Exercise is any physical activity that increases your heart rate and makes your muscles work, burning calories in the process.

Regular exercise has been shown to help boost energy levels and enhance your mood. It may also be associated with many other health benefits, including a reduced risk of chronic disease.

Exercise is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories. There are many types of physical activity, including swimming, running, and walking, to name a few. Being active has been shown to have many health benefits, both physically and mentally. It may even help you live longer. Here are the top 10 ways regular exercise benefits your body and brain.

Aerobic Exercise

What it does: Aerobic exercise improves circulation, which results in lowered blood pressure and heart rate, Stewart says. In addition, it increases your overall aerobic fitness, as measured by a treadmill test, for example, and it helps your cardiac output (how well your heart pumps). Aerobic exercise also reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and, if you already live with diabetes, helps you control your blood glucose.

How much: Ideally, at least 30 minutes a day, at least five days a week.

Examples: Brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, playing tennis and jumping rope. Heart-pumping aerobic exercise is the kind that doctors have in mind when they recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate activity.

Resistance Training (Strength Work)

Exercise: Effective Workouts, Tips, and Benefits for a Healthier Life What it does: Resistance training has a more specific effect on body composition, Stewart says. For people who are carrying a lot of body fat (including a big belly, which is a risk factor for heart disease), it can help reduce fat and create leaner muscle mass. Research shows that a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance work may help raise HDL (good) cholesterol and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.

How much: At least two nonconsecutive days per week of resistance training is a good rule of thumb, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

Examples: Working out with free weights (such as hand weights, dumbbells or barbells), on weight machines, with resistance bands or through body-resistance exercises, such as push-ups, squats and chin-ups.

Stretching, Flexibility and Balance

What they do: Flexibility workouts, such as stretching, don’t directly contribute to heart health. What they do is benefit musculoskeletal health, which enables you to stay flexible and free from joint pain, cramping and other muscular issues. That flexibility is a critical part of being able to maintain aerobic exercise and resistance training, says Stewart. “If you have a good musculoskeletal foundation, that enables you to do the exercises that help your heart,” he says. As a bonus, flexibility and balance exercises help maintain stability and prevent falls, which can cause injuries that limit other kinds of exercise.

How much: Every day and before and after other exercise.

Examples: Your doctor can recommend basic stretches you can do at home, or you can find DVDs or YouTube videos to follow (though check with your doctor if you’re concerned about the intensity of the exercise). Tai chi and yoga also improve these skills, and classes are available in many communities.

1. Exercise can make you feel happier

Exercise has been shown to improve your mood and decrease feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.The authors of a 2019 review found that 10–30 minutes Exercise is enough to improve your mood.

Exercise may increase brain sensitivity to serotonin and norepinephrine. These hormones relieve feelings of depression. It may also increase the production of endorphins, which help produce positive feelings and reduce the perception of pain.

Stopping to exercise may also affect your mood. A 2017 review found that active people who stopped exercising regularly experienced significant increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety, even after only a few weeks.

2. Exercise can help with weight management

Inactivity may play a major factor in weight gain and obesity, which may lead to health complications. Exercise can help you manage your weight by helping with energy expenditure, also known as spending.

Your body spends energy in three ways:

• digesting food
• exercising
• maintaining body functions, like your heartbeat and breathing

A reduced calorie intake may lower your metabolic rate, which can temporarily delay weight loss. However, regular exercise may increase your metabolic rate. This can burn more calories and help you manage your weight.

Combining aerobic exercise with resistance training may also maximize fat loss and muscle mass maintenance. This could help you manage weight, maintain lean muscle, and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.

3. Exercise is good for your muscles and bones

Exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining strong muscles and bones.

As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass, strength, and function. This leads to an increased risk of injury. Practicing regular physical activity is essential to reducing muscle loss and maintaining strength as you age.

Exercise also helps build bone density. The authors of a 2022 review found that regular exercise significantly improved bone density in the lumbar spine, neck, and hip bones. This may help prevent osteoporosis later in life.

Impact exercises like gymnastics, running, or soccer may help promote higher bone density than no-impact sports like swimming and cycling.

4. Exercise can increase your energy levels

Exercise can help boost your energy levels while helping to reduce fatigue. This may help as a treatment method if you have certain health conditions, such as cancer.Aerobic exercise boosts your cardiovascular system and improves lung health, which may help with energy levels. Your heart pumps more blood as you move, delivering more oxygen to your working muscles. With regular exercise, your heart becomes more efficient at moving oxygen into your blood.

Over time, exercise results in less demand on your lungs. This is one of the reasons why you may find yourself getting less and less out of breath during exercise, according to the American Lung Association.

For Professor Yu-Han Wang, specializing in multimedia design has become an avenue to focus on health care-centered media.

“I think the main reason I started researching this is because of my parents. They’re getting older and I want them to be healthier and to prolong their quality of life,” says Wang, an associate professor of multimedia design at the National Taichung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. She is currently teaching Game Studio and conducting extended reality (XR)  research at Clark’s Becker School of Design & Technology through the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program.

Wang, who earned her Ph.D. in design research from Brunel University of London, is involved in three distinct research projects. The first is a game-based exercise program for the elderly to make movement more enjoyable and achievement-oriented.

What are over-exercising and exercise addiction?

Over-exercising is when we do more exercise than our body can handle. This can include doing too much exercise or exercising in an unsafe way, or not eating enough food alongside exercising.

Over-exercising is different for different people. One person might feel ok doing a certain amount of exercise. But the same amount could be over-exercising for someone else.

Exercise addiction is a type of over-exercising, when we feel a lack of control over how much exercise we do. And we exercise so much that it has a negative effect on our health and life overall. Sometimes it can happen as part of an eating disorder, but not always.

Why do over-exercising and exercise addiction happen?

There are many reasons why we might exercise too much. It could be one reason, or a combination of factors. These are some common reasons:

Pressure to perform or improve

If you exercise competitively, you might feel a lot of pressure to push yourself to achieve better performances each time.

You might also feel this pressure from coaches or other people you train with. Or you might put this pressure on yourself. This might feel like exercise addiction.

Mental health problems

You might over-exercise as part of a mental health problem. This may be to hurt yourself, which can be a form of self-harm. You might also over-exercise or experience exercise addiction as part of an eating problem or body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

Over-dependence on exercise

Exercise might start out as a good coping mechanism. But you might over-exercise if you become too dependent on it for your wellbeing. This might feel like exercise addiction.  

This can happen if you don’t have other ways of managing your feelings or emotions. Or if you find it hard to express how you feel.