How Exercise Increases Your Energy Levels
As we know, exercise is great for improving your fitness and keeping in shape.
But, exercise does a lot more than that. One of the key benefits exercise provides is the ability to increase your energy levels... and that's what today's blog will focus on.
Why do we want to improve our energy levels?
Beginning then, with the why. Why do we suddenly need to increase our energy levels?
I think many of us will have been in a position before where we didn't complete something we committed to because we were tired.
Skip a gym session after a long day at work? Guilty.
The more times we fail to accomplish something we commit to, the slower we reach our goals.
Having more energy makes it easier for us to reach our goals and aspirations - and that's the why.
How does exercise improve our energy levels?
Exercise helps to increase our energy levels in many ways. However, there are 3 benefits specifically which are worth highlighting:Firstly, sitting on the sofa or at the desk all day doesn't require our body to produce much energy. Therefore, on days where we require more energy, our body gets fatigued very quickly.
Secondly, exercise increases the volume of blood pumped around our body. We know that blood is critical to delivering nutrients to our organs and muscles, (nearly) anything we can do to improve blood flow is a good thing.
Thirdly, it increases the mitochondria available in our body. Yes, energy comes from food (calories) but we can't simply put down 700g of carbs in a day and feel super energised. We need mitochondria available in the body to convert those carbs into energy. Cardiovascular exercise puts demands on our body that require us to produce higher levels of mitochondria.
What exercise should we do to improve our energy levels?
This in my mind, is the least important part. Ensure you're placing some form of cardiovascular strain on your body every week. This can come from walking, running, swimming etc. Even lifting weights provides cardiovascular stimulus (although not to the same extent as the previously mentioned forms of exercise). The key to each of these is to ensure you are consistently improving and telling your body to adapt to your new requirements.
If you don't do any exercise at all then start with 2-3 walks every week and gradually build that up to runs. If you already run 3 times a week, then run longer or harder!
The key is to improve the level of cardiovascular activity your body can handle.
And there you have it... here's to more energy, and more goals being accomplished.
P.S. If you liked this style of blog, check out our blog on How Caffeine Can Improve Your Workouts.