Why is Exercise Important?
Why is exercise important anyway? Can’t I lose weight without it? Why should I add it to my post-bariatric plan?
Well, yes. The majority of weight loss is lost in the kitchen with what we put into our bodies. But exercise goes far beyond just burning calories. Fun fact, the majority of the calories we burn daily come from just existing (breathing, organ function, digesting food). And the rest comes from our general daily movements (cooking, cleaning, walking around your house/work, typing, gestures, fidgeting, etc). Only 10% comes from focused daily movement like exercise.
But, exercise has SO many more benefits than weight loss or calorie burn. It can help improve our health and longevity in so many ways. Here are just a few!
Mental Health
Exercise is so important for our mental health, first and foremost. This doesn’t mean that you have to run to get a runner high (although exercise in all forms does release serotonin), but if you enjoy the exercise that you are doing it will make you happier, and you will continue to do it. Regular exercise has SO many benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety and helping alleviate depression symptoms (especially if you are exercising outside in the sunlight). It can be an outlet and a coping skill for when you really want to eat or self-harm instead. And it can be a great opportunity for self-reflection and alone time.
2. Physical Health
Exercise of course helps with your physical health in SO many ways. Movement in general helps with lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol, it helps keep blood sugar levels even, it helps with heart health and getting better sleep. It also helps with mobility and pain management. There are so many benefits to getting regular exercise of some kind. It is recommended to get at least 150 mins of exercise a week (30 mins a day) where you elevate your heart rate. This can be as simple as a walk, but it can be whatever exercise or activity you find enjoyable. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t stick with it!
3. Sleep
Sleep is key for SO many bodily functions. If you are short on sleep, your body will naturally burn more carbs for energy, you’ll crave carbs/sweets more, your blood sugar levels won’t be steady, your metabolism slows down, and your overall bodily functions suffer. If you get enough sleep, your body recovers faster and functions at a much better level, helping you lose weight. We often lose sight of just how much of an impact sleep has on our weight loss/health journeys! And exercise helps you sleep better. It won’t make you go to bed any earlier, but when you get enough exercise, you’ll sleep better and deeper which helps our bodies to recover and rebuild muscle and tissues. The recommended daily amount of sleep for an adult is 7-9 hours a day.
4. Chronic disease improvement
Exercise can help manage chronic diseases and even reverse certain ones. Some chronic diseases are genetic, and in this case, won’t go away once you are presenting with symptoms. Take Type 1 Diabetes for example. Once someone is diagnosed, there isn’t a way to reverse the condition, however, regular exercise can help manage blood sugar levels over time and make managing the disease a bit easier. For other conditions, like type 2 diabetes, we may be able to reverse the disease with management through diet and exercise, and even weight loss surgery! Exercise can help lower blood sugar levels, especially taking a quick 10-minute walk immediately after eating a meal can help keep your blood sugars from spiking too high. Exercise can help balance hormones (be wary of too much intense exercise, as this can have the opposite effect), and lower high cholesterol. If you suffer from POTS or low blood pressure, regular exercise that uses both the upper and lower body can help to circulate the blood and reduce symptoms of dizziness and vertigo. Sometimes regular movement can be hard with a chronic disease, but even a simple walk daily can improve your symptoms and help you manage the disease long term.
5. Mobility as we age
As we age, our mobility and flexibility can decline. Our muscles and tendons and bones deteriorate and we lose the bodily function we once had in our youth. Regular exercise, particularly resistance training, can improve that function, support joints long-term, prevent falls and injuries, and even help rebuild and strengthen bones. Exercise has been shown to help reduce the likelihood of injury, keeping people mobile and living independently longer. It has also been shown to reduce or even reverse osteoporosis and muscle deterioration. It also has been shown to help cognitive function, keeping our minds sharper for longer! I could go on and on about the importance of exercise for our longevity and health, but you get the point!
5. Living the life we love
If you had weight loss surgery, or are on a weight loss/health journey, you usually have some sort of goal. That could be as simple as playing with your children or grandchildren or going on a walk with a friend, walking around Disney without needing a wheelchair for assistance, or just generally being able to live a life free from pain. You might have a goal to run a marathon or travel the world or skydive. Whatever your reason, regular exercise makes these things easier, less painful, and more rewarding. Being able to squat, bend, reach, and get down on the floor easily and painlessly is something that we all don’t realize we took for granted until we suddenly couldn’t anymore. Regaining our health also means regaining our functionality, and exercise can help us perform these tasks with greater ease. Living your best life doesn’t mean you have to be a gym junkie! You simply need to move your body daily, focus on functional movements like squats and lunges, and make sure that you are working on those movements and things that you enjoy doing.
6. Pain management from past injuries
Exercise can be scary or daunting, especially if you have past injuries. When we hurt ourselves, sometimes those injuries like to stick around long term, making it very difficult to exercise or move in the future without pain. And when we injure ourselves doing something we love, or even lifting weights, it makes that activity that much more daunting to restart! But exercise, resistance training, and moving the injured joint slowly and with purpose can help us regain mobility, reduce pain over time, and help us regain some of the life we may have lost due to the injury. But of course, working out with an injury is no easy task. Starting slow, consulting with a personal trainer or even a physical therapist depending on the level of injury, is key to regaining your stability. It’s scary, and if something hurts, then you stop. Never exercise an injured joint/limb when there is sharp/stabbing pain. Dull pain can turn into sharp pain with overuse. But slow, specified movements while uncomfortable, shouldn’t cause undue pain long term, and over time may in fact improve pain levels.
Worried about where to start? Unsure about how to get back into exercise, or what exercises you should be focusing on? That’s where a personal trainer comes into play. My job is to help guide you on your journey. Sometimes we start out with the very basics, which can be frustrating for some, but building a solid strong foundation is how we prevent injury and get where we really plan to go.
Exercise and improving health don’t happen overnight. Just like losing weight doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes we expect immediate results, and if we don’t see those results, then we quit or give up. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the body/ability you want takes consistency and time to achieve. Show up for yourself and your health every day and you’ll get there! And I can help you!
