A bit of exercise boosts resilience & mental health....
Today's Post: Thursday, 7-7-2011
Recently a Facebook friend who has expertise in mental health and is much into exercise posted this:
“July 6, 2011, 12:01 am
Why Exercise Makes Us Feel Good By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS”
well.blogs.nytimes.com ‘ (Thank you Dr Michael Lara!)
The article adds some important new information on the benefits of exercise.
Wow! The implications are huge!
Regular exercise is already known to slow aging and protect your physical health in dozens of important ways. It also helps you be less fat.
These two studies suggest it does more than lift depression & these other things.
Regular exercise improves your mental health and resilience when stressed too!
First, the Norwegian study noted found that “those who engaged in any exercise, even a small amount, reported improved mental health”
(The minimum regular exercise needed for good health is 500 to 700 calories a week. Six miles of walking or three intense cardio sessions a week or some of each or anything else that does this will work. This study suggests that even doing this minimum amount will profoundly improve your mental health.)
AND “bicycle riding or weight training eased symptoms in women who’d received a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.
The weight training was especially effective at reducing feelings of irritability.”
Does that mean that women who are under stress or anxious or worry warts AND who exercise have less perceived stress, feel better, and function better than women who don’t exercise?
As the second study shows, you bet it does!
It also works for men too.
The reason is that exercise affects the way your brain processes stressful information to the point that something about exercise protects you from damaging changes at a very basic level in your brain.
Is the fact that women who did strength training were less irritable significant?
It certainly is!
Strength training makes the people who do it feel more competent and feel less helpless even in the early stages. You can also take out your adrenaline surge from anger on the weights instead of on the people around you.
Does that mean women who strength train have better, more stable relationships?
I think it does!
In the second study, they essentially trapped mice with bullies to see the effects of the resulting stress.
One group just stayed in their normal cages otherwise.
The experimental group got two privileges. They were given opportunities to exercise and opportunities to explore.
The group that didn’t exercise was seriously stressed to the point their brains showed it at a basic level -- even when they were away from the bullies. They acted depressed.
The mice in the experimental group who got exercise and explored for a while before the bullies showed up, were a bit slammed and acted submissive when the bully mice were harassing them just like the others.
BUT, they were resilient. When they were away from the bullies, they were fine and showed virtually no signs of stress.
Wow!
That’s huge!
The kinds of stress effects that in us can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, AND tend to make Alzheimer’s more likely, did NOT happen to them!
(The connection to this kind of stress and its relationship to mental decline is well described in Dr Singh Khalsa’s book, Brain Longevity.
He uses meditation to relive such stress. But exercise may also work as well or better according to this study.)
Everyone has such stress in their lives.
But staying fit with regular exercise and learning and exploring new things can keep it from harming you.
That’s extremely good news! It deserves front page coverage.
Here are some ideas.
1. Tai Chi combines meditation with an exercise you can do at home or while traveling in your hotel or motel room. It’s so effective at this kind of stress relief it’s been found to reduce high blood pressure better than larger doses of the drugs that do so.
And if you don’t know it and learn it, that’s exploring new things!
2. Women who only have a little time to exercise or haven’t done it before or who need a bit of help with morale and support to keep doing it have a great solution available!
The program CURVES is available almost everywhere in the United States. They’ve found it effective by doing just two or three half hour sessions a week.
And, it includes fitness AND strength training. Since few women know how valuable strength training is and never do any, that’s a BIG benefit.
3. You can also gradually make a variety of exercises you can do at home work well.
I work out with my body weight and a small set of dumbells. I jump rope. I recently learned how to do a kettlebell work out safely. And, I learned how to work out on my NordicTrack without having a problem with my knees.
I do these exercises mostly in the morning with sessions from 6 to 30 minutes long.
4. You can also work out as little as one or two times a week at a gym that has heavier weights and cardio equipment and specialized exercise machines and have it work well if you work out at home too.
5. Learning new things online,
window shopping,
trying out new restaurants,
seeing new movies or movies that sound good that you haven’t seen before using NetFlix,
or taking a class in anything new to you that interests you
-- are some of the many ways to explore that also have this stress relief and resilience effect.
Find a way to add some exercise to your life and do some exploring!
These studies suggest you’ll be very glad you did!
