Movement Motivation

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. ~Carol Welch

Being a mom keeps me very busy, yet I make it a priority to find time each day for movement.  I am a firm believer that everyone can fit fitness into their daily routine.  We need to make movement a priority and treat it as an important awesome stress reliever that it is.

Studies recommend that you should move each day.  I am sure you are familiar with the saying, "you need to walk 10,000 steps a day”.  Life is busy.  Life is constantly moving forward.  We should take care of our body.  We need to move. 

Technology today has many of us (myself included) stuck on our hiney’s all day long: at the computer, on our phone, watching the television, etc.  We have become a lazy society and have lost our movement motivation.  We need to move.

Why am I such an advocate for cardio/aerobic exercise? It is fun! It helps your overall well being and well, quite frankly, this is where some serious calorie burning comes into play!!

What is aerobic exercise?

It is any kind of rhythmic, continuous exercise that causes you to consume a large amount of oxygen for an extended period of time.

What are the benefits of aerobic exercise?

• Endurance. When you workout, you begin to train your lungs to deliver oxygen and your heart to pump out greater amounts of blood to carry that oxygen to your muscles. With regular exercise, you will be able to perform without gasping for air or tiring after a few minutes, thus increasing your endurance.
• Your body produces aerobic enzymes which help you burn more fat!
• Aerobic exercise increases your metabolism and creates a leaner body.
• Aerobic exercise increases HDL (good) cholesterol and reduces blood pressure, increases insulin sensitivity, and seems to provide some protection against cancer.
• Increasing circulation can also help your skin and hair stay healthy.
• Aerobic exercise releases certain brain chemicals that reduce stress hormones.
• You burn calories!!
• When you have an intense workout – you can temporarily boost your metabolism post exercise (called the after burn).
• When you get very fit, the rate at which you burn calories stays elevated permanently!!
• You change your metabolism!!

There are many questions regarding how OFTEN and how LONG and how HARD do you need to workout. I think it all depends on what results you seek. If your goal is to reduce your risk of disease and keep your heart and lungs strong three days a week is a great start.

Basically, it is very important for you to move your body each and every day!!

What are you doing to reap the benefits of aerobic exercise?