It’s no longer news that exercise has various health benefits. Exercise has cardiovascular benefits that help keep your heart and lungs in good condition. Some of the benefits of regular exercise is to build and strengthen the muscle, reduce the risk of health conditions such as diabetics and heart diseases and keep the organs of the body active and healthy.
One of the important organs of your body is your skin. Skin is the largest organ in your body provides the reflection of how healthy your body is. Physical activities you do get to reflect in your look. Aside having a body that looks fit and built up, a healthy skin is a reward of exercise.
The cardiovascular benefits of exercise are well emphasized in health articles and talks. But there is an important benefit of healthy circulation of blood to your skin and complexion. The benefits of exercise to the body organs is to keep them healthy and protect them from attacks. In the same way, exercises help strengthen your skin and protect it from damage and aging. Exercise has a direct relationship with the wellness of your skin.
Do you want to wake up with younger-looking skin and a glowing complexion? Then you need to stretch those muscles.
What exercise does to your skin.
When you exercise, you notice that your body change in a certain way, you feel more energetic and active. Well, what happens is this; your heartbeat increases, your blood vessels increase in size. Hence, more blood is pumped to various parts of your body. When this happens, oxygen and nutrients are supplied in abundance to the body. The skin receives more nutrients and oxygen which repairs and nourish it, giving it a continuous glow. This kind of glow after a work-out session is called a post-work out glow. Although, you may feel tired or covered with sweat, yet your glowing skin is noticeable.
One of the essential nutrients sufficiently produced and carried to your skin via physical activities is protein. A special type of protein named IL-15 is sufficiently provided to your skin cells to strengthen it and give it the renewing power. A continuous practice of exercises and physical actives will stabilize constant supply of this protein to your skin cell and make you feel and look younger. Another type of protein that is supplied to your skin is collagen. Collagen, an essential tissue that provide firmness and plumpness to your skin is another reason why you should exercise. Collagen prevents your skin from wrinkling and help maintain it healthy look. When collagen is absent or depreciated in the skin. The skin becomes weak and loses its elasticity and then begins to age. To keep your skin vibrant and glowing. Exercise is necessary to trigger the sufficient supply of these nutrients to the skin. Aside the provision of nutrients and oxygen by the increase of blood circulation to the skin by exercise, another benefit of good circulation is that toxic material, dead cells and unhealthy products are removed from your skin,
Just like your liver, your skin functions as a detoxifying organ in your body. It’s the largest detoxifying organ in your body. When you’re engaged in a physical activity that requires you to sweat, your skin is performing a detoxifying process. Exercise helps to remove toxins from your skin through sweating. When you exercise to the point of sweating, harmful substances are removed from the pores of your skin. Substances that can block the pores and result in acne breakout in your skin. The joint process of detoxification increase in the supply blood and oxygen flow to your dermis will rejuvenate your skin. Something awesome about exercise is that it has direct impact on your skin. Going for a regular in-clinic treatment and using an effective serum, you might still not be satisfying your skin completely until you add exercise to the list. Exercise will not only make your body fit; it will also make your skin fit. Regular exercise will make your skin stay fit. The best part is that; it doesn’t matter what age you begin to exercise; you will experience the positive change almost immediately.
Exercises impacts the skin in various way, through elimination of unwanted products and provision of the essentials. Let’s discuss how exercise benefits our skin:
Benefits of exercise to your skin.
Exersise Improves circulation. This is a major way exercise positively affects your skin directly. When you exercise, your breathing rate increases as well as your heart beat. Increase in your heartbeat makes blood pump faster from your heart to your body. When there’s increase in the circulation of blood to your skin, your skin receives more oxygen and nutrients to keep it healthy and strong. Improved circulation boosts the immune system of your skin and strengthen it to fight attacks. Exercise will improve your blood flow to keep your skin replenished and healthy.
Improves sleep. You will agree with me that each time you stay up in the night failing to sleep, you wake up in the morning to a very odd feeling in your skin. You might even get comments in morning about a rough skin. That is what happens when you fail to get a good beauty sleep. Beauty sleep is the skin-care term used for an effective sleep required to keep your skin healthy. Your skin is a natural cleanser and detoxifier. When you’re asleep in the night, the skin resumes its daily duty of renewing and refreshing itself. To get enough beauty sleep, it is necessary to engage in exercises. Exercise helps stimulate your body and brain and help improve the quantity and quality of the beauty sleep you get. It is necessary to keep in mind that exercise shouldn’t be done close to bedtime.
