As I got up this Sunday morning at 5am and was getting ready for a chilly run with a friend, I thought to myself as I often do before my early morning workouts, why do I put myself through this every day? Wouldn’t it be so nice to crawl back under the covers and get an extra hour of sleep? I reminded myself of the reasons why I make time for my daily exercise routine. I get up at this crazy hour of the morning to fit my workouts into my busy schedule because of the way it makes me feel afterwards and more importantly for how it helps with my quality of life.

Numerous studies have shown that regular exercise can help protect us from a multitude of dangerous health conditions like heart disease,strokes, diabetes, and obesity just to name a few and it also improves our mood and helps with managing stress, self image, depression, and anxiety. It’s a busy world we live in and exercise helps relieve the stress and tension our fast paced lives and demanding jobs create.

The benefits of building muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance not only helps someone training for an athletic event, it also boosts our energy levels making it easier to complete everyday life activities from something as simple as climbing the stairs to giving us more energy to complete daily chores.

Making exercise a part of your daily routine helps keep you motivated and less likely to quit. Schedule a time for your workouts and make it as important as you would any other activity. Always remember, exercise is for life!