Exercise goes beyond the added daily burn. Not only does regular physical activity help you feel better about yourself, it also helps your body balance certain hormones
#1 ESTROGEN – this hormone is known as the ultimate female hormone. It helps young girls reach puberty, develop breasts, hips, menstruation and prevents the body from certain cancers and bone diseases. Estrogen production does slow down and eventually taper off for a woman as they enter menopause. With the addition of hormones in meats, increased use of pesticides, plastics, and chemicals in our food, environment and household products Estrogen has been manipulated over the years. Our bodies good estrogen is being replaced by bad estrogens, and its making weight gain and disease states more prevalent. Exercise is estrogen’s friend, by raising your heart rate, you will produce more of your good estrogens. Also by burning calories, you are more apt to burn fat, and this is where bad estrogen lives.
#2 ANDROGENS – Ok, maybe when you start an exercise program you are not happy, but you certainly end on a high note! That’s because exercise releases serotonin and dopamine. These are two neurotransmitters that boost your mood, reduce depression, reduce cravings, anxiety and make your happy. This relates back to estrogen because those with estrogen imbalances are often mood sensitive, and would benefit from a boosted release of these neurotransmitters!
#3 INSULIN – exercise can reduce the glucose in your blood. Muscles can use glucose without insulin when you’re exercising. If you’re insulin resistant, exercise actually makes your insulin more effective. That is—your insulin resistance will go down when you exercise, and your cells can use the glucose more effectively.
#4 CORTISOL WATCH! Exercise is perceived by the body as a form of stress and stimulates the release of cortisol. In general, the more your fitness improves the better the body becomes at dealing with physical stress. This means that less cortisol will be released during exercise and also in response to emotional or psychological stresses. It is possible to enjoy the undeniable benefits of exercise while minimizing the impact on cortisol concentrations:
- Don’t overdo it. Take regular breaks from intense training and listen to your body.
- Training for more than 60 minutes, even at a low intensity will burn up the body’s glycogen stores and stimulate cortisol release. A study confirmed that long-term cortisol exposure was significantly higher in endurance athletes.· Leave intense sessions to later in the day, when cortisol levels are lower.
- Eat right to fuel your body and make sure you consume the correct target nutrition plan pre during and post-exercise to reduce the body stress response.
