Five Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercises are also known as the cardiovascular activity is a type of exercise that makes your bigger muscles group of the body working and blood flow pumping at speedier rate while you practice it. You breathe faster and deeper while doing any type of aerobic exercise whether moderate or vigorous which helps to clear out your lungs and improves its functioning ability.

This is the type of exercise that is known for enhancing your overall health fitness including physical and emotional. There are lots of benefits that you get by incorporating this exercise into your day to day life. However, here we are going to discuss the best five benefits of aerobic exercise that anyone can do regardless of age, size, weight, and athletic ability.

Experts suggest everyone to practice aerobic exercise at least 150 minutes in a week for a moderate form of aerobic activities such as brisk walking, swimming, etc, and at least for 75 minutes in a week if you are performing vigorous aerobic activities such as running, cycling, etc.

Some popular aerobic exercises examples that you can easily include in your day to day life routine in order to improve your outer fitness, as well as inner overall health boosts, include swimming, bicycling, walking, spinning, cardio machines, dancing, hiking, kickboxing, cross country skiing, and aerobic classes.

These aerobic exercises increase the level of oxygen in your blood capillaries and release carbon dioxide and lactic acid at a faster rate. Hence, does purification of your organs. By boosting overall organs performance and health it increases your longevity as only an emotional and physical level fit person can survive in this world for a longer duration. Read this article till the end to know more about the aerobic exercises.

How do aerobic exercises work on your body?

While performing any aerobic activity the large muscles group of your body moves repeatedly including your legs, arms, and hips area. This results in quick responses by the entire engaged muscle group.

You start breathing more deeply and speedily which maximizes the level of oxygen in your blood. Your heart starts beating faster which increases the amount of blood supply in your muscles and then back to the lungs. As a result of aerobic activities, the small blood vessels aka capillaries get widen which makes it suitable to supply more amount of oxygen to the entire muscles group and release all waste products at a speedy rate.

Also, aerobic exercises help in releasing more and more quantity of endorphins which acts as a natural pain killer for your body. Hence, increases the feeling of well-being in a person.

Five Benefits of Aerobic Exercises

Here are those top five benefits that you can grab by incorporating aerobic exercises as a fixed part of your daily life routine.

Boosts Cardiovascular Health

The reason why aerobic exercises are popular in the name of cardiovascular exercise is that it primarily works on your heart health. Regular practicing of aerobic exercise helps in strengthening the heart organ and also improves its function that is pumping blood throughout the body more efficiently and smoothly.

Aerobic activities help in relieving health issues which contribute to bad heart health and impact its function such as high blood pressure level, diabetes, high cholesterol level which increases the risk of clotting generation in arteries leading to increased risk of stroke and heart attack that is two leading cause of death worldwide.

This is the reason why aerobic exercises are recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) to every person who comes in the category of a high-risk group or who has already generated certain cardiovascular health concerns to reduce its major health consequences risk which could be life-threatening.

These activities ensure that your heart pumps at an optimal level ensuring proper blood supply rate throughout the body. It raises the level of good cholesterol i.e. High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) and lowers the level of bad cholesterol i.e. Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) in your blood which is vital for clear arteries to ensure fluent blood supply throughout the organs. It also lowers the high blood pressure level which otherwise can lead to different cardiovascular health concerns.

Practicing a minimum 40 minutes moderate to the vigorous form of aerobic exercise at least for 3 to 4 days in a week is enough to lower your high blood pressure and cholesterol level.

Boosts Immune System

Aerobic exercises are also beneficial for your immune health. A study conducted on active and sedentary women to evaluate the impact of aerobic exercises on their immune health. Some of these women were doing a moderate level of aerobic exercises whereas some were doing vigorous whereas some of them were doing no exercise at all.

When results came it was found that women who were practicing moderate but regular aerobic exercises, a significant level of increment seen in antibodies called immunoglobulins in their blood which is known to stimulate immune system function.

On the other hand, women who stayed sedentary in this study period show no improvement in their immune system. Rather than that a noticeable amount of rising seen in cortisol level also known as a stress hormone in their body which is one of the factors that impact your immune health negatively.

That means by incorporating aerobic exercise if not vigorous one then at least moderate ones like walking, brisk walking, etc one can boost their immune health easily and stay healthy even in the unfavorable seasons which bring the risk of generating cold and cough or flu-like fevers.

Improves Brain Power and Function

Most of us carry the misconception regarding the brainpower and function that with age it loses its power and functioning ability. Yes, it is true that after the age of 30 your brain starts losing several healthy tissues as it dies on its own making your memory power and another brain function like quick responses, etc diminishes with age.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t control and prevent this natural brain tissue dying concern associated with aging. It is proved in researches that even in the maturated stage of life new brain tissue growth is possible with the help of different physical exercises. Aerobic exercises are one of those activities that can stimulate the growth of new and healthy brain tissues and reduce the rate by which your brain generally loses its tissues with aging.

