Many fitness gyms are filled with young people, and exercise is generally associated with youth. However, building and maintaining physical fitness becomes more and more important as you age. The longer you exercise, the greater these benefits will be. You don't need to endure a grueling workout program to maintain an optimal degree of physical fitness.
Psychological Benefits
Regular exercise can make you feel better and fight depression, according to MayoClinic.com. When you exercise, your brain releases chemicals that elevate your mood and relax you. It can also help you sleep better, as long as you don't exercise too close to bedtime, which will make you feel better the next day. Exercise energizes you by delivering nutrients and oxygen to your body tissues, and enhances sexual arousal in women.
Weight Management
Exercise can burn calories in two ways. First, it raises your body's metabolism during exercise -- you breathe harder and your heart beats faster. Intense exercise can burn as many as 1,000 calories an hour, depending on your body weight. Although this might not sound like much when you consider that you need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound, an extra few hundred calories a week can exert strong downward pressure on your body weight over the long term. The second way that exercise can burn calories is by raising your resting metabolic rate, which stimulates your body to burn more calories 24 hours a day. This is accomplished most effectively by engaging in strength training exercises that build muscle mass.
Fighting Disease and Injury
Regular exercise can fight high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and can help prevent diabetes and some forms of cancer. Strength training can increase bone density, reducing the risk of fractures. Aerobic exercise strengthens the heart, reducing the risk of heart disease. The psychological benefits of exercise can produce tangible benefits to your immune system, boosting your resistance to disease. Finally, a lifetime fitness program can extend your lifespan by many years.
Staying Motivated
Lifetime fitness is not a one-time project -- it's a lifestyle change. To keep up a fitness program for decades, you need to know how to motivate yourself. The most effective way to motivate yourself is to make fitness fun. Find a hobby that you genuinely enjoy, whether it be racquetball or hiking, and vary your fitness routine frequently by trying out new activities. Even sex can improve your fitness level if you perform it vigorously enough. MayoClinic.com recommends setting realistic short-term and long-term goals. Goals help you track your progress and provide you with encouraging accomplishment feedback.
Misconceptions
The media is full of misconceptions about fitness that can retard your progress or even harm you. In addition to exercising, take time to learn about the human body and the effect of exercise on health. According to Penn State University, two of the most common myths include the idea that eating a lot of meat is necessary to build muscle, and the idea that exercise must be painful to produce significant gains.
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