Exercise and mental health:
In this article we shall study the common mental benefits of exercise.
The following are common psychological or mental benefits gained through exercise.
(1) Exercise helps to reduce depression and anxiety:-
Research shows that exercise can also help alleviate long term depression.
Exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function.
Regular exercise may help ease depression and anxiety by releasing feel-good endorphins, natural cannabis-like brain chemicals (endogenous cannabinoids) and other natural brain chemicals that can enhance your sense of well-being.
Exercise is a scientifically proven mood booster, decreasing symptoms of both depression and anxiety. Physical activity kicks up endorphin levels, the body’s famous “feel good” chemical produced by the brain and spinal cord that produces feelings of happiness and euphoria. Euphoria meaning an extremely strong feeling of happiness. A feeling of great happiness or well-being. Euphoria may be a side effect of certain drugs. Even just moderate exercise throughout the week can improve depression and anxiety, so much so that some physician recommend trying out an exercise regimen for these conditions before turning to medication.
(2) Exercise decreases stress:-
Exercise reduces stress as well as an improved ability to cope with stress.Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain. Stress is your body's response to anything that requires attention or action. Everyone experiences stress to some degree.
Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems.
There’s a reason people like working out after a long day at work.It helps decrease stress.
More specifically, moderate-intensity exercise can slow down the release of stress hormones while positively influencing the neurotransmitters in the brain that affect mood and behaviour.
Furthermore, regular exercise may offer a protective benefit against stress meaning that exercise helps you proactively handle stressors with more resilience and a better mood .
According to some research, stress and depression can have a dramatic impact on the regular function of the immune system, leading to a low chronic inflammation status that favors infections, diseases,and other illnesses.
Exercise forces the body’s central and sympathetic nervous systems to communicate with one another, improving the body’s overall ability to respond to stress.
The important mental benefit of exercise is reduced stress levels something that can make us all happier. Increasing your heart rate can actually reverse stress induced brain damage; by stimulating the production of neurohormones like norepinephrine, which not only improve cognition and mood but improve thinking clouded by stressful events.
Regular exercise can increase self-confidence, improve your mood, help you relax, and lower symptoms of mild depression and anxiety. Exercise can also improve your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress, depression and anxiety.
Exercise reduces levels of the body's stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators.
(3) Exercise Improves mood( Mood booster):-
"The link between exercise and mood is pretty strong," Otto says. "Usually within five minutes after moderate exercise you get a mood-enhancement effect."
Some of the tremendous aerobic exercises are dancing, gardening, walking, jogging, swimming, or using a treadmill. These cardio activities prompt the brain to send neurons to the nervous systems for the release of serotonin.
"When you exercise, it increases endorphins, dopamine, adrenaline and endocannabinoid ,these are all brain chemicals associated with feeling happy, feeling confident, feeling capable, feeling less anxiety and stress and even less physical pain," McGonigal says.
(4) Exercise increases your self-esteem and self confidence:-
It Improves body image.
Improves self-esteem.
Pride in physical accomplishments.
Increased satisfaction with oneself.
Exercise has also been found to alleviate symptoms such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal.
From improving endurance to losing weight and increasing muscle tone, there’s no shortage of physical achievements that come about from regular exercise. All those achievements can all add up to a whopping boost of self-esteem and the confidence that comes with it. You may not set out for better-fitting clothes, a slimmer physique, and the ability to climb a hill without getting winded.Often times it happens before you even realize it. It’s just one of the many benefits of physical activity that boost your body, mind, and spirit.
There are many mechanisms by which exercise increases our evaluations of our self. First, in the short-term, exercise enhances our mood and puts our mind in a more positive state. Second, in the long-term, exercise makes us feel good about our physical self our abilities and physique.
In addition to building physical strength, exercise can improve mental health. It's been shown to reduce depression, anxiety and negative moods as well as alleviate low self-esteem and social withdrawal. In place of these negative emotions, exercise boosts self-esteem and cognitive function.
