Being physically active offers benefits far beyond the obvious. (Of course, an improved physique and a clean bill of health aren't too shabby, either.)

If you've been looking for the motivation to begin an exercise program or get back into working out regularly, here are 10 fitness facts followed by 9 fitness myths that may help inspire you to get off the couch.

10 Fitness Facts:

1. Exercise Boosts Brainpower
Not only does exercise improve your body, it helps your mental function. Exercise increases energy levels and increases serotonin in the brain, which leads to improved mental clarity.

2. Movement Melts Away Stress
As much as it may stress you out just to think about exercising, once you actually start working out, you'll experience less stress in every part of your life.

Exercise produces a relaxation response that serves as a positive distraction. It also helps elevate your mood and keep depression at bay.

3. Exercise Gives You Energy
You might be surprised how, working out for as little as 30 minutes in the morning can change your whole day. When endorphins are released into your bloodstream during exercise, you feel much more energized the rest of the day.

4. It's Not That Hard to Find Time for Fitness

Everyone has 20 minutes. You can walk, jog skip or run. And squeezing in two or three bouts of 15 or 20 minutes of activity is just as effective as doing it all at once. Vacuuming the house in the morning, riding bikes in the park with the kids in the afternoon, then taking a brisk walk in the evening can add up to an active day.

Recent U.S. government guidelines say that to lose weight and keep it weight off, you should accumulate at least 60 minutes of exercise a day. But half an hour a day is all you need to reap the health and disease-fighting benefits of exercise.

5. Fitness Can Help Build Relationships

Think of what exercising with a partner can do for a relationship, whether it's with a spouse, a sibling, or a friend you used to go to lunch with once a week.

Not only that but exercise is always more fun when there's someone to do it with. So plan to walk with your spouse after dinner every night. Meet your sister or that friend for tennis or an aerobics class instead of lunch.

Besides, people who have exercise partners stay with their programs and reach their goals more often than those who try to go it alone.

6. Exercise Helps Ward Off Disease

Research has shown that exercise can slow or help prevent heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis (bone loss), and loss of muscle mass.

It also helps ease some aspects of the aging process.

Because exercise strengthens the muscles and joints, it is going to reduce your odds of having some of those aches and pains and problems most adults have, mostly because of the inactive lives they lead.

Provided you don't overdo it, exercise can even boost immune function -- so you spend less time down with a cold or flu.

There isn't a major health problem where exercise cannot have a positive effect.

7. Fitness Pumps Up Your Heart

Not only does exercise help fight disease it creates a stronger heart -- the most important muscle in the body. That helps make exercise -- and the activities of daily life -- feel easier.

Your heart and cardiovascular system will function more effectively. The heart will build up less plaque. It will become a more efficient pump.

And when the heart becomes stronger, it pumps more blood per beat, so at rest, the heart rate is lower. It's not going to have to beat as fast to expend the same amount of effort.

Within only a couple days after you start exercising, the body readily adapts to the stimulus it's getting and it becomes easier. You will feel less fatigue.

8. Exercise Lets You Eat More

Pound for pound, muscle burns more calories at rest than body fat. So the more muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate. And, of course, you also burn calories while you're actually exercising.

All this means that "cheating" with a cookie once in a while isn't going to take you back 10 steps. Can you eat anything? No. But you can afford to enjoy some of the things you really like when you exercise regularly. You can better get away with those things in moderation than you can when you're not working out.

9. Exercise Boosts Performance

After a few weeks of consistent exercise, your muscles will work much more efficiently and you'll gain a greater sense of endurance. In addition, your reaction time and balance will improve.

10. Weight Loss Is Not the Most Important Goal

Weight loss is the reason many people exercise in the first place. But it's certainly not the sole benefit of an exercise program.

The long-term goal of weight loss is sold too heavily to people starting fitness programs, and that can be discouraging. People have trouble sticking with something if they don't see results quickly. You really want to think about all the added benefits you get from it. We've talked about a lot of them. Let this be the motivation to keep you coming back for more.

So whatever weight loss goal you have when starting a fitness program, don't make it your only goal. Strive to feel better, to have more energy, to be less stressed. Notice the small things that exercise does for, rather than getting hung up on the narrow goal of the number on a scale.

