by Remi Omodara
Famous quote author Dennis Ogilvie once said, “The pride you gain is worth the pain.”
Maybe you’ve never exercised in your life, but you’ve probably seen the commercials selling various exercise equipment or the articles teaching people how to stay fit during the holiday season.
Selling points that resonate with me are “improve your health” or “have a gorgeous bathing-suit-ready body by summer.”
Sometimes the actors are corny and the message is cliche. However, the points they make in favor of exercise are true.
Some of us find it hard to make time or even to be motivated to forget about our busy schedules and do something good for our bodies.
According to allbusiness.com/health, 52 percent of college students around the country are inactive or don’t exercise regularly. On average, during the first two years of college, students gain three to 10 pounds due to lack of healthy eating and lack of exercise.
Simply exercising 30 minutes a day, through dance, jogging, etc., can decrease the percentage of weight gain.
Maybe that’s not you. Maybe you are thinking that you already look pretty good in your jeans or that you were blessed with the inheritance of fast metabolism. However, exercise can help with things other than weight loss.
As college students, we can all attest to the fact that stress, time and energy are important factors in our day-to-day lives. We have too much stress, too little time and hardly enough energy to get through our day. If it’s not a class or a sport, exercising is sometimes the last thing on our minds.
However, according to nutristrategy.com, 25 percent of college students around the country turn to exercise to relieve stress, and it is proven to do so. This is because exercise pumps up our bodies’ endorphins, which feel good to the brain.
When we exercise, that math problem doesn’t look so difficult and we feel more confident about the paper we have to write.
It also gives us energy, which we can all admit we are looking for more of.
Furthermore, exercise is good for our heart. It can lower the chances of getting diabetes or suffering a stroke in the future.
Not only does it do incredible things for us outwardly, like give us fit bodies, exercise boosts self-esteem.
Like Dennis Ogivie said, exercise may be painful, but we feel good about ourselves when we do it. Studies have shown that our moods are improved as well.
So why don’t we exercise? If there are so many advantages to exercising, why don’t we make time for it?
According to pt-connection.com, the No.1 reason for a lack of exercise is a lack of care. Those of us who are not trying to lose weight simply do not care about exercising because it has ties to weight loss.
There is also a lack of discipline. We are a fast-food, want-it-now, ready-to-go generation, and we feel as if we don’t have time to exercise.
Many people don’t understand the benefits of exercise and how even those who are fit can gain from a simple jog around campus or a dance aerobics session. Who wouldn’t like to have more energy and less stress throughout the day?