The Importance of Physical Fitness

By Kim W, white belt

The CDC states that adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of intense exercise every week. Many American adults struggle to meet this recommendation though.  Prioritizing time for personal exercise can feel daunting or even impossible when faced with other demands from work, family or social obligations. However, heeding the recommendation for physical activity on a consistent basis leads to significantly improved physical and mental well-being, even helping you avoid injury as you age!

The physical benefits of regular exercise are well-documented. These benefits include weight loss, increased muscle tone and cardiovascular health and lower risk of serious illness. We can all feel the impact that exercise has on our bodies when we look fitter or can last longer with aerobic exercise without huffing and puffing, but exercise has a long list of lesser-known physical benefits that aren't always easily seen. Two of these additional benefits are increased brain health and strengthening of bones. The most immediate of these benefits relates to how exercise impacts your brain. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals such as dopamines and endorphins that are shown to increase happiness and lower feelings of stress and anxiety. Physical activity is also shown to have a positive effect on cognitive abilities, so exercise can help you think, learn and problem solve! Scientists are even studying the impact exercise can have on preventing certain cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimers or dementia. Another "hidden" benefit of physical activity relates to bone and joint health. Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the rate of bone loss and conserve bone tissue. Your bones react to exercise in a similar way to your muscles. As you continue to exercise, your bones become thicker and denser, which reduces the risk of bone fractures. Exercise also leads to increased balance, which can assist with preventing falls and also reduce risk of fractures. This is especially important for older adults as a bone fracture can be severely debilitating or even fatal. 

Aside from the physical benefits, regular exercise also has significant mental health benefits. We've already learned that the body is producing chemicals as we exercise that improve our immediate feelings of well-being, but exercise is shown to have multiple long-term mental benefits such as improved mood, increased self-esteem and self-confidence, lower levels of stress and depression and improved sleep cycles. Group exercises are also shown to increase sense of community and belonging, also leading to lower levels of depression and isolation. The positive mental feelings associated with exercise have been shown to motivate individuals to continue exercising, leading to even more benefits, both physical and emotional.

As you can see, the physical fitness from classes at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute have many great, lifetime lasting benefits!