Fighting disease

Studies show that regular exercise can prevent Alzheimer’s disease by up to a huge 45%, but until recently the reason for this brain boost was always a mystery. Now new research shows that it’s all to do with a protein called Gpld1 which is excreted by the liver after exercise. The study then found that this protein improved the brain health in older mice, and the enzyme is also elevated in the blood of elderly humans who exercise regularly.

Muscle growth

The day after exercise you can’t help but notice that you have aching muscles, known as DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). This happens because the muscles have been torn and damaged, but get stronger as they repair themselves.

“When you first start out exercising, doing five squats might cause you to ache. A few months on, you could do five squats and it doesn’t even affect you,” says Esmée. That’s because we experience muscular hypertrophy, aka muscle growth, and so it takes more weight, reps or intensity to damage the muscles.

Cardiovascular health

But it’s not just the visible muscles that grow: all of those sessions where your heart is pumping hard will result in cardiac hypertrophy. This means that you’ll have a stronger pump which will push more blood around the body. Combined with an increase in oxygen-carrying red blood cells, your heart rate will be able to lower. “Your heart just won’t have to work as hard to get blood to the organs and cells. That’s why you might find the things that used to make you really out of breath become easy after sustained periods of training,” explains Esmée.

Why exercise is important: 9 long-term benefits of exercise on the body and mind