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Aerobic exercise can improve your health.
Aerobic exercise is important for the health of your heart and lungs, but it’s also a good idea if you want to stay fit in other ways. Not only does aerobic exercise make you look and feel better, but it also reduces fat around your waistline, helps your heart work more efficiently, improves lung capacity, and strengthens muscles throughout your body. Aerobic exercise can also help reduce stress levels which are linked to numerous health problems for both physical and mental reasons.
Aerobic activity can be anything from jogging on a treadmill (if you’re feeling a little extra energetic) to walking outdoors to swimming laps in the pool or the ocean (if you don’t have time for or don’t have much interest in an indoor workout).
Reduces body fat
Aerobic exercise helps burn body fat. The intensity of your workout will determine whether you are burning more fat or carbohydrates (sugar) for fuel. During moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, your body is still able to burn a significant amount of fat. During higher-intensity aerobic exercise, however, most of the energy burned comes from carbohydrates because the body’s oxygen supply cannot keep up with demand and the process that burns fat for fuel can’t be sustained. Still, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise is effective at burning fat in combination with other types of physical activity such as resistance training and weight lifting.
Increases lung capacity
Many people enjoy exercise for the physical benefits, but aerobic exercise (such as jogging, swimming, or cycling) has its own unique benefits that make it worth incorporating into your routine. The most important benefit of aerobic exercise is that it increases lung capacity. This means a person who regularly works out aerobically can hold more air in his or her lungs than someone who doesn’t engage in regular physical activity.
One of the most important parts of your respiratory system is the diaphragm, a muscle located underneath your lungs. Your diaphragm contracts and expands, allowing you to inhale and exhale effectively to take in oxygen and rid your body of carbon dioxide and other waste products that build up during respiration. Aerobic exercise causes your diaphragm to contract more forcefully while you breathe. As a result, you increase the number of alveoli in your lungs—tiny sacs where oxygen molecules are transferred from your air sacs (alveolar ducts) to capillaries within the body.
Strengthens the heart
With aerobic exercise, the heart becomes a muscle that is strengthened and better supports the body. Because of this, blood flow is increased to muscles and the heart, so more oxygen can be delivered to organs. This means you will have more endurance for activities that are strenuous in nature. Not only that, but your resting pulse will also decrease.
Relieves stress and depression
Stress and depression are often linked, as stress can trigger depression. Aerobic exercise is one way to reduce stress and improve your mood. When you exercise regularly, you increase the number of neurotransmitters in your brain that help you to feel more positive and less anxious about things. Doctors have even found that those with chronic pain who do a lot of aerobic activity tend to experience less pain, which suggests that aerobic exercise could also be effective for people with a mental health condition such as anxiety or depression.
Improves sleep
Regular exercise can improve sleep by reducing stress and anxiety, and by helping you manage your weight. Exercise also increases the amount of time that you spend in deep, slow-wave sleep—the most restful stage of sleep.
At the same time, it’s important to note that exercising too close to bedtime is counterproductive. This is because exercise raises your body temperature and heart rate, which don’t fully return to normal levels until well after you’ve gotten out of bed. When this happens too close to bedtime, your body may start to associate exercise with wakefulness. As a result, it may be harder for you to get comfortable and fall asleep afterwards than if you hadn’t exercised at all.
Increases energy level
Aerobic exercise can be done in a myriad of ways: running, biking, swimming, jumping rope, basketball, dancing—all excellent choices! (Note: some sources like the CDC are more conservative and say that aerobic exercise is just activity that gets your heart rate up. This may be true for sedentary people who start exercising and build up slowly.) Regardless of your chosen activity or activities, one thing’s for sure: they all help you breathe more deeply. Increasing oxygen intake has a number of benefits. For one thing, it brings needed oxygen to the bloodstream. More oxygen means better respiration and increased circulation; when blood flows more freely through our bodies it helps us feel less tired and improves organ function. The brain also operates better on higher levels of oxygenation—in fact, it works roughly 20 percent faster than usual when we’re breathing heavier.
This boost in energy makes you feel alert at all times so you can get work done without depending on coffee throughout the day to stay awake. Oxygen increases your stamina so you can run longer distances or walk farther without getting winded. If you’re ever feeling particularly lethargic or groggy during the workday, going for a brisk ten-minute walk around the block will wake you right up!
Improves self-esteem and confidence
While there are many ways to improve self-esteem and confidence, one of the most natural is through regular exercise. When you prioritize your health and fitness, you’re more likely to feel happy with yourself and your body. Exercise releases endorphins which make people happier, lowering stress levels and increasing positive feelings. Aerobic exercises are particularly effective at improving mood and decreasing symptoms of depression (1). Additionally, studies have shown that aerobic activities like cycling or running not only boost overall mood but also contribute to an improved body image (2). These changes in how you see yourself can lead to lower amounts of stress as well as improvements in self-confidence. This can then translate into other areas of life such as work or relationships where your enhanced sense of worth may allow you to approach new projects or personal connections with a greater degree of optimism and self-assurance.
Helps control diabetes and other diseases
Aerobic exercise can also help control diabetes. For example, a study done on 14 people with Type 2 Diabetes found that aerobic exercise helped control blood sugar levels better than strength training or stretching. Aerobic exercise (which includes walking, running, swimming and taking a dance class) is especially important for people with diabetes because the muscles use glucose in your blood stream for energy during the activity. Since this glucose doesn’t need insulin to get into your cells, it’s easier to manage blood sugar levels during an activity like walking. In addition to helping you manage your blood sugar levels more effectively while working out, aerobic activities have been linked to a reduction in insulin resistance and other chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Final Words
Aerobic exercise has many benefits, and those benefits are not limited to the outside of your body. It’s easy to see why aerobic activity is often recommended for people of all ages to help keep their bodies healthy. While it isn’t the only type of exercise that can improve your overall health, aerobic activities are certainly popular among many kinds of athletes and fitness enthusiasts, especially because they can be performed both inside and outside.