The Effects of Exercise on Mental Health and Life

What does the strategy or practice involve?

Exercise is an essential part of our life which is often overlooked and not given much attention. Exercise is one of the top priorities when looking at maintaining a healthy mind. The human body is like a complicated machine if we don’t replace our batteries or loosen up our body we can develop rust. Exercise can be any physical movement directed by our bodies that impact our health and wellness and helps our bodies maintain fitness. Not only humans need exercise, other species need and use it more frequently.

There are 4 main types of exercise proven to be essential to every human being. Aerobic exercise is best referred to as cardio in other terms when you work your body using oxygen. Aerobic exercise is using the heart the most, increasing our heartbeat and the intake of oxygen due to the energy needed. Examples of aerobic exercises may include running, walking, dancing, biking, hiking, and many other physical activities. Any sport that you can think of that uses physical movement such as soccer, basketball and volleyball involve aerobic exercise.

Strength training is when we exercise to strengthen our muscles, endurance, and skeletal muscles. This type of exercise specializes in keeping our muscles strengthened. Examples of strength training may include doing squats, lunges, push-ups and muscle workouts.

Flexibility training or stretching is when we expand our muscles by conducting certain movements in order to tighten our muscles. Stretching is an essential part of a routine because it prepares your body physically & mentally. It may also be incorporated with meditation due to the constant periods of still movement and focus. Examples of flexibility training may include knee rotations, downward or upward dog and many other movements. Balance exercise includes targeting areas of weakness and strengthening them such as your balance and posture. Examples may include the standing knee lift.

What are the impacts or benefits from exercise?

Exercise has a positive impact internally and benefits external factors such as meditation, sleep, self-care, and coping with stress. Exercise benefits every possible age group including kids, teens, adults, and seniors. It helps improve the amount of sleep you get by dropping your body temperature which can help prepare the human body for a sleep cycle. Exercise can also improve your mental and emotional health. Physical movement is essential to keep our bodies healthy, therefore after you exercise you feel a boost in your mood. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins are released when we exercise and the effect of these chemicals wears off slowly. Coping with stress can get difficult due to the many side effects and surroundings that keep our mind occupied. Exercise has been proven to reduce stress levels because the chemicals released not only help you sleep but act like medication for our mind. Exercise can also help improve meditation by helping our mind focus on what is important.

Each of the 4 different types of exercises has different benefits. Aerobic exercise can significantly help decrease the risk of developing heart disease because it helps increase circulation and prevents blood clots from forming. Strength training increases and eases bone growth, helps lower your sugar levels, increases the mass of muscle you have making you stronger. It also plays a role in decreasing stress and helps enable our body to lose weight at a much faster rate. Stretching reduces the risk of pain, muscle cramps and physical pain in general. By stretching we allow our muscles to stay intact and reduce the risk of developing injuries faster. Our joints and muscles can increase their range in motion. For quick action, sports stretching enables us to develop a quicker reaction time.

Balance exercises improve your balance and posture reducing risks for falls and injuries. Activities such as yoga can help you maintain and keep your mind calm reducing stress significantly. Other benefits of exercise may include reduced inflammation, a boost in growth hormones, reduces stress and anxiety, new blood vessels and improved survival of brain cells. Exercise has been proven to help with diabetes because it reduces insulin resistance. The amount of benefits that exercise has on our brain is fascinating. Research has shown that people who exercise strengthen their prefrontal and medial temporal cortex leading to better thinking and memory. Since our brain works almost parallel to muscles the more we use our brains the stronger they function. Aerobic exercise has proven to strengthen the ability of our brain to function and changes its structure. Brain waves are created when our neurons are fired, which leads to our body becoming more aware and active. Some exercises activate the cerebellum, which enables body motor movements. Neurotransmitters are essential to our living, and exercise strengthens them. Our hippocampus is fortified with exercise which encourages imagination and helps memory. To conclude, exercise has many benefits on our mental and physical health keeping our brain young.

What is happening biologically to people who participate in keeping with mental healthiness and wellness?

