What Are Mental Health Benefits Of Exercise?

There are a lot of mental health benefits associated with exercise. Even though 99% of all exercise related articles will focus exclusively on the many physical benefits of exercise, there are substantial mental health benefits of exercise too.

We live in an era where the stigma around mental health is decreasing and where are people are starting to become more and more open about mental health problems. Research shows that regular moderate or vigorous physical activity improves mental well-being as well as symptoms of depression.

3 Mental Health Benefits of Exercise

Reduced Stress

Arguably the greatest mental health benefit associated with regular exercise is reduced stress levels. There are a couple of reasons for this. First off, exercise helps lower the cortisol levels in your body. Cortisol is, it’s commonly referred to as the “stress hormone.” By helping to reduce the amount of cortisol in your body, exercise can be extremely useful for helping you to get rid of stress.

Exercise also provides a much-needed distraction during stressful times. A big issue with excessive stress is that when you’re stressed out, you’re constantly thinking about whatever it is that is causing the stress, which then causes you even more stress. One of the keys to managing stress levels is having the ability to take your mind off whatever it is that’s stressing you out. Exercise allows you to do just that.

It Improves Your Self-Confidence

A lot of people suffer from low self-confidence. This not only negatively impacts their life, but it can also lead to other, serious mental illnesses like depression. Again, exercise can be of great help in this situation. Study upon study has shown that regular exercise makes you more confident. A big part of this is due to body image. People who exercise regularly feel stronger and may even lose weight, which makes them feel better about how they look.

Depression is the easiest example, and perhaps most common, of a psychological condition. Other examples include stress and anxiety. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Major Depressive Disorder affects more than 16.1 million American adults, or about 6.7% of the U.S. population.

It Can Help Battle Addiction

Addiction is very much a mental illness. Your brain and body get addicted to the good feelings provided by whatever it is you’re addicted to. In that sense, exercise can actually help you fight against addiction.

When you start exercising regularly, your body starts to release chemicals called endorphins. These feel-good chemicals are what your brain and body get addicted to. So, exercise emerges as a healthy way to still provide those feel-good endorphins, without engaging in very bad, addictive behavior like smoking, over-eating, gambling, or other activities that are both addictive and harmful.

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Exercise increases self-esteem and self-love, by promoting the release of the “feel-good” chemicals and hormones as mentioned earlier. Self-esteem also comes from you feeling better about yourself when your health improves, and you begin to look better in the mirror

People are often amazed at how small exercise changes can reap huge results with their fitness. Whether you’re dealing with depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease or low sex drive, exercise has shown to be effective medicine. It can prevent disease and help you manage symptoms. My free report,  10 Health Benefits With Improved Fitness shares practical exercise tips, tactics, and guidelines to help you achieve better physical and mental health.