Exercise and Mental Health: 3 Biological Benefits of Physical Activity
At some point or another, I am sure you have heard about the great benefits of exercise, especially for improving and maintaining mental health. Sometimes hearing something is beneficial isn’t enough of a reason to give it a shot, so here are 3 backed-by-research reasons why exercise improves our mental and emotional well-being.
1) Physical Stress Relief
When I was completing my undergraduate degree in Psychology, a professor recommended a book called Why Zebras don’t get Ulcers. This is the book which sparked my interest in anxiety disorders and the human nervous system. The author talks about how the human body responds to threats, as well as why the human body was designed for short spurts of anxiety rather than the chronic stressors we experience in today’s society. Our threat-response system actually works very similarly to other animals; however, we humans tend to respond quite differently to our stress response than other animals do. Check out this video to watch a polar bear physically shaking off the stress they just experienced.
When an animal is physically threatened, their brain sends out the warning signal, which includes stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and the quick decision to either fight, run away or shut down. The stress hormones shift the body into an alerted state, allowing them to respond better to the threat and to have the strength and endurance needed to either fight or run away. Once the threat passes, the animal will begin shaking as a means to expel the stress it just endured.
The stress response in humans works in a similar fashion, except humans typically don’t go through the stress expelling process. Actually wen tend to do the opposite - becoming paralyzed by the discomfort and getting stuck in an endless thought spiral. When we engage in physical activity on a regular basis, this allows for the body to physically expel stress and any trauma which may be stuck within our bodies. It also helps the nervous system learn to regulate which means we can recover from stress quicker.
2) Ability to Think New Thoughts (AKA - Cognitive Flexibility)
Not only does moving your body decrease stress by working out all that cortisol built up from the day (or week) but it also churns out a powerful neurochemical called Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF). Without getting too sciencey here, BDNF allows us to think positive thoughts more easily. It does this by increasing our brain’s ability to create brand new neural pathways and neural connections. The power behind BDNF works as the basic foundation of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The gist of CBT is to identify our old, once protective and adaptive but no longer helpful, thought patterns and to replace them with thought patterns which carry more balance and truth. Replacing these old patterns becomes pretty difficult if we have a hard time thinking of new thoughts, which is why BDNF can be our new best friend through the process of rebuilding our foundational beliefs of how we interact with the world.
3) Empowerment (AKA - Psychological Resilience)
You know those times when you are doing an activity and you come to a seemingly impossible hurdle? Sometimes the thought of, “I don’t think I can do this” will stop you. Maybe other times, though, you have the thought: “Maybe I can do this, let me give it a try”. When we take the chance and our performance far exceeds expectations, this experience tells the brain, “You are so much stronger than you think you are”. Even though this may seem like a small example, it can be incredibly powerful to prove to yourself you can do things you previously thought impossible.
The next time you want a mental boost, try moving your body a few days a week and see how you feel. Notice any changes to:
Irritability
How you respond to daily stressors
Muscle tension
Quality of sleep
Self-talk
This truly can be a practice of simple curiosity. Perhaps along the way you will find the exercises and rhythms which help you to feel your best.
