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5 Hidden Benefits of Physical Exercise
Benefit of Exercise which may Surprise you!
Fitness Top 5 - November 27th, 2009
5. Improves Wound Healing
 There
are many factors that determine how fast your wounds will heal including diet,
overall health and current medications.
New evidence from recent university studies has shown that exercise can
contribute significantly in wound healing.
One study found that older adults who performed regular exercise sessions wounds
healed 10 days faster than the non- exercisers.
ABC of Wound Healing
4. Improves Sleep
It's not just the marathon or the super intense weekend warrior style workout
which saps your energy to help you sleep.
Exercise has been shown to increase quality of sleep for many different groups
of people.
For insomniacs with Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) exercise has been shown to
reduce the symptoms.
Although regular exercise helps regulate the circadian rhythm and endocrine
function the authors of one study are quick to pint out that their study showed
improved sleep patterns after acute and chronic exercise may be more accentuated
in individuals with some form of sleep disorder than in the general population.
The No Sweat Exercise Plan (A Harvard Medical School Book)
3. Improves Work Productivity
 If
you work in the corporate world you may have wondered why your company has
everything from corporate wellness programs and fitness centers.
The reason is simple, exercise improves employee productivity and reduces time
missed due to illness.
There have been countless studies demonstrating improved work productivity with
regular exercise from all major universities to companies from Coors Brewing
Company to NASA which have concluded a variety of ways regular exercise improves
work productivity.
Ways exercise has been concluded to improve work productivity have ranged from
the ability to perform in the last couple hours of a work day to the ability to
make tough, complex decisions not to mention the fact that employees who
exercise are more likely to avoid becoming sick and using sick time. This
list goes on and on...
2. Improves Sex Life
A significantly large Harvard study which found that
overweight men who exercised little had two and a half times the risk of
Erectile Dysfunction (ED) compared to men who were not overweight and exercise
regularly. The list of these studies which correlate the ED to lack of
exercise goes on and on...
You don't have to be a man suffering from ED for exercise
to benefit your sex life.
One study concluded that men and women who exercise
regularly feel better about themselves, perceive they are more sexually
desirable and experience greater levels of satisfaction.
Built for Sex: The Complete Fitness and Nutrition Program for Maximum
Performance
1. Improves Brain Function
You may already know that about the "Runner's High" people experience after
cardiovascular exercise. This is a short-term physiological process in
which the brain produces opiate drug-like chemicals after exercise.
Physical exercise has been theorized to improve long term brain function by
increasing chemicals in the brain that help cognition, such as dopamine,
glutamate, norepinephrine, and serotonin as well as improve the supply of blood
and oxygen to the brain.
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