Reduces stress. It’s no longer news that stress affects your skin directly and indirectly. Stress disrupts your hormonal levels and causes excessive release of cortisol. Cortisol triggers production of excess oil in your skin which clogs the pores and leads to acne breakout. Stress causes acne breakouts, worsen inflammation and even prevents you from getting a beauty sleep. But the good news is that with exercise, you can combat stress and keep looking younger and radiant. When you go out jogging in the morning, your mind is off your worries reducing your stress levels.
Reduces wrinkles. Those facial expressions you make when you’re stressed can cause wrinkles and fine lines to appear around your face. Facial expression when you’re stressed disturbs your skin and makes it age faster. But with exercise, you get a better mood and the frown disappears from your face. Another way exercise prevents your face and skin from wrinkling is by increasing its elasticity and regular supply of collagen to the skin due to improved circulation of blood.
Tones the muscles. Apart from building your muscle mass for strength and body fitness. Exercise can also help to build the muscles around your skin and replaces the fat there. Hence, giving your skin a firmer and smoother look. Strength exercise also improves your skin flexibility and strengthens the facial muscles. Exercising the muscles around the face will keep them fit and elastic, giving your skin a supple and glowing look.
Repairs the skin. When you exercise effectively, the blood vessels around the surface of your skin becomes enlarged and allow blood to flow easily to the surface of your skin. This will enable the blood to supply enough nutrients to the surface of the skin and perform the necessary repair of damages from environmental factors. The nutrients provided, also help increase the collagen content of the skin making your skin look plumper and younger. Sweating during exercise will eliminate dirt and oil that are trapped in your sweat pores and prevent your skin from inflammation and free-radical damage.
Slows down skin cell aging. Human cells contain an essential component called Telomeres. Telomeres serves as protection to each of your chromosomes. It is present as caps at the end of each DNA. Without the telomeres, our DNA strands is prone to damages resulting in cell aging. Naturally the cells in the organ of our body divides to replenish themselves. Each time this division occur, the telomeres are shortened. With time the telomeres become too short, causing our skin cells to loss its functionality. With regular exercise, the length of the telomers can be increased and control the rate at which the cells of your skin age.
Keeps your skin glowing. Exercise specifically improves your complexion and gives your skin a radiant look. Have you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror after a work-out session? Even with the grime and sweat on your skin, you can still see your skin glowing. This is a direct effect of exercise on your skin and look. Alongside sweat produced during exercise, oils are produced to your skin to keep it hydrated, supple, soft and glowing. When you exercise and sweat, your body release endorphins to give you a refreshed and happier feeling plus a glowing skin.Aside the various ways exercise benefits your skin and improves your complexion. There are ways exercise can improve your general look and make you fit and feel younger. Here are some other ways exercise enhances good look and makes you feel younger.
Keeps your heart healthy. Exercise generally strengthen your heart and your cardiovascular system. Just like the way your muscles are exercised to increase its effectiveness and endurance; your heart needs to be exercised. Your heart is a muscular organ and can also get weak and ineffective. To prevent this, it needs to be exercised. When you exercise, your heart is made to pump more blood to the body, causing the heartbeat to increase and pump blood harder, hence exercising the muscles. Exercise also help to protect your heart from heart problems such as high blood pressure and blockage in the blood vessels which may result in cardiovascular diseases.
Enhances your memory. Physical activities help your memory by keeping your brain sharp. It boosts the memory directly and indirectly. It stimulates the release of chemicals that promotes the health of the brain. Exercise increases the supply of blood and oxygen to your brain to keep it healthy. It also reduces the risk of memory disorder by addressing issues such as diabetes. Exercise also help the skin to secrete hormones to reduce stress levels. Regular exercise can help grow the part of the brain that is responsible for the memory.
