“In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection.”
Plato
This is your ultimate guide to the benefits of exercise. We don’t simply provide you with a list. In typical Sapiens Maximus fashion, we provide you with the cause and effect relationships underpinning the benefits listed. This in turn allows you to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the subject matter.
By the end of this article, you should have a practical working knowledge of exercise’s effect on your body. Very importantly, you will also develop a good understanding of the cognitive and the psychological benefits of exercise.
While you might be vaguely aware that exercise is beneficial for your health, you probably don’t know just how transformational it can be. This is possibly by design – not many people make money from something that’s essentially free.
But before we discuss what exercise is good for, it might make sense to start by setting out what exercise is NOT so good for.
Content Breakdown
1. Physical Exercise & Weight Loss: An Illusory Benefit?
2. Physical Benefits Of Exercise
3. Mental Benefits Of Exercise
4. Psychological Benefits Of Exercise
Physical Exercise & Weight Loss: An Illusory Benefit?
What is the key benefit we tend to associate with exercise? For most of us, the answer is weight loss. Homo Sapiens is obsessed with it. Unsurprisingly, the prevailing narratives cater to our obsession.
There is something powerful about thinking we can do something to undo a mistake rapidly. Something to spare ourselves living with the guilt. So we tell ourselves that exercise could undo a bad meal. Or, from a long-term perspective, a bad diet.
43 minutes jog for … a 1/4 of a large pizza?
If we focus purely on calories, how long do you think you would need to “burn-off” a medium mocha coffee (approx. 290 kcal)? You would need to jog for approximately 28 minutes. What about ¼ of a large pizza (approx. 449 kcal)? 43 minutes. And this doesn’t even take into account other sub-optimal dietary choices throughout the day.
Unless you’re an elite athlete who trains for a living, you don’t stand a chance.
Calories In vs Calories Out? Not Quite.
In any event, as we will discuss in our upcoming nutrition articles, focusing on calories is helpful but insufficient. There is no doubt that the “calories in calories out” model is technically correct when it comes to weight loss. However, it is too simplistic and doesn’t capture the whole picture.
Even if you technically “burn-off” the calories you’ve consumed, what do you do with the hormonal and other physiological changes that a bad meal / diet causes? These can’t be easily neutralized or reversed by exercise’s benefits
Ultimately, there is no substitute to eating healthy, nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods. You can’t justify eating crap by pointing out to the simplistic “calories in calories out” model.
If you are interested in learning more about what to eat (or, more accurately, what not to eat), you should check out our article on ultra processed foods here.
Given the complexity of this topic, the intention is to cover nutrition and the science of weight loss in upcoming articles. Stay tuned.
For the time being, the key point is this: Exercise does not supplant diet; it compliments it. If you think you should exercise because you’ll be shedding the unwanted pounds, your results might be discouraging unless your nutrition is on point.
Saying Yes to Physical Exercise – But For The Right Reasons
Exercise is by no means as important as diet for weight loss. However, it does have a host of distinct advantages.
So don’t give up on the idea of exercise being a magic pill just yet. A number of the below benefits – particularly the cognitive and psychological ones – are absolutely mind-blowing.
Physical Benefits of Exercise
1. Exercise is Key for Body Recomposition
As already discussed, you can’t out-train a bad diet. However, exercise helps promote positive body recomposition. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, body recomposition refers to the change in your body’s ratio of fat to fat free mass (muscle, bone and water).
Something we often challenge at Sapiens Maximus is the obsessive focus on weight loss. Focus should instead be on fat loss and, if desired, muscle gain.
Physical exercise is your means to increasing your fat free (muscle) mass.
If your diet is on point, physical exercise can also accelerate your fat loss. Some forms of physical exercise might be more effective than others for this purpose. For example, high intensity interval training (HIIT) is superior to steady or low state cardio for torching fat.
2. Exercise Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Studies have shown that exercise makes the body more insulin sensitive. High insulin sensitivity allows for better management of blood sugar levels.
While this might sound obscure or of no immediate relevance, it is absolutely critical for your health, so PAY ATTENTION.
