More Weird and Wonderful Ways That Exercise Benefits Your Health

We are definitely going off-grid, all week long to show you all the non-standard ways that exercise is good for you. 

It Can Slow Your Hair Loss

Whaaaat?? Hair loss? Am I suddenly in an infomercial? And what about all the hair restoring creams and potions you bought at the drug store all these years? If exercise could help get the same results, well maybe you should have just jogged to the store to pick them up, then they’d have been more effective? 

This wacky benefit of exercise on hair loss is a bit of a stretch, but only just a bit. Here’s the trail of logic that connects exercise with slowing the process. 

1. This research study found that men who worked out more had 40% less of the stress hormone cortisol than those who weren’t active.  
2. If you have more cortisol in your body, your hair follicles do not replace all the hair you lose on any given day, and even CAUSE hair loss. 
3. Therefore, exercise reduces the stress hormone that causes more hair loss and prevents your body from replacing that hair with new ones. 

There you have it,, as easy as 1, 2, 3

It Helps You Remember What You Forgot

Those who exercise tend to remember things better — like their workout schedules! Research from Georgia Tech found that resistance training improved their ability to remember 10 percent more images than non-exercisers after just 6 sets of 10 reps of leg extensions.

It’s not just simple memory, but also thinking skills which are improved. This is probably because exercise can basically help clear your arteries of the crud that is lining your artery walls. And when you “clear the pipes” over time it allows more nutrients to be transported to the brain cells who need them for life, and for proper function.   

So don’t forget your exercises or you just might forget your exercises! 

It Reduces Your Wrinkles?

Do you want to look like someone with the skin of a 20-30 year old, even if you’re 50+? You could get the expensive face lift or rub some kind of aloe-cucumber-avocado puree all over your face. Or, you might try regular exercise.   

This research study found that men and women who exercised frequently had the skin that was much closer in composition to that of a 20- and 30-year-old than to others of their age, even if they were past age 65. This kind of change to the structure of your skin can help reduce wrinkles, crow’s feet, and sagging.

Look, there are a hundred variables you have to plug into the equation that solves the health of your skin: sun exposure, how arid your environment is, your genetics, and on and on. But now you know that you can tilt the equation in your favor by just moving more on a regular basis.