There is no doubt that lifestyle plays an extremely important role in maintaining mental and physical well-being for years to come. Physical activity is one of the most important components of lifestyle, as it has a well-documented health-promoting effect on the human body. Let's explore 5 key reasons why you should exercise regularly.

• Exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness
• Exercise benefits mental health
• Exercise increases tissue sensitivity to insulin
• Exercise reduces the risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases
• Regular exercise improves physical and functional fitness

Exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness

Cardiorespiratory fitness commonly measured by maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is the best indicator of a person's physical fitness and an important predictor of overall mortality and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, as well as cancer. Cardiorespiratory fitness shows an individual's ability to transport oxygen from the external atmosphere up to the mitochondria, which includes respiratory, cardiovascular and muscular functions. Low VO2max is a well-known independent risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. It has been shown that men who started regular exercise and achieved high VO2 max values reduced their risk of death by about 50% over the following 8 years. Systematic exercise improves many factors that affect cardiovascular fitness, including but not limited to: oxygen transport capacity (e.g., cardiac minute volume), oxygen diffusion to working muscles (e.g., capillary density, cell membrane permeability, myoglobin content of muscle) and ATP generation (e.g., mitochondrial density, protein concentration).

Exercise benefits mental health

Another reason to exercise is the positive effect of exercise on mental health. Studies have shown that regular exercise is an effective method of improving mental health, as it reduces the level of stress experienced and reduces tension, anxiety, symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders. Exercise can also increase the rate of abstinence and reduce symptoms of withdrawal, anxiety and depression, and improve cognitive performance and quality of life in people addicted to psychoactive substances, especially alcohol and drugs.

Exercise increases tissue sensitivity to insulin

Regular exercise helps improve many parameters of carbohydrate metabolism and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by improving glucose tolerance and tissue sensitivity to insulin. Substances released by skeletal muscles during exercise - myokines show anti-inflammatory effects, increase fatty acid oxidation, enhance glucose uptake by skeletal muscle tissue, and improve insulin secretion and tissue sensitivity to the hormone.

Exercise reduces the risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases

Systematic exercise reduces resting heart rate, blood pressure and the concentration of atherogenic (atherosclerotic) lipid markers, such as total cholesterol, lipoprotein fraction LDL (so-called "bad" cholesterol), non-HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Exercise, on the other hand, increases physiological cardiac hypertrophy and the concentration of HDL fraction lipoproteins (the so-called "good" cholesterol), and improves myocardial perfusion, or blood flow through the heart. All these parameters result in a reduction in cardiac workload and improved cardiovascular function in both healthy and sick people. Studies have shown that long-term physical activity is associated with reduced inflammatory markers, improved cardiometabolic parameters and reduced risk of heart failure, as well as improved overall survival time in patients suffering from chronic and life-threatening diseases. Regular exercise contributes to improved vascular endothelial function, increased cardiac ejection fraction and exercise tolerance, and improved quality of life and reduced cardiovascular mortality, and even more so in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Regular exercise improves physical and functional fitness

Yet another reason to exercise is to increase muscle mass, strength and power, and improve physical and functional fitness for basic activities of daily living. Regular strength exercises that strengthen muscles are now recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for all age groups at least twice a week, as they provide additional health benefits. Regular muscle-strengthening strength exercises are extremely important for stabilizing balance and improving motor coordination and muscle strength, and even more so in the elderly to reduce the risk of falls. In addition, studies have shown that systematic strength exercise has a beneficial effect on bone mineral density, body composition, symptoms of frailty syndrome, risk factors for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, and life expectancy.

Sources:

• Ruegsegger GN, Booth FW: Health Benefits of Exercise. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2018 Jul 2;8(7):a029694.

• Wang Y, Ashokan K.: Physical Exercise: An Overview of Benefits From Psychological Level to Genetics and Beyond. Front Physiol. 2021 Aug 12;12:731858.

• Warburton DER, Bredin SSD.: Health benefits of physical activity: a systematic review of current systematic reviews. Curr Opin Cardiol. 2017 Sep;32(5):541-556.

• Pinckard K, Baskin KK, Stanford KI: Effects of Exercise to Improve Cardiovascular Health. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2019 Jun 4;6:69.

• Giménez-Meseguer J, Tortosa-Martínez J, Cortell-Tormo JM.: The Benefits of Physical Exercise on Mental Disorders and Quality of Life in Substance Use Disorders Patients. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 May 23;17(10):3680.