Exercise is good for you. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It’s well-known that in order to keep fit and be healthy, you need to exercise regularly. What might be less well-known is that exercise is good for your mental health as well as your physical health. It can boost your mood, help you sleep better, and even reduce the symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety.
With this in mind, it’s helpful to understand which are the best exercises to carry out if you want to improve your mental health. Although all are good, some have better results than others, and understanding this means you can use your allocated exercise time much more wisely. Read on to find out more.
Running or Walking
Running, or walking if this is more aligned with your fitness level and more comfortable for you, is the ideal way to get fit physically and improve your mental health at the same time. The phenomenon known as the ‘runner’s high’ is true – this is a natural result of this kind of exercise that makes you feel happy, alert, and even have more clarity of mind. Running will increase your serotonin levels, and you can get your heart rate up to a good level.
If you don’t have the time to go running outside, or you live somewhere that makes it impossible, or perhaps your allergies mean that outdoor exercise is impossible, you can invest in a running machine from Hoist Fitness. You’ll get the same great feeling, and you can do it all from home.
Yoga
Yoga is an exercise that combines both body and mind within its techniques, allowing you to take part in physical activity while also allowing your mind to relax. It’s a combination that isn’t often found in other kinds of sports or physical fitness programs and is one of the reasons why yoga is so special and considered to be spiritual by many who practice it.
Yoga can give the person taking part in it the same feeling of relief and stress-free living that going to a therapist can, and for those who don’t like the idea of therapy but who need to deal with their mental health issues, yoga could be the answer.
There are many different varieties of yoga to choose from, but each one will be underpinned by the belief that in order to be healthy and enjoy complete wellbeing, our yin and yang energies must be in balance; this is what all yoga classes will aim to make happen.
Resistance Training
Resistance training means lifting weights either by using dumbbells or some other similar-type equipment. When you do this in the right way, you will build muscle and get healthy. Because of this, resistance training is known to improve self-confidence and reduce feelings of anxiety.
On top of this, there is evidence that using weights regularly can improve your cognitive abilities, essentially boosting your brainpower, plus it can make the central nervous system work better, improving your mood and reducing feelings of fatigue.
