** Please understand that this is not advice. It’s my opinion and perspective on exercising and its importance. Please talk to your doctor before doing anything you are not sure about or don’t know how your body might react to.

Forewords

This blog post is for people who don’t know much about exercising or are beginners. If you are an experienced fitness guru or a bodybuilder, I don’t think you’ll find anything new here. The focus here is to help not-so-experienced people to understand how exercising is important and how to start with it.

Why Exercise?

Some are doing it for bigger arms, and some for a bigger Instagram butt. Some are doing it because their friends are doing it, while others are doing it because it just feels good. All of this is sweet, but the real reasons are much deeper than that.

You might be wondering if exercising is just some new trend, if you need it, or if it’s maybe just an industry scam to sell you fancy equipment you don’t need or use. Well, I’m glad you asked.

There are numerous benefits of exercising, and I’ll write here only a few that I believe are the most important ones.

You’ll get healthier

Exercising will help you get healthier. It’s a fact and it’s been scientifically proven. I’ll quote Jocko Willink from his book “Discipline Equals Freedom”:

“By working out, you will increase your endorphins, testosterone, growth hormones, cardiac volume, insulin sensitivity, and natural killer cells. Those changes will help prevent or treat the following health issues: high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, insomnia, and depression.”

Meaning, your mental state will improve immediately after one single workout, or even during. You’ll feel more aware and sharper, and overall better. Also, you’ll improve your motivation, concentration, memory, mood, and focus – very important for work and other daily tasks. You want that, don’t you?

Reduced stress levels

In order to exercise, you’ll have to push and stress your body. That’s the good stress – unless it’s done overly too much and uncontrolled. That being said, exercising will reduce the bad stress – mental stress – caused by negative emotions we experience on a daily basis. This might be working in a stressful job you don’t like, or daily bad news on the TV or social media, or whatever that you’re stressing and worrying about.

This brings you closer to getting rid of depression and anxiety if you have any. You’ll be happier and we all know how people react to joyful people. It’s like laughing – contagious. You’ll shine with positive energy, you’ll smile, you’ll engage more with other people, and you’ll bring more enthusiasm to everything you do.

But – there is one big but – you have to do it for yourself, not because someone – like me right now – told you so. You have to want to do it, not feel forced to do it by someone else. It’s fine if you force yourself to do it, but someone pushing you to do it won’t bring you far. That alone is a topic for another blog post.

Better sleep

I’ve been reading about it and I can say this from my experience. Every time I exercise, I sleep better. And if I don’t exercise for more than 5 days, I notice that my sleep is worse and it’s harder for me to get up in the morning.

Night’s sleep is important for our body and mind. It also contributes to that “feel good” mood and more of a focused mind. Exercising will increase your body’s temperature, which might help your mind be calmer, hence you’ll sleep better.

It makes you smarter

Yes, smarter. Exercising improves blood flow to the brain and makes neurons more capable to send and receive messages (synaptic plasticity). It increases the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein responsible to help your brain to repair falling brain cells, develop new connections, and protect healthy brain cells. In other words, exercising boosts brainpower in a number of ways.

Also, it’s been proven by several studies that exercising boosts creativity and mental energy. So, if you find yourself in the middle of a mental fog, your best next move might be going for a walk or run, or a bundle of few push-ups, jumping jacks, or burpees.

More muscle, less fat

Last, but definitely not least, building more muscle or losing fat are probably the most common reasons why people go for a workout. Whether you want to lose that extra belly fat or build more toned body parts, you have to exercise. A big role when it comes to building muscles or losing body weight is your diet but again, that’s a topic for a whole another blog post.

Reduced lower back pain – which is a widely common problem among people around the world – is also a result of stronger muscles in the back.

One of the biggest reasons why I exercise, besides all the physical benefits, is to build my mental strength. It’s no secret that exercising is hard sometimes, especially these last few repetitions in the set. The 9th and 10th repetitions of push-ups are always harder than the 1st and 2nd ones. And that’s where it gets interesting for me. If you’re able to push through the last repetitions, you will build more mental strength and will tackle hard life’s challenges more easily – because well, you just proved to yourself that you can do something even if it’s tough.

