Posted on March 01, 2017 by Kate Halsall

I recently did a presentation about the effects of exercise on the body. The main purpose was to describe the physical effects i.e. your heart beating faster and therefore getting stronger, the effects of exercise on your bones and muscles and so on. But I opened the presentation with the question “why do you exercise” and despite there being people from a fitness background, the answers might not have been what you expected! So ask yourself the same question and see if you can correlate with.

To Escape / To have ME Time

We have busy lives – do you make your training/exercise a priority? How many people do you know put their headphones in and go out for a run, or box to de-stress? Have you ever just gone into the gym to lift something heavy and just switch off? It’s about taking a break from your day to day activities, it’s to challenge you in a different way, it’s about changing your environment and focusing on something else.

Aesthetics

There’s no need to be shy about it – why wouldn’t we exercise if we want to look good! Men want to wear those tight t-shirts in summer and women want to get their arms out! When we feel like we look good, we feel good. It’s about wearing the clothes we want, our muscles looking lean, weight loss, about our self esteem, and about how we want others to look at us.

Fun!

Some of you may not agree, but I go to fitness weekends to hang upside down in massive hoops and dance around in the dark with glow sticks! I find exercise FUN! Don’t get me wrong, I hate burpees – they’re not fun to me at all – but everyone is different! Exercise can be social (certainly here at motive8 it is, lots of friendships have been forged in our studios), it can be a support network, it can be that start to the morning or the best way to end your day.

‘Henchness’ – aka Strength & Functional Strength

It’s being able to complete our day to day activities; to stave off the threat of getting older; to be able to run round after our children, nieces/nephews, grandchildren etc. It’s to get out of the chair without groaning, to flip that tyre knowing that it’s more than you weigh, and it’s to opening that jar lid without getting any help!

To Reduce Risk of Major Illness

And the stats that back this up are shocking. We need to be active to help prevent some of those illness which are predominantly caused by a lack of movement. As per my introduction, we need to keep our bones strong, our blood full of oxygen and our blood pressure as normal as possible.

Everyone has different reasons, and they might not be any of the ones listed above! I know people who exercise just to compete because they love team sports; someone I know does it to get better sleep and another does it because they always have! Regardless of the reason – keep doing it! There is no right or wrong as long as you’re doing it!