Exercise and mental Wellbeing

Exercise and Mental Wellbeing

It has long been known that regular exercise is good for our physical health. It can reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and strokes.

In recent years, studies have shown that regular physical activity also has benefits for mental health. Exercise can help people recover from depression and prevent them from becoming depressed in the first place.

Dr Alan Cohen, a GP with a special interest in mental health, says that when people get depressed or anxious, they often feel they're not in control of their lives.

“Exercise gives them back control of their bodies and this is often the first step to feeling in control of other events,” he says.

Anyone with depression can benefit from doing regular exercise, but it's especially useful for people with mild depression.

“Any type of exercise is useful as long as it suits you and you do enough of it,” says Dr Cohen. “Exercise should be something you enjoy. Otherwise it will be hard to find the motivation to do it regularly.”

What Are the Psychological Benefits of Exercise With Depression?

Improved self-esteem is a key psychological benefit of regular physical activity. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain.

Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. For example, the feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as "euphoric." That feeling, known as a "runner's high," can be accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life.

Endorphins act as an analgesic, which means they diminish the perception of pain. They also act as sedatives. They are manufactured in your brain, spinal cord, and many other parts of your body and are released in response to brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. The neuron receptors endorphins bind to are the same ones that bind some pain medicines. However, unlike with morphine, the activation of these receptors by the body's endorphins does not lead to addiction or dependence.

Regular exercise has been proven to:

·         Reduce stress

·         Ward off anxiety and feelings of depression

·         Boost self-esteem

·         Improve sleep

Exercise also has these added health benefits:

·         It strengthens your heart.

·         It increases energy levels.

·         It lowers blood pressure.

·         It improves muscle tone and strength.

·         It strengthens and builds bones.

·         It helps reduce body fat.

·         It makes you look fit and healthy.

In the U.K. mental health issues are often over looked, however recently more effort is being made to address mental health and a large focus is on the openess of the subject and effect treatments, fitness and being physically active continues to show a strong correlation in the prevention, treatment and understanding of mental health and well being. Remember fitness isnt just being strong and fast, it reaches much further into a persons social and mental development and well being.

Get Started Now - Don't wait for the New Year

It gets towards Christmas and many people stop thinking about them and start to pout their focus on Christmas, others and quite often partying.  Their thoughts about their health, losing weight, getting fit go out the window with a thought in the back of their heads that it will be OK because they "will give it ago in the New Year"

We suggest this is entirely the wrong approach for a number of key reasons:

1) It is common knowledge (as we have all tried it) New Year resolutions don't work!  The clock strikes 12 midnight, we all sing and dance and then make a pledge "I'm going to be healthy, eat well, train and get fit". Sometime you can add give up smoking & drink less alcohol but by mid January the large majority have given up on the quests and fallen back into their normal ways.
2) A lifestyle change is not a gimmick so don’t start a program with that mind-set.  A healthy lifestyle is not a fad diet!! If set out with the aim of making short term fixes you will end very short of your goal.  A healthier body has to be a fundamental lifestyle change in the way you think.  It may only involve small changes but you have to think big.
3) There is less pressure on you to achieve if you start now.  If everyone is doing it as with January there is more pressure on you to get results, you are pitting yourself against everyone else in the same boat as you.   

5) Everyone is in the gym in January, so if you are a bit nervous and unsure the gym is likely to be quite an intimidating place.  The fact that a large majority of those there with you are feeling the same won't register.  Join when its quieter and you will be a seasoned pro by January.
5) Imagine how good you will feel in your party dress or suit for those Christmas parties - EVERYONE would be commenting how good you look.  Just think, all those people you havn't see since last Christmas that you could show off your new found figure to!
6) Its a great way to counter all those additional calories you are about to consume over the next 2 months, better lose them straight away before they hit the hips?

FINALLY

You never know you might also enjoy it? Radical thought we know but some people actually do.