As you can see, there are a lot of benefits of exercising, and that’s only a fraction. Continue reading to see what exercises you should do and what equipment you need, in order to start. At the end of the post, I’ll write why I pay attention to exercising and how I do it.

What Exercises Should You Do?

All of them. Just kidding.

Since there are lots of exercises and possibilities, I’ll keep this short and simple. If you’re a beginner or even an advanced athlete, basic exercises are the best. You want to focus on compound movements – exercises that engage more muscle groups of your body at the same time.

** I’m not going to include the images here or explain how to do the exercises in the proper form. I’ll name the exercises that can be done mostly without any equipment and anywhere you are. You should do your own research on how to do these exercises properly, or simply ask me anything you want to know additionally. Don’t worry, it’s for free – I love helping 🙂

Push-up variations – basic, wide hands, diamond, pike, decline, spiderman, and others

Dip – use a chair or on a dip station

Squat variations – basic, w/ dumbbells, w/ barbell, Bulgarian split, pistol, single-leg, split squat, squat jacks, jump squat

Back exercises – any pull-up exercise (if bar available), superman, W superman Pull-up superman, aquaman, basic back extension, rubber band back exercises, any row exercise

Core – crunches, leg raises, bicycle crunches, plank, Russian twist

Cardio – running, cycling, jumping jacks, burpees

You can also find other exercises on your own. It’s important that you try the exercises out and that you try to do them with as best proper form as possible. Again, I’m here for you if you have any questions about any specific exercise.

What Equipment Do You Need?

Nothing, assuming that you have the body.
To start off, you only need to want to exercise. There are plenty of exercises you can do with your body only – your body weight.

The only thing you might need is a proper pair of shoes, but even without them you can do almost every basic exercise – push up, squat, abs exercises, lying back extension – it all can be done barefoot.

With a pair of dumbbells, or a pair of rings, or a chair, or rubber bands – your possibilities are hugely increased and are endless but they are not necessary if you just want to start. You can make really good progress before you even buy any piece of equipment.

What Time Is Best To Exercise?

It’s like asking “When it’s the best time to read a book?” isn’t it? You have to know yourself, what is your routine, schedule, or preference. The best time to exercise is the time when you want to exercise and when it suits your daily schedule the most.

Some love exercising on an empty stomach, some during a noon break, and some in the evening. Although exercising will improve the quality of your sleep, sleep experts wouldn’t recommend high-intensity exercising 2-3 hours before bedtime because it could make it harder for you to fall asleep. Low or moderate-intensity should not be a problem.

Just like with everything in life, you have to take the information and try it yourself. If you don’t know what suits you best, you simply try it. Try exercising in the morning or after your work and see what might suit your routine.

How Do I Do It?

I don’t have any specific plans or a program that I follow when it comes to my exercise regimen. At the moment, with my wife and 16-month-old son living in our 65 m2 apartment, I want to have as much flexibility as possible. So I do push-ups, squats, various dumbbell exercises (recently I fell in love with the exercise called Dumbbell Snatch), various rubber band exercises, cardio exercises (jumping jacks, running, cycling, burpees), and so on.

Very often I’m spontaneous with my exercise regimen because I understand the benefits of exercising. For example, I did 30 jumping jacks while I was writing this blog post. I actually did them. I took a 5-minute break, made a coffee, and while I was waiting, I did the jumping jacks. I know that my heart will start to beat faster and hence my blood will flow faster. I was immediately more aware of my writing and made my short break more effective.

As a goal for me, I’m looking to exercise at least three times per week. By that, I mean strength exercises. It’s called the Push/Pull/Legs Split Routine.
Push – by doing the push exercises, you’re mainly engaging the chest, triceps, and shoulder muscles (push-ups, dips, etc.)

Pull – the target here is your back and biceps muscles

Legs – self-explanatory, you’re doing the exercises that mainly engage legs (squat variations, lunges, etc.)

Conclusion

Although exercising takes some effort and discipline, I still think that it brings us way more benefits in comparison to dwelling on how exercising is punishing us. Get over it and think long-term – it will improve your life if not even save it.