How Participating in Fitness Helps Improve Productivity

Improving your fitness can do wonders for your physique, but did you know that it also provides the overall benefit to your mental health; therefore, increasing your productivity? You bet your bottom dollar it does! Continue reading to learn how improving your fitness helps improve your productivity!

It Enables You to Operate at Optimal Physical Health

The main benefit of physical activity is it energizes your cardiovascular system. Energizing your cardiovascular system helps strengthen your heart and lungs, thus improving your stamina, endurance, and tolerance for prolonged activities. Cardio does this most effectively when done regularly, so you can go the extra mile whether on the job, on the athletic field, or while carrying out domestic chores. A study published by Pub Med shows that fitness, especially strength training, helps build muscle mass and increase strength. Doing this helps improve your ability to meet the physical demands of work and more. Another study published by Pub Med shows that the wide range of movement required during exercise helps improve muscle function and coordination. Improving these areas helps decrease the risk of injury when engaging in other physical activities. Additionally, various studies show that physical fitness helps combat high blood pressure and bad cholesterol and decreases insulin insensitivity. By improving these areas, you become protected from the onset of various chronic diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and arthritis. Such conditions can cause you to miss out on some of life's most valuable moments. It also boosts your immune response against many common illnesses, including allergies, colds, and the flu. These illnesses can also cause downtime and prevent you from meeting your obligations. Hence, regularly working out to stay fit supports all your body's functions to physically function its best for optimum output.

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It Enables You to Enjoy Peak Brain Performance

The brain can be compared to any other muscle in the body in that you have to strengthen it to keep it strong and healthy. Then in keeping your brain strong and healthy, you've maximized your performance. And, of course, regular exercise is also proven to help you strengthen your brain. However, instead of building the actual muscle, fitness supports the brain's functions, thus, helping your brain perform better. Fitness does this by increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain. Increased blood and oxygen flow aids in producing new cells, thus, helping to boost and maintain alertness, concentration, learning, and other mental activities. Research shows that it also stimulates various neurotransmitters in the brain. Stimulating these neurotransmitters to help combat certain neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, another study shows that it also helps regulate the glands, including the pineal gland, which controls circadian rhythms and sleep patterns. This allows you to wake up refreshed and energized for the day. Additionally, it helps regulate the pituitary gland, which controls the hormones from the thyroid, ovaries, and testicles. Physical activity is also shown to support the development of nerve cells and their function, including everything from governing eyesight, motor function, and balance to hearing and more. Thus, together, all help to keep your brain functioning at its peak. This supports greater intelligence and creativity and staves off age-related neurodegenerative disorders for a more prolonged quality of life.

It Helps Keep You in a Good Mood

During physical fitness, the brain also releases endorphins and other feel-good chemicals, which studies show help naturally put you in a good mood. Harvard Health studies show that the improved brain performance induced by exercise also helps support the hippocampus, a thick band of heavily packed neurons in the frontal lobe that regulates mood, thus helping to alleviate depression, anxiety, and more. Not to mention, regular exercise also helps reshape your body to meet your goals, which helps you feel good. According to an article published in Psychology Today, you feel good when you accept your body. And when you feel good, it improves your outlook on life and makes you more inspired to pursue other milestones. Goal-oriented activities, such as exercise, also give you a sense of accomplishment as you achieve your desired results, which also help boost your mood as well as your self-confidence, so you accomplish more. Feeling good on the inside also makes you a happier, more pleasant person to be around, whether at work or with your family, which, in turn, makes you want to perform better and do more.

It Boosts Your Energy

Engaging in physical activity helps raise your energy levels in various ways without the use of stimulants or other fitness products. It increases your adrenaline, which naturally makes you feel more energized and ready for action. It also increases your heart rate, which spurs exertion, thus, the intake of oxygen and the production of mitochondria cells in the body. These powerhouse cells then create fuel from glucose stored in the muscles and liver, giving you more energy for the task. Provided you fuel your body with a healthy snack of lean protein and complex carbs within 45 minutes after your workout, it can restore your glucose levels and provide you with prolonged energy throughout the rest of the day.

It Helps With Stress Management

Both physical and mental stress can take a toll on your body. Stress can cause everything from tense muscles that can lead to skeletal pain and headaches to worry and irritability, making it challenging to get a good night's sleep. When you lack sleep, it can eventually affect every area of your life, including your productivity. However, clinical trials show that exercise helps you better manage stress by reducing the body's level of stress hormones, which enables you to feel calmer and more at ease. The same trials show that gentle stretching exercises, such as yoga and Thai Chi, are especially effective at promoting relaxation. The slow, rhythmic use of the large muscle groups also helps relax your mind. Deep breathing exercises are also shown to help you better handle stress because they require you to slow down and control your breath, which mimics relaxation, thus helping to balance stress hormones. Likewise, meditation, which is a concentration exercise, also helps reduce many psychological signs of stress by harnessing the power of your mind to help gain perspective, which helps control the emotions and bring about calm in the body. Finally, engaging in physical activities in and of themselves also helps you take time out and get away from it all, thus keeping your mind busy, so you are less distracted by stressors and more able to enjoy the good of the moment. And all it takes is just 20-minutes of either of these exercises to help clear your mind and reduce stress so you can get more done. However, like any exercise, the more you do it as part of a healthy lifestyle, the more it enables you to enjoy the long-term effects of its benefits.

It Promotes Better Sleep

Though sleep is featured at the end of the list, it is not the least to boost productivity. Several studies show that it is more challenging for your body to repair and recover from exercise without proper rest each night. Decreased repair and recovery can affect your ability to get fit and thus reap its rewards. According to a clinical neuropsychologist at Cedars-Sinai, evidence shows a strong correlation between sleep deprivation and psychological health. Sleep deprivation can affect your thinking, attention span, and problem-solving skills and lead to greater frustration and stress. These issues can then spill over into your physical health. Therefore, he recommends prioritizing sleep to get the most out of your body and your mind for overall wellness. He further adds that one key to getting a good night's sleep is consistency. Hence, suggesting setting a bedtime and an awake time and then sticking to them. This can help reinforce the circadian rhythm, which prompts your body to sleep and wake up, affecting your sleep quality. Sunlight also helps strengthen the circadian rhythm. So he recommends getting outside when you can to help improve your slumber. It also helps if you avoid added stimulation before bed, such as using electronic devices, caffeinated products, or filling up on water. These stimulants can interrupt your sleep. In the meantime, more than 20 studies showed that regular exercise could improve sleep quality and duration. However, it would help if you avoided moderate to intense exercise close to bedtime. These higher levels of activity can rev up your body and instead keep you up.

Conclusion

So there you have it, fitness helps improve productivity by improving your body as a whole. An improved body supports optimum mental and physical performance. Thus, keeping you energetic and optimistic to carry out your tasks. And as we also noted, it doesn't have to be a vigorous activity to be beneficial. Simply walking, gentle stretching, and even breathing and meditation exercises are also shown to help keep you fit, able to perform better, and move forward. Hence, if you are stuck in an endless rut of despair and low output, try incorporating regular exercise into your lifestyle for an improved way of living.

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Meet the Author: Dan

Dan is the chief editor of the Non-Athlete Fitness blog. This blog is dedicated to helping those without an athletic background live healthier, active lives.