If your New Years resolution was to start working out for the health benefits, then I want to share a recent report from webmd.com to keep you motivated. Not only will regular exercise help you lose weight, but it can play a big role in keeping your skin looking young and healthy too.

Audrey Kunin is an MD, dermatologist and author of The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual has this to say about the benefits of a good workout…

It’s no secret that exercise has important benefits for the entire body. But what many people don’t realize is that our skin is the largest organ of our body, and thus, the benefits can be enormous.

Among them is increased circulation and delivery of nutrients to skin cells, whooshing away potentially damaging toxins. Another is giving skin the optimum conditions for making collagen, the support fibers that help keep wrinkles and lines at bay.

But perhaps the most dramatic effects of exercise are on acne-prone skin. Doctors say working out provides many benefits that can help clear the skin. How? Exercise mediates the production of testosterone-related hormones such as DHEA and DHT.

According to dermatologist David Goldberg, MD at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City explains how regular exercise will increases sweating, which in turn can unclog pores and have a positive effect on breakouts…

In the long run, people who exercise have a better complexion overall. If they have acne, it’s better controlled, and if they have occasional breakouts they are definitely less severe, and clear quicker and easier.

While we don’t often think of exercise as having any specific anti-aging effects on skin, experts say it most definitely does.

One is by influencing the natural production of collagen, a kind of connective tissue that plumps your skin and gives your face the bloom of youth.

And when it comes to looking good, Audrey Kunin  says certain exercises can even help break up pockets of cellulite — that cottage cheese-like skin on the buttocks, backs of thighs, and upper arms. This forms, she says, when fibrous connections in skin are pulled tighter, leading to puckering in pockets of fat.

David Goldberg went on to tell WebMD…

Initially exercise helps tone and tightens muscles but a muscle that is well toned is also more pliable, meaning that it is holding less tension. When you exercise your whole body tends to relax, including the muscles in your face. Eventually crow’s feet and anger expression lines are going to soften up. Certainly you will prevent new ones from forming. So in this respect regular exercise can help you to look younger longer.

Beyond helping your muscles relax, doctors say most aerobic exercise, such as walking or bicycling, also offer a “cleansing” effect on skin. This helps remove toxins that assault the skin –like cigarette smoke, air pollution, even chemicals commonly found in grooming products such as hair spray, deodorant, and shower gels.

What can help your skin even more: Hydrating your body before and after exercise.

If you are properly hydrating yourself during exercise you will get better blood flow to the skin, which in turn encourages the elimination of toxins that would otherwise accumulate in the skin cells. This is particularly true for those who overindulge in alcohol, drugs, or even junk food.

Their experts also agree that facial exercises, movements designed specifically to tone the muscles of the face, aren’t likely to help your skin. Often done with progressive resistance devices held in the mouth or with “beauty calisthenics” using specific movements of the facial muscles, the effects are temporary at best.

Let me know in the comment box below what your favorite form of exercise is and why. Walking, running, riding a bike or working out at the gym?