Prevents belly fats. Some fat can be healthy to the body, but many can be increasing the risk of health issues. One of the dangerous fats is the visceral fat that’s always found in the abdominal cavity. It can be dangerous to the organs present in the belly. Another type of fat that can be found in your belly is the subcutaneous fat which is more visible than the Visceral fat. This type of fat makes your belly look bigger and unattractive. With exercise, you can burn the calories and fats and replace it with abdominal muscles and look fit.
Increases metabolism. Metabolism is the process by which your body breakdown food to its simpler form for it to be easily absorbed to the blood stream. This process includes digestion. The rate at which people digest food varies from one person to the other. A number of conditions determines the rate of digestion. One of the factors is age. The older one gets, the slower the rate of digestion becomes, owning to the reduction in effectiveness of the digestive organs. But with exercise you can improve your metabolism rate. The muscles around the stomach becomes strengthen and makes digestion faster and easier. Another way exercise helps your metabolism rate is increase in the secretion of hormones that are responsible for metabolism.
Improves your sleep. If you want a better sleep, you may need to exercise regularly. Working out, especially a regular one will help improve your sleep quality and increase your sleep duration. Exercise help to reduce stress and also regulate your sleeping pattern. Exercise improves your circadian rhythms which is your internal clock that tells the body when to work and rest. When you exercise outdoor in the daytime, your body receive sunlight that is necessary to boost your level of alertness and prepare you for a sound sleep in the night. Exercise also regulates the body conditions such as temperature to make help you fall asleep. Having a good sleep will improve your health and make you active and feel younger.
Helps your mood. It’s commonly believed that exercise boosts your mood and lower rates of depression. Exercise triggers the secretion of chemicals called endorphins which help your body to feel less pain, makes you feel better and also reduces stress level in your body. There are various ways exercise improve your mood. For example, when you go out on a long walk in the morning, your mind wanders away from your worries. The feeling of the breeze blowing at your face makes you feel free. Exercise will help you feel more confident and develop your self-esteem and also prepare you for the day.
Enhances flexibility. One main reason why should exercise is to stay flexible. It is very important for your muscles to be very flexible; it will help you to experience less discomfort when using your muscles. Another good reason for engaging in flexibility exercises is that it will help you to stay in a required restricted position such as a plane flight with less discomfort. Exercise will help reduce your chances of developing stiff muscles and joints which can make movement very difficult while aging. It is necessary to keep your muscle flexible to keep you agile.
Helps your posture. Exercise is essential for a good posture. There are some exercises that are specifically for improving postures. People who spend time working in poor posture such as staring at a PC screen for hours in a crouched position needs this type of exercise most, to stay fit and balanced. Exercise for good posture will help correct wrong posture. Most of the exercises for correcting posture mainly involve the strengthening of your abdominal muscles and the muscle connecting your spine to the pelvis.
Enhances love drive. Do you want a better love life? Then you need to exercise. When you exercise, blood flows easily to all parts of your body including sensitive areas. Giving you a better chance of increasing your libido. Exercise triggers the secretion of endorphins which makes you feel relaxed and happy, increasing your chances of being playful and compared to when stressed. Another way exercise helps your love life can be your improved physical appearance that will serve as a motivator to your partner or the greater self-esteem you get from a nice figure.
Keeps you alive. Do you like the feeling of getting up in the morning full of energy and agile? Irrespective of your age you can keep getting that feeling. All you need to do is exercise more often. Exercise will keep both your brain and body active and ready for any task. Regardless of your age, sex and disability, exercise will keep you more active. Small amount of exercise, such as a long walk can be very helpful to keep you in good condition.
Types of exercises.
For you to exercise effectively, you need to know what type of exercise you want to engage in, and why you want to. There are different types of exercise and each has its specific purpose. Although exercise generally help you get more energy, keeps you active, and improve your health. It is necessary to recognize the specific purpose of all types of exercise.
In this article, four common categories of exercise will be discussed. They’re categorized according to their purpose. They are; exercises for strength, endurance, flexibility and balance.
Strength. The main purpose of this type of exercise is to keep your muscles and bones strong. It helps increase your muscle mass, hence, reducing fats. This type of exercise provides your muscles resistance that is required to carry out your everyday activities. Exercises for strength includes:
• Weight lifting
• Push-ups
• Using a resistance band
• Crunches
Endurance. Endurance exercise is also called Aerobic exercise. This type of exercise engages and improves your cardiovascular system. Its main purpose is to increase your heart beat, make you breath faster, hereby improving the health of your heart, lung, brain and skin. They help keep diabetes and heart diseases in check. Some of the exercises that can increase your endurance are:
• Jogging
• Dancing
• Swimming
• Biking
• Gardening.
