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How Exercise Impacts Mental Health

Exercise on Mental Health, How Exercise Impacts Mental Health

The physical health benefits of exercise are easy to observe since muscle development and fat loss are often apparent to the eye. It can be more difficult to understand how working out helps our minds because we cannot watch our brains change, but researchers have found that our brains benefit just as much from physical exercise as our bodies. At Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health, we encourage our clients to maintain their best possible mental health by nurturing their mind, body and spirit. 

Ways Exercise Improves Our Mental Health

Exercise has both, short-term and long-term benefits for our mental state:

  • Increasing the flow of blood and oxygen to our brains, allowing for more cellular growth and improved connections, which 
    • Helps our brain to respond better to problems
    • Allows us to adapt better to change
    • Makes it easier for us to learn new things
  • Decreasing symptoms of: 
    • Depression 
    • Anxiety 
    • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
    • Substance use disorders
    • Personality disorders
    • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
    • Schizophrenia
  • Increasing levels of “feel good chemicals” including serotonin and dopamine and decreasing levels of cortisol and adrenaline, which are stress hormones
  • Helping us to become more self-disciplined
  • Making it easier for us to regulate unpleasant emotions by providing a simulated “stress response” when we exert ourselves through physical activity 
  • Improving how we feel about our bodies and our accomplishments, and as a result, ourselves in general
  • Providing a break and distraction from distressing events

Indirect Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health

Not only does exercise directly improve our mental health, but it can also provide indirect benefits by enhancing:

  • Sleep
  • Endurance
  • Mood
  • Stress and pain management abilities
  • Energy levels
  • Life expectancy

Our mental health is generally better as a result of these other improvements.

Mental Health and Chronic Illnesses

There is a strong connection between mental health disorders and chronic illnesses. Exercise can reduce our chances of developing chronic physical health conditions, which can, in turn, make it easier to maintain our mental health.

Types of Exercise That Help

Aerobic exercise is an activity that gets your heart going at a more rapid speed. Pretty much any kind of aerobic exercise can be helpful for maintaining mental and physical health. This can include:

  • Walking, running or jogging
  • Bicycling
  • Swimming
  • Gardening, surfing, hiking and other outdoor activities can help us feel more connected to nature
  • Dancing 
  • Team sports like soccer, basketball or volleyball can also help us to build social connections and improve our sense of belonging
  • Yoga

How Much Exercise We Need

If you aren’t used to exercising, it is important to talk to your doctor, to create a plan that will allow you to optimize your health without injuring yourself. It is also important to remember that people may have different needs, based on their age and medical conditions. In general, 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise or 150 minutes of moderate exercise are recommended each week. Even if you cannot hit these numbers, it is important to be consistent. This will allow you to increase your endurance over time.

Barriers to Exercise

There are sometimes reasons why people find it difficult to exercise. Finding ways to navigate these issues may require support from friends or family:

  • Lack of childcare – one way around this problem is to join a gym that offers child care, another is to ask loved ones to watch your child while you work out and a third is to work out as a family.
  • Negative feelings about exercise – a lot of people dislike working out. They don’t like getting sweaty. It reminds them that they aren’t in the condition they would like to be. They may have been bullied about their body in the past and still struggle to manage their self-image as a result. Some people find it helpful to remember that these unpleasant feelings are temporary or to treat exercise like medicine they have to take to feel better.
  • Difficulty enjoying exercise – even people who enjoy working out have difficulty sticking with an exercise routine they don’t enjoy. Instead of forcing yourself to do a specific exercise, find something you like and do that. Consider listening to music or watching your favorite show while you are working out or exercising in a beautiful location to increase your enjoyment.

At Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health, in Leland, North Carolina, we offer in-patient psychiatric treatment for adolescents, adults and seniors experiencing acute mental health episodes. Our short-term treatment programs help patients to safely return to their homes, families and communities. 

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About programs offered at Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health

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