Exercise has many effects.

What happens when you exercise?

Your heart beats faster. Blood circulation increases and more nutrients are sent throughout your body. You may feel hot and start to sweat. Mental stress seems to disappear, you feel a light mental high from endorphins and you feel a strong sense of pride afterwards.

Some people are really fond of exercise. They make it a daily habit. Have you ever wondered what happens to your body when you exercise? 

We should all know that exercise makes you healthy and improves your efficiency in all areas of your life. Here are a few ways that it helps you out in a mental, emotional and physical way.

What are benefits of exercise?

1. Improves blood circulation
2. Reduces mental stress
3. Improves mood and makes you happier
4. Makes you sleep better
5. Reduces the risk of many diseases
6. Improves confidence and helps you to feel relaxed
7. Makes the heart strong
8. Exercise actually makes you a wiser person

Exercise is so good for you.

1. Improves blood circulation

There are many effects of exercise on the heart. When you exercise, your body needs more nutrients and your heart pumps blood faster throughout your body. This ultimately results in hotness and sweating. Non-exercising organs like your brain, skin and liver benefit from this extra blood flow.

2. Exercise reduces mental stress

If a person exercises regularly, it will reduce mental stress hormones like cortisol. It will also increase happy hormones like endorphins and serotonin. Endorphins interact with the receptors in the brain to reduce your perception of pain. This goes for both mental emotional and physical pain. Endorphins and serotonin also trigger a positive feeling in your body.

3. Exercise improves your mood and makes you happier

A lot of research has shown that people who exercise are happier than those who do not. It is because of the dopamine and serotonin (happy) hormones that get elevated naturally through exercise.

Our emotional state needs exercise.

4. Exercise helps with better sleep

Physical activity improves sleep quality and increases deep sleep duration. Exercise may also bolster sleep in other ways because it reduces stress and tires you out.

5. Exercise reduces the risk of some diseases

Regular physical activity improves overall health, fitness and quality of life. It also helps in reducing several diseases like cancer, anxiety, depression, heart disease and diabetes. 

6. Exercise self-improves confidence and makes you feel relaxed

Regular exercise can increase self-confidence by improving body image. While exercising, you're likely to strengthen and tone your body. Seeing these results can greatly improve your self-esteem and help you feel better about the way that you look.

7. Exercise makes your heart strong

Just as exercise strengthens other muscles in your body, it helps your heart muscle become more efficient and better able to pump blood throughout your body. This means that the heart pushes out more blood with each beat, allowing it to beat slower and keep your blood pressure under control.

8. Exercise makes you wiser

During exercise our body releases endorphins which increase the ability of the brain to sort out priorities. It allows us to concentrate and block out distractions. It improves your capacity of remembering and hence you will start to remember more things than before.

Your brain needs exercise.

What happens when you don't exercise?

1. Skin looks horrible without blood circulation
2. Shortness of breath and poor cardio-vascular health
3. Sleeping issues
4. Brain fog and mental decline
5. You get sick more often
6. Muscles get weaker over time

No exercise will harm your health.

1. A bad complexion

Exercise improves blood circulation. Skin cells get the nourishment that they need through exercise. If you don’t exercise, you will have more wrinkles and acne. You will also have a dull face.

2. Shortness of breath

If you don’t exercise, your body will get tired after doing a small amount of work like a short flight of stairs or running for the bus. Even cleaning your house will have you taking breaks to catch your breath. Simple tasks become much bigger chores than what they actually are.

3. Sleepless nights

If you don’t use your energy throughout the day, you’ll have a hard time going into sleep mode even though you feel tired and lethargic.

4. Mental fog

Your brain won’t be on the top of its game if it doesn’t get enough oxygen and other important nutrients (because of poor blood circulation and shortness of breath). Without regular exercise, you will find it harder to concentrate at work. Suppose, you came into your room and you forgot why you came?

5. More sick days

If you are living a lazy or lethargic lifestyle, you are going to suffer through more sick days because your immune system is not as strong as it should be.

