How Exercise Reduces Stress
Research proves that regular exercise can offer many psychological and physiological benefits. Feeling psychologically (mentally) good makes life a lot more enjoyable. A bad day at work, an argument with your partner, financial issues etc. