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If you took a random poll of people in the street, probably very nearly everyone would tell you that regular exercise is good for health. It’s just something that we all tend to understand.

But not all of the benefits of exercise are health benefits. There are many ways in which living a more physically active lifestyle can help individuals to thrive, and there are many ways in which living a more sedentary life can be detrimental.

Here are some reasons to develop a more physically active lifestyle, other than health.

You’ll almost certainly feel more upbeat as a result

Being physically active on a regular basis, and moving around a lot, can work wonders with regards to helping to elevate your mood.

According to the psychologist Kelly McGonigal, physical activity actually causes certain molecules to be released from the muscles that are known colloquially as “hope molecules”, due to their ability to promote feelings of hope, optimism and well-being.

These “hope molecules” are different to the endorphins that are already well known to promote feelings of wellbeing.

There’s also evidence to suggest that the number of steps you get each day can impact your sense of wellbeing quite significantly, with more steps — up to a certain point — contributing to greater overall feelings of positivity.

In your own life, there’s a good chance that you can think of a number of examples of times when you were stuck indoors not moving around very much — and it’s likely that you didn’t feel too great during these periods of time.

By contrast, many people have experienced the feeling of an elevated mood after going for a stroll.

Your sense of potential and personal agency can increase

Physically active pastimes and activities can help to promote a heightened sense of personal agency and potential, instead of leaving you feeling as though life is just something that “happens to you” without your input.

By getting onto a consistent and committed weightlifting routine, for example, and supporting your workouts with good food and potentially supplements from a company like steelsupplements.com, you can begin noticing changes in how you look and feel relatively quickly.

This, then, can help to support your sense of being able to achieve things and to move towards valued goals of yours.

Depending on the activities you’re doing, you may become more capable in other areas of life

Certain forms of physical activity can have the great effect of helping you to become more capable in other areas of your life, such as by making it easier for you to move around in a dynamic way, or even to carry the groceries.

With many people experiencing chronic stiffness in certain muscle groups, and bad posture as well, practices such as yoga and Pilates can have the potential to make a real difference to everyday mobility.

By developing your flexibility and core strength through these kinds of practices, you may find that you’re able to do a lot more — a lot more comfortably — on an everyday basis.