29 Mental Reasons To Exercise

Jason Squires from Squires Online Personal Fitness Program is our guest contributor today (note: no longer in business but the info is still relevant).

You know it's beneficial to your body physically to exercise but I challenged Jason to come up with at least 20 mental reasons to exercise. He surpassed my expectations and came up with 29.

He's separated them into psychological, emotional and social.

So, here we go, according to Jason Squires,

29 Mental Reasons to Exercise

12 Psychological Benefits Of Regular Exercise

1. Exercise reduces depression and anxiety.
2. It fosters a greater sense of self-reliance.
3. Exercise fosters a more constructive response to disappointments and failures.
4. Exercise increases your self-confidence.
5. It improves overall psychological well-being.
6. Exercise improves your self-esteem
7. Exercise decreases the onset of Alzheimer's and other mental illnesses.
8. Exercise improves your perception, mental alertness and information processing.
9. Exercise decreases overall feelings of tension and stress.
10. You will sleep better and feel more refreshed and alert each morning.
11. Exercise improves your memory, and helps you think more quickly.
12. It reduces your frustrations with daily problems.

7 Emotional Benefits Of Regular Exercise

1. Regular exercise will improve the mind-body connection.
2. Exercise calms your mind overall and helps you feel less stressed.
3. Exercise makes you feel happier – the rush of endorphins after a workout makes exercising slightly addictive!
4. Exercise makes you feel more optimistic and fosters a positive mental attitude.
5. Exercise allows you to express your frustrations and disappointments in a positive way – it allows you to ‘vent’.
6. Exercise gives you more confidence to improve your relationships with family and friends.
7. Exercise helps you feel better about yourself.

7 Social Benefits Of Regular Exercise

1. Exercise improves your mood - I’m sure your friends would appreciate this if you are usually quite ‘cranky’!
2. Exercise helps you manage your weight – resulting in your confidence with social situations improving.
3. Exercising improves your self-image.
4. Exercising increases your opportunities to make new friends – at the gym, at the swimming club, the running track, your gym classes, etc, etc.
5. Exercise increases the opportunities to socialise with friends or family (by exercising with a friend)
6. Regular exercise increases your self-confidence, which positively affects your professional, personal, and social lives.
7. A healthy, more toned and attractive body improves your chances of finding a partner.

3 Other Benefits Of Regular Exercise

1. Exercise shows your children the importance of being healthy and fit - you'll be a positive role model. You'll feel good about yourself for being a positive role model. You won't just be telling your kids that exercise is important, you'll be showing them.
2. Regular exercise results in an increase in productivity – which will improve your career. And, you'll feel better about yourself if you're living up to your potential.
3. You will improve your focus and be able to do more tasks, and become more organised – again, a benefit that will help you in your career and your personal life. You'll be enjoying life instead of just wishing your life was "better" or that you were happier.

And there we go!

29 mental reasons to exercise regularly!

To your health and happiness,

Jason

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Thanks, Jason!

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Add Your Own Mental Reasons To Exercise

This is an impressive number of reasons Jason came up with. But I think we can add even more. Do you know of any other mental reasons to exercise that you want to share? Add your reasons below.

I'll even add the first one. So, here goes:

#30 - To be proud of yourself
You'll be proud of yourself not only for following through on a goal but for making yourself a priority and taking care of yourself. You deserve that.

#31 - Mental Fatigue - Tom McGuire from Alaska
During stressful work assignments and working long hours, I found myself making excuses that I was too tired to exercise when, in fact, I was just being lazy. 

It wasn't long before the stress and weight gain caused other health problems that became chronic. After work it's easy to make excuses and just sit on the couch and watch TV.

Read the rest of Tom's excellent posting about how exercise is making a difference in his life.