Insulin resistance & Blood Sugar Levels: A Vicious Cycle
If you are insulin resistant (i.e. flipside of insulin sensitive), you are likely to have high levels of blood sugar. This creates a vicious cycle, as persistently high levels of blood sugar contribute to insulin resistance.
Why should you care? Studies have linked insulin resistance to a host of diseases – from type-2 diabetes to PCOS and beyond.
At a basic level, high insulin levels – especially if chronic – would also make it much more difficult for you to sustainably lose weight.
Insulin Resistance: The Hidden Epidemic
In Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease–and How to Fight It, Bikman brilliantly argues that insulin resistance is at the heart of metabolic diseases – whether that’s diabetes, cardiovascular problems or obesity.
If insulin resistance is a key culprit in deteriorating health, and if exercise combats insulin resistance, then that’s one extra reason for you to break a sweat.
3. Exercise Improves Heart Health
Studies have shown that exercise optimizes heart health and combats heart disease via multiple means.
For example, exercise helps control blood pressure (a major risk factor for heart disease) as it stimulates “nitric oxide” which keeps blood vessels open.
Studies have also shown that exercise (1) raises levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol and (2) lowers levels of triglycerides. Both of these changes are associated with better heart health.
“Heart health” might seem like a distant, irrelevant concern to you. However, time flies by.
Make sure you’re developing the right habits NOW so that you’re able to live a Sapiens Maximus life worthy of your potential with no meaningful health restrictions.
4. Exercise Strengthens Your Bones
Did you know that your bones consist of living tissues? Just like other living tissues – such as muscles – your bones adapt to their environment and the stressors you subject them to.
With proper training, studies have shown that your bones get stronger and denser. This could be particularly valuable when you’re younger as it would give you a good foundation for life. However, it is also critical for your older years as you surely wouldn’t want easily fractured bones, hip fractures being common ones.
Whatever your age, exercising to ensure good bone health is a no-brainer. Just ensure you are coupling this with good nutrition and supplementation – particularly with adequate vitamin D and calcium intakes.
5. Exercise Reduces The Risk of Some Cancers
This should be immediately relevant to any reader. Cancer doesn’t discriminate – it can strike anyone at any age. Given the astounding importance of this topic and its sheer complexity, depending on our audience’s input, we might dedicate an entire article to this.
For the time being, the point is this: there is evidence that physical exercise is associated with lower risks of several types of cancer. This includes breast cancer, renal cancer, gastric cancer and bladder cancer.
The scientific community believes that exercise reduces the risk of these cancers by tackling their associated risk factors. For example, as already discussed, physical exercise effectively combats (with proper nutrition) obesity and insulin resistance.
For a more detailed (& very helpful) discussion on the relationship between exercise and cancer, you can check out the National Cancer Institute’s website here.
6. Exercise Boosts Your Sex Life
Studies have shown that physical activity – particularly aerobic exercise with moderate to vigorous intensity – improve erectile dysfunction in men. Studies have also shown that more physically active men experience higher libido, better sexual performance and more satisfying orgasms.
Our women readers shouldn’t feel excluded. Studies have shown that physically active women show substantially higher levels of sexual arousal and satisfaction. See for example here and here.
Ultimately, the quality of someone’s sex life depends on a number of factors. Some are direct (such as their hormonal profile) while others are more nuanced (such as stress levels and levels of self-esteem). Physical exercise tends to help with most of these.
Exercise: A Physical Benefits Magic Pill
Exercise should be considered a magic pill just because of what we’ve discussed so far. However, we are only scratching the surface.
Below, we explore what might be more interesting (and definitely less publicized) territory: mental and psychological benefits of exercise.
Mental Benefits of Exercise
The relationship between physical exercise and the brain doesn’t get the credit and publicity it deserves. Given the substantial body of scientific literature demonstrating exercise’s transformational effect on our brains, it’s unfortunate that exercise is not nearly as central as it should be in our lives.
Our society has largely failed to grasp the basic fact that exercise is relevant to virtually everyone.
Instead, society has associated exercise with buff but not particularly bright individuals. The stark contrast is with the bookish but physically weak nerd who devours books but never trains. It’s time we set this stereotypical dichotomy to rest.
Below are some of exercise’s key mental benefits. Hang in tight – given the sheer complexity of the brain and our intention to shed light on the underlying cause and effect relationships, the below might get a bit complex.
7. Exercise Supercharges Learning
There is no shortage of scientific literature demonstrating exercise’s positive effect on learning. For example, one study showed that being physically active before rehearsing a vocabulary comprehension test improved test results.
More generally, studies have shown that physical exercise improves processing speed, executive function and memory. The benefits of physical exercise on cognition could even be seen in elderly patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
To be able to understand exercise’s effect on the brain generally and on learning specifically, you need to understand that the brain is malleable.
The Brain’s Neuroplasticity
Up until the 1960s, it was generally believed that our brain is a “non-renewable organ”.
As Santiago Ramón y Cajal explained in 1959, “Once the development was ended, the founts of growth and regeneration of the axons and dendrites dried up irrevocably. In the adult centers, the nerve paths are something fixed, ended, and immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated. It is for the science of the future to change, if possible, this harsh decree“.
However, a number of scientific studies since the 1960s have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the brain (including the adult brain) could physically change and adapt. It can re-model itself through reorganization of its neural pathways.
It’s not just about existing neurons firing differently. The brain can also grow new neurons through a process called neurogenesis.
Simply put, our brains are constantly adapting to and are affected by our actions and environment. Given the brain’s neuroplasticity, learning literally entails the re-wiring of the brain.
Learning & Long-Term Potentiation
Fundamentally, learning is consists of a persistent strengthening of synapses. This in turn enhances signal transmission between neurons. This is known as long-term potentiation, or LTP.
Let’s say you want to learn an interesting historical fact. When you first attempt to do so, the neurons recruited for this new circuit fire a signal between each other. If you don’t re-visit the historical fact, the signal gradually diminishes until you forget.
Conversely, with practice and study, you strengthen and solidify the connection between the synapses. The newly learnt fact is then committed to your long-term memory.
Meet BDNF: The Brain’s Fertiliser
A protein called brain-derived neutrophic factor (BDNF) is a key player in the strengthening of connections between synapses.
In one experiment, researchers sprinkled BDNF onto neurons in a petri dish. Astoundingly, this led to enhanced synaptic efficacy and responsiveness. This in turn created an optimal environment for better learning.
It is therefore hardly surprising that Harvard psychiatrist John J. Ratey labels BDNF as “Miracle-Gro for the brain”. Phrased differently, you can think of BDNF as a super brain fertiliser.
Have you connected the dots yet? One important way exercise supercharges learning is by boosting BDNF.
8. Exercise Sharpens Attention
Our attention circuits are regulated by the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine, among others. It is hardly surprising then that ADHD medication essentially targets these neurotransmitters.
So, How Does Exercise Enhance Attention?
The exact mechanics of how exercise enhances attention and, in some instances, goes as far as combating ADHD are highly complex and in some instances not entirely understood.
However, one possible scientific explanation is that exercise does so by naturally regulating dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain – particularly in the areas controlling attention such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum.
Next time you want to focus, break a sweat beforehand! 20 burpees and you’re good to go 😄
Psychological Benefits of Exercise
Not only does exercise transform your physical health and cognitive functions – it also has substantial psychological benefits.
From lifting people out of depression to combating anxiety, training could be one major way you could take back control of your emotional and psychological wellbeing.
9. Exercise Helps You Conquer Anxiety
An early study from 1998 compared exercise to medication in treating clinically diagnosed panic disorder. Researchers dividend patients with a least mild panic disorder into three groups:
(1) regular exercise;
(2) a daily dose of medication; or
(3) or a daily placebo.
At the end of the trial, both the exercise and medication groups saw substantial decreases in anxiety. Although drug treatments might act faster than exercise, this comes at a cost. Side effects included, among others, erectile dysfunction and nausea.
More recently, a scientifically rigorous 2017 meta-analysis has shown that exercise is effective in improving anxiety symptoms in people with a current diagnosis of anxiety and/or stress-related disorders.
Medication could certainly play a role, and, in some instances, is absolutely essential. However, it is difficult to argue that it is an optimal long-term solution by itself. If exercise allows you to combat your anxiety without any meaningful negative side effects, it might be an option worth exploring.