This gets possible because different aerobic activities increase the level of blood supply towards the brain. Hence, your brain cells work a much faster and effective way with regard to all kinds of brain functions. Aerobic exercise improves the cognitive ability of a person by slowing down the brain’s tissue loss.

In a study that was conducted on 55 older adults, their MRI report was taken for evaluation before doing any kind of activity. The participants were then asked to practice aerobic exercises and other fitness activities for two weeks’ time.

When their MRI test is done, after this testing period it is seen in the report that older adults who were actively participating in aerobic activities a very less amount of reduction seen in their frontal, parietal and temporal parts of the brain tissues. Also with compare to other groups, their brain tissues were quite robust.

As aerobic exercise work to increase the number of brain tissues and prevent existing tissues from dying by strengthening them so it prevents many brain disease risks. It boosts your mood by increasing the secretion of happy hormones in the brain and relieves the symptoms of depression and anxiety very effectively.

Helps in Regulating Weight

Diet and exercises are two main things that are often suggested by fitness specialists to people who are trying hard to reduce or control their excessive body weight. In this regard, aerobic exercises are worthy to practice as they play an important role in initiating the process of fat burn by the body at a much faster speed than any other exercise.

The best part of aerobic exercise regarding weight loss goal is that it not only helps in reducing your weight dramatically but also keep it off to the limit you decide for yourself. As some daily life activities are nothing but some form of aerobic activity so you will definitely not find it hard to incorporate them in your daily life routine.

In one study the participants (overweight people) were asked to keep their diet plan same but start some aerobic exercises that could burn at least 400 to 600 calories for five days in a week and continue it for 10 months. When results came it was found that all the participants managed to lose their weight by a significant amount from their initial body weight count.

The big benefit of doing aerobic exercise is that you don’t have to start something new in your life or requires joining a gym as at your home only you can do too many aerobic exercise types like treadmill, skipping, swimming, cycling, etc. You can walk up to your bus stop to get your bus for the office instead of taking any other vehicle to reach the bust stop destination.

Likewise, you can get down from your bus one bus stop before and walk till your home which again adds in your aerobic activities, use stairs instead of using a lift, do some gardening work, etc. Adding these small-small activities which are some form of aerobic activity can help a lot in regulating your excessive body weight.

Helps in Getting Sound Sleep

Having difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep throughout the night is one of those issues nowadays by which every other person is affected, either for a few days or persistently for several days. A good night’s sleep is essential for everyone as it is a medium by which your body and mind get the necessary rest after the whole day lots of struggle. Also, night hour sleep is a natural repairing period for your body which it utilizes to heal itself.

So if you face any difficulty in getting sound sleep during night hours then you must try aerobic or cardiovascular exercise as along with many vital benefits it also helps you in falling and staying asleep throughout the night at least for 7 to 8 hours without interruption.

In a study that was conducted on people with chronic-sleep symptoms found that with regular aerobic exercise practices along with proper sleep hygiene incorporation these people effectively managed to get rid of their chronic insomnia health problem. This increased not only the duration of their old sleeping pattern but also enhanced the quality of their sleep.

The result also is seen in other areas of health that get disturbed in the lack of sufficient sleep, like it enhanced general mood, energy level, and overall physical and mental health. However, one should not exercise just before a few hours of sleeping time as it can interfere with your sleeping quality or make it difficult to fall asleep on time. One should finish their aerobic workouts at least 2 hours before their actual sleep time to grab the best possible benefit of this workout.

Does Aerobic Exercise Safe for Everyone?

Though aerobic exercises are suitable for most people but under certain health conditions, you need to take care of some important things to get their positive benefits. Also, in the case of chronic health conditions, it’s better to consult with your doctor first before starting any type of aerobic workout on your own. Things that you need to consider under special situation include-

• Initially, people should start with short duration aerobic exercise practices like for 10 to 20 minutes and once you get accustomed to it, increase your duration. This will help in preventing issues like muscle soreness and fatigue which otherwise can disturb your practices the next day.
• If you have a high blood sugar level then before starting aerobic exercise you should check your blood sugar level and even after finishing the aerobic workout, you must check your sugar level so that it won’t drop down too much creating difficulty for you. If your sugar level drops too low then munching a snack may help to balance it.
• Don’t forget to warm up your body before actually starting the aerobic workout. This is important because warm-up practices prepare your body for the actual workout. It gets more vital in cases where a person has muscle or joint pain issues.
• Wear a good cushioning shoe while heading into your gym as it will keep you comfortable and control your balance throughout the workout session.
• People with certain respiratory health conditions such as asthma should choose the type of aerobic activities with shorter bursts such as baseball, tennis, etc so that their lungs get a good time to rest. Still, if you feel the necessity to use an inhaler in between then don’t delay in its usage.

So along with taking care of above mentioned important points you can really reap the most vital five benefits of aerobic exercise along with many other health benefits that we have not mentioned here as aerobic activities are truly beneficial for improving all areas of your health in a very safe manner.

[expand title=”View Article Sources“]

• https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/benefits-of-aerobic-exercise#takeaway
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/aerobic-exercise/art-20045541

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