“You are one workout away from a better mood,” a saying popularized by Valerie Walters, a Los Angeles personal trainer. This is so true! I know always feel refreshed and clear-headed after a workout.
Exercise and moving your body are paramount to managing stress and crucial to living a healthy, vibrant life. We are simply meant to move. It’s vital for sleep, neurological health, digestive health and energy production in every system in the body.
Here are a few benefits of exercise, which should provide you with enough motivation to live an active life.
- Enhances mood
- Reduces stress, anxiety and alleviates depression*
- Boosts energy
- Promotes better, more restful sleep
- Improves your mental health and cognitive abilities*
- Reduces the risk of developing diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease
- Improves your overall health, including decreases blood pressure, controls weight, strengthens muscles and immunity
*See the excerpt below from an article in Experience Life magazine.
Beyond our cognitive abilities, exercise plays a profound role in our mental health. Some theorize that depression is caused at least in part by depleted levels of a category of neurotransmitters called monoamines, which include serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine — all of which are magnified by exercise.
“Going for a run is like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin because, like the drugs, exercise elevates these neurotransmitters,” says John Ratey, MD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
In the process, exercise helps our brains balance hormones. Ratey believes that, along with alleviating depression, this harmonizing of our hormones also inoculates us against toxic stress and eases anxiety.
This originally appeared as “Your Brain on Exercise” in the May 2018 issue of Experience Life.