Best Exercise for Healthy Skin

It’s no secret that people who exercise have glowing and healthy looking skin. However, not all types of exercise are created equal when it comes to maximizing the beauty benefits. This article will explore which type of exercise is the best for beautiful and healthy skin.

Is exercise good for your skin?

The short answer is yes, and here are some of the exercise benefits for skin.

1. Exercise improves lymphatic flow and helps remove toxins.
2. It stimulates blood flow to the skin, thus helping nourish it and remove toxins.
3. It improves pH regulation needed for skin health.
4. It stimulates your body to produce proteins that help protect it from oxidative stress (free radicals) and heat stress.

That being said, not every type of exercise has the same degree of benefits and in some cases may not even have some of these benefits at all.

What are the high intensity interval training exercise benefits for skin?

HIIT is an excellent exercise for burning calories in a short amount of time, but it is actually not the best type of exercise to slow down the aging of the skin. It can improve blood flow and lymphatic drainage, but it also spikes your cortisol levels (stress hormones) that can make you look tired and negatively affect the health of your skin.

Is resistance training exercise good for your skin?

Resistance training is great for increasing lymphatic flow and producing proteins that protect your body from free radicals, but it is not great for specifically increasing the blood flow to your skin. Just this fact alone does not earn resistance training the top spot on our list.

Does yoga exercise improve your skin?

Yoga is ideal for lymphatic drainage, reducing stress hormones and improving sleep, but it is not great for pH regulation, increasing blood flow to skin, and producing protective proteins. Therefore, it is not at the top of our list for the best type of exercise for healthy skin.

Cardio is the best type of exercise for healthy skin

Cardio is best for your skin compared to other types of exercise and here is why.

1. The repetitive nature of muscle contractions accelerates lymphatic flow and helps remove toxins as quickly as possible.
2. Jogging and any type of cardio that includes bouncing will further improve lymphatic flow.
3. Cardio promotes blood flow to the skin more than any other type of exercise.
4. Cardio has been shown to be the best type of exercise at regulating the pH that is needed for skin health.
5. It is one of the best types of exercises that will protect you from the free radicals.
6. It also lowers your cortisol levels and helps improve sleep.

Skin health and exercise, the bottom line

It is important to understand that all exercise is excellent for your skin health and for slowing down aging even though some types exercises are better than others. Also, every type of exercise has its own overall benefits when it comes to fitness, health and wellness. It is important that you engage in a wide variety of exercises. The only recommendation is to limit the amount of HIIT training and increase the amount of moderate intensity cardio if skin health is your priority.

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Sources

Fit.Well.Thrive. articles are written by credentialed fitness, health, and wellness experts, who were professionally trained as part of their education to assess the quality and relevance of medical literature. Our authors only use credible, up-to-date, and evidence-based sources to ensure accuracy of our content.

• Powers SK, Howley ET. Chapter 13: Physiology of Training: Effect on VO2 Max, Performance, and Strength. In: Powers SK, Howley ET, eds. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 10th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education; 2018: pages 304-307.
• Powers SK, Howley ET. Chapter 5: Cell Signaling and the Hormonal Responses to Exercise. In: Powers SK, Howley ET, eds. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 10th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education; 2018: pages 114-117.
• Powers SK, Howley ET. Chapter 9: Circulatory Responses to Exercise. In: Powers SK, Howley ET, eds. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 10th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education; 2018: pages 214-218.
• Powers SK, Howley ET. Chapter 11: Acid-Base Balance during Exercise. In: Powers SK, Howley ET, eds. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 10th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education; 2018: pages 256-266.