it learns how to function with less effort- lowering your resting heart rate. The lower your resting heart, the longer it takes for your heart to eventually give out, adding years to your life.

Increased Bone Density

Another huge issue for women is bone density. As we age, our bone density decreases, and the only way to not only hold off the loss, but to improve bone density is through strength training. Bones are special- the harder you are on them, the stronger they become. If you break a bone, it grows back stronger than before. You need to put pressure on your bones to ensure that they become stronger- either through weight training, or medium-high impact cardio. Ask any doctor and the number one way to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis is through exercise.

Increased Muscle Size and Strength

Some people are born thin, but no one is born muscular. Aside from giving you a killer frame, building muscle is very important to your health. Some people can develop muscle through incidental exercise, like people that haul heavy boxes all day, or do hard manual labor, but even then, they are not going to strengthen every muscle evenly. Muscle strength will not only prevent injury from day to day, it will also help improve your every day performance. The stronger you are, the easier every day tasks will be, and the more energy you will have.

Aside from these, exercise is a great way to burn calories, relieve tension and stress, bounce back from injury, and sleep better.

You might be able to keep your weight even by every day activity, but you can’t replace the benefits a real workout can give you.