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Health Benefits Of Physical Activity – Page reviewed by Dr Ian Nnatu (MB BS, PG DIP (CBT), MSc, FRCPsych, MRCPsych) Consultant Adult Psychiatrist at Priory Hospital North London.
The benefits of exercise on mental health | Best mental health exercises | How much exercise should I do? | Exercise and mental health status
Health Benefits Of Physical Activity
It is well established that exercise is good for our physical health. But did you know that it can help improve a wide range of mental health – from sleep to self-esteem?
Benefits Of Exercise
In this section, we reveal the benefits that exercise has on our mental health, make some suggestions for activities and exercises that you can try, and explain how exercise can be used to treat identified mental health problems.
Exercising is good for improving your body, losing weight and improving the overall health of things like your lungs, brain and heart. But even as little as a 30-minute walk can bring a raft of other benefits to your mental health, many of which you may not have thought about.
Sometimes it can be hard to motivate yourself to exercise, but once you get out there, you’ll never regret it. That’s because, after running or exercising, your body releases good, feel-good chemicals like:
Those who exercise more sleep better at night. Many of the benefits of exercise for your mental health are at play here. Improved mood and reduced stress and anxiety means you’re more likely to sleep well at night rather than sleep awake.
Uk Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines
Even short bursts of exercise will help improve your sleep patterns; be sure to take the right time. Vigorous exercise such as jogging or working out is great during the day but can leave you feeling tired and unable to sleep if you stay up late at night. Later in the day, stick to things like yoga or gentle walking to help you relax before bed.
Hormones produced during exercise can also improve your ability to concentrate and focus. Exercising releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that acts as a messenger between your brain and the rest of your body. Among other things, it gives your ability to focus and concentrate on a useful increase.
Self-esteem is the main indicator of the strength of someone’s health. Exercise can help us feel better about ourselves and achieve goals. Knowing that, no matter how hard it is to exercise at times, you pushed yourself to do it, the feeling helps your self-esteem. Set yourself some achievable goals and get rewards when you hit them.
Exercising helps reduce feelings of stress and anxiety in many ways. It helps to control the amount of stress hormones in our body, such as cortisol and adrenaline, to relieve stress and act as a way to release constructive substances within us.
Benefits Of Physical Activity Poster
Exercise is also a welcome distraction, helping us get away from things in our lives that are causing us to feel stressed or anxious.
Some events lend themselves well to meeting new people. Sports teams and community groups such as walking or running clubs are a great way to meet new people. Socializing with friends is one of the best forms of self-care, helping us build strong, healthy social relationships.
The physiological effects of exercise mean it can also help your brain’s memory and thinking ability. According to Harvard Health, the parts of the brain responsible for thinking and memory are larger in people who exercise regularly.
This means that exercise can also be used to protect against cognitive decline as you get older. In fact, the British Journal of Sports Medicine says it works as a protective factor against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Health Benefits Of Physical Activity: The Evidence
All of the above come together to make us happy. Exercising can be the key to better concentration, less stress, better sleep, more confidence and a more fulfilling life.
If you are having trouble deciding on an activity or type of exercise, then here are a few suggestions, each of which comes with the benefits mentioned above.
If you haven’t been doing any exercise lately, walking is a great way to work out and slowly build yourself up. It comes with all the mental health benefits described above, but with less stress.
Traveling comes with different benefits as well. The link between nature and mental health is increasingly being emphasized. Walking allows you to go to your local park, lake or zoo and take in the surroundings – strengthening your mental health in the process.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Exercise?. Nike.com
Once you’ve built it up a bit, you can try running, an activity that adds some of the physical and mental benefits to your health.
For those who want to push themselves a little, joining a gym is a good place to start. Gyms can be great for providing extra motivation to exercise. Once you sign up, you have access to a plethora of different classes. Take a chance and read more, setting yourself a future goal in attending and completing that class. These little motivational nudges are what we all sometimes need to be active.
While yoga is less strenuous than most exercises, it comes with other mental benefits. Depending on the type of yoga you engage in, it may include things like breathing exercises, meditation and other relaxation techniques.
Whether it’s five-a-side football or crown green bowling, many sports have a unique advantage – they have a social connection. Team sports are social. It involves spending time with like-minded people, where you join forces to achieve a common goal.
Infographic: Benefits Of School Based Physical Activity
If you’re wondering where to start when it comes to finding a club near you, head over to BBC Sport’s comprehensive list of club finders for just about any sport played in the UK.
When it comes to how often and for how long you should exercise, there is no perfect answer. Just getting off the couch and on your feet is an important step in improving your mental health through exercise. In the end, doing something is better than doing nothing. Even with a 10 minute walk, especially if this is done outside in the fresh air, you will start to see some benefits.
If you can, try and do 30 minutes of exercise at least three times a week. The Mental Health Foundation suggests that 30 to 35 minutes of low-intensity aerobic exercise, 3 to 5 days a week for 10 to 12 weeks is effective in increasing positive mood.
The power of exercise becomes clear when you consider how it can help those with mental illness. From depression to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), here’s how exercise should be a central component of anyone’s recovery from mental health concerns.
The Health Benefits And Risks Of Physical Activity, Exercise, And Fitness
Evidence that exercise is effective in treating depression is growing all the time. One example, published in the journal Current Sports Medicine Reports, stated that exercise can “provide protection against the development of depression in children, adults, and the elderly.” It also emphasized the importance of social support and/or supervision of training staff to increase the likelihood of success.
Exercise is good for reducing symptoms of depression. It can improve your mood and reduce any feelings of hopelessness or sadness. It can also help you stop using things like alcohol to make you feel better.
For those with anxiety disorders, or those under severe stress, exercise works to help you in the same way as for depression. Studies of people with anxiety disorders, such as this one in Depression and Anxiety magazine, found that those with higher levels of physical activity were better protected from anxiety symptoms.
Exercising reduces muscle tension and stiffness in our bodies, which can be important symptoms of stress. It also acts as a release of built-up emotions, and allows us a welcome distraction from work or home problems that have built up within us.
Benefits Of Physical Activity On Mental Health
ADHD is characterized by restlessness and the inability to focus on things for long periods of time. The neurotransmitter, dopamine, which triggers our cycle of motivation, reward and pleasure, is thought to be low in people with ADHD.
Many medications aim to increase dopamine levels in order to reduce ADHD symptoms, but the most natural way to do this is through exercise. Therefore, exercise can help people diagnosed with ADHD improve their focus and ability to concentrate.
It is also thought that exercise improves our executive function (a group of skills controlled by the frontal lobe in our brain). These skills include listening, planning, organizing, and multitasking — all things that many people with ADHD struggle with. A study in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal found a relationship between the amount of work done by students and levels of higher performance.
For information on how the Priory can support you with mental health and wellbeing, please call 0330 056 6020 or click here to submit an inquiry form. For professionals looking to submit, please click here The new consensus statement, led by the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK and updated through review
