Sticking to a workout routine is not just a must to lose excess weight or tone up after the festive season. It also gives you loads of extra benefits, both physically and mentally. Here are some that will make you dust off your gym subscription.

Get Better Rest – You Need It

Approximately 40 percent of the adult population in the U.S. experiences problems with falling asleep. When you work out regularly, you boost your body’s ability to achieve quality sleep, with research⁽²⁾ naming exercise as a natural alternative to improving sleep quality. Studies⁽³⁾ have also shown that when obese people lost just five percent of their body weight, it resulted in better and longer sleep, so there’s a good reason to go to the gym. Getting enough sleep is important for your body to heal itself. While you’re in dreamland, your body and skin cells regenerate. In addition, sleep helps you to preserve information you’ve gained during the day, grow your muscles, and synthesize hormones.

Boost Your Brain

When you add cardiovascular exercise to your workout, your brain actually produces new brain cells and has greater performance. High-intensity workouts are especially good for you because they stimulate BDNF, a protein derived from the brain which is linked to better thinking, stronger decision making, and learning. Weight loss also improves your memory. Studies⁽⁴⁾ have found that when overweight women on a diet lost weight, they achieved higher scores in memory tests than before the weight loss.

Get a Skin Makeover

Besides for how exercise can keep you lean all over, following a regular routine also helps you deal with stress, which directly affects your skin. When you have too much of the stress hormone cortisol in your blood, this stimulates your skin’s oil glands which leads to breakouts. Cortisol also disintegrates the skin’s collagen. The good news is that exercise keeps the hormone at a healthy level.

Want a quick fix to look radiant? Go for a jog or a push! Exercise gets your blood pumping and transports oxygen to your organs and skin. This makes your complexion glow.  

Be More Creative

Can’t seem to think out the box? You can jumpstart your creative juices by doing regular exercise. This is because when your body gets into the habit of being active, it doesn’t have to concentrate on the exercise you’re doing – this frees up your brain power for solutions to those creative ideas with which you’ve been wrestling. Regular exercise is said to enhance your cognitive prowess, which is definitely linked to thinking more creatively. Make it even more inspiring by taking your workout outside where you can watch birds in trees and feel the sun on your shoulders.

Get Blissed Out

You know that exercise releases endorphins or “feel good” chemicals in your body. If you are always feeling overworked, then fitting in that post-work exercise is especially a must to fill you with feel-good hormones that will help you feel better about everything and clinch some relaxation time. Interestingly, if you do interval training (which means peppering your workout with light and heavy exercise) you will have even more of a boost to your mood as soon as your workout is over. Maintain your exercise schedule so you can feel good every day and chances are once you start losing weight this will further boost your mood!

Exercising should be on your priority list, and not just because it keeps you looking fit and fabulous. It also provides many mental and physical benefits that will make you stronger and healthier.

1 – National Sleep Foundation ‘Study: Physical Activity Impacts Overall Quality of Sleep’ 2015

2 – Michael J Breus Ph.D. ‘Better Sleep Found by Exercising on a Regular Basis’ 06, Sept 2013

3 – Endocrine Society ‘Sleep, mood improves after substantial weight loss’ 24, June 2014

4 – Agencies Weight loss ‘can improve memory’ 18, June 2013

5 – Skintrium “admin” ‘Save Your Face! 10 Habits You Should Pick Up Now’ 08, May 2015

6 – Sarah Knapton ‘Lacking inspiration? Exercise found to boost creativity’ 03, Dec 2013