So, How Does Exercise Combat Anxiety … ?
We have known that exercise combats anxiety and stress-related disorders for many years. However, due to the sheer complexity of (i) the brain, (ii) these diseases and (iii) the interactions between the two, exercise’s exact modus operandi has been elusive.
However, in recent years, we started developing a better understanding of the underlying cause and effect relationships.
Below are two key ways exercise is thought to combat anxiety.
Serotonin – You might have heard people describing serotonin as the “feel good hormone”. Serotonin acts to make us feel happier, calmer and less anxious. It is no surprise therefore that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used as anxiety (and depression) medications. As you might have guessed, exercise is one of the key non-pharmacological ways to increase levels of serotonin in the brain. See for example this study.
GABA – Studies have also shown that exercise increases levels of gamma aminobutyric acid (or GABA). Why should you give a damn? Because GABA is a powerful inhibitory neurotransmitter which has substantial calming effects. It could stop or at least slow down our daily anxieties and prevent them from hijacking our lives.
10. Exercise Wards Off Depression
In 1999, Blumenthal et al led a famous scientific experiment comparing regular physical exercise to medication in treating major depressive disorder.
Astoundingly, after 16 weeks of treatment, researchers concluded that the exercise and medication groups did not differ statistically. In other words, exercise was just as effective as medication in treating depression in the long-term, although medication tends to act faster.
This is a similar result to the one we discussed for the anxiety experiment. If exercise allows you to effectively combat depression without the side effects of medication, this could be a very promising option to explore.
This does not mean however that medication has no role, as it certainly does – especially in acute situations where someone might need immediate assistance & relief. The above merely means that exercise should be considered as a powerful, long-term weapon in the pursuit of optimal mental health.
This is particularly the case in light of the mounting scientific evidence. See for example the studies here and here which have been published more recently. In one meta-analysis, researchers said that “data strongly support the claim that exercise is an evidence-based treatment for depression“.
Exercise & Depression: Mechanics Underpinning The Magic
As is the case with anxiety, learning and attention, it is not entirely clear why exercise is so effective in combating depression. This is at least partially attributable to depression’s causes not being entirely understood themselves.
However, there is a strong case that depression is at least in part caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain. Exercise seems to work by targeting the same chemicals medication does – without any of the side effects. From dopamine to serotonin and beyond, exercise could be perceived as a magic pill that could optimally regulate the chemicals within our brains.
Theory and abstract discussions aside, what do you have to lose? If you feel down or depressed, get active and break a sweat. Nothing crazy needed, just get moving. Get a bit out of breath.
How do you feel afterwards? Chances are, getting physically active will do you a ton of good – especially if you are consistent for few weeks. And then, if you have been mostly sedentary, you’ll have a light bulb moment and a new, better world will open up for you.
The Bottom Line
In a September 2016 issue of Time magazine, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky said that if there was drug that could do for human health everything that exercise could, it would likely be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed.
After a thorough analysis, it seems that Dr Tarnopolsky’s statement might just be right.
From transforming your physique to supercharging your brain, warding-off diseases (physiological, psychological and cognitive) to drastically improving your mood, breaking a sweat is one of the best things you could do for yourself.
It is astonishing how all the magical benefits of exercise – especially cognitive and psychological ones – don’t get nearly as much credit and publicity as they deserve. Maybe it’s because Big Pharma can’t make as much money if the magic pill was … well, free.
With an epidemic of depression, anxiety, ADHD, type-2 diabetes and obesity, exercise combined with a healthy diet could be a game changer.
So, what are YOU going to do with this knowledge?
The path is clear. But it is not necessarily easy. For the ultimate executional framework, check out our ultimate guide to building good habits. It contains what you need to go beyond being “motivated” (which fades fast) to sustainably incorporating physical exercise into your lifestyle.
As always, we wish you good luck on your journey to strength in adversity, calm amidst the storms, relentless resilience and uncompromising health.
Your self-proclaimed family,
The Sapiens Maximus team
Sources & Further Readings
(1) Spark! How exercise will improve the performance of your brain – John J Ratey and Eric Hagerman
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