Exercise does more than just keep you slim and toned. It helps boosts your mood, improves your sex life and promotes balance throughout the body. It helps build your core strength which improves stability, flexibility and balance. Exercise can make you feel better, look better and even live longer.

Here are some ways in which exercise helps create full body balance.

1. Exercise controls weight.

Exercise is the number one way to help you lose excess weight and keep it off. Physical activity, even in small bursts, helps burn calories your body has taken in through food and drink. Whether you are trying to lose weight or maintain it, healthy eating and regular exercise is the way to do it.

2. Exercise fights against health conditions and diseases.

Heart disease and high blood pressure can be prevented or at least controlled through exercise. Activity of any kind boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the good cholesterol while decreasing bad triglycerides. In addition, exercise helps manage stroke, metabolic syndrome, depression, type2 diabetes as well as arthritis.

Exercise has been shown to improve:

• The risk of colon and breast cancers
• The risk of osteoporosis
• Body fat density
• Joint and muscle movement
• Delivery of oxygen throughout the body

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3. Exercise boosts mobility, flexibility and balance.

Your strength, flexibility and posture are boosted by regular exercise all of which help your balance and coordination. Adding strength training to the mix will help those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis function better as it helps reduce soreness, stiffness and pain.

4. Exercise improves mood and self-esteem.

Endorphins released during exercise help you feel better. They reduce feelings of sadness, hopelessness and anxiety. Feeling strong naturally makes you feel surer of yourself and boosts your overall self-esteem.

5. Exercise improves sleep.

Poor sleep can lead to stress, weight gain and depression. A study by Stanford University showed that “older and middle-age people reported sleeping better when they added regular exercise to their routine. After 16 weeks in a moderate intensity exercise program, subjects were able to fall asleep about 15 minutes earlier and sleep about 45 minutes longer at night.”

6. Exercise keeps the brain sharp.

According to a study done by the Department of Exercise Science at the University of Georgia, exercising for just 20 minutes facilitates information processing and memory functions. An active brain can prevent memory loss, dementia and mental deterioration. Exercise may also slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

7. Exercise improves sex drive.

Exercise leaves you feeling more energized, looking better and having more self-confidence. It leads to heightened arousal for women and men have fewer sexual problems.

8. Exercise promotes healthy eating.

Most people want to look and feel their best. Exercising gives us a feeling of overall wellness. When we exercise, eating a healthier diet just comes naturally.

9. Lifestyle habits.

Exercise can help you eliminate dangerous lifestyle habits like smoking, drinking and doing drugs. It can also help you create new, healthier habits like eating more organic and less processed foods.

10. Exercise can have antidepressant effects.

30 minutes of exercise three times a week can relieve symptoms of mild to moderate depression. Participating in group activities can promote good mood as well. Exercise can decrease some forms of menopausal emotional symptoms as well.

Regardless of your age, physical ability, or gender, you can incorporate regular exercise into your life. Even in small bits, exercise is beneficial. Start with what you can do without stressing your body too much and work up to a regular workout several times a week.

Exercise promotes a full body balance. It encourages weight loss, healthy eating, flexibility and an improved self-esteem. If you’ve been feeling out of sync with your body, start a regular exercise routine and you will be feeling great in no time.