Exercise your right to exercise

School is back and in full swing with early mornings and late nights. This can mean two things: motivation starts to go down and stress begins to go up. More often than not, stress tends to take over and students start to slack on things like eating properly, getting healthy amounts of sleep and exercising. These are all important, but exercise is what tends to get cut out first. While many may ask why this is so important, saying they already get enough activity or live a healthy lifestyle, exercise can have many benefits, more, in fact, than one might think.

Exercise can actually help with managing some of the stress that school causes. According to a study conducted by the APA, 53% of teens reported feeling better about themselves after a workout. Along with that, 40% were in a good mood afterward and 32% had less feelings of stress post-exercising. The reason for this is simple: exercising releases many endorphins and “feel good” hormones. Many mental health organizations also mention exercise as a great way to deal with stress and to escape life. Exercising is one of the best ways to deal with stress. Not only does it prevent bad habits, such as over or under eating and self harm, but it also has benefits for our bodies and overall health. The National Sleep Foundation mentions another benefit of exercise- the fact that it can improve sleep quality. A study from the NSF shows, that moderately intense exercise, such as a jog, is linked to improved sleep. Exercise also has the benefit of keeping people healthy when done consistently, and paired with the right lifestyle. Exercise is important for many reasons, but sometimes it can be difficult to find a place to start.

There are many great ways to exercise. There is a huge variety, and because of this, there is something for everyone. There are ways to exercise at home, at a low cost, with a group, or with a gym membership. Running is a simple, great way to workout. However, there are some things that must been done in order to reap the benefits of running (and most workouts). The workout must be done for a minimum of 30 minutes, about five times per week. In total, people should reach for about 150 minutes of effective exercise per week. This can seem like a daunting amount at first, but it is surprising at the how many opportunities are available for people throughout the week to exercise. Early in the morning, on the weekends, after school and so on.. If running is not someone’s favorite thing, there are many other ways to get effective exercise. Though aerobic exercise (cardio) does include running and walking, these are only a few parts of it. Swimming, biking, dancing, jumping rope, and climbing stairs are all tremendous ways to also get aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is the best way to burn fat. In order to receive the full benefits from any of these activities, they have to be done for 150 minutes each week. Core exercises such as bicycles, leg raises, v-ups, and stability ball crunches do not burn a significant amount of fat, but are a great way to strengthen abs, as well as tone the stomach when paired with a good cardio or aerobic exercise. It takes a minimum of 10 minutes at a moderate intensity in order for core exercises to be effective.

To many, one of the most challenging parts of exercise can be finding the motivation to do it. It becomes much easier to get the correct amount of exercise after the obstacle called mindset is passed. It is very easy to get into the mindset, and there are some simple ways to stay within it. Finding a friend, including dogs, is a great way to make a run, walk or any other exercise fun. Trying to take the daunting aspect out of the act will be really helpful as well. This can be done by starting small and slowly working up to the full 150 minutes. Music can also be a way to get pumped up for an exercise which can make the workout much more tolerable and even fun. It is all about finding what works best for people. It might take some experimenting, but no one should get discouraged in the beginning if something is not working or if it is not enjoyable.