Engaging in physical fitness makes you healthier. It’s indisputable.
There are the obvious benefits like fat loss, muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance. Less obvious would include reduced depression and anxiety. Even less obvious are improvements to the immune system and the ability to ward off sickness and disease.
A good bang for your buck if there ever was one.
There is a third category to consider. Benefits of fitness that aren’t necessarily related to mental or physical health. These are the least obvious but some of the most important.
Let’s take a look at three of those benefits.
Turning tranquility up to 11
Exercise is highly correlated with lower incidences of depression and anxiety.
But what does that actually mean?
“Duh, Scott, it means you’re less anxious and depressed.” Yeah no shit. I mean what are the real world effects of such a reduction?
You’re calm. I mean like really calm, dude. So calm a jackass honking their horn at you during rush hour barely raises your heart rate.
I’m never more relaxed or content than when I’m exercising regularly. My patience is way higher. My fuse is way longer. It takes a lot for me to get frustrated or upset.
This is the number one reason I enjoy fitness as much as I do. While I love the act itself, the calming effects are what I look forward to most.
Unleashing your inner Einstein
Exercise makes you smarter. It’s been proven.
The gist is this: regular exercise enhances a variety of complicated mental processes including attentional control, neural speed, working memory capacity and the ability to switch between tasks.
This means better work performance, better grades in school, faster learning of new skills, better decision making, etc. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Stop relying only on coffee and energy drinks to increase brainpower.
Get a morning workout in and reap the benefits all day long.
Look at you, you social butterfly
An overlooked aspect of fitness is community.
Many of us view physical fitness as a boring solo endeavor. A slog in a dark gym in some corner of some basement or a run at 5 am in the dark.
Wrong.
Fitness is an excellent way to find your community. There are endless group classes, training clubs and studios focusing on all matter of exercise modalities. Want to run a marathon? There’s a club for that. Want to meet like-minded yogis? There’s a studio for that.
Want to go balls to the wall at 6 am while jamming to cocaine’s musical equivalent? There’s a spin class for that.
Some of my best friends I met through fitness. Some of my best relationships are maintained through fitness. Some of my best memories are made through fitness. And it all starts with finding your tribe.
Give it a try. Yes, even you introverts out there. You’ll be glad you did.
Great writeup...! I cannot say my grades as a student dipped due to exercise. However, I found that my most intellectual work did become a bit more challenging than usual. But I was new to it all as a student, and did not have it sorted out...!
I recently resumed exercise after months of not working out and I can't tell you how happy, content and cool-headed I am. Thanks for sharing. Great work Scott!