Are chronic excuses keeping you from the rewards of a regular, challenging exercise routine? If so then you’re missing out on much more than you realize. 

Here are my Top 7 Reasons to Exercise hard + regularly. Don’t miss out on these:

Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away 

The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:

• Your pants become loose
• People around you begin to say that you look great
• A glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile
• Your energy levels soar
• You feel amazing

Reason #2: To Alleviate Pain

Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened by strengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program. 

Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue

More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle uses many more calories each day than fatty tissue. In fact, one kilo of muscle burns around 100 calories each day at rest—compared to a measly 20 calories per kilo of fat. 

When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned even while you’re resting. What could be better than that? 

Reason #4: To Stay Young

Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process. 

Here’s the study in a nutshell:

• Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter.
• Once a telomere gets too short, that cell can no longer divide.
• Aging occurs as more and more cells reach the end of their telomeres and die. This results in weakened muscles, skin wrinkles, loss of eyesight and hearing, organ failure and slowed mental functioning.
• The study analyzed the telomeres from the white bloods cells of twins over a 10-year period. Telomere length was used as a marker for the rate of biological aging.
• It was found that the length of telomeres was directly related to that twin’s activity level. "There was a gradient," Spector said. "As the amount of exercise increased, the telomere length increased."
• People who did 100 minutes of weekly exercise had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 5-6 years younger than those who did 16 minutes of exercise each week.
• People who did 3 hours of vigorous exercise each week had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 9 years younger.

Reason #5: To Prevent or Control Type 2 Diabetes

Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabetes, gain substantial benefits from. Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity.. 

Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels

Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:

• Weak Heart Muscles pump little blood with lots of effort. By exercising you strengthen your heart muscles and train them to pump more blood with less effort. The stronger your heart is the less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.
• Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people—this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.

Reason #7: To Feel Great

The first thing that clients tell me after starting their program is how much better they feel. Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated. Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing – you’ll start to notice less mood swings, elevated capacity to get other things done during the day, and most importantly a more positive attitude to life in general. Who wouldn't want that!

And that's just what you get from moderate exercise levels. Step up your game to the next level by training hard (80%-100% maximum effort level) every session, and the real magic starts to happen. You grow to LOVE that feeling of pushing your limits, challenging yourself both physically and mentally, and of course the much faster + more noticeable results! Watch the videos below of me taking a Squat session and a Shoulder session to my absolute limit. I may look like I'm dying on the outside - but I loved every second of it >;)