THE EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION

National Mental Health Awareness Month: Exercise and Mental Wellbeing

Welcome to the first of my new monthly Exercise Prescription newsletter! I’ll be covering the many different ways that both exercise and a healthy lifestyle can prevent, alleviate and even reverse chronic medical conditions. For the month of May, National Mental Health Awareness Month, I’m discussing the positive effects that exercise can have on your mental wellbeing, why you should adopt a regular fitness program and ways to get motivated right now!

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Exercise and Mental Wellbeing

The positive effects that exercise and regular physical activity can have on your physical self are pretty well understood: maintaining a healthy weight, building strength, improving balance, and building strong bones and a strong heart. However, the effects on your emotional self are less well-known and less understood, but equally important to your overall health, wellness and quality of life.

Adherence to a regular fitness program can increase your energy level, improve your mood, increase self-confidence, help manage stress and anxiety, improve focus and provide the motivation you may otherwise be lacking to stay on track. It can even (eventually) improve depression and other mental health issues to the extent that, in some cases, the need for pharmaceutical interventions can be replaced with lifestyle interventions - how great would that be?

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How It Can Help, Right Now

All modes of exercise or physical activity, from steady-state cardio to strength training to simply taking a walk around the neighborhood and the effects can be achieved in just a few minutes but will stay with you for hours.

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The short-term benefits of exercise are numerous: A fifteen minute walk, for example, helps clear the mind as you start to focus on your environment and not on the argument you had with your kids. Participating in a challenging high intensity circuit improves focus and concentration as you work through complex movements and exercises. Joining a group training program can improve socialization skills and reduce anxiety by increasing your interaction with like-minded people in your community. Adopting a structured strength-training program improves your confidence and self-efficacy as you start to see the results of your hard work.

Another acute response to exercise is that your body releases endorphins - feel-good hormones - the same hormones your body releases when you eat chocolate or have sex (or eat chocolate while having sex), which improves your mood during the activity. Over time, you begin to associate exercise with that feel-good feeling, further promoting adherence to your exercise program. So there’s scientific evidence that suggests the more you exercise, the more you will want to exercise!

Here Today, Still Here Tomorrow

In addition to these immediate gains, the long-term benefits are certainly noteworthy in terms of improvements in mental health and prevention of cognitive disorders later in life. 

Building on the short-term adaptations to exercise, over time, improved performance of exercise, increased self-confidence and self-efficacy, improved sleep and higher energy levels can have dramatic effects on your mental state. Improved performance boosts self esteem, increased self-efficacy promotes a sense of control and counters feelings of hopelessness often associated with depression, anxiety and other conditions.

Better quality sleep and higher energy levels encourage more fulfilling participation in life. Fundamentally, increasing your level of physical activity increases your tolerance for increased levels of activity: the more you exercise, the more exercise your body, heart and mind can sustain and the less burdensome exercise seems, further promoting long-term adherence to your fitness program. 

Physical activity and exercise not only delivers benefits you can enjoy right now, but it builds a better, mentally healthier future: increased focus and concentration, along with improved memory function and mental alertness can prevent the onset of dementia, cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease. Additionally, physical adaptations to exercise (increased strength, healthy bodyweight and functional capabilities) are associated with a lower incidence of depression in older adults, providing a feedback loop of both physical and mental adaptations that keep you healthy for years to come.

Anything is Better Than Nothing

The other great news is that all types of exercise have been shown to be effective in improving mental health, so the mode of exercise is less important than the importance of just doing something. 

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The key to adopting a sustainable, positive lifestyle change, particularly when coupled with anxiety, depression, ADHD or any other mental health challenge, is to find something that you will enjoy, that won’t exacerbate your condition, and that will help provide quality of life improvements you’d like to see. So choose activities that are appealing to you - walking, biking, group fitness classes - remember you’re just getting started, and anything is better than nothing. Start small, start slow and remember that long-term adherence is the ultimate goal, so choose an intensity, duration and frequency that you can sustain and build upon gradually.  

Excessive muscle soreness, exhaustion and injury do not promote long-term adherence to an exercise program. And pain is not weakness leaving the body. It’s just pain.

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Choosing activities that reflect your preferences is equally important: if socialization is important to you, find a group training program in your area so that you can combine the physical and mental benefits of exercise with the enjoyment of interacting with others. If self-confidence is something you’d like to improve, consider hiring a personal trainer to help you build competence and confidence until you’re ready to step out on your own. If solitude and mental focus is a goal, find a local park where you can walk or bike safely. (Several city parks provide self-guided fitness circuits that you can incorporate into your outdoor activity.) The important thing to remember is that not every mode of fitness fits everyone’s goals, capabilities and preferences, so choose something that fits yours. If you need some help getting started, consulting with a fitness professional is a good way to identify modes of exercise, duration, intensity and frequency that will best fit your schedule, goals and preferences.

Breaking Down Barriers

While it’s important to talk about the benefits of exercise on mental health, it’s equally important to acknowledge that there are many barriers to exercise for most people, but particularly those trying to overcome mental health challenges. These barriers are very real, so I tried to identify the most common ones, in addition to providing recommendations on overcoming them.

Lack of energy - it takes a lot of mental and physical energy to start an exercise program, energy that might be in short supply if you’re struggling with mental illness. The key to getting started is to start small (15-30 minute bouts of physical activity are enough to see some pretty rapid results) and pick the time of day when your energy level is at its highest. Remember that one of the most immediate effects of exercise is improved energy, so this isn’t a barrier you’ll have to overcome for long.

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Hopelessness - feeling like you can’t make a difference in your health status is likely to discourage you from making the changes you need to make. Rather than focus on what you feel you can’t do, remind yourself of what you can (and do) do successfully, track your progress and congratulate yourself on every gain you make.  Join a group training program - vicarious experience (seeing others achieve what you want to achieve) can be motivational and inspirational. Hire a personal trainer who can design, adapt and progress a program that maximizes your health improvements.

Lack of (self) confidence - feeling overwhelmed, not knowing what to do and fear of failure are powerful de-motivators for the best of us. When struggling with mental wellness, these barriers can seem insurmountable. To overcome these feelings, it might be helpful to find an encouraging, nurturing environment, such as a group training program, where the members are supportive.  Or perhaps start out in a private setting where you can develop your skills, competence and confidence outside of the public eye.

Fear of pain or injury - clearly a valid concern, but when physical activity is undertaken correctly, pain and injury should not be an expectation. Based on your level of competence and fitness, choose exercises and activities that are appropriate for you and are low-risk for injury. Start slowly and build gradually. Listen to your body: stop any exercise if you feel pain and give yourself plenty of time to rest and recover.

The Bottom Line

Exercise and proper nutrition are critical to physical health, mental wellbeing, quality of life and longevity. Mental health is equally important as physical health, long term, and, in some cases, equally manageable by lifestyle interventions as physical health. The benefits of exercise are immediate, sustained and countless, and there are small steps you can begin to take today that will set you on a course for a healthier, more fulfilled life. Anything is better than nothing. Happy National Mental Health Awareness Month!