The Many Benefits Of Exercise And How To Get Them
You already know that exercise is good for your health, but do you know exactly how powerful the benefits of exercise are?
Exercise is arguably the very best thing you can do to keep your body and brain healthy and functioning well. If you know and appreciate just how important regular exercise is, you’re more likely to find the motivation to do it.
In this series, I look at some of the many health benefits of exercise, one at a time.
For each topic, I’ve summarized the overall benefits and outlined how to get that benefit, including how often, how hard, and how long to exercise, as well as which type of exercise you should do and some extra tips.
I’ve included links to my full articles for each topic, where you can get more information about how and why exercise helps, and more details about how to exercise to get the benefit.
Long Life
Summary:
Being fit and active is the most important thing you can do to increase your chances of leading a long and healthy life. In fact, your fitness level is a bigger factor in lowering your risk of early death than smoking, or being diagnosed with heart disease, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol!
Any amount of exercise decreases your chances of dying too young. Something is always better than nothing!
How often:
As long as you’re getting the recommended amount of exercise each week (150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise), you can split it up any way that’s convenient for you. You’ll get similar health protection if you exercise for a few minutes each day or if you do most of your exercise on the weekend. Splitting up your exercise more regularly throughout the week does have other benefits, though.
How hard:
Moderate and vigorous intensity exercise are effective. It seems that increasing intensity is more important than increasing total exercise time. If you’re aiming to go beyond the basic exercise guidelines, it’s better to exercise harder rather than longer.
How long:
Aim for 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio exercise each week, or 75 minutes or vigorous intensity cardio each week, or a combination of the two. If you do more, you’ll get even more benefits. There doesn’t seem to be an upper limit to the benefits of being active, you’ll keep reducing your risk the more you do.
Which type:
Cardio and strength training.
Extra tips:
Improving fitness with a goal-oriented training program has the biggest impact on your longevity. The fitter you are, the more likely it is that you’ll enjoy a long and healthy life.
Mental Well-Being
Summary:
Being active can help you have more days where you feel great!
A huge number of studies have found that regular physical activity is related to better mental well-being, with active people reporting more happiness and optimism, better moods, more self-esteem, and higher life satisfaction.
How often:
The best improvements happen in people who work out 3 times per week or more, and move often throughout their day. Prioritize movement and do it frequently.
How hard:
Do light intensity movement as often as possible. Most people feel good after doing light and easy movements like easy walks or light strength exercises.
For higher intensity exercise, everyone is different in terms of what makes them feel best. Find the specific types of exercises that make you feel good, and make those the main components in your exercise sessions.
How long:
Even short sessions can boost your mood. Aim for at least 10 minutes at a time, but if you need to do even shorter bursts of movement, that will help too!
Which type:
Both cardio and strength training can make you feel good and each have distinct benefits for your brain and your body. Make sure you include both in your routine.
Extra tips:
Movement is especially important when you’re not feeling good. The biggest boosts in mood and mental well-being tend to happen when you’re in a bad mood to begin with. Next time you’re feeling a little down, or you know you’re going to be doing something stressful or unpleasant, go for a walk or do a workout. Your mood will be much better.
Energy
Summary:
Exercise boosts your energy levels, making you feel less tired and giving you the drive to take on all the things you need to do each day, and all the things you want to do. Regular exercise can be even more effective than supplements and stimulants for boosting energy!
How often:
Move as often as you can, ideally with short bursts of movement throughout each day and structured exercise most days of the week.
How hard:
Light, medium, and high intensity exercise can all give you an energy boost. You’ll get the biggest boost from hard exercise, like hard running or interval sessions. Moderate and light exercise will give you smaller boosts, but they’re also easier to do. Decide on your intensity based on how hard you’re willing to push yourself and how much of an energy boost you need.
A mix of all three throughout your week is always a good idea!
How long:
Most research points to exercise sessions between 20 and 40 minutes as being the most effective, but even short bursts as quick as 10 minutes can increase energy levels. Very quick movement breaks that interrupt long periods of sitting can also increase energy, as long as you do them often across the entire day.
Which type:
Both cardio and strength training can make you feel more energetic, but strength training seems to work even better than cardio. That might be because strength sessions engage your brain more than cardio, since you have to think about which exercises to do and how to do them.
Extra tips:
Match your exercise to your fitness level. In people with less exercise experience, low intensity exercise is probably enough to get a significant energy boost. In fitter people, it probably takes higher exercise intensities to get the same boost.
Brain Function
Summary:
Being active can help your brain work better!
Many studies have found that exercise can improve memory, decision making, attention and focus, and help you think faster and more creatively, both after a single bout of exercise and also in the long-term.
There is also strong evidence that being active can decrease your risk of age-related decreases in brain function and reduce the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
How often:
More frequent workouts are better for brain function. Aim for 5 days per week. If that’s too much right now, start with a realistic and achievable number of weekly sessions and add more over time.
