How Exercise Affects Your Body's Composition

Regular exercise of all types helps improve your body composition, an important component of physical fitness. Your body composition includes lean body mass and fat. Regular aerobic exercise can help you burn fat, and muscle-strengthening exercises can increase your lean muscle mass. Improving your body composition provides a boost to your health and may reduce your risk of developing some chronic diseases.

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercises, including brisk walking, cycling, running and swimming, can help you maintain your lean body mass while decreasing your fat mass. Including interval training as part of your aerobic workouts can also contribute to improvements in your body composition. Interval training includes alternating short bursts of higher-intensity activity with periods of lighter-intensity activity. The University of Virginia reports that interval training improves your body composition by reducing your abdominal fat.

Strength Training

Strength-training exercises include lifting weights, using resistance bands and doing exercises that use your body weight as resistance. These types of exercises aid in building and maintaining your lean muscle mass. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that improvements in your muscle mass contribute to increased metabolism, which helps burn calories even while you are not exercising. Strength-training exercises should be part of your workout routine to improve your body's composition.

Recommendations

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise on five days each week for good health. It recommends working your way up to 60 minutes to promote weight loss and improve your body composition. Adding muscle-strengthening exercises for your major muscle groups two times each week is also recommended for general health and improved body composition. Choose activities and exercises that you enjoy to increase your chances of sticking with your exercise plans.

Considerations

Check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have been sedentary for some time or if you have a condition that may make exercise unsafe for you. Visiting with an exercise specialist can help you learn proper exercise techniques and prevent potential injuries that come from exercising with poor technique. Always begin and end your exercise sessions with a warmup and cool-down, and gradually work your way up to the recommended amounts of exercise. Staying consistent with your workout routine and eating a healthy diet contribute to improved body composition.