With a goal of losing weight and enhancing health, exercise has to become a part of a person's life, not an afterthought.

9 Fitness Myths:

First, a little about fitness myths. It's easy to fall into the trap: A workout buddy passes along an exercise tip, and then you pass it on to several folks you know.

One day, you're at the gym, and sure enough, you hear the same tip repeated, so you figure it must be true. But experts say that in the world of fitness, myths and half-truths abound – and some of them may be keeping you from getting the workout you need.

Fitness Myth No. 1: Running on a treadmill puts less stress on your knees than running on asphalt or pavement.

Running is a great workout, but it can impact the knees -- and since it's the force of your body weight on your joints that causes the stress, it's the same whether you're on a treadmil or on asphalt. The best way to reduce knee impact is to vary your workout. If you mix running with other cardio activities, like an elliptical machine, or you ride a stationary bike, you will reduce impact on your knees so you'll be able to run for many more years.

Fitness Myth No. 2: Doing crunches or working on an "ab machine"will get rid of belly fat.

Don't believe everything you hear on those late-night infomercials! In order to burn fat, you need to create a workout that includes both cardiovascular and strength-training elements. This will decrease your overall body fat content, including the area around your midsection.

Fitness Myth No. 3: An aerobic workout will boost your metabolism for hours after you stop working out.

This statement is actually true -- but the calorie burn is probably not nearly as much as you think!

While your metabolism will continue to burn at a slightly higher rate after you finish an aerobic workout, the amount is not statistically significant. In fact, it allows you to burn only about 20 extra calories for the day.

Fitness Myth No. 4: Swimming is a great weight loss activity.

While swimming is great for increasing lung capacity, toning muscles, and even helping to burn off excess tension, the surprising truth is that unless you are swimming for hours a day, it may not help you lose much weight.

Fitness Myth No. 5: Yoga can help with all sorts of back pain.

The truth is that yoga can help with back pain, but it's not equally good for all types. If your back pain is muscle-related, then yes, the yoga stretches and some of the positions can help. It can also help build a stronger core, which for many people is the answer to lower back pain.

But if your back problems are related other problems (such as a ruptured disc) yoga is not likely to help. What's more, it could actually irritate the injury and cause you more pain.

If you do have back pain, get your doctor's OK before starting any type of exercise program.

Fitness Myth No. 6: If you're not working up a sweat, you're notworking hard enough.

Sweating is not necessarily an indicator of exertion. Sweating is your body’s way of cooling itself.

It's possible to burn a significant number of calories without breaking a sweat: Try taking a walk or doing some light weight training.

Fitness Myth No. 7: As long as you feel OK when you're working out, you're probably not overdoing it.

One of the biggest mistakes people tend to make when starting or returning to an exercise program is doing too much too soon. The reason we do that is because we feel OK while we are working out. You don't really feel the overdoing it part until a day or two later.

It makes sense to plan your workout to gradually step up intensity and duration over time. Be patient, set realistic goals and give yourself the credit you deserve for sticking with it!

Fitness Myth No. 8: Machines are a safer way to exercise because you're doing it right every time.

Although it may seem as if an exercise machine automatically puts your body in the right position and helps you do all the movements correctly, that's only true if the machine is properly adjusted for your weight and height, experts say.

Unless you have a coach or a trainer or someone figure out what is the right setting for you, you can make just as many mistakes in form and function, and have just as high a risk of injury, on a machine as if you work out with free weights or do any other type of nonmachine workout.

We have all types of machines in the gym. Be sure to make the settings appropriate for your workout before you begin. If you don't know how or have a question, please ask and we'll be happy to show you what you need to know for a great workout!

Fitness Myth No. 9: When it comes to working out, you've got to feel some pain if you're going to gain any benefits.

Of all the fitness rumors ever to have surfaced, experts agree that the "no pain-no gain" holds the most potential for harm.

While you should expect to have some degree of soreness a day or two after working out, that's very different from feeling pain while you are working out.

A fitness activity should not hurt while you are doing it, and if it does, then either you are doing it wrong, or you already have an injury.

As for "working through the pain," experts don't advise it.

They say that if it hurts, stop, rest, and see if the pain goes away. If it doesn't go away, or if it begins again or increases after you start to work out you might want to see a doctor.