7 habits that strengthen your immune system:
DO AT LEAST 150 MINuTES OF CARDIO Exercise per week
Why is this important?
Exercise is essential for good health. It reduces stress and it makes us feel more energized and happier. It also increases your strength, helps you sleep better, increases balance, prevents diseases, and improves joints and bones. Exercise positively impacts your overall health and quality of life.
Cardiovascular exercise or aerobic exercise helps you live longer!
Engaging in aerobic activity such as running, swimming, cycling or speed walking reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression and many other illnesses.
Exercise is nature’s version of Prozac with health benefits.
People who are physically active on a daily basis are not only healthier, but are also happier. Exercise improves your brain health.
150 minutes per week is the minimum recommended guideline. If you can, try to do 300 minutes per week.
150 minutes per week of cardiovascular exercise is considered the minimum recommended guideline, but the latest research shows that those who do 300 minutes or more of cardio each week gain additional health benefits, lose more weight, and lower their risk of disease even further. If you’re currently not very active, start by trying 150 minutes per week. Commit to this for one month. The following month try to add 30 minutes to increase it to 180 minutes per week. Keep adding an extra 30 minutes each month. After 5 months you will have gradually worked yourself up to the ideal 300 minutes per week.
If you’re already doing 150 minutes of cardio per week and consider yourself quite active, then we encourage you to see if you can now increase it to 5 hours per week. Use the extra time to start working on other elements such as:
Increasing the intensity of your workouts
Measuring your progress every 6 weeks
Working on mobility and corrective exercise to minimize the chance of injury
Exercise will help you sleep better, feel less stressed and eat more healthily.
Exercise is a very important component of healthy weight management. Unfortunately, however, many people mistakenly believe they can manage their weight by focusing on exercise alone. Adequate sleep, proper stress management and good nutrition are all necessary to achieving or maintaining a healthy weight. It’s the accumulative effect of many healthy habits that lead to a healthy weight.
Still not convinced how daily exercise will make your life better?
Watch Wendy Suzuki’s Ted talk: The brain changing benefits of exercise
Getting used to exercising on a daily basis is not always easy:
If you experience difficulties with your daily routine, please read the book “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg. BJ is the founder and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University and his Tiny Habits Method will help you to quickly identify and overcome your obstacles. Before you know it, exercise will be part of your daily life and you'll be happier because of it.
BOTTOM LINE: DAILY EXERCISE WILL INCREASE YOUR HAPPINESS & HEALTH AT THE SAME TIME
Additional helpful resources:
Staying Active, The Nutrition Source, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better, Wendy Suzuki, PhD, Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg, PhD
