Mental health refers to more than the absence of psychological disease -- it is a continuum and includes growth toward optimum personal potential. Mental health is also a broad concept and includes aspects like depression, anxiety, mood states, cognitive performance and sleep patterns.
Feelings of anxiety decrease immediately after exercise and can be reduced with a short burst (five to 10 minutes) of exercise. The effect can last for 24 hours and the longer the duration of the exercise sessions, the better the effect.
The type of the exercise does not appear to be crucial, but the shorter the duration of the exercise, the more important it is to work up at least a sweat when you exercise. Longer-lasting results are found among people who stick to exercise regimes for at least 10 weeks.If you want to reduce anxiety, competitive exercise or sports that require a high amount of skill like tennis and golf is probably not a good choice. Examples of suitable sports are cycling, running, yoga, 10-pin bowling, tramping, pilates, bowling, rowing and kayaking.
In one study, exercise proved as effective as medicine to lower depression in a group of clinically depressed patients. More carefully conducted clinical trials are needed before exercise is to be recommended as an alternative to medical therapies for depression, but exercise in conjunction with most types of depression treatment could do no harm.
Key factors in maximizing the effectiveness of exercise on depression include:
A pleasing and enjoyable activity.
Aerobic or rhythmic breathing.
An absence of interpersonal competition.
A closed, predictable and spatially-certain environment.
Moderate intensity.
Duration of at least 20 to 30 minutes.
Regular inclusion in the weekly schedule.
Short workouts of eight minutes in length have been shown to help lower sadness, tension and anger; improve mood states; and increase resistance against disease. This means that you do not need to spend hours in the gym to improve your mood. If you do want to exercise longer, mood benefits are more likely with moderate-intensity exercise and if you focus on personal improvement goals.
In a six-month exercise study on 124 older adults, memory and ability to do complex cognitive tasks improved by 25 percent.
Sleep is important with regard to both your physical and psychological health. Longer-duration exercise sessions at a comfortable intensity in bright light that makes you sweat have the best effect on quality of sleep.
Exercise increases the amount of time in slow-wave sleep. In slow-wave sleep, the body gets more rest, and hormones are released that help to restore and revitalize the body.
Optimum mental health can only really be achieved with balanced growth in all the dimensions of humanness -- namely the spiritual, emotional, vocational, physical, social, environmental and intellectual dimensions. Focusing on only one or two of these dimensions (like exercise or getting a hobby) could help you feel better, but in terms of optimising your personal mental health potential, you will get better results by developing yourself in each of the above-mentioned dimensions.
Exercise is therefore helpful, but definitely not a cure-all, and exercise at the cost of neglecting other aspects of your life is not the solution.
Work and exercise addiction as well as using work or sport to validate you are also forms of mental disease. It's not necessary to win sporting events or punish yourself in order to get mental and other health benefits from exercise.
Physical exercise should be used to relax and have fun and is not supposed to be a chore. Finally, you don't need to do all your physical activity in one continuous session. You can use a step counter (pedometer) to measure your exercise during your normal daily activities.
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