from Simple Pleasures: 10 Great rewards to exercising: Not only has exercise been proven to help lower the risk of cancer, heart disease, or other illnesses, but recent studies show there are many additional surprising benefits from exercise. Here are the top ten great rewards from exercising. 1. Exercise helps you build brain power. Aerobic exercise will help your body feel supple and energized as it increases blood flow to the brain, making your thought processes more efficient. Studies have show that people who exercised regularly performed better on memorization and word association tests. People who are fit are faster thinkers than people who don't exercise. Regular exercise is also helpful in reducing your risk of Alzheimer's. 2. Exercise is an excellent way to boost your self-esteem. Even people with very busy schedules should be able to find ten minutes a day fro a brisk walk or other aerobic exercise. Developing a routine exercise program and following through with it will give you a strong sense of accomplishment. You can build confidence by setting reasonable goals, following through on a schedule even if it's only ten minutes a day, and celebrate the new skills and strengths that you are gaining. 3. Exercise is a great replacement for binge eating. Stress and tension often send us running for the refrigerator or cookie jar. A study at Long Beach State University found that taking a brisk twelve-minute walk gave people more energy and release from tension than eating a bag of cookies or your favorite comfort food. 4. Increase your creativity. Researches in London found a correlation between exercise and the flow of nutrients to areas of the brain responsible for abstract and creative thinking. Instead of getting worked up over that writer's block or stumbling through creating that proposal, get up and take a fifteen minute exercise break. Take a brisk walk or walk up and down the office stairwell to get the blood flowing, release tension, and get your mind off the project. When you come back from your fifteen minutes exercise break you will find you have a new focus and creative approach to your project. 5. Improve your sleep. Working out doing aerobics or taking a brisk walk four times a week for a thirty-forty minute period will increase the restful nature of your sleep. Researchers at Stanford University found that adults who followed this kind of an exercise routine fell a sleep 50% faster, and slept longer than the adults who didn't exercise. 6. Improve your posture and increase you height. Flexibility and strength training routines that improve your posture can increase your body height by a quarter of an inch over a twelve-week period. Researchers looking for a way to prevent osteoporosis discovered this side benefit during their research. The physical therapist on the study found that women who do strength bearing exercises several times a week improved the bone density of their spine reducing the risk of osteoporosis. 7. Deliver that bundle right on time. Research on 557 prenatal women at Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that pregnant women who did at least three hours of aerobic exercise a week strengthened their muscles allowing them to have a shorter labor period and generally deliver on time. 8. Keep those ears sharp. A study at Miami University found that adding thirty-minute bike rides or brisk walks to a weekly exercise routine gave the people stronger blood circulation, which would be beneficial to preventing hearing loss. 9. Keep those colds away. Researchers were able to reduce the incidence of colds in women. The study had women who were usually sedentary walk briskly for thirty- forty-five minutes a day five days a week. In a fifteen-week period the women reported half the number of sick days they had prior to their new exercise routine. 10. Saves you health care dollars. Researches in Minneapolis found that exercising and being fit reduced peoples medical bills. The participants in the study paid an additional 10 % in their annual health care costs over people who were active. Kath <mzmouser@earthlink.net> ~`* `*' `*' `* `*' `*' *' `*' *' `*' `* `*' *' `*' ~~~