So you sport love handles, a cute little paunch and often feel like you are about to internally combust after climbing just three floors. Big deal! You surely don’t need exercise especially when you don’t suffer from constant colds and coughs.
In fact, if you seriously believe that exercise is for those fitness freaks, who prefer their coconut water over Pepsi and eat a brown bread sandwich in place of a vada-pao, it’s high time that you reconsider!
Why should I exercise?
Exercise is important not just to keep you fit and fab looking but also to ensure that you stay healthy. And by healthy here we don’t mean just staying away from cough and cold but overall health that includes a healthy heart, strong immune system, strong bones and so on.
Exercise helps protect from a variety of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, circulatory diseases, etc. A daily hour of exercise is proven to keep you away from blood pressure problems and also protect you from developing diabetes, two of the most common health problems found plaguing Indians today.
In fact a daily 30 minute Cardio workout is enough to grant you protection from various cardio vascular problems and also goes a long way in burning those unrelenting calories off your beloved love handles!
But if you are still very much in love with the feeling of internal combustion after climbing a floor or two, here is a list of some debilitating conditions that you might be flirting with, by your refusal to exercise!
Things that could happen if you prefer love handles over six pack abs!
Exercise involves stretching our muscles repeatedly to build them up, tone them, shape them and so on. All this stretching done right from the warm up to the cool down phase in the course of a workout, makes the muscles and the surrounding tendons flexible and improves your over all flexibility.
Improved flexibility helps you bend, twist, pick things up and stretch easily without having to worry about straining or pulling a muscle in the process! Moreover daily exercise in the youth ensures that your body faces fewer mobility problems during old age.
A lack of exercise combined with an unhealthy lifestyle that involves stress, erratic meal timings and lack of sleep results in major cardiovascular problems.
Our heart despite being one of the most important organs of the body needs exercise like all of our other bodily muscles, to protect it from diseases like Atherosclerosis, Heart attack, Hypertension, Stroke etc.
Simple exercises such as walking and jogging are known to reduce bad cholesterol or LDL levels, prevent oxidization of cholesterol and so on that not only make your heart healthy but also keep it safe from an attack!
Muscles tend to become weak and as one ages without exercise, muscle wastage occurs, wherein the muscles become weak and thin. In fact, a sedentary lifestyle with a severe lack of exercise can lead to the development of atrophy wherein the muscles gradually decline in mass and become weak, lose their flexibility and become more prone to injury.
Regular exercise helps you build up muscle mass, improves their flexibility, helps avoid cramps and that back ache you feel every time you bend to pick up something!
It’s common knowledge that a lack of exercise will result in your gaining weight. Instead, if you choose to follow a regular regime of exercise, it will help you burn more calories, speed up your metabolism and help improve the blood circulation which aids a good digestion process. All the above three put together help to reduce and control weight!
In today’s fast paced world, stress has almost become a given! Be it in personal or professional life, stress has become inevitable. The best way to deal with stress is to give it physical outlets i.e. exercise or playing sports, which are known to be instant stress busters!
When stressed, the body goes in a flight or fight state that makes certain systems of the body such as cardiovascular system speed up and gastro-intestinal systems slow down, which eventually results in the release of Cortisol, a stress hormone.
Exercise, in the meanwhile, results in the release of endorphins – the body’s feel good hormones that help in reducing or slowing down the production of Cortisol, thereby protecting you from conditions such as high blood pressure, weight gain around the middle, metabolism problems, etc.
Exercise is greatly beneficial for one’s sex life as not only does it work as a great stress buster - remember, stress is one of the main reasons for decline in one’s libido - but exercise also helps to increase one’s stamina and strength. Both libido and stamina are vital for a good sex life.
Moreover it has been proven that exercise helps to improve one’s sexual performance and reduces the chances of development of ED - Erectile Dsyfunction.
Not exercising has a grave impact on our bones as a lack of physical activity is known to further the cause of conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and so on. In fact exercise is known to slow down the loss of bone density and mass. Loss of bone density and mass makes our bones brittle and more susceptible to fractures as we age.
Weight bearing exercises and consuming a diet which is rich in calcium and potassium are a good way of protecting our bones and making them stronger!
Exercise is known to release mood enhancing hormones known as ‘Endorphins’ – another of the body’s feel good hormones that reduce the level of Cortisol, a stress hormone and also help in staving off depression!
An hour of exercise is known to give an individual a “runner’s high”, which is nothing but a calm, clear and happy state of mind that is mainly due to the presence of high levels of endorphins being released in the body post work out. Moreover exercise increases your stamina and energy levels, keeping you in high spirits and a great mood all throughout the day!
With exercise helping you in reducing your stress, preventing depression, toning up your body and having a healthy heart and bones, we think that a sacrifice of your love handles is imminent!
