In the midst of your chaotic life; between having fun and doing homework, between shopping and working extra hours, you are probably wondering when and why would you ever need to exercise. Life is already so busy as it is!

Before you start shoving your schedule to do something that just ‘seems’ healthy and lose determination after two weeks, read our solid 6 reasons why you should start working out and hopefully exercise can become part of your lifestyle and not just an activity.

1. Be Happier

You probably did not realize the fact that you put off your homework to enjoy yourself first. The reason that nobody loves doing to the dishes is that they’d rather do something else they like more than the dishes. We all seek to be happy. And the reason why working out did not pop up in our mind because we are unable to see how the chemicals and hormones in our body work to making us feel happier when we work out; it’s the truth!

According to Krista Stryker the founder of 12-minutes athletes, the main reason we’re feeling happier is that exercising releases dopamine, a type of hormone that regulates your happiness. Another hormone is called endorphins and serotonin, which are responsible for regulating your mood. Exercising also increases your metabolism, giving you more energy and thus, making you feeling fresher afterward. This helps with insomnia and increases your sleep quality too.

Overall, you’ll become a happier person when you exercise.

2. Mental Power Boost

For workers, exercising improves your concentration and focus on working. For students, sweating it out helps improving attention span and focus level in classes, tutors, and self-studying. You know that feeling when you were 30 minutes on the screen and spent the rest of the hour daydreaming and being distracted? Exercising can help with that.

Dr. John Ratey, author of the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, talks about impacts of exercises to brain explain that even if you don’t exercise regularly, working out an hour before going to class or leaving for work affect your performance. In the long term, not only will you experience better performance in general, you have reduced the risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

A pretty cheap investment that protects you from possible lifelong illness.

3. Memory Improvement

Aside from being focused, if you are asked to memorize a certain subject compared to when you are sitting in your desk and pumping a gym machine, as a student, you will find memorizing formulas and Latin names easier. The reason is that exercising expands hippocampus, a part of your brain that is in charge of memorizing and learning and has been known related to dementia in women.

It’s a great way to improving your grades and reducing dementia risk!

4. Increases Life Expectancy

According to a study done in 2012 by Glenda Fauntleroy, regular exercises can increase your lifespan up to five years, assuming you start exercising at the age of 20. Many factors contribute to this; from positive moods that prevent deaden cells, better sleep quality, with fewer risks of cardiovascular and memory-related illnesses. Although the number changes depending on your race, increasing your lifespan is definitely something that everybody doesn’t want to miss.

Cheap, anti-aging formula.

5. Reduce Cardiovascular Diseases

The muscles that you train include your heart muscles. Just like how you run to form muscles in your legs, your heart pumps harder and faster and results in stronger heart muscles. Stronger heart muscles pump more blood effectively and prevent plaque from forming in blood vessels. At first, you might feel tired quick, and your heart seems to be pumping at its limit. But as you exercise more regularly, you can feel your heart getting used to the strains and pumps more efficiently while you push for a few extra meters.

Who doesn’t want to get all the health bonuses for free?

6. It’s Not Only About Weight Loss

At first, you might be imagining that everybody exercises to lose weight or to build aesthetically pleasing physical body, but the truth is, exercising is not about all that. Not even weight loss. When you exercise, your body releases hormones that improve so many aspects of life (physically) and in overall, enhances your life quality. When it becomes a lifestyle, you will then understand that exercising is about living a better life.