What's the greatest benefit of exercise?

To really understand the benefit of exercise, let's start by taking a look at our bodies. (If that's scary to you, that is one benefit of exercise right there.)

Our bodies evolved a loooong time ago, when people communicated by grunting and living life was mostly spent hunting and gathering food. Up until about 200 years ago when the Industrial Revolution began, the life of most people involved farming - plenty of physical activity and 3 big meals to fuel all that physical labor!

Fast forward several thousand years from the time of Thor and Uga (cave people) to now, and we find ourselves wondering about the benefits to exercise. We've "evolved" into lifestyles behind desks, computers and TVs, with social, economic and health stress factors at mind-blowing levels!

We can see the benefit of exercise when we get the picture this way. As time has rolled on, our societies have evolved from lifestyles of physical labor to lifestyles with a lot of energy and time saving inventions. There's a lot less physical activity and exercise and thus a lot less need for energy (calories!)

We can drive when people used to walk. We can fly to places in hours when people used to ride horses for days, months or longer. Heck, we have electric can openers and washing machines that have not only saved us time but reduced our necessity for calorie-burning, energy producing physical activity.

We've developed so much great technology in the past 200 years and I enjoy most of it! But look at the price we've paid for it - our health. Pretty steep price.

Hopefully by now you're getting a good idea of the benefit of exercise… there weren't epidemics of obesity, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, incapacitating stress and depression 200 years ago.

You name it, the list of modern illnesses is staggering. So it only makes sense that if you truly want to improve your health and energy level, the benefit of exercise is a no-brainer.

A few general areas that respond positively to the benefits to exercise are:

• Tiredness and exhaustion


• Insomnia and poor sleep


• Excess weight


• Stress


• Breathing and circulation

That's just the "tip of the iceberg." There are tons of ways that physical activity and exercise help your body work well and keep you feeling better - you can learn about some of the key advantages in this article on the benefits to exercise.

Exercise can improve virtually every health condition. There are different types of exercise that help you physically in different ways. And there is definitely a difference between physical activity and exercise that understanding can make a difference in whether you get the benefits of exercise or not.

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I can personally attest to the benefit of exercise in improving health and energy. Exercise has contributed to managing lifelong diabetes and has been a key factor in my recovery after some serious health setbacks.

Along with improving my nutrition, sleep and handling of stress better, exercise has helped me reach the point where I am enjoying my life again! (No more being a medicated "bed vegetable!")

I've recently discovered mini trampoline exercise... and I think it is "better than sliced bread" for ease, simplicity and effectiveness... and it's enjoyable!

In days gone by, physical activity was a part of work. I vote that we invest some of the time we've saved with our "labor-saving" technology into some regular, enjoyable physical activities and trade the idea that "exercise is work" for a new one, "exercise is enjoyable!"

Physical activity and exercise bring about greater physical fitness and an ability to enjoy life more because we don't have our attention on how "out of shape" we are.

That is the greatest benefit of exercise - the ability to enjoy your life to a much greater degree.

Cheers!

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