Exercising for Better Mental Health - Breaking Mental Barriers with Barbells

Do you ever feel boxed in by mental barriers, and like they're stopping you from achieving your goals?

Some of these issues might sound familiar:

• You want to meet new people but social anxiety tells you you'll just embarrass yourself
• You procrastinate for hours at a time because you have no energy from frequent overthinking
• You can't keep focus in conversations because you're constantly over-analysing everything you do

These are all very common issues that affect millions of people every day. One study found that 1 in 4 people in the UK suffers from mental health issues each year. You shouldn't have to go about your day-to-day life with invisible mental shackles, governing your every action.

That's why we've put together an article for those people who feel as though they are that one person. Substantial evidence has demonstrated the numerous benefits of exercise in establishing more liberating mental health. In a large-scale study that involved almost 400,000 participants, researchers at the University of Lund in Sweden observed that regular exercise reduced the risk of developing severe anxiety by as much as 60% over a 21-year period.

This just goes to illustrate that by incorporating exercise into your daily routine, you can significantly minimise your chances of suffering from mental health issues, particularly anxiety. In this article, we will discuss some of the ways exercise could help you overcome mental hurdles, and we'll also look to provide some helpful resources.

At Again Faster, we are experts in physical health and fitness, but we have seen first hand the positive impact exercise can have on people's mental health, too. That's why we take pride in the role we play in empowering people to conquer their mental health and their personal goals. In fact, we even have a handful of personal stories about the positive role exercise has played in the lives of our customers that you can read if you need further convincing!

How does Exercise Help Improve Mental Health

When you exercise, your body releases feel-good chemicals known as endorphins, which interact with receptors in your brain to make you feel more relaxed and lift your spirits.

But the release of those happy endorphins is not the only thing contributing to your mood. Lots of other physico-chemical changes take place when you exercise, and these can all lead to a healthier, happier mindset. Basically, physical changes and mental function are so interconnected, that improvements in one area tend to lead to improvements in the other.

Just some of these positive effects include:

• Improved blood circulation: More blood circulating around the body is an undeniable booster for general function, but in particular it can help improve cognitive function.
• Strengthening of bones and muscles: Since your bones and muscles will progressively get stronger with consistent exercise, everyday tasks will feel like less effort. This will in turn contribute to improving your overall energy levels, not to mention your motivation and confidence.
• Maintaining healthy sexual function and libido: Exercise can help bring the spark back into your sex life and reduce symptoms of performance anxiety. Just one of the ways this happens is through promoting better blood flow throughout the body, as well as the effect having higher self-esteem levels can have.
• Pain relief: Exercise releases chemicals that promote pain relief. This is great for easing muscle pain and maintaining healthy joints in later life.
• Lower stress levels: Elevated cortisol levels are typical of conditions like anxiety, and it's often because the release of these hormones is not being as tightly regulated. Exercise can help with bringing these levels under control and can even have a relaxing effect.

We could keep listing the benefits, but we'd be here forever! So, the above was just a rundown of some of the most common mental health issues and how regular exercise can help to combat them.

How does Exercise Help with Stress?

When the levels of particular hormones in the body rise to a certain level, we experience stress. Heightened stress levels can be detrimental to your mental wellbeing, affecting things like motivation, energy levels, and your overall mood. Excessive stress can occur for a variety of reasons, and some common examples in the modern day are:

• Having a seemingly endless amount of work to do
• Juggling multiple childcare responsibilities at once
• Being sleep deprived on a regular basis
• Feeling confused about what direction your life is going and what to do
• Struggling to pay bills and stay above water financially

Being too stressed often leads to other mental health issues. However, exercising regularly can be a really great outlet for those who feel they have a lot on their plate.

Exercise can be instrumental in reducing the levels of stress hormones in the body, such as cortisol and adrenaline. It can also stimulate the production of endorphins. Endorphins are the brain's natural mood elevator and pain killer, so this also contributes to feelings of reduced stress.

Ways to Fit Some Exercise Into your Schedule

You might be asking yourself how you could even fit a workout into your schedule, especially if all the other drains on your time are some of your biggest sources of stress and anxiety! Luckily, getting your workout in doesn't have to mean going all the way to a gym and painfully watching the last 2 hours of your free time tick away.

