Stress management and exercise: improving mood, memory, and sleep
Sustained cessation or slowing of these functions can lead to digestive problems (such as irritable bowel syndrome and colitis), making your body more susceptible to ulcers. Suppression of the parasympathetic nervous system can also cause fatigue due to reduced energy reserves, and due to the slowed reproductive process, it can lead to erectile dysfunction.
Stress can also cause the release of steroid hormones, including cortisol. As we know, cortisol is not helpful for weight loss and can cause blood sugar levels to rise, prompting our bodies to store fat in the abdomen. Cortisol can also suppress the activity of the immune system, making you more susceptible to colds and other immune-related illnesses, slowing wound healing, and even accelerating aging.
Given the significant threat that chronic stress poses to the body, reducing and managing stress is crucial for your health, not to mention its impact on your quality of life. Exercise can help, so don't skip exercise when you feel stressed-it's exactly what you need! Participating in exercise can at least help people shift their focus away from anxiety; certain forms of exercise, such as the rhythm and repetitive movements of running and swimming, can help relax the mind. Furthermore, the body's stress response is reduced after exercise. For example, in one study, participants who cycled on a stationary bike for two hours experienced a smaller sympathetic nervous system response due to an upcoming high-pressure presentation compared to those who didn't exercise. Long-term exercise has the same effect. People who exercise regularly also have reduced sensitivity to overall stress, not just the immediate stress following exercise.
Most people who exercise notice that it improves their mood. This evidence might sound like anecdotal, but research supports it by finding that even a single workout-just 10 minutes-can improve overall mood if it's more intense than usual. It not only acts as an instant boost but also changes your mood. For example, after a 10-week exercise program, people experienced a general decrease in anxiety, not just after exercise. The same applies to those with chronic anxiety or panic disorder. Exercise has also been proven to be an effective treatment for mild to severe depression and to alleviate depressive symptoms in cancer patients who have completed treatment.
Reason 3: Exercise is beneficial for memory and sleep, helping you age gracefully.
Regular aerobic exercise is beneficial for improving long-term cognitive abilities, especially memory and executive function; even a single workout can have a small boost to memory. A single workout also has an immediate effect on creativity. In a series of studies, students came up with more creative puzzle-solving methods while walking-whether outdoors or on a treadmill-than when standing still.
Regular exercise can also improve sleep quality, as long as it is done in the morning rather than at night. After just four months of regular moderate-intensity exercise, older adults who were accustomed to sitting were generally able to fall asleep faster and have better sleep quality than their sedentary peers.
The benefits of exercise are particularly pronounced for older adults, even those who have historically been sedentary. In terms of preventing chronic diseases, depression, disability, and memory loss, starting exercise relatively late in life can help you be healthier as you age. As we age, muscle mass and strength begin to decline, but strength training can reverse this trend. Similarly, exercise can help prevent the cognitive decline that occurs with aging-memory and executive functions.
The vast majority of people don't get enough exercise.
To improve health through exercise, the U.S. government recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity-or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity-aerobic exercise per week, combined with two muscle-strengthening sessions. Moderate-intensity exercise means raising your heart rate to 64%–76% of your minimum heart rate (partially based on age and weight). This is higher than people realize, so a heart rate monitor is necessary to ensure adequate intensity. You can divide the 150 minutes into 30-minute blocks five days a week, or into more manageable 10-minute blocks if you prefer. The effect is the same. We've converted a treadmill in the lab into a table so you can use it while walking or jogging. It's too bumpy for writing, but perfect for reading, allowing for two bursts of 10-minute workouts during a busy day.
In the 1950s (and before), we didn't even need to think about squeezing in time for intense workouts every day, because physical activity was already more abundant then, even without effort. Technology is great, but it has also made our lives far too easy. We drive instead of walking, throw clothes into washing machines and dryers instead of hand-washing and hanging them out to dry, and accomplish much work without leaving our desks. Compared to the 1950s, we accomplish twice as much work with minimal physical activity, and jobs that never required much physical activity, like mine, have become even less demanding. During my graduate studies, if I wanted to read journal articles, I would often walk across campus to the library and carry heavy books down from the shelves. Now, a simple click of the mouse is all it takes to read the articles I want.
We've reduced our daily physical activity, but we haven't compensated by increasing our exercise during our leisure time. In a national representative survey in the 1980s, only 19% of women and 11% of men claimed they didn't exercise during their leisure time, but by 2010, that number had risen to 52% for women and 43% for men.