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Exercising can take a mountain of energy to get over that first initial inertia. You have to drag yourself out of a nice warm bed early in the morning, or give up your night on the sofa to go out and move your body! But once you have overcome this first bit, that’s it, you’re addicted! But why is that? Why is, it that once we get into the groove of exercising, it becomes easier and easier until we wouldn’t consider our lives without it? Well, read on to find out.

Makes you feel good

The number one thing that makes exercise so addictive is how good we feel both during and after it. Yes, of course, you need a bit of willpower to get your going in the first place. It’s likely that the first 5 or 10 minutes isn’t always the best moment of your life, but our bodies are actually designed to move. That means when we do get them moving it can actually feel pretty good.

The best way to get positive feedback from your body during a workout depends on your attitude and your level of fitness.

For those of us, that haven’t been working out regularly for a while. It’s a much better idea to pick an activity that we enjoy for itself, and that happens to get your heart rate up and burn calories. For example, a dance class is a great option because many people enjoy dancing along to their favorite type of music. It also quite an involved activity so while you are focusing on getting the moves right, you are not thinking so much about how hard it is to move your body. Then you have the added bonus of the beat of the music which seems to stir movement in many people, making it a little easier too.

However, if you work out a lot, getting that good feeling from your exercise routine may feel a little different. It may be that you have progressed sufficiently far along into your given activity, that you seek need to feel ‘the burn’ when exercising. ‘The burn’ is when you push yourself a certain amount, so you know that you are really working your muscles and your cardiovascular system. Yes, it may feel pretty horrid the first time you do it. But you can actually learn to love this feeling as its is a signal that you are working out at the top end if your abilities.

Of course working to feel the burn does come with some discomfort. Any sharp pains should not be ignored as these could signal too much stress on your muscles and be the precursor to an injury. Also, you do, need to have some idea of your own limits and not push too far beyond them, as they can open you up to injury or making yourself unwell. You can read more about how to prevent injuries at http://www.active.com/.

Get to make new friends

Another brilliant thing about exercise that makes it so addictive is that it is a fantastic way to get involved in a new social group. Exercise is one of those things that, by just doing it, you have something in common with other people.

There are also many inbuilt social aspects to exercise. Such as clubs, classes and teams. This means that you are doing an activity with others at the time for the same goal. This gives you some brilliant common ground to strike up a relationship from.

Also, teams and clubs often have social events to attend. Which are a good opportunity to further expand your social circle and give you a chance to connect with other in your group.

Get to look good

One of the reasons that exercise is so addictive is that it helps you keep in shape and look good. While we are all aware that looks are not the only thing that is important about a person, plenty of us, don’t mind making the best of ourselves either. Exercise can help us do that.

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Of course, we are lucky that exercise clothing is so much nicer than it used to be back in the day. Now we can get specialist clothes for the activity that we are doing. Like the cycling jerseys available at http://retro2ride.com/womens-cycling/. Or gear specially designed for Yoga that allows you to move and flex.

It ends up being a self-fueling cycle because the more you exercise, the more you need to wear your awesome workout gear. Then the more you wear it, the more you are exercising so, the more improvement you will see in your body.

It’s actually good for us

Now we cannot discount that exercise is addictive because it is good for us either. There are so many benefits to exercising that it’s hard to list them all.

Firstly moving your body working your cardiovascular system making your lungs and heart strong. Secondly exercising is a great way of flushing out toxins in the body. This can be of special help to people that suffer from anxiety. As exercising can help to flush out the excess of hormones like cortisol that cause the fight or flight reaction.

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Also exercising produces endorphins. The are neuropeptides that the body releases that have an essential role in boosting mood. Meaning that you will feel better and continue to have a better mood after your workout. You can read more about this process at http://www.webmd.com/.

It’s a challenge

Lastly, the fact that exercise is a challenge that we set ourselves should not be underestimated. As human beings, we thrive on challenge and difficulty. We look to improve ourselves in a measurable way, and exercising is a fantastic way of doing that. We see this in all sorts of things like the couch to 5K apps that you can get, and the training programs that are so popular on Instagram.

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We love to set a goal and challenge ourselves to see if we can get there. If you are exercising, you are constantly doing this. Which is one of the reasons why it’s can be so addictive.

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