Why Fitness is Medicine & How You Can Start Using it as One

By Amelia Spence

Why Fitness is Medicine—and How You Can Start Using it as One

In today’s world, we are bombarded with medications we must take to secure our health, including vitamins, vaccines, and supplements. These are sophisticated solutions to optimize our well-being. However, an underrated means of improving our health is well within reach, with no prescription or purchase required: Exercise. Moving your body has numerous health benefits, yet this article from Forbes shows that only 28% of Americans exercise enough. If you’re reluctant to work out, consider the following positive health outcomes that make fitness the best medicine—and what you can do to leverage that.

Why fitness is medicine

It prevents chronic illness

No one wants to land a long-term, painful condition. If you exercise, some of the most common ones—including type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer—get circumvented. Physical exertion has natural perks like improving glucose levels and triggering positive changes in blood vessels, which serve to block some of the causes of these ailments.

It enhances your mental well-being

Fitness can heal the mind as well as the body. This piece from Walden University notes that exercise releases endorphins—your body’s feel-good hormone that lets you experience euphoria while simultaneously lessening symptoms of anxiety and depression.

It boosts your overall health

Exercise prompts the production of cytokines and chemokines, proteins that boosts your immune system and makes it faster to respond to infections. This overview from Right as Rain posits that it can even support vaccinations, which build upon your immune system by strengthening the antibody response following the procedure.

How to start using fitness as medicine

Get the recommended amount of physical activity

This recommendation from the World Health Organization suggests that you get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intense physical exercise per week or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. Think of this as the advised dosage of medicine for your body. However, don’t let those guidelines scare you if you’re used to being sedentary. It’s essential to take small steps when starting out. You can begin by setting short, manageable goals involving easy physical activities, like walking around your neighborhood for 5 minutes daily or dancing to an upbeat song. You can intensify your exercise after integrating physical activity into your routine.

Recover after exercising

Recovery is essential for making exercise an effective medicine. It allows your body time to rest, reducing inflammation and easing soreness and muscle fatigue. Take it easy during your rest days—but don’t forget to practice good posture even while relaxing. Not doing so can undermine your workouts, weakening your core muscles, stiffening your shoulders and neck, and causing poor blood circulation. To supplement your efforts, this guide from Pain Free Working finds that standing desk converters can help relieve pressure on your body and promote movement, allowing you to switch between sitting and standing positions. Meanwhile, ergonomic chairs can support proper sitting posture and prevent musculoskeletal disorders. Aside from this, get plenty of sleep and eat protein and carbohydrates to support your exercise recovery better.

Hire a personal trainer

Remember that fitness is an effective medicine only if you keep taking it. It’s far too easy to let your goals fall by the wayside—which is why you might want to consider integrating some built-in accountability into your fitness goals. To do this, you can hire a personal trainer. This blog post details the many benefits of our program in particular. Not only do we provide you with a qualified professional that can offer you guidance, encouragement, and a workout plan customized to your needs and goals—we also combine strength training, cardio, and nutrition coaching to grant you a holistic health plan. Furthermore, we understand that flexibility is a must in today’s busy world, and we offer online personal training as an option. Since fitness is a medicine, you deserve to have it accessible and tailored to you.

Exercise is one of the simplest ways to promote your health. It is truly a valuable medicine—one you can get just by standing up and moving.

Content intended only for the use of redefine-fitness.com

Written by Amelia Spence