Fact: Exercise improves your fitness levels. This not only makes you a stronger person, but also helps you feel good (primary) and look good (secondary!). What really gives a tremendous boost to the confidence is the fact that you are doing something that is positive for your body.'Exercise and fitness can contribute greatly to feelings of increased confidence. Exercise has the ability to change your body composition for the better, and improving the way you look and feel will improve the way you see yourself. This is because often the way you perceive yourself has a direct impact on the way the world sees you. By improving your appearance and health you improve your self-image', says Chris Patrick, NASM Elite Trainer.

Here are 6 ways in which improved fitness is a great confidence booster:

1. Better Posture:

While exercising will help you lose weight and get in shape, it is a slow process. However, exercising has an immediate impact on your posture, and that immediately affects the way you carry yourself, regardless of your current weight. A better posture immediately makes you come across as a more confident person and makes you appear taller and leaner.

2. More Energy:

Improved fitness levels, be it through workouts or by getting involved in a sport, will result in more energy. Exercising also releases ‘feel good’ hormones in the body, which immediately lift your mood and make you feel happier and more content. It also helps beat the stress hormones that usually have you reaching for calorie rich, comfort food.

3. Improved Interpersonal Skills:

Most fitness activities will require you to come in close contact with other people, be it gym members or instructors. If you get involved in a team sport you will also become a better team player. Meeting like-minded people on regular basis will help motivate you.

4. Better Sex Life:

That got your attention, didn't it? Better fitness levels increase your endurance levels, sense of balance and flexibility; all of which results in a better sex life.

5. Improved Health:

Enhanced fitness levels result in improved health. Not only does it give a tremendous boost to your immune system, the fact that you are no longer falling sick often will boost your confidence as well.

6. More Brain Power:

Exercising will improve your sense of balance and coordination and also ensure that your brain gets more oxygen and nutrients, in turn improving your memory. Also, as you have improved blood flow, you tend to think faster which will make you feel a whole lot smarter. A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology sheds light on the fact that as little as 30 minutes of low-intensity exercise can result in more effective brain functioning. Researchers call it 'Enhanced Plasticity' and it explains how exercising changes the way our brain reacts to challenges, reinventing and repairing itself, while also boosting motor learning powers and speeding up recovery.

Exercise plays a vital role when it comes to boosting confidence levels, maybe because it releases a cocktail of hormones in the body that result in a feeling of well being. Working out produces more Serotonin in the body;the famed mood booster. Another hormone released during exercising is Dopamine, and this affects our ability to learn and pay attention; hence making one feel smarter and more confident. Also, Norepinephrine which is a hormone responsible for influencing attention, motivation, perception, and arousal is produced by working out, and this further enhances the feeling of well-being.

'This exercise-induced chemical cocktail has a powerful impact. By elevating neurotransmitters in the brain, it helps us focus, feel better, and release tension. As a result, an individual feels more confident, because they feel good about themselves and the world sees them the same way', says John J. Ratey, Ph.D., who is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

We’re pretty confident we’ve made our case. (Get it?)

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