Flexibility. As you age, your chance of being restricted increases, but with exercises targeted at increasing flexibility you can improve your motion. Flexibility exercise will help you to stay active and protect your bones from diseases such as arthritis. Here are some exercises to improve your flexibility:
• Yoga
• Stretching
Balance. Balance exercise will help your help you to control your body better. It will allow your body to be stabilized and prevent fall. Older adults have problem with balance as they age, but with balance exercise, this condition can be put to check. Balance exercise is also necessary for people that are pregnant or having change in weight. It will train your body to adjust its balance to the new weight. Examples of balance exercises are:
• Tai chi
• Pilates
• Balancing on one foot
• Arm sequence with lifted heels.
How about exercising wrongfully?
There’s no doubt that exercise is beneficial to your skin and general health. But some practices during or after exercise can result to some negative side effects to your skin and body. Some conditions can cause your body to react negatively to exercise and reduce its effectiveness or cause some health problems. Here are some conditions that can tell if you’re exercising in the wrong way.
Acne breakouts. It is true that exercising can lower the risk of acne breakouts. For example, exercise reduces stress levels, hereby prevent stress-induced breakout. But if you fail to take care of your skin after exercise, the benefits of exercise can be cancelled. When you exercise and sweat, dirt and oil that cause acne and are pushed out from your pores. But if you fail to wash off the mixture of sweat and dirt from your skin immediately, the mixture can get back into the pores and make acne conditions worse.
Itchy scalp. Failure to wash off sweat from your body will not only affect your skin, your scalp can also be affected. Sweat in your hair can trap dirt, oil and bacteria against your scalp. You might not notice this easily like an inflammation on your skin. But as the sweat reacts with the natural bacteria around your scalp, it might start itching.
Thigh chafing. Basically, what causes thigh chafing during exercise is the friction that occur due to your inner thigh rubbing against each other. Thigh chafing can be made worse by heat and sweat. The fabrics you wear around your thigh during exercise can also make thigh chaffing worse. Especially if the fabric is too thin to prevent your thighs from rubbing against each other. Thigh chaffing can become worse resulting in burning sensations, redness and rashes around the thigh. It occurs in other parts of the body such as your groins, underarms and even the nipples.
Increases sensitivity in skin. Due to increase in blood flow to your body, your skin becomes very sensitive and reacts easily to stress. Oil and bacteria missed with sweat can also increase sensitivity in your skin and cause acne breakout. Tight clothing can cause irritation of the skin when they continuously rubbed against the skin.
Overheating. When you exercise, your body produces more heat hereby increasing your body temperature. That is why your body produces sweat during exercise to regulate your body temperature. But at extreme conditions, when your body is unable to regulate the temperature, it begins to overheat. Overheating can be very dangerous to your body resulting in medical conditions such as heat stroke.
Drop in energy level. There’s no doubt about exercise improving your energy levels. When you exercise blood and oxygen are pumped to your body parts, increasing your energy levels. But what about exercising too much? Extreme exercise can cause fatigue in your body. If you fail to listen to your body because you’re getting addicted to exercise, your body begin to interpret the excess exercise as a stressor and react to it accordingly. You need to listen to your body to realize if you’re pushing too hard.
Sleeplessness. We’ve already discussed how exercise can improve the quality and quantity of your sleep. What about the opposite, if you’re exercising in the wrong way? As important as exercise is, you shouldn’t be involved in It close to bedtime. Your sleep can be disturbed due to high body temperature or increase in the heartbeat. Exercising close to bedtime will only keep your body extra active due to increase in supply of adrenaline which isn’t need for the night. So, to benefit effectively from exercise you need to prevent exercising close to bedtime.
Aches and joint pain. Do you feel muscle pains after a new routine of exercise? Well, it is normal to feel sore in your muscle due to physical stress. It occurs mostly when you start a new exercise program. But you need to take caution when this pain does not subside after a long period of time. If the pain becomes worse especially in area where you’ve been previously injured, you might be over exercising the part of the body and may need to see your doctor.