6. Weak muscles

Without exercise you’ll find it difficult to hold a grocery bag. Even standing for a long time will wear you out. You will feel the constant need to get more rest.

Conclusion

After reading this, I really hope that you understand why it is so important to exercise regularly. I’d like thank all my readers who stand to benefit from this article. Stay blessed!

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Is water wet or not?

Not all fluids keep you hydrated

The importance of proper hydration

The health benefits of water are undeniable. Every cell in your body needs water to function. Cells need substantial hydration levels to function at their best. Your body uses water to detoxify itself. Dehydration is a major cause of a variety of symptoms like headaches, fatigue, poor sleep quality, indigestion and constipation.

Dehydration may lead to weight gain

Dehydration can lead to weight gain. This happens because fat metabolism occurs within the liver. When the liver does not have enough water to clean itself and the rest of the body, it will struggle to perform some of its most important tasks. This is clearly demonstrated by the way that repeated excessive alcohol consumption will lead to cirrhosis (liver damage). Healthy livers are better at metabolizing fat into usable energy. This is why drinking more water is one of my top methods to reduce body fat.

Fatty liver disease

A fatty liver, or hepatic steatosis, is a disease where too much fat has accumulated in the liver. Diet and exercise plays a key role in preventing the development of fatty liver disease. Water does too because it helps the liver to keep itself clean. Water is your liver's best friend.

Drinking the right liquids is essential for optimum health: Many popular drinks won't help to keep you hydrated 

Drinks with too much sugar won't hydrate you

The best way to re-hydrate is to consume enough liquids. The type of liquid that you drink will determine whether or not it will hydrate you. Sodas that are high in sugar, for example, will have a positive effect on hydration. These drinks can actually dehydrate you even more. The reason for this is because your body will need more water to dilute all of that sugar.

It would take 69 liters of water to dilute 500 ml of soda into normal blood glucose levels

Your body has around 5 liters of blood at any given time. Less than a teaspoon (4 grams) of sugar should be in that blood. Compare that to 11 grams of sugar per 100 grams in the average soda. This means that the average soda has 137.5 times more sugar than what is normally found in your blood per milliliter. By that math, it would take 69 liters of water to dilute the sugar content of 500 milliliters of soda to natural blood glucose levels. Of course, most of the sugar isn't diluted. It is quickly stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver or converted to fat to correct the blood-sugar balance. For this reason, drinks that are high in sugar do not hydrate the body very well.

Drinks that are high in unhealthy ingredients like colorants and artificial flavors also have a dehydrating effect on your body

Think about this: Your pee is a lot lighter than the unhealthy drinks that you consume with darker colors. That means that more water is needed to wash away all of these nasty colorants. More water is also needed to cleanse the body from the unhealthy flavorings that aren't reflected in a dink's color. Since more water is redirected to the detoxification process to clear out all of these negative ingredients, less of it is used to replenish the body's hydration stores.

For the above reasons, making sure that your hydration methods contain less harmful ingredients will increase your body's ability to use that water.

Bonus water and hydration tips

It is possible to drink too much water

Your body loses a lot of water through sweat, detoxification, breathing (water vapor is released every time you exhale) and the metabolizing of many chemical and hormonal processes in the body. This is why you should make sure that you give your body enough water to do everything without hindrance. It is also possible, though, to be drinking too much water. This could dilute your blood so much that its nutrient content drops. Too much water can also wash away precious nutrients. Learn more about the possibility of drinking too much water here. 

Dehydration reduces physical performance

Dehydration could be the primary cause of why you might feel cold or sick after exercise (click the links to see more possible causes).

Water is not the only good thing that you lose through sweat

Sweating is beneficial because it helps the body to get rid of toxins and replenish skin health. You need to replenish the good things that sweat causes your body to lose, such as water. Water is not the only thing you lose through sweat. You also lose precious electrolytes and minerals - which also need to be replaced.

