If one is looking for a way to improve overall health and wellness, exercise is one of the best ways to do it. Not only does it help in becoming physically better, but it can have a positive impact on emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Below are some key benefits of regular exercise:
- It can help deal better with stress and depression (Ensari, Sandroff and Motl, no date; Basso and Suzuki, 2017)
- It is good for bone health (AGOSTINETE et al., 2020)
- It helps burn calories and hence helps in weight loss
- It helps build muscles and get stronger
- It can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disorders (Pinckard, Baskin and Stanford, 2019)
- Helps regulate cholesterol levels (Mann, Beedie and Jimenez, 2014)
- Helps reduce blood pressure (Pescatello et al., 2015)
- Helps improve sex life (Jiannine, 2018)
The above benefits are just a few of the benefits of exercise but are not limited to them.
Exercise is usually done just to get stronger or build stamina but looking at its effect on other areas of life like helping in improving mood, lowering stress levels, and boosting self-esteem, all of which are key aspects in improving the quality of life, it would make so much sense to include exercise as a part of day-to-day life.
It is obviously clear that exercise can be very helpful in maintaining a good quality of life but too much exercise could have a negative effect if the recovery of the body is not taken care of. Doing too much is not good when it comes to exercise. One must keep a balance between adequate sleep, rest, and nutrition.
If the goal is to exercise for general well-being, here is a workout split that could help:
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Body Resistance Training 40-60 minutes | Cardio20-40 minutes at low-intensity | Full Body Resistance Training 40-60 minutes | Cardio20-40 minutes at low intensity | Full Body Resistance Training 40-60 minutes | Cardio20-40 minutes at low intensity | Rest |
Note: More rest days can be taken and cardio can be limited to 2 days a week if this routine is too overwhelming. Also, it is important to focus on making day-to-day life more active in general which can be done by taking stairs, walking more, moving more, take stretching breaks at work. etc.
We need to remember that we are here to have a good quality of life which is not possible without having exercise as a part of our lifestyle. It is good to include exercise in a way that is more sustainable for you specifically.
References
- AGOSTINETE, R. R. et al. (2020) ‘Categorizing 10 Sports According to Bone and Soft Tissue Profiles in Adolescents’, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 52(12), pp. 2673–2681. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002420.
- Basso, J. C. and Suzuki, W. A. (2017) ‘The Effects of Acute Exercise on Mood, Cognition, Neurophysiology, and Neurochemical Pathways: A Review’, Brain Plasticity, 2(2), pp. 127–152. doi: 10.3233/BPL-160040.
- Berger, B. G. and Tobar, D. A. (2007) ‘Physical Activity and Quality of Life: Key Considerations’, in Handbook of Sport Psychology. Wiley, pp. 598–620. doi: 10.1002/9781118270011.ch27.
- Ensari, I., Sandroff, B. M. and Motl, R. W. (no date) ‘Effects of Single Bouts of Walking Exercise and Yoga on Acute Mood Symptoms in People with Multiple Sclerosis.’, International journal of MS care, 18(1), pp. 1–8. doi: 10.7224/1537-2073.2014-104.
- Gill, D. L. et al. (2011) ‘Quality of Life Assessment for Physical Activity and Health Promotion’, Applied Research in Quality of Life, 6(2), pp. 181–200. doi: 10.1007/s11482-010-9126-2.
- Gill, D. L. et al. (2013) ‘Physical activity and quality of life.’, Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi, 46 Suppl 1, pp. S28-34. doi: 10.3961/jpmph.2013.46.S.S28.
- Jiannine, L. (2018) ‘An investigation of the relationship between physical fitness, self-concept, and sexual functioning’, Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 7(1), p. 57. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_157_17.
- Mann, S., Beedie, C. and Jimenez, A. (2014) ‘Differential effects of aerobic exercise, resistance training and combined exercise modalities on cholesterol and the lipid profile: review, synthesis and recommendations.’, Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 44(2), pp. 211–21. doi: 10.1007/s40279-013-0110-5.
- Pescatello, L. S. et al. (2015) ‘Exercise for Hypertension: A Prescription Update Integrating Existing Recommendations with Emerging Research’, Current Hypertension Reports, 17(11), p. 87. doi: 10.1007/s11906-015-0600-y.
- Pinckard, K., Baskin, K. K. and Stanford, K. I. (2019) ‘Effects of Exercise to Improve Cardiovascular Health’, Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 6. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2019.00069.
