Below are 60 positive, self-sustaining reasons to keep exercise in your life. Tune in to your own positive reasons. Write down your own individual reasons. Read your list and own it. Increase your awareness of your constructive motivation. Instead of 'pushing yourself' to workout, you can pull yourself with these benefits.

Exercise DECREASES:

1. Bad cholesterol

2. Total cholesterol

3. Other blood fats

4. Risk of dangerous blood clots

5. Heart attack risk

6. Difficulty breathing due to heart disease

7. Illness and absence from work

8. Hospitalizations

9. Risk of colon cancer

10. Risk of developing breast cancer

11. Medical and healthcare expenses

12. Non-insulin dependent diabetics need for medication

Exercise INCREASES:

13. Endorphin production

14. Insulin sensitivity

15. Insulin effectiveness

16. Glucose tolerance

17. Good (HDL) cholesterol

18. The elimination of artery clogging proteins

19. Blood volume

20. Amount of blood being pumped with each beat

21. The chance of surviving a second heart attack

22. Body's ability to use minerals and vitamins more efficiently

23. Lung capacity

24. Oxygen carrying capacity

25. Stamina

26. Bone density

27. Thickness of cartilage in joints

Exercise IMPROVES:

28. Sleep

29. Sense of well being

30. Sense of self worth

31. Joy in life

32. Connectedness with the world

33. Libido

34. Sexual performance and satisfaction

35. Creativity

36. Ability to eat more and gain less

37. Immune system function

38. Circulation

39. Tolerance to heat and cold

40. Posture

41. Efficiency of cardiovascular system

42. Short-term memory

43. Athletic performance

Exercise HELPS:

44. Speed recovery from chemotherapy treatments

45. Anxiety

46. Relieve back pain

47. Overcome jet-lag

48. Alleviate depression

49. Reduce the vulnerability of abnormal heart rhythms

50. Flexibility

51. Lower your resting heart rate

52. Alleviate PMS symptoms

53. Induce relaxation

54. Promote bowel regularity

55. Reduce and prevent menopausal hot flashes

56. Reduce and prevent menopausal sleep disturbances

57. Reduce and prevent menopausal irritability

58. Anger management

59. Relieve and prevent migraine headaches

60. Reduce risk of endometriosi

Increased Fitness Associated With 50% to 70% Reductions in All-Cause Mortality

News Author: Shelley Wood
CME Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MSEd

One of the largest studies ever to link exercise capacity to mortality risk should motivate physicians to pay as much attention to patients' exercise capacity as they do other major risk factors, researchers say [1]. Their study of older male veterans suggests that the adjusted risk of dying was reduced by 13% for every 1 metabolic equivalent (MET) increase in exercise capacity; men with the greatest exercise capacity reduced their mortality risk by 70%.

"For a little bit of investment you get a lot of a return," lead author on the study, Dr Peter Kokkinos (Veterans Affairs [VA] Medical Center, Washington, DC) told heartwire. "In a time where health insurance in this country is going through the roof, we could do something like walk for thirty minutes a day and reap major benefits. "For god's sake, if we could walk on the moon we can certainly walk on earth."

Kokkinos and colleagues followed 15,660 male veterans with and without cardiovascular (CV) disease who had completed an exercise treadmill test at study outset. More than 40% of veterans participating in the study were black. Baseline exercise capacity for the entire group was divided into quartiles and assessed in relation to all-cause mortality over a mean of 7.5 years.

Fitness reduces death-risk in dose-response fashion

Their study appears in an early online edition of Circulation, January 22, 2008, from Heartwire — a professional news service of WebMD