Spice up your hydration without consuming unhealthy drinks

Try eating more healthy foods that are naturally hydrating like lettuce and spinach. Add lemon to your water for more health benefits or exchange unhealthy drinks for healthier alternatives like green tea.

You might not think that a single can of soda or an alcoholic beverage will impact your health that much, but these habits become addictive very quickly. These choices might feel like one drop in the pond, until we realize that the entire pond is made up of little drops. Stay Strong!

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The good things you lose through sweat

Sweating is very good for you. It helps to eliminate toxins, hydrates the skin, opens up pores and even boosts immune function because of the increased body temperature that kills off unwanted germs that can’t survive in hotter environments.

As much as sweating is beneficial, too much of it can be harmful. Too much sweating can lead to the loss of precious nutrients. The biggest one of these is water. It is always important to make sure that you drink enough water during strenuous exercise to keep hydrated. Your body needs water to eliminate toxins like lactic acid during exercise and bring fresh nutrients to the muscles.

Water is not the only healthy nutrient that your body loses while you sweat. Your body also loses electrolytes through sweat. Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge. Electrolytes are water soluble, which means that they can be lost when you lose water (through sweat, urination, vomiting, diarrhea etc.). The most important electrolytes are sodium, potassium, chloride (chlorine), calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.

These electrolytes circulate throughout our bloodstreams and internal water supplies in order to perform their functions. Here is a basic overview on each electrolyte:

Sodium

We often associate sodium with salt, which is actually a combination of sodium and chloride (the scientific name for salt is sodium chloride). While most people have too much sodium (and sweating helps to drop sodium levels), it is actually a very important electrolyte. Sodium helps us to hold onto liquids. Without it, water would flow through our bodies without being absorbed. That is why people with low blood pressure need to increase sodium intake while people with high blood pressure need to decrease sodium intake. Sodium allows our bloodstream and organs to hold onto and use water and function properly. Your muscles also need sodium to function. Low sodium levels can lead to poor blood circulation, feeling light-headed, pains and cramps, headaches and a lack of energy.

Potassium

Potassium is the 3rd most abundant mineral in the body (at around the same amount as sulfur and chlorine) after calcium and phosphorus. It is needed to sustain life and needed for all organs to function. Potassium aids hormone regulation and blood vessel health. It also helps to balance liquid and electrolyte levels and aids in controlling blood pressure. It is necessary for gastrointestinal health and keeping acid-to-base ratios in check. It works with glucose and insulin usage. Heart, lung and kidney diseases are prevalent where potassium levels are too high or too low. Diets higher in potassium are associated with better blood pressure, less hypertension and less stroke risk. Most people living in the western world are potassium deficient.

A healthy diet usually allows for enough potassium consumption (although people who follow unhealthy diets usually don’t get enough). Sweating too much can potentially lead to lowered potassium, which can lead to muscle weakness, slower reflexes and digestive problems.

Chloride (Chlorine)

Chloride is a negatively charged form of chlorine –this is the form it takes when in the body. Chlorine works with sodium and water to allow for the flow of fluid. It is also crucial for digestion and most chlorine is found in your red blood cells. Chlorine helps the liver detox waste products and is also used to maintain the correct acid-base balance. It is stored in the kidneys. Although chlorine deficiency is of little concern in general, excessive water loss via profuse sweating, vomiting or diarrhea can create a chlorine deficiency, which can lead to potassium loss, low fluid volumes and an altered acid-base balance.

Calcium

Calcium is the most abundant electrolyte most of it is used in the bones. Small amounts are also used for cell signalling (coordinating cells to work together), blood clotting, muscle contraction (intra-cellular calcium causes muscle contraction while the removal of it causes the muscle to relax) and nerve function. Your entire nervous system depends on calcium. Calcium is present in every cell of your body. Calcium is also used to find dead cells and stop the body from wasting resources by repairing what is already dead. Calcium is also needed for brain growth and development. Lowered calcium levels can lead to lack of energy, bone, skin, and hair and nail problems, tingling or numb sensations and cramps.

