Energize Your Mood: How Exercising Improves Mental Health
Exercise to Improve Mental Health
Elle Woods of 'Legally Blonde' had it right when she explained how her friend could never have committed murder: "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands. They just don't." While it sounds ditzy, it is scientifically grounded. Exercising, even in small amounts, can have real impacts on your energy, sleep, stress levels and self-esteem. Here's our best advice on how to improve your mood.
Say Goodbye to Stress
Exercising can help everyone boost stress-resistance, says Alan D. Keck, Psy.D., and a spokesperson for the American Psychological Association. "But for people who are already anxious and under excess stress, it helps reduce that and helps them feel calmer." Any aerobic routine can help people with anxiety and depression as well, Dr. Keck notes.
Sleep Better, Feel Better
"Getting a good cardio workout helps normalize your sleep cycle," says Dr. Keck. Sleep disturbances not only affect your mood, it is often a contributing factor to depression and other mental illnesses. Plus, being tired drags on your energy and libido. The best solution is getting moving. Exercise "tends to help with those things as well," says Dr. Keck.
How Much Is Enough?
"We're not trying to burn calories. We're trying to increase blood flow to the brain and stimulate the flow of normal brain chemistry," explains Dr. Keck. To get that kind of effect, you need to exercise for at least 20 minutes at a time, and ideally every day. "Every other day is better than nothing. The more sensitive your mind-body connection the greater impact exercise will have. Also, the more mental problems you have to work out, the more you'll notice a difference after giving body a workout.
Boost Self-Esteem
A boost in self-esteem and body image, however, can come from any kind of workout. "When you're exercising, what you're implicitly saying is, ' I'm important, I'm worth taking care of," explains Dr. Keck. Also, strength-training exercising can help you tone muscle, which usually helps people feel more confident about their body.
Get a Social Life
Team sports, though not generally considered when looking for ways to improve mental health through exercise, can offer a wonder of social benefits. The same goes with dancing, says Dr. Keck. These activities provide a social network and reasons to interact with others, which can help with mental, emotional and physical health. "Having a good social support network is a stress-buffer. It makes us more resilient," says Dr. Keck.
Housework Helps Too
Organizing your office or working in the garden may help keep you in good spirits, according to a recent study printed in the 'British Journal of Sports Medicine.' Researchers found that at least 20 minutes a week of any physical activity, yes, even walking around the mall, provided mental health benefits. While any type of daily physical activity went in tandem with low likelihood of distress, the more active participants demonstrated greater psychological improvements.
Bike, Walk or Jog and Skip Meds?
Regular physical activity might be just as effective, or more effective, as anti-depressants, depending on the severity of your mental problems, according to a series of studies conducted at Duke University. The studies, part of Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term Exercise (SMILE), funded by the National Institutes of Health, compared the efficacy of long-term exercise programs to the antidepressant sertraline (brand name Zoloft), as well as a placebo. The exercise group showed statistically significant and identical improvement to the group taking the medications.
Boost Brain Power Through Fitness
Yes, that's right, the same aerobic exercises that are good for your heart and mood, may also improve the aging mind, suggests a study published in 'The Chochrane Library' in 2008. "Aerobic physical exercises that improve cardiovascular fitness also help boost cognitive processing speed, motor function and visual and auditory attention in healthy older people," said the author of the study, Maaike Angevaren, of the University of Applied Sciences, in Utrecht. The catch: It doesn't help people with existing dementia or Alzheimer's-related problems.
