6 Health Reasons To Become More Active

Getting healthy is an ongoing goal for hopefully everyone. As human beings, we are always susceptible to the changes in the body that influence our health. Many factors influence wellness such as stress, environmental factors, and lifestyle habits, perhaps being the most influential. Fortunately, there are practical ways to reduce adverse health outcomes¹, and exercise is one of the most helpful ways to live a long and healthy life. Here are six health reasons to become more active.

1.   You Can Improve Body Circulation

When you decide to make positive health changes and start exercising, you increase circulation in the body². With improved circulation, the systems in the body can function more effectively.

With a mix of cardio and strength-building exercises, we can shape our bodies with the circulation that ultimately improves our mood, mental clarity, and physical health. For more information on circulation and treating diseases within this realm of health, consider getting your bloodborne pathogens certification.

2.   You May Increase Your Lifespan

It’s possible that by making healthy changes like getting active, you may increase your lifespan³. Extending one’s lifespan is an important goal, especially for individuals who are getting older and are starting to prioritize their health more than they did when they were younger. Get moving more often for the best outcomes.

3.   You Will Feel Happier

Exercising regularly ⁴increases the feel-good chemical reactions in the body that reduce stress and improve our mood for periods that last beyond the period right after working out. Just as you may experience the effects of pain relief following a massage for a week, regular exercise can help you achieve a balanced mental state, increasing your mood and making you feel happier overall.

4.   You Will Get Fit

Whether you want to lose weight, increase your athletic performance, or build muscle, regular exercise has many benefits that lead to increased personal fitness. Working out consistently will give your body what it needs to get in shape and stay that way. Staying in shape can also lead to other positive health outcomes for your mental and physical health.

5.   You’ll Gain Confidence

Studies have shown that regular exercise increases our sense of self-confidence. Specific activities such as crunches and other core-related exercises can induce these feelings. A strengthened core can establish a sense of security in the body, encouraging feelings of self-confidence ⁵as an added benefit. These outcomes are like practicing the “superman pose” to prepare for public speaking. Using your body, you can trick your mind into feeling more confident and capable.

6.   You’ll Reduce Feelings Of Anxiety And Depression

Since exercise produces feel-good responses on a chemical level, you’re less prone to feelings of anxiety and depression⁶. Getting active is a significant component in therapeutic approaches to alleviating depressive symptoms through the process of what is referred to as “behavioral activation.”

The general concept is that by getting up and moving, you can relieve depressive states to some extent by changing your chemical state. For people feeling depressed, usually, the last thing they want to do is get up and move, which makes sense because of the state the body is in. By getting up and moving anyway, you help your brain shake off some of those chemical responses so that you can experience some relief from your symptoms.

The Bottom Line

There are many health-related reasons to get more active, from mental to physical. Consider the six reasons above the next time you need a little motivation to follow through on your fitness goals. The biggest thing to remember is that getting active does the body well, so give it what it needs to thrive and get active.

1. Pfinder, Manuela, et al. “Taxation of unprocessed sugar or sugar‐added foods for reducing their consumption and preventing obesity or other adverse health outcomes.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 4 (2020). ↩︎
2. Coleman, Thomas G., Harris J. Granger, and ARTHUR C. GUYTON. “Whole-body circulatory autoregulation and hypertension.” Circulation Research 28.5_suppl_2 (1971): II-76. ↩︎
3. Legato, Marianne J. Why men die first: how to lengthen your lifespan. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ↩︎
4. Thomas, Pattie. Taking up space: How eating well & exercising regularly changed my life. Pearlsong Press, 2005. ↩︎
5. Perry, Patricia. “Concept analysis: Confidence/self‐confidence.” Nursing forum. Vol. 46. No. 4. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing Inc, 2011. ↩︎
6. Izard, Carrolle E. Patterns of emotions: A new analysis of anxiety and depression. Academic Press, 2013. ↩︎

Last Updated on February 2, 2024 by ayeshayusuf