How hard:
Higher intensity exercise, like vigorous cardio, interval training, and strength training where you push your sets close to failure will give you the biggest brain boost.
How long:
Longer sessions tend to be better for brain function. Aim for at least 20 minutes, but it seems that sessions lasting around 45-60 minutes are the most effective.
Which type:
Including both cardio and strength workouts in your weekly routine is the most effective way to increase brain function. Adding skill-based exercises like balance exercises and handstands, and learning-based exercises like martial arts or dance can also help your brain work better.
Extra tips:
Aim to improve your fitness level. Fitter people get the biggest brain boosts from exercise, so make sure you follow a progressive training plan that increases in difficulty over time to improve your fitness.
Your brain should be most primed for thinking and learning about 20 minutes into your session if you’re doing a moderate cardio workout. For high intensity exercise, your brain should be working best about 10 minutes after you finish your session. If you have an important decision to make or a new skill to learn, work on it within those time-frames.
Stress
Summary:
People who exercise feel less stressed and are better at dealing with stress when they do feel it.
Exercise is a type of good stress. Each time you exercise, your body goes through a small and controlled stress response. Afterwards, you get better at handling not only the physical stress of exercise, but also any other type of stress that you might encounter.
How often:
Aim to exercise frequently, about 5 or 6 days a week. Each workout is like a practice session for your body to get better at dealing with stress. The more practice you get, the better.
How hard:
Both medium and high intensity exercise can decrease stress, but high intensity exercise is most effective.
How long:
Some studies have found stress-relieving effects after exercise as short as 20 minutes, but longer sessions seem to be better. Aim for about 40 minutes for the best effects.
Which type:
While both strength training and cardio exercise can decrease stress, cardio seems to be more effective.
Extra tips:
Aim to increase your fitness by following a progressive program, but be careful to increase gradually and focus on recovery. You want to induce the good stress response along with the responses that help you recover from that good stress. Over-doing it, by making big jumps in the amount or intensity of your exercise, could make it harder for you to recover from the stress of exercise.
Take advantage of the stress-dampening effect of exercise. Within about 30 minutes of finishing an exercise session, your resilience to the physical effects of stress is particularly high. If you have a stressful task you need to do, try to exercise right before.
Depression and Anxiety
Summary:
Exercise is a powerful treatment option for people with depression and anxiety. Studies have found it to be about as effective as gold standard treatments like antidepressants and therapy. Combining exercise with those treatments seems to be even more effective. In people without a diagnosis but who have occasional or mild symptoms, exercise also helps.
How often:
Exercise at least 3 times a week, more often if possible. For even better results, move as many times as you can across the day.
How hard:
Medium and high intensity can both be effective. Higher intensity exercise might be even more effective, but it’s important to do what you prefer and can stick with.
How long:
For structured workouts, aim for at least 30 minutes per session. Even small movement sessions, as little as 1-2 minutes at a time, can help.
Which type:
Cardio, strength training, and more gentle exercises like yoga, stretching, and tai chi have all been found to help decrease symptoms.
Extra tips:
Be patient. While exercise makes you feel better after even a single session, studies have found that it takes about 8 weeks or more of consistent workouts to see clinically significant reductions in depression or anxiety.
Immune Function
Summary:
Exercise can help your immune system function better! After each session, immune cells are sent out in your body to look for and fight off any harmful substances. That can help you stay healthy, and over time your immune system gets even better at doing its job. Exercise can decrease chronic inflammation, which also makes your immune system work better.
How often:
Aim to exercise on most days of the week. Studies have found that people who exercise 5 or more days a week are less likely to get sick.
How hard:
Medium intensity exercise provides the best immune boost immediately after a session, and high intensity exercise is great for reducing body fat (which is tied to chronic inflammation). Aim to include both across your weekly routine.
How long:
Most studies have found immediate immune system boosts after sessions lasting between 30-60 minutes.
Which type:
Both cardio and strength training can give you an immune boost. Include both in your weekly exercise routine.
Extra tips:
If you’re an athlete or are doing very long (90 minutes or more) or very intense workouts regularly, make sure you give your immune system some extra support to help it recover, by focusing on good nutrition, getting plenty of sleep, and managing stress.
Sleep
Summary:
Exercise improves your sleep quality, both on the same night that you do your exercise, and also in the long-term.
How often:
Since a single bout of exercise improves sleep that night, it’s better to exercise more frequently. Do something active every day, even if it’s not a structured workout.
How hard:
Both moderate intensity exercise like brisk walking or moderate weight lifting, as well as high intensity exercise like hard running or interval training have been shown to improve sleep.
How long:
For better sleep, aim for at least 30-minute exercise sessions.
Which type:
Both cardio and strength training can improve sleep, likely in similar ways. Try alternating cardio and strength days.
Extra tips:
Aim to improve your fitness. Fitter people are less likely to report sleep problems. As you get fitter, the part of your nervous system that’s responsible for helping you recover from exercise starts working better. That’s the same part of your nervous system that helps you sleep, so when it works better, you sleep better!