Here are a few simple ideas to get that heart rate going when you haven't got much time to work with:

• Go for a run or brisk walk: There are plenty of apps for planning routes to make sure you're back on time, some good ones are strava or map my run by under armour. Just raising your pulse for 10-15 minutes can make a real difference.
• Do a home workout: Home workouts save on travel time and are considered to be more effective by many. It also removes other points of stress like having to co-ordinate childcare while you visit the gym or anxiety around exercising in public. Check out our article on the top 7 benefits of working out at home if you need extra convincing on the advantages.
• Try and incorporate exercise in some of your daily tasks: Simple errands like going shopping can actually burn quite a few calories; could you do it at a brisk walk? Instead of taking the car or bus, why not use it as an opportunity to get a cheeky sweat on? And you'd be surprised how much you can do in those micro-gaps during your daily chores if you get creative - for example, stop seeing waiting for the pasta to boil as wasted time, and instead see it as an opportunity to raise your pulse while you wait!

How does Exercise Help with Anxiety?

Anxiety can be a crippling burden and a serious obstacle to getting even the simplest of things done. Some common symptoms of anxiety are: avoiding social situations; lack of focus; and restlessness or irritability. These can all be very debilitating, and trying to regain control over these symptoms can often seem quite daunting.

One of the reasons exercise is an effective way of breaking some of these anxious habits is it allows you to be completely in your own world, where all your focus can be on bettering yourself. Multiple studies confirm its undeniable positive impact on reducing symptoms in patients suffering from anxiety including: study 1; study 2; study 3.

Working out on a frequent basis can have profoundly positive and long-lasting impacts on anxiety and depression. Among these benefits include increased self-esteem and confidence, boosted motivation for important tasks, and reduced tendency to lose focus in social situations.

We know that anxiety can discourage you from ever entering a gym, let alone working out. The great thing about most gyms is they generally have very supportive staff for newcomers and people who are less confident in the gym. So if you struggle with "gymbarrasment," approach a member of staff and they will more than likely be happy to show you around and get you familiar with the machines.

We know exercise is great, but being a multifaceted disorder, anxiety often requires multiple angles of intervention. There are loads of great resources for people suffering from anxiety. Here are some of our favourite free ones:

• Mind.org.uk
• NHS mental health services
• Time to change
• Mental health UK
• Together UK

How can Exercise help with Eating Disorders?

A positive relationship with food is a major component of mental health. However, establishing and maintaining good eating habits can be very challenging when suffering from poor mental health. Exercising on a regular basis can support a more consistent diet. Increasingly, more studies are being carried out on whether exercise may improve a range of biopsychosocial outcomes in patients with eating disorders.

Whether you have difficulties with overeating or feel you never have a decent appetite, regular physical activity can help you balance out your eating patterns and repair some of the harm done by a period of poor nutrition.

Nonetheless, you must be very careful when exercising with an eating disorder. In unfortunate cases, you may trigger a relapse in your disorder. Or, another common complication is feeling you need to excessively over-exercise to the point of exhaustion. There is no substitute for seeking professional guidance if you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder, so exercise should not be treated as a solution; rather, it should be seen as a supporting factor when establishing a better relationship with food.

Check out this excellent post by the alliance for eating disorders if you are currently recuperating from an eating disorder and want to know how you can safely reap the rewards of exercise in your recovery. On top of this, readers in the UK should check out:

• NHS guidance and support on eating disorders
• Beat Eating Disorders, the UK's leading eating disorder charity

How Can Different Types of Exercise Help Improve Mental Health?

With so many types of exercise to try, you can truly set yourself free and uncover what feels right for you. When it comes to managing specific conditions, there is some evidence-based research behind which types of exercise can benefit certain mental health issues.

Aerobic exercise, such as cycling, running, or swimming, is typically connected with lowering common symptoms of anxiety and depression. Aerobic exercise releases the most endorphins and therefore often leaves you feeling less anxious and stressed.

However, if you're looking to blow off some steam, a little strength training can go a long way. Studies show it contributes to significant reductions in blood pressure. High blood pressure is often associated with feeling on-edge and mentally fatigued. Not to mention it has been linked with more general improvements in mental health.

Final Thoughts

Here at Again Faster, we cannot stress enough how important it is to seek the right help and guidance when you need it. If you're not personally struggling with your mental health, there's a strong likelihood that someone you know is.

Mental health conditions are invisible, so you never know who might be struggling. Never be afraid to open up to someone you love and trust if you're going through a dark patch, they would much rather see you happy! Check out our other article on exercise and mental health, which includes a range of additional mental health resources.

If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends and family. And feel free to get in touch with us at [email protected] or across our social channels - we'd love to hear from you about your stories and experiences with mental health :)