Exercise & Mental Health – Why It’s Needed

Exercise is well-known as a tool that improves your physical health and fitness, and recently there has been an increased focus and interest on what exercise can do for our mental health. What many people underestimate is the huge impact that exercise can have on our mental health. Even small doses of low impact exercises like walking can have an enormous bearing on your mood. This article highlights some of the key ways that exercise can support your mental wellbeing.

Better energy, better sleep

People who exercise in the morning or early afternoon find that they have more energy throughout the day, less stress and improved levels of concentration. They also tend to sleep better at night as exercise allows them to burn up more energy, leaving them tired and able to have a better night’s sleep at the end of the day. For those who struggle with sleeping, higher intensity exercises such as running and heavy weight lifting can help encourage a more regular sleeping pattern that can in turn lead to overall improvements in mood. 

Combatting depression and anxiety

Exercise has been proven to combat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressants, and some argue that it is more beneficial than antidepressants as it doesn’t come with any of the side effects associated with medication. Exercise releases endorphins in your brain, often known as the ‘feel-good’ chemicals, which will boost your mood after a workout. Studies have also shown that exercise doesn’t just help with short-term mood boosts but can help to relieve long term clinical depression. Studies have shown that active people overall show lower levels of depression than inactive people.

Exercise also allows you to release tension in your body and provide a distraction from stress and anxiety. Exercising will decrease levels of cortisol in your body, otherwise known as the ‘stress hormone’. Physical activity also increases blood circulation to the brain and improves the brains’ physiological reaction to stress, meaning that people who exercise regularly often handle stress better.

Exercise mimics many of the same physical symptoms of anxiety such as increased heart rate and excessive sweating. For those people who suffer from anxiety and are familiar with these symptoms, exercise provides them with an opportunity to familiarise themselves and become more comfortable with sensations that they typically associate with danger. Essentially this means that they can use exercise as a form of exposure therapy. Not only this but by exercising they can release some of the excess adrenaline that causes them to feel anxious. Many people have also started to work mindfulness into their runs or walks which can improve the effectiveness of exercise to combat anxiety. By maintaining a focus on your surroundings and the physical sensations in the body, you can relax and train yourself to focus on the present and to let go of troubling thoughts. Taking a break from the worries of everyday life during your workout can drastically improve your mood. If you exercise outside, your mood can further be improved by getting out into nature and appreciating your surroundings.

 

Self-esteem

This doesn’t just relate to changes in your physical appearance that come from regular exercise, although this is a benefit that can improve your confidence that can lead to improvements in mood. Regularly setting goals and accomplishing these will leave you with a sense of achievement that will improve your overall self-esteem. It doesn’t have to be a challenging goal – simply getting out of the house and going for a run is an achievement in itself and sticking to a regular exercise routine is enough to boost confidence. 

Socialising

Some people prefer to exercise alone, and some prefer to exercise in groups. For those who like to exercise with other people, this can have a positive impact on their mental health. Whether it’s joining the local running club or participating in a team sport, meeting new people and socialising can greatly improve mental health. Many people who suffer from mental health conditions like anxiety and depression tend to withdraw socially and this can exacerbate their mental health conditions and reduce their mood. By having an outlet that allows them to simultaneously get a physical workout and socialise with others, they will more than likely experience a lift in their mood.

Weight management

Exercise burns calories. Incorporating regular exercise into your routine will help you manage your weight if you combine it with a healthy diet and you are burning more calories than you are eating. By maintaining a healthy weight, you are likely to feel an increase in your confidence and overall mood. 

Weight gain is a common side effect of medication used to treat mental health conditions, particularly antidepressants and antipsychotics that are used to treat conditions such as schizophrenia. Exercise allows people taking these medications to manage their weight, otherwise, this could have negative impacts on their confidence and self-esteem. 

Improved cognitive functions

Exercise has been evidenced as improving the function of the central nervous system and supporting resistance against neurological disorders. Because of this evidence, studies have begun to investigate whether exercise could be used to reduce cognitive decay in ageing. Physical exercise has the potential to provide long-term benefits to cognitive functioning that could potentially delay or reduce the effects of conditions such as dementia

Conc

lusion

The benefits of exercise on mental health have been proven in many studies and exercise is widely considered to be as effective as antidepressants for mild to moderate depression and anxiety. Exercise should be incorporated into your routine to help manage and improve your mental wellbeing, whether it is simply to reduce stress and unwind at the end of the day or to support the treatment of more serious mental health conditions. For those already seeking treatment for an existing mental health condition, exercise should be incorporated alongside this to support the existing treatment plan. Regular exercise improves productivity, stress management, sleep, cognitive function and weight management, all of which can lead to healthier mental wellbeing.