To remind friends & myself; of all the benefits of exercise.

It is common knowledge that regular exercise supports physical and mental well-being. Despite this knowledge many people tend to remain inactive and people like me tend to skip regular exercise for some reason or the other. I am writing this article to remind myself and friends of the various benefits of exercise and motivate the inactive people and the others to religiously stick to an exercise schedule, whether it is brisk walking, jogging, stretching, yoga, swimming, playing games like shuttle badminton or table-tennis and of course compulsorily breathing exercises.

Here is a collection of the benefits I have noted down over a period of time to motivate myself to exercise regularly. Some of them are repetitive but serve the purpose of highlighting the benefits:

Exercise enhances body and soul. Mind and bodies are not separate entities.

Moderate exercise helps reduce the risk of hypertension, osteoporosis and heart disease. Exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, increases metabolism and improves body’s ability to dissolve blood clots. 

Exercise raises HDL (high density lipoprotein) - the good cholesterol. It lowers LDL (low density lipoprotein) - the bad cholesterol.

Exercise burns body fat and raises metabolic activity.

Exercise makes your heart a more efficient pump and tones it up.

Exercise lowers blood pressure.

Exercise normalizes blood sugar.

Exercise increases the flexibility of joints.

Exercise increases the bone mass.

Exercise maintains muscle fat ratio.

Exercise helps you to fight infectious disease.

Exercise protects against degenerative disorders of old age.

Exercise can improve the functioning of the brain.

Exercise can improve vision.

Exercise can prevent and cure backache.

Exercise is a mood lifter.

Exercise lowers blood cholesterol.

Exercise improves appetite and digestion.

Exercise keeps you young in mind, body and looks.

Do what you enjoy. Walking is an excellent exercise that works the entire body, is easy on the joints and is good for the young and aged and other people who cannot go for other forms of exercise.

Workouts as brief as 10 minutes, if done enough, can help increase your fitness level and keep you fit. Thirty minutes of continuous exercise will further boost your fitness level, so a minimum of thirty minutes exercise schedule every day is highly recommended.