Today's Post: Thursday, 7-7-2011
Recently a Facebook friend who has expertise in mental health and is much into exercise posted this:
“July 6, 2011, 12:01 am
Why Exercise Makes Us Feel Good By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS”
well.blogs.nytimes.com ‘ (Thank you Dr Michael Lara!)
The article adds some important new information on the benefits of exercise.
Wow! The implications are huge!
Regular exercise is already known to slow aging and protect your physical health in dozens of important ways. It also helps you be less fat.
These two studies suggest it does more than lift depression & these other things.
Regular exercise improves your mental health and resilience when stressed too!
First, the Norwegian study noted found that “those who engaged in any exercise, even a small amount, reported improved mental health”
(The minimum regular exercise needed for good health is 500 to 700 calories a week. Six miles of walking or three intense cardio sessions a week or some of each or anything else that does this will work. This study suggests that even doing this minimum amount will profoundly improve your mental health.)
AND “bicycle riding or weight training eased symptoms in women who’d received a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.
The weight training was especially effective at reducing feelings of irritability.”
Does that mean that women who are under stress or anxious or worry warts AND who exercise have less perceived stress, feel better, and function better than women who don’t exercise?
As the second study shows, you bet it does!
It also works for men too.
The reason is that exercise affects the way your brain processes stressful information to the point that something about exercise protects you from damaging changes at a very basic level in your brain.
Is the fact that women who did strength training were less irritable significant?
It certainly is!
Strength training makes the people who do it feel more competent and feel less helpless even in the early stages. You can also take out your adrenaline surge from anger on the weights instead of on the people around you.
Does that mean women who strength train have better, more stable relationships?
I think it does!
In the second study, they essentially trapped mice with bullies to see the effects of the resulting stress.
One group just stayed in their normal cages otherwise.
The experimental group got two privileges. They were given opportunities to exercise and opportunities to explore.
The group that didn’t exercise was seriously stressed to the point their brains showed it at a basic level -- even when they were away from the bullies. They acted depressed.
The mice in the experimental group who got exercise and explored for a while before the bullies showed up, were a bit slammed and acted submissive when the bully mice were harassing them just like the others.
BUT, they were resilient. When they were away from the bullies, they were fine and showed virtually no signs of stress.
Wow!
That’s huge!
The kinds of stress effects that in us can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, AND tend to make Alzheimer’s more likely, did NOT happen to them!
(The connection to this kind of stress and its relationship to mental decline is well described in Dr Singh Khalsa’s book, Brain Longevity.
He uses meditation to relive such stress. But exercise may also work as well or better according to this study.)
Everyone has such stress in their lives.
But staying fit with regular exercise and learning and exploring new things can keep it from harming you.
That’s extremely good news! It deserves front page coverage.
Here are some ideas.
1. Tai Chi combines meditation with an exercise you can do at home or while traveling in your hotel or motel room. It’s so effective at this kind of stress relief it’s been found to reduce high blood pressure better than larger doses of the drugs that do so.
And if you don’t know it and learn it, that’s exploring new things!
2. Women who only have a little time to exercise or haven’t done it before or who need a bit of help with morale and support to keep doing it have a great solution available!
The program CURVES is available almost everywhere in the United States. They’ve found it effective by doing just two or three half hour sessions a week.
And, it includes fitness AND strength training. Since few women know how valuable strength training is and never do any, that’s a BIG benefit.
3. You can also gradually make a variety of exercises you can do at home work well.
I work out with my body weight and a small set of dumbells. I jump rope. I recently learned how to do a kettlebell work out safely. And, I learned how to work out on my NordicTrack without having a problem with my knees.
I do these exercises mostly in the morning with sessions from 6 to 30 minutes long.
4. You can also work out as little as one or two times a week at a gym that has heavier weights and cardio equipment and specialized exercise machines and have it work well if you work out at home too.
5. Learning new things online,
window shopping,
trying out new restaurants,
seeing new movies or movies that sound good that you haven’t seen before using NetFlix,
or taking a class in anything new to you that interests you
-- are some of the many ways to explore that also have this stress relief and resilience effect.
Find a way to add some exercise to your life and do some exploring!
These studies suggest you’ll be very glad you did!
Labels: become stress proof, CURVES, how to be resilient, how to overcome stress, how women can be less irritable
posted by David at 2:43 PM
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