Researchers and medical experts have been saying it for years: if you want to lower stress, regular exercise is your best bet. Exercise has been proven to relax the body and mind, burn fat, improve the function of the cardiovascular system, bring in more oxygen, reduce the chance of diseases, lower blood pressure and much more. You’d think that everyone would be working out regularly, but if you look at the levels of obesity in our society, it’s obvious that there’s a disconnect somewhere.

When the body is stressed, chemical reactions connected with what is known as the ‘fight or flight’ response occur, such as the release of adrenaline. During prehistoric days, if we were involved in a stressful situation, such as being attacked by a wild animal, we were able to run away or fight back (fight or flight) against the threat immediately, thus erasing the chemical reactions that had built up in our system to prepare us for the effort. In today’s society, the cause of our stress is usually not such an immediate physical danger, but our body still reacts to the perceived threat. Since we do not have much of an outlet readily at hand to eradicate the components of the stress, the buildup of chemicals can contribute to emotional and physical problems.

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