Let's dive right in
Here are my five reasons to exercise that have nothing to do with body shape or size.
- ANS regulation
- Bone density
- Resilience
- Mental health
- Confidence
What do you think? Which of these appeals to you the most? What other benefits would you add to this list?
Listen on (or read) to figure out what each of these actually means...
Reason one
ANS regulation.
Specifically, your Heart Rate Variability. Heart Rate Variability is NOT your heart rate. It is the space of time between each heartbeat. HRV is not something we can measure on our own like we can take our pulse and count the heartbeats. But it is what many fitness wearables measure so they can tell you when you're getting stressed (aka your sympathetic nervous system is kicking in)
See, when the space of time between each heartbeat is variable (meaning it is NOT regular; the space of time between each heartbeat is changing a lot)... that is a signal to our nervous system that we are in a good place. We WANT high HRV.
Think of it like this: imagine an athlete who is supple and alert and ready... on their toes and shifting their weight from one leg to the other.. literally ready to fire off in any direction at a moments notice. There have energy that is waiting to be sprung and they are aware of all the possibilities around them. An athletic stance is a strong stance. That's what a high heart rate variability is saying to our nervous system... I can be slow, I can be fast, I can be middle of the road... just tell me what i need to do and I can adjust and react fast.
And out nervous system feels comforted by this...like our heart is literally saying, "I've got you. I'm here for you"
Once our sympathetic nervous system gets activated, our HRV become LOW. Meaning the space of time between each heart beat gets very regular. This is because our body has a focus, a mission... and that mission is fight or flight. Our body is predicting a metabolic outlay will be needed and our heart is pumping blood and oxygen to our muscles so we are ready. That constant, regular pump says, "I am focused on this one mission and I am not paying attention to anything else."
So ideally, when we have no reason to be in a fight flight mode, we want our body to reflect this. When we can have a higher HRV at rest, we can have a more regulated nervous system. A side effect of exercise is a higher HRV when we are at rest.
We exercise and our heartbeat gets regular and intense and does its job of sending blood around our body. Then we stop exercising, and not only did our body get a little bit stronger or faster, our HRV gets a little bit more confident that it can do it's job... it can kick in when needed and it can stand down when that makes more sense. The space of time between each heartbeat when we are at rest, gets more varied... more like that athlete waiting for their next play.
Reason two
Bone density
What does that even mean, right? I mean I hear it all the time -bone density is a good thing; we want bone density; bone density is healthy... I'm still not sure that actually motivates me. I get more motivated when I understand things better.
I was on a big hike in Jasper a few years ago and there were these lovely inukshuks along the way. If you haven't seen one before, imagine making a snowman (with arms) but you make it out of rock. There were also signs everywhere saying DO NOT make your own Inukshuk... the signs didn't say explicitly at penalty of death or anything but they were quite stern and severe in their messaging.
So naturally, my first thought was "You're not the boss of me. Don't tell me I can't make art in this beautiful place when clearly other people have." I may have voiced my outrage outloud and one of my much wiser friends explained that when we're hiking across large expanses of rock, it obviously is harder to know where the trail is and how to follow it. The Inukshuks are markers to show you the best route and how to join up with the trail once you hit a dirt path again.
Brilliant! Especially as this is an area that may get snow covered so you need markers that are visible above the ground and there are no trees to attach ribbon to and it's hard to pound a sign post into rock. All in all a brilliant guiding system... until people start making their own Inukshuks in random places and suddenly everyone is following the wrong path, getting lost, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it could put their lives in danger when you are hiking in these remote locations at high elevation without cell service.
Once I understood the purpose behind the Inukshuks and the reasons the signs were saying 'don't make your own' all of my F you "you can't tell me what to do" went away. I have no interest in risking someone else's life by sending them on a wild inukshuk chase. So if anyone from Parks canada is listening, a wee bit of explanation on the signs might make your life easier.
Which bring me back to bone density. If all things are working as they were designed, then our body adapts itself to be great at the demands we place on it. If we ask it to sit all day, it gets good at being in that position and moving the muscles in different ways gets harder. If we live in stressful situations, it gets good at being hypervigilent. If we run a lot, our cardio vascular system gets more efficient. If we lift heavy things, we get stronger muscles... and better bone density.
Muscles and bones work together and if we have bigger muscles on bones that aren't strong enough, we can't move efficiently. So as a general rule, when muscles get stronger, so do bones. Muscles are attached to bones by connective tissue we call tendons. When our muscle contracts, the tendon pulls on the bone. The more dense the bone is, the more force it can withstand. Bones get dense with minerals like calcium, protein, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin D, potassium, fluoride. So we lift something heavy (or use our body in weight bearing ways, the tendons pull on the bones and our body says, "Oh?! Is this what we're doing now? OK, I'll prepare us for more of that." And one of the things our body puts on the to-do list is to increase the minerals in our bones.
Why does that matter? Human bone density tends to peak in our mid 30's. For various reasons, females have a lower peak bone density than males and we have a dramatic bone density drop during menopause, so anything we can do to keep bone density high is vital to avoiding broken bones as an older adult. (osteoporosis)
It is worth noting that 80% of bone density is genetically determined so that extra input we have control over is even more important.
