When you say exercise, most people immediately think of losing weight, getting bigger biceps, six pack abs and looking good in a swimsuit. While exercise has the potential to HELP do these things, it is far from the best and only reason to exercise. In regards to losing weight – the best and most effective way is to focus on nutrition. However, if you want to accelerate your weight loss, then great nutrition combined with strength training and cardio is the absolute golden ticket for losing weight and keeping it off. But this is just the tip of the exercise iceberg.
The REAL benefits of exercise sound like a magic pill that is too good to be true… except we have the research to prove it. Exercise is now being thought of as a form of medicine. In fact, there is large scale study being launched by the NIH next year involving 3000 people that will start to determine the best dosage of exercise for certain health benefits, just like you would expect to know for prescription drugs. The aim of the study is to identify every single molecule and hormone in the body that is affected by exercise – just like you would expect for prescription drugs.
Exercise does not have to be lifting weights or running on a treadmill. Anything that involves moving your body and increasing your heart rate counts as exercise whether it is tai chi or salsa dancing.
Time magazine released a 97 page special edition called “The science of exercise: Younger. Smarter. Stronger”. The main take home point is that exercise literally makes us smarter (stay tuned for more on that), literally makes us younger (stayed tuned for more on that), and reverses genetics, makes us happier, healthier and is pretty much a miracle drug for anything that ails you…. And it’s free.
So ask yourself WHY you are exercising and you may find more reasons than you thought!
-Dr. Rob