18 Apr Regular Exercise and Skin Complexion
Can Regular Exercise Improve Your Skin Complexion?
There is no shortage of health benefits associated with regular exercise. They go far beyond losing weight or building muscle, and if you still need an incentive to hit the gym, this just might be it.
Exercise can be beneficial for your complexion too!
// How Does It Work?
Exercise boosts your collagen levels and helps to give you youthful looking skin.
The key to a beautiful complexion is to focus on increasing your lean muscle mass. As we age, our skin naturally loses its youthful layer of fat. If you exercise in the right way, you can build up a muscle which gives a similar plumping effect. The lean muscle mass in particular, which sits just under the surface of the skin, can give a similar taught and lifted effect that you may receive from a facelift treatment.
Increasing the flow of blood is the key to a healthy complexion.
Did you know? When you exercise, your heart rate increases and boosts your circulation, tiny arteries in your skin open up and allow more blood to reach the surface, and deliver the nutrients needed to repair sun and pollution damage.
Those same nutrients also help to boost the skins collagen production, thwarting wrinkles. This is key to a youthful complexion as the collagen-producing cells in the skin (the fibroblasts) become lazier and lessen in numbers as you age so the nutrients in question, which are released during exercise, help the fibroblast work more efficiency.
Regular workouts also help to stimulate the production of skin’s natural oils, keeping your skin smooth and bouncy. Sluggish circulation can lead to dull skin, and worse still cellulite!
Audrey Kunin, MD, a dermatologist in Kansas City, Mo., and author of The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual, says working up a good sweat is equivalent to getting a mini facial! When your pores dilate, sweating helps to remove any trapped dirt and oils. But, be sure to wash your face after sweating to prevent that dirt and oil from getting sucked back into the pores.
But sweating is not the only way exercise can benefit your skin. Regular exercise also helps to reduce body inflammation, regulate skin-significant hormones, and prevent free-radical damage.
The mechanism behind the skin-composition improvements is not completely clear, but researchers suspect that multiple myokines (a substance created by working muscles) play a role which makes it unlikely that a pill, salve, or injection could ever replicate the skin benefits of a good workout.
// The Importance of H2O
If you want skin like the Oscar-winning actors, stay hydrated! No one can work out if they are not properly hydrated, although it is not only a way to help you train, it helps your skin look better too! If you are training without drinking enough water, you will find you damage your skin pretty quickly.
// Not All Exercise Is Equal
When it comes to skin health, you do not want to do cardio training excessively as it can mean your skin loses the youthful bounce due to too much wear and tear. Exercising too hard, and for too long, can be incredibly stressful on your body which leads to the production of the stress hormone, cortisol, which can actually cause the inflammation you’re trying to avoid, and age your skin faster!
// Reduced Stress
Stress can very quickly and easily take its toll on your body, not to mention your skin. Facial tension and other skin problems can be caused by stress which may lead to your skin looking less radiant. That, along with a neglect of the correct skin care, often occurs when we’re feeling run down.
It is possible that periods of high stress can cause increased breakouts and a duller looking competition. Help reduce stress and improve your mood by hitting the gym or going for a brisk walk as exercise releases feel-good endorphins that can leave you feeling happier and more relaxed.
// How Often Should I Exercise?
Once again, to achieve these benefits you do not have to live at the gym. Attending a fitness class weekly, going for a jog, or just a weight training session that lasts 30 minutes a day will help to get you on the right track.
TIP: Start your day with a light sweat by either jumping rope, or doing just a few yoga poses. Then try to incorporate a few longer ‘sweat sessions’ throughout your week. Find a routine that works for you and with your lifestyle and it’ll be much easier to stick to.
// Where to Begin?
To create the lean, skin toning muscle, you need to focus on resistance training. This is any activity where you’re challenging your own body weight. Eg. lunges, press ups, or a plank.
A circuit of 3-4 sets of weight-bearing exercises, intermixed with 2-4 minutes of cardio should be repeated around 4 times–and VOILA! A toning workout.
Sign up and join us! Visit myvida.co.uk/membership/