Exercise for the Skin

As an esthetician and massage therapist, I’ve had the privilege of working on various people from all over the world, and I’ve heard several stories and testimonies from clients regarding their health. I learned how a change in habits saved their lives, and it was usually something that I deeply needed to hear on that particular day; stories that I’ll never forget related to health and wellness. Our skin, the beautiful and largest organ, needs exercise as much as the rest of our body. Aside from the liver, the skin is the biggest detoxifying agent and can help prevent and repair the damage in our body. Not to mention it protects everything underneath it!

THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE FOR OUR SKIN

The morning is my favorite time to reflect, breathe, and prepare for the day. I notice a difference in how I feel throughout the day when I get moving first in the morning. After about forty, most of us begin to experience a thickening of the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin, composed mostly of dead skin cells and some collagen. This layer gets drier, denser, and flakier with age. While this is all occurring on the outer layer, the dermis’s inner layer begins to thin, lose elasticity, and cause more of a sagging appearance to the skin. In a scientific study, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky found that after forty, men and women who frequently exercised had skin biopsies showing a closer composition to that of 20- and 30-year olds, compared to those who did not regularly exercise.