Eli5: Why is exercise good?
In: Biology
This may be an over simplified obsolete explanation, but my health teacher in high school explained it as the heart being good for a roughly fixed number of beats, and being fit lowers your resting heart rate enough to extend it’s lifetime.
Besides increasing muscle strength and endurance, It helps your heart and lungs exercise, which helps clean your airways and bloodstream.
Plus. when you exercise your blood stream releases endorphins, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin.
These chemicals help control your mood, so it helps if you’re angry or depressed. It also helps keep your head clear when something emotional happens. They can also give you a high if you exercise enough (is what marijuana makes your brain release), but without the intoxication or harmful effects on liver and lungs. (Also, this effect doesn’t work backwards)
So, your heart pumps less when you’re stationary or doing daily tasks, your lungs work less hard (and you can hold your breath longer), your brain health goes up as well.
The answer is because your body did not evolve to sit around, browse Reddit, and watch TV while snacking on potato chips.
It evolved to move, and our modern environment doesn’t promote that. So you need to substitute with something else.
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