It’s the 21st century and scientists still acknowledge that they have a lot of things to learn about the human brain which is way more complex than we previously thought.
“One recent discovery is that there is a relationship between regular exercise and improved mental health.”
There was a study conducted in Brazil on older lab rats and they discovered that even the rodents exercised at medium intensity level they had an increase in their bodies’ production of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) which is well known to improve nerve cells’ health.
The astonishing thing about this increase of BDNF (which was as a result of regular exercising) was that the older rats’ scores on memory tests improved up to the level of younger rats that did not engage in regular exercise.
Another link between exercising and improved mental alertness was discovered in a research study conducted among male college students who do NOT exercise regularly.
First the researchers split them into two groups and administered a memory test. Then one group exercised using stationary bikes and they did it till they were fatigued. The other group did nothing.
The researchers then administered a second memory test and “lo and behold” the group that exercised scored a lot higher than the sedentary group!
Apart from improving your spatial and cognitive learning, doctors have discovered that regular exercising helps in reducing stress, anxiety and even depression.
Although there are different explanation why this works, you don’t need to bother about which is right, just be aware that exercising is good for your mental health.
Regular Exercising helps to improve your moods, keep your relaxed and you would feel more optimistic about things.
There are also some emotional benefits that you stand to gain from exercising regularly, they include:
Improves your self-confidence
Keeps your mind focused
Provides you with an optimistic view of thing
Improves Your Self-Confidence
For people that are overweight, exercising helps with fat loss. And it also improves muscle definition. Achieving your fat loss goals and improving your physique would definitely improve your self-confidence and you would see yourself in a better view.
Keeps Your Mind Focused
During the time you are exercising, you would not be able to focus on the bad thoughts that anxiety and depression causes. After exercising you would feel better mentally.
Provides you with an optimistic view of thing
This is because exercising makes you feel good about the present and future. In fact some health researchers have discovered that the positive mental effects that you get from exercising are similar to what you get when you take anti-depressant drugs.
What Exercises Give The Most Mental Health Benefits?
As long as you are moving your body and you keep your heart rate up, whatever exercise you choose is good enough. A lot of time people equate exercising with being at the gym, jogging or playing football/basket ball.
But, the thing is that other physical activities that you do in the course of your day are also categorised as exercising, things like: washing your car, carrying bags from the supermarket, tending to your garden, walking to work (from the car park), climbing the stairs instead of using the elevator.
There are different ways to include exercising into your everyday life without having to it the traditional way.
How Much Time Should You Aim For?
You should aim to exercise for 30 minutes per day, four times every week if you want to get the mental health benefits. There is an association between how intense your exercise, the duration of exercise and the benefits that you get.
There are some individuals that experience considerable improvement when they cycle or run for just 20 minutes every day. Other exercises that are not as intense would require longer time for you to experience similar benefits.
Although regular exercise would help you in dealing with some mental health problems, it is NOT a replacement for psychotherapy or the medicine that your doctor would prescribe to patients.