Reason three
Resilience.
There's another word we know we like and yes I want more of that... but what does that mean. According to the dictionary, it means the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.
Let me introduce you to the Cross-Stressor Adaptation Hypothesis which proposes that physiological adaptations received from exercise, improve the efficiency of the stress response and can transfer over to psychological stressors.
What that means is we have evidence that shows that when we exercise, we activate our HPA axis (aka our stress response). Basically, we create a stressful situation for our body. Our body tolerates that stress, makes beneficial adaptations because of that stress, and then when our stress response is activated because of life sucks moments, our ability to tolerate that stress is higher because our body learned how to recover from it after exercise.
We have literally increased our capacity to recover from difficulties.
One part of that may be thanks to galenin production. Galenin is a neuropeptide (and without blinding you with science - mostly because I am not weeds deep in the science either), neuropeptides are like chemical messengers involved with strengthening our neural connections.
Galanin protects our neurons from degeneration caused by stress. In fact researchers also showed that galanin reverses the negative effects of stress. To the best of my knowledge this is research on mice and rats and specific to running as the type of exercise, but it is till exciting stuff. Our pre-frontal cortex brain (which is full of neurons) is responsible for planning, decision making, emotional regulation, and stress resilience (to name a few functions), and the theory is that galenin gains from exercise are maintaining our brains neuroplasticity, which is our brain's ability to modify, change, and adapt
On a personal note, running to increase resilience motivates me, but running to lose weight does not. Why? Both are a change. I think because weight loss is something outside influences force me to care about whereas my own resilience is something I internally give a shit about. And my own resilience will help me care less about others people’s opinions of my body.
Exercise (weight lifting and running in particular) have been my coping method for trauma recovery. Don't get me wrong, I can abuse food, and I'm no stranger to a glass of wine or three when life gets rough... for those of you who have read my about me page, you'll know I had a 3 month stretch of time when I was high or drunk every night in order to survive my emotions.
But, for me, exercise is the only coping method that doesn't have the negative side effects of that other stuff. I mean, sure my muscles can get sore, but a manageable amount of that actually feels rewarding. And I've learned how to work with my body for recovery time. You know that if you are in a body that experiences the hormonal fluctuations of menstruation, there are ways to optimize your training so that you reduce muscle soreness.
If that interests you, I suggest taking my 5 day undiet journey and start relating to your body like a friend instead of your worst enemy.
Reason four
Mental health.
Now this I'm sure you've heard before but this is one that has so many pitfalls attached to it. Our traditional fitness world is full of judgement about what your body should look like and that's not good for mental health. Our traditional fitness world takes away autonomy and limits and restricts... also not good for mental health. Our traditional fitness world rewards us for ignoring messages from our body (ie hunger or energy levels) and that's not good for mental health.
So, yes, exercise is good for mental health, but learning to navigate the fitness world might need guidance. Again, consider my 5 day undiet journey. 🙂
But let's come back to how exercise is good for mental health. And let's talk about an instant benefit shall we? None of this over time crap. In six to eight weeks. When you are exercising and exerting, it gets harder to think about other stuff.
My caveat is to work at a level that is appropriate for you, but intense exercise can be a welcome momentary break from intrusive thoughts. Plus a way to discharge the excess energy of the anxiety those thoughts might be creating.
A longer term mental health benefit comes back to that ANS regulation and the resilience capacity that exercise creates. When our nervous system is balanced and we are able to manage stress, we are able to think differently. We are able to engage that pre-frontal cortex and make decisions, and problem solve.
Full transparency, exercise is not the only option for this, (meditation is another option), but if you exercise you're gonna get all the benefits, whether you want them or not lol.
Reason five
Confidence
- not because of body shape, but because of doing hard things
- because of increasing self-efficacy (belief in yourself to figure things out)
- because of sticking with it - whether that means sticking with it to finish one set, one workout or a month of workouts
And ya, I KNOW there's a bunch of you who will want to say, but i don't stick with it Kate. And to that i say, well you're here reading this blog post on exercise, aren't you? That says to me that you haven't given up. You're still looking for a way to make it work for you.
And I would suggest that if you haven't tried a mental health focused fitness plan based on your female body needs, I'm not surprised it has been hard to stick with it.
I'd also love to quote Mayam Bialik and something I heard her say about change. "When you try something new, if you directly compare it to what you had been doing, it’s going to be painful, shocking, and not sustainable."
So if you compare your life of regular exercise to a life of not exercising regularly, in the beginning, the exercise life is gonna feel like the harder choice.
Your body might feel sore, it's taking up time in your day, there could be extra costs, there's all this motivation you have to find, and maybe there's a ton of decisions to be made what exercise to do. Not to mention the energy you spend pushing away the disappointment that your body hasn't changed overnight or the energy it takes to walk your body into a gym full of people who are in better shape than you (at least that is how it feels). Mental energy takes physical energy.
How often have you given yourself some compassion for all that when you are starting a new fitness routine?
Which was all a long winded way to say that I believe you can stick with it if the fitness lifestyle you are building is something you realistically want to live with for the rest of your life.
And when exercise does become a regular part of your life, it builds confidence. There is something about the outside of our body getting stronger that makes the inside of us feel stronger... and more confident.