Poor mental health. As much as exercise is needed for your physical and mental health, you need to keep in mind that the amount of exercise you involve in should be reasonable. Extreme amount of exercise can pose a bigger risk to your mental health than the benefits exercise can give. Too much of exercise can be perceived as a stressor by your brain and can result to depression. It is necessary for you to discover how long, what type and how often an exercise routine will be beneficial to your body.
Rosacea flare. You wouldn’t want to have a red face after signing up for a workout session. You’ll rather want to see our skin glowing and radiant. But vigorous exercise can trigger stress and cause skin irritation. Due to increase in body temperature and increase in blood flow, intense exercise can give you a flushing and itching skin.
Exercising safely.
Even with how much danger exercising in the wrong way can cause. The benefits of exercise cannot be underestimated, both to your skin and general health. Here are 10 tips that will help you to exercise better and prevent dangers from over exercising.
Talk to your doctor. For a moderate exercise such as taking a walk, you might not need to consult your doctor. But for a strenuous routine you might need to talk to your doctor, especially If you have a health condition or you haven’t been active for some time. Some conditions need to be put into consideration before choosing an exercise routine. Also, you doctor can give you advices on what type of exercises you can take for maximum benefits. With the doctor’s go-ahead, you’re good to go.
Dress appropriately. Clothes are designed for different purpose and occasion. One important thing you should consider when signing up for a workout session is what type of clothes and shoes fits the type of exercise. You should choose clothes that will allow free body movements and absorb sweat. You should also wear suitable clothes depending on the weather condition and shoes that are comfortable to prevent blisters. You should also remember to change your shoes when necessary.
Stay hydrated. Drinking water before, during and after exercise is healthy. Taking water frequently will help replace the fluid lost from body due to sweating. Failure to stay hydrated during exercise can result in overheating and tiredness. To avoid heat exhaustion, take a sip from your bottle frequently throughout the workout session.
Warm up. It is very important to tell your body to get ready for exercise by warming up. A simple aerobic exercise will help put your body in position by gradually increasing your body temperature, blood flow and breathing rate getting it ready for the main exercise. You can also this to cool off practice after a thorough workout session to bring your heartbeat and body temperature back to normal.
Consider the atmosphere. You need to consider your environment before embarking on an outdoor exercise. This will help you prepare what type of clothe to wear depending on the temperature and humidity. You should also use sunscreen product to prevent your skin from sunlight exposure. In situation of extreme weather condition, you can stay indoors and exercise.
Listen to your body. If you feel your body responding abnormally to exercise, you need to take it easy. Consistent pain can be a sign that something is wrong or you’re over exercising, you should also cut back if you notice that you’re feeling unusually tired during a workout session.
Take a gradual process. It is always a good practice to start with the less demanding tasks to the tougher ones. For example, in weight lifting you should start with light weights and gradually increase the heaviness. If you are taking up exercising after a break, you shouldn’t start off from the intensive exercise you left off from, you should rather begin with less intense ones then increase the intensity gradually.
Exercise in good posture. Although exercise is targeted at making you look fit and good. You might ne exercising in the wrong posture. To make sure you keep a good form during exercise sessions, you should exercise in front of a mirror or involve a personal trainer to check on you.
Take a break. Exercise should benefit your body and not harm it. If you’re feeling odd and you feel you need to take a break, you should. Few days without exercise will do no harm. Your general health shouldn’t be affected by exercise, it should rather be improved. You should take a break if you feel tired or sick.
Safety First. Your safety should be considered before engaging in any form of exercise. Beginning with your clothing, you should choose shoes that will keep you safe and do away from accessories that can be harmful or serve as additional weight. You should check your exercise equipment before the exercise session and make sure everything is in order and safe. When you’re exercising outdoors, you should keep off from secluded areas and use reflective clothes for motorist to sight you easily. You should be careful especially during winter and try as much as possible to stay from outdoor activities.
With these helpful tips you can take up your exercising sessions with the confidence of obtaining the maximum benefits.
Enjoy the benefits of exercise as your skin turns more beautiful and radiant. “Invest in your skin, it’s going to represent you for a long time”. Stay tuned. Stay beautiful.