Is exercise good for you? NO! Actually exercise alone is not good for you. In fact, many bad things like free radical production and cell damage happen during exercise. Exercise isn't good for you...recovery AFTER an exercise session is what's good for you. Exercise tears down...resting allows your body to rebuild and get stronger. Exercise without sufficient rest is not beneficial. Of course, resting without exercising at all is even worse for you. The point is to balance exercise and rest.
There are many ways to rest and recover. This post will cover the most basic way that we rest: SLEEP.
The Harvard Women’s Health Watch suggests six reasons to get enough sleep:
1. Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.
2. Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.
3. Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.
4. Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.
5. Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.
6. Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.
Importance of Sleep : Six reasons not to scrimp on sleep: Harvard Medical School
My next post in a couple days will give information on how to get more quality sleep.
If you have any questions, let me know: mattbarberfitness@gmail.com
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