Your brain and gut host many beneficial neurotransmitters, including dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. When these neurotransmitters are released, good things happen. Anxiety and depression decrease, focus and concentration increase, brain aging slows, and new brain cells grow.
One of the healthiest ways to encourage the release of neurotransmitters is with exercise. The benefit of exercise is an improvement in your mental health.
Examples of noticeable improvements include:
Emotion processing
Energy and attention
Blood circulation
Memory
Hormone regulation
Libido
How Much Exercise Is Needed To Boost Mental Health?
You may be thinking you will need to work out for hours every day to achieve those mental health benefits, but that is not true. You can start with as little as ten minutes a day and work your way to half an hour, which is a commonly recommended time to exercise per day.
You need to engage in enough exercise to increase your heart rate, which is like a signal to the rest of the body to wake up and start doing their jobs. Their jobs include burning calories, aiding in digestion, sending oxygen to your organs, strengthening the immune system, building muscles, and, yes, improving mental health.
Think of exercise as a tool you can control and use to target specific mental health areas rather than something you must do to lose weight or get fit. When you think of exercise as a mental health benefit, you may get more excited to follow through. Because you can see quick results, you will stay motivated to continue exercising.
Below are eleven exercises to improve mental health issues.
1. Yoga
Yoga incorporates posing, breathing, and meditation to calm the mind and improve focus. Studies show yoga improves mental health by reducing anxiety and helping you regulate emotions. You become better at processing and retaining information.
2. Aerobic Exercises
Not only can aerobics improve cognitive functioning, but they can also boost your self-esteem. Aerobic activities include dancing, swimming, walking, gardening, and riding a bicycle. With just thirty minutes a day of aerobic exercise, you can experience benefits like improved sleep, stress relief, an increase in energy, and much more.
Aerobic exercises help build endurance by raising heart rate and breathing over a longer period.
3. Anaerobic Exercises
Anaerobic exercises are popular today for several reasons. They occur in short periods and improve metabolism and circulation. They also lower the risk for dementia, anxiety, and depression.
Anaerobic exercises are short, very intense bursts of physical activity. For example, if you want the benefits of an hour-long walk but only want to spend ten minutes getting them, then sprint as fast as you can for ten minutes without stopping. You can also join a local HIIT class or high-intensity interval training.
4. Resistance Training or Lifting Weights
Lifting weights does not mean laying on a bench at the gym with a huge bar full of weights hanging over you. The point of resistance training and weightlifting is to increase muscle strength. Muscles play an important role in protecting bones, keeping you balanced, regulating hormones, and improving blood sugar levels, all of which can influence your mental health.
Start with resistance bands or small weights. If you don’t have weights, get creative by using canned goods or objects around the home that weigh one, two, or five pounds. You can also start with standing pushups against a wall.
5. Tai Chi
Tai Chi is much more than making chopping movements. Like yoga, it relieves depression, anxiety, and stress using focused movements and breathing. Tai Chi is a well-rounded exercise that offers a little bit of aerobics, muscle strengthening, and balance.
Many choose to take a Tai Chi class because learning new skills with a group of similar people can be fun. The social aspect of exercise can also benefit mental health.
6. Core Balance
When you try to balance yourself, your mind and body work together to help you. Maintaining balance may need more work, however, but that’s okay. Each time you perform a balance activity, your mind and body build a connection and become stronger.
Examples of balance exercises include walking a tight rope, not literally. Your tight rope is a line on the floor that you will walk heel to toe from one end to the other. You can also try the flamingo stand, balancing on one leg. You can add resistance bands or exercise balls to create many more exercises.
7. Flexible Stretching
Without stretching, muscles tighten, and joints become stiff, both of which cause pain that leads to poor mental health. When stressed, your muscles become tense, restricting blood flow. Tension can also lead to headaches, higher blood pressure, and sleep disturbances. Simple stretches that can be done anywhere can alleviate these symptoms. Stretching can signal a release of endorphins, too, which are the body’s natural pain relievers.
Choosing the Best Exercise to Improve Your Mental Health
Rather than pick one activity, create an exercise plan filled with activities you want to try or already know you enjoy. Work with an individual therapist and fitness trainer to choose the right exercises for your mental health.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week and at least two strength-training exercise sessions. You can fill those minutes any way you want. Below are tips to help you create the perfect exercise plan.
Choose the space you prefer (gym, park, backyard, etc.) and make sure it is safe
Decide if you want to pay for a workout or get it for free
Consider your social needs. Do you prefer working out with others or alone?
Figure out which mental health issue needs the most attention
Remember, exercise is one part of mental health treatment. Working with your counselor, attending a support group, and continuing your medication are the other parts that improve your overall mental well-being. Exercise is easy, and you can start today. If you need help getting started, give a mental health professional and a certified fitness trainer a call.