Magnesium

This electrolyte is involved in over 300 enzyme system and biochemical processes in the body. These processes include protein synthesis, energy production, energy expenditure, muscle function, glucose level regulation, and blood pressure mechanisms. Most people don’t have enough magnesium and sweating further reduces magnesium levels. Low magnesium can lead to muscle weakness, ticks, twitches and tremors, spasms and cramps, depression and chronically low energy levels. Legumes and leafy greens are generally good sources of magnesium.

Phosphorus

Although most of us get enough phosphorus through our everyday diet, water loss can decrease phosphorus levels. This can lead to fatigue and weakness, irritability or anxiety, weight and appetite changes, nerve numbness and stiff joints and bone problems.

The effects of loss of these minerals shows that decreasing physical performance can be linked to the amount of fluids we lose during exercise.  Since we lose more than just water through sweat, we need to make sure that we look after our bodies and replace what is lost through proper hydration and nutrition. Stay Strong!

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The Health Benefits of Sweating

You sweat while you work out, while in the sauna and throughout the day because of heat. Sweat is the body’s way of cooling the body down because of the cooling effect when water evaporates from the skin. In the cave man era, humans were able to run for long periods of time - longer than most animals – because their ability to sweat. Sweating prevented them from overheating, which would lead to collapsing, feinting and even death.

Sweat is smelly and unattractive, but is essential for life. Here are a few benefits of sweating:

• Sweating Prevents Death. 

This is because of its ability to cool the body down. If humans could not sweat, then more than 70% of the human population would die within one week. Scary statistics…

• Sweating helps to detox the body. 

Sweating allows the body to release some of the toxins that it needs to expel through the skin. This detox method can release up to 30% of the toxins and impurities that the kidneys and liver would otherwise have to deal with. This eases the burden on the kidneys and liver, allowing them to perform more of their other bodily functions like energy, nutrient and hormone control, metabolism and release.

• Sweating is good for the skin. 

Sweating opens up the skin so that it can receive some of the nutrients and minerals from within. This includes lipids and oils that moisturizes dry skin and also allows the skin to release excess oils that might cause pimples and blackheads. People who sweat more often have better looking skin than those who sweat less.

• Sweating can be used as an indicator to the level of effort used during exercise. 

Although people sweat differently (i.e. some people sweat less after high intensities of exercise while others sweat a lot even when they are not exercising.), without sweat people could push past what is safe because we could be overheating without realizing it. The dangerous effects of overheating progress until death.

• Sweating decreases water retention. 

Sweating gives the body an opportunity to get rid of some of the excess water under the skin. This excess water looks like cellulite, can make people look bloated and hides muscle definition. Sweating also gets rid of sodium, which is an important mineral but can cause health problems. People who follow a typical westernized diet consume too much sodium (the amount of sodium needed is 2400 mg. The average American consumes 7800 mg a day).


People who don’t engage in exercise and therefore don’t sweat often enough tend to have higher levels of toxins in their bodies. They are also more prone to duller looking skin which is more likely to breakouts with pimples or blackheads or whiteheads, rashes, redness, inflammation and flaking.
As healthy as sweating is, sweating too much can cause the body to lose precious nutrients like water and electrolytes that the body cannot survive without. Make sure to replenish water whenever you sweat to stay hydrated and eat a good diet that is rich in minerals and electrolytes. Mineral and electrolyte dense foods are foods like fresh, raw produce (like vegetables, leafy greens, fruit, seeds, nuts) red and white meat, fish and seafood.
It is commonly believed that those who sweat more are healthier than those sweat less. The fitter you become, the more you will sweat as one of the ways that your body becomes more adept at cooling itself down.

Sweating might not be the best thing for your image and it might make you feel uncomfortable, but at least you know that it is a healthy thing to do. Keep hydrated and make sure your diet / supplementation includes the minerals and electrolytes that are lost from sweating. STAY STRONG!

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