If there’s one magic bullet to being healthy, and wise, it’s exercise. So the next time you think that you’ll just work out tomorrow, check this list of research-proven facts to remind yourself to get moving today!
- Physical activity helps you lose weight by burning calories, boosting resting metabolism, and buffering you from bone and muscle loss that can result if you diet alone.
- High levels of physical activity can decrease your risk of colon cancer by 40-50%.
- Exercise helps you get better sleep. In one study, people who walked more than 6 blocks a day had one-third fewer insomnia problems than their less active cohorts.
- Walking just 30 minutes, 5 days a week, can increase your life span by 1 ½ years. Turn that inito running and it may add up to 4 years. That’s the conclusion of a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which showed it’s never too late to increase longevity.
- Half-hour aerobic sessions 3-5 times a week have shown to cut symptoms of mild to moderate depression nearly in half. One study suggests that exercise can be as effective as drugs in treating major depressive disorder.
- Brisk walking for just an hour or two a week can reduce the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women by nearly 20 percent. And for those who already have the disease, walking 3-5 hours a week may reduce the chance of dying from it by as much as 50 percent.