Sometimes self-esteem issues are tied to body perception. Regular exercise helps build confidence by improving our body image. While exercising you're likely to strengthen and tone your body and seeing these results can greatly improve your self-esteem and help you feel better about the way you look.
(5) Exercise helps in getting better sleep:-
If you have trouble getting a good night’s sleep, exercise can help with that, too. Physical activity increases body temperature, which can have calming effects on the mind, leading to less sheep counting and more shuteye. Exercise also helps regulate your circadian rhythm, our bodies’ built-in alarm clock that controls when we feel tired and when we feel alert. Although improved sleep is a psychological benefit of exercise, sleep experts recommend not exercising close to bedtime.Research Shows Exercise decreases Insomnia.Recent research indicates that exercise decreases sleep complaints and insomnia in patients. The effects of aerobic exercise on sleep appear to be similar to those of sleeping pills.
Body temperature affects the ability to sleep the lower the body temperature, the better the sleep. Exercise raises body temperature. Experts say not to exercise anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours before bedtime.
Exercising increases your core body temperature, signaling your body it's time to be awake. After about 30 to 90 minutes, your body temperature starts to drop, facilitating sleep. To further boost sleep, exercise outdoors to get some exposure to natural light.
Regular physical activity can contribute to better overall sleep quantity and quality.
This is great news since sleep loss can negatively affect certain parts of the immune system.
(6) Exercise boosts brain power :-
From building intelligence to strengthening memory, exercise boosts brainpower in a number of ways. Studies on mice and humans indicate that cardiovascular exercise creates new brain cells a process called "neurogenesis" and improve overall brain performance. It also prevents cognitive decline and memory loss by strengthening the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning.
(7) Exercise boosts creativity and mental energy:
So if you’re in need of inspiration, your big idea could be just a walk or jog away.Specifically, researchers noted that regular exercise seems to be associated with improved divergent and convergent thinking, which are considered the two components of creative thinking; the former involves thinking of multiple solutions for one problem, while the latter involves thinking of one solution for a problem.Study participants with active lifestyles proved more creative than those with more sedentary habits, the researchers noted in "Nature: Scientific Reports", but extremely vigorous exercise performed no better than moderate exercise in boosting creativity levels.
(8) Exercise boosts energy level:
Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance. Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle daily chores.
Within the first ten minutes your heart rate increases meaning there is an increased supply of blood to the brain, making you more alert, blocking pain signals and then the body will use different energy systems depending on the duration and intensity of the exercise.
Any exercise or physical activity that gets the heart rate up and the blood flowing and releases endorphins is going to raise your energy level. Good cardiovascular exercises will strengthen your heart and give you more stamina.
For maintaining energy levels during exercise:
The American College of Sports Medicine says, “Adequate food and fluid should be consumed before, during, and after exercise to help maintain blood glucose concentration during exercise, maximize exercise performance, and improve recovery time."
(9) Exercise raises body temperature:-
Unless you’re moving at a snail’s pace, your body temperature will increase during most forms of exercise and will stay elevated for a short time after you complete a workout.
Why is this significant? It’s a commonly held belief that this brief rise in body temperature both during and after exercise may prevent bacteria from growing and help your body better address an infection, similarly to how a fever works.
Still, it’s important to note that this claim lacks evidence-based support.
While this temporary temperature rise is not as significant as the increase you experience with a fever, it still may be beneficial to your immune system.
(10) Exercise helps to burn belly fat:-
The most effective exercise to burn stomach fat is crunches. Crunches rank top when we talk of fat-burning exercises. You can start by lying down flat with your knees bent and your feet on the ground. Lift your hands and then place them behind the head.
To lose stomach overhang you have to burn fat cells in both the fat you can see directly under the skin and also the more dangerous fat that you can't see that surrounds your organs. Cardio such as swimming, aerobics, running or dancing will burn this excess fat store.
Exercise regularly and stay fit and healthy.
Information compiled by:
Dr. Bhairavsinh Raol
.