People who put their mental health as a priority are more liable in terms of decreased risks of mental illnesses. Biologically there are many impacts on our mental health in terms of when an individual willingly participates in an action or idea that results in positivity. Below are a few of the ways that an individual's mental health may be positively impacted. The individual may develop sharper memory and thinking because when stimulated the endorphins in our brain may help us feel better and more concentrated on the task we need to focus on. Our brain becomes enabled to fire neurons in our brain faster, leading to faster reactions to situations. Exercise, for example, may help stimulate our growth hormones and will help our brain stay young as we age. We may also develop or notice a boost in your self-esteem because our neurotransmitters such as Dopamine, Serotonin and others are released or boost in the number of chemicals.

If you fit a health and wellness improving exercise such as exercise into your daily routine you may notice that your cognitive factors will be improved significantly. The benefits are both significant emotionally and mentally due to our bodies reacting to health and wellness in different ways. The way you choose to perceive yourself may improve because of the neurotransmitters which will lead and encourage you to continue keeping up with your health. When you achieve goals and stay persistent and productive in terms of improving your lifestyle it may lead to the individual building and looking forward to more goals. Sleep is an essential priority to the human body and is often overlooked leading to many negative circumstances. Exercise, for example, may help with blood circulation leading may diseases and conditions to improve and possibly become more contained or controlled. Sleep cycles may also be improved due to stress being reduced in our brain. Sleep is almost a state of relaxation which may be reached easier when we practice anything that can help our focus become improved such as exercise.

Conserving and building up energy can also be a challenge to many individuals because in the new era we have been influenced heavily by technology. Exercising usually provides a feel-good sensation to most people with a boost in the alertness. Even though exercise makes people tired, improved circulation leads to much more energy. Exercise also provides the individual with a stronger mindset allowing them to become much more resilient to mental health challenges. It almost provides an alternative to drugs and alcohol which reacts as a depressant. It is recommended that individuals turn to exercise when battling mental health instead of turning towards many dangerous actions.

Mental Health Improvements

The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been medically proven to help out mental issues such as PTSD because with negative emotions we are more likely to develop negative emotions toward most of our surroundings and don’t prioritize physical health. It may come across as a challenge but it has been proven that with the use of exercise the individual is able to get out of those trapped emotions. It provides a good feeling which allows them to think towards a more positive outcome. The Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been shown to improve on a faster scale with the use of exercise. Factors such as our memory and concentration have been increased allowing people to make easier changes towards their lifestyles. The human body can also lower its stress levels using exercise due to the relaxed state during or after practicing the idea. Anxiety is a mental issue affecting many individuals leading to an increase of negative emotions that may impact an individual's day to day lifestyle. Exercise provides you with a chance to develop your mental capability in many ways because it allows us to develop much more focus and attentiveness. Anxiety does not completely perish, due to the constant positive mental ability fighting away the negative aspects. Depression is another increasing issue arising all around Canada, due to the many things around us that may lead to a higher deal of stress. This endless sadness may be improved by helping your physical body feel better. If our physical body feels better, it may help improve the condition of our mental health.

Why is it important to utilize the strategy or practice in daily life?

Exercise is not harmful unless put in a certain situation or circumstance. Doctors recommend about 60 minutes of movement for kids because the necessity to do exercise has increased. Due to the new era, we have been able to discover and develop new measures of how exercise is almost a need. With the recent growth in fast food corporations, the number of people with obesity has increased hitting its all-time high. Not only is diet an important aspect of our health but exercise regulates and keeps our body up to date easing the process of losing weight. It is important to utilize exercise in our everyday lives to ensure that our mental mindset doesn’t get disturbed too often. Investing in exercise leads to healthier emotional bonds and greater mental capacity. As we age we lose muscle mass which makes it easier for that excess space to turn into fat, therefore keeping exercise on a daily level will help ensure that your muscles strengthen leading to fewer places to store fat in your body. Performing exercise every day helps you experience fewer cramps and pain as you age. If you regularly demonstrate aerobic exercises the size of your hippocampus increases expanding your memory and decision-making skills. The benefits to our brain are significant and the side effects of exercise will last a lifetime if incorporated into our daily routine.