Have you ever struggled with motivation when it comes to exercise? You wouldn’t be human if you haven’t! It can sometimes be difficult to summon up the energy or willpower to exercise, even when we are very focused on our goals. But you may have noticed that when you exercise, even when you don’t feel like it, you almost always feel better afterwards!
Why Does Exercise Make Me Happy?
Not only do you feel more positive, but it’s quite common to feel happy after an exercise session, and experience a noticeable lift in your mood, even on those days when you’re feeling blue.
That’s because exercise changes your brain! After 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, chemicals called endorphins are released by your body.
These chemicals interact with receptors in your brain to decrease your perception of pain. That’s why you feel so good during a particularly tough workout – your brain encourages you to keep going by minimising the pain you feel.
Other chemicals like dopamine and serotonin are also released, and these ones stick around in your brain for a couple of hours after your workout. These are the chemicals that enhance your mood, and make you feel happy and positive after exercise.
The release of these chemicals is one of the short-term effects of exercise, and the one that you will notice straight away.
But even more importantly, if you exercise regularly for one hour, three times per week, eventually your brain may start to generate new neurons in your hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that influences your emotions, as well as your memory and ability to learn new things.
Scientists believe that in the long term, this optimisation of your hippocampus will lead to greater emotional stability.
So what does this mean? It means that you’re not imagining it when you think that exercise makes you happy. And it also means that sticking with your exercise routine consistently will lead to many additional benefits, no matter what your original goal was.
Hiring home fitness equipment is an excellent strategy to help you stop making excuses and start making progress towards your fitness goals. Click here to read six more reasons why hiring home fitness equipment will set you on the path to success.
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