Exercise improves mental health

Exercise for the sake of your mental health.

Exercise will help you to improve your mental health. Here's how.

Mental health benefits of exercise

1. Exercise gives you a sense of accomplishment.

2. Exercise releases happy hormones like endorphins, serotonin and dopamine.

3. Your brain needs blood flow for oxygen and nutrients.

4. Exercise provides the perfect, healthy escape.

5. Physical activity improves sleep quality.

Exercise for yourself.

1. Exercise gives you a sense of accomplishment

One of the challenges that many people face when they struggle with mental health is an overwhelming sense of worthlessness or failure.

Exercise improves your mental health because it gives you a sense of accomplishment – it gives you a reason to be proud of yourself.

Exercise will give you a goal to work towards. The human brain thrives on challenge. When you have something that you want to achieve, like becoming more fit, you have another reason to wake up in the morning.

Exercise causes a positive chain reaction.

2. Exercise increases the release of happiness hormones like endorphins and dopamine

Exercise leads to the release of endorphins in the brain.

Endorphin release during exercise is often referred to as the runner’s high.

Endorphins do two major things in the brain: They are a natural pain killer and they make you feel happy by triggering the release of dopamine.

Dopamine is known as the happy hormone. It is also known as the reward hormone.

Depression occurs when the brain does not release enough dopamine.

Exercise is a great way to boost your dopamine levels naturally every day.

Exercise to be happy.

3. Movement increases blood flow to the brain

Exercise helps the body to increase blood flow to the brain.

This is very important because the brain needs blood flow to function properly.

When you exercise, your body increases the amount of oxygen in your blood. Your brain needs oxygen to work at its best.

The increased blood flow also allows the brain to regulate its hormonal and chemical levels better. It is able to get rid of the chemicals it doesn’t need while allowing for faster transportation of the nutrients that it does need.

Mental function declines without exercise.

4. Exercise gives you a mental break from the rest of your life

Many of us work or study really hard.

This puts a lot of pressure on our minds to perform at their best all of the time.

Exercise gives us a mental break where our minds can relax and enjoy the endorphin release with extra blood flow.

When you exercise for long enough, you start to look forward to your exercise sessions because they become your special ‘me time’ where you can think about the rest of your day and reflect on life in a positive way.

Exercise is a great coping mechanism.

5. Physical activity helps you to sleep

Sleep is very important for your health.

It can be hard to get good sleep when your brain is drained but your body has plenty of energy to spare.

Exercise increases sleep quality by increasing the body’s physical need to recover.

As sleep quality increases, your brain can recover better every night.

Very often a lack of physical activity reduces our ability to sleep well, which negatively affects our brain health.

A small amount (20-30 minutes) of exercise every day will help your brain to recover better because of improved sleep.

I used exercise to improve my own sleeping patterns and it worked out wonderfully.

Sleep improves with movement.

Start a new exercise plan slowly

If you've decided that you want to start an exercise routine to boost mental health, start slowly. Give your body time to adapt. The worst thing that you want is an injury. That will stop you from building the habit.

Also make sure that you drink enough water and give your body plenty of rest between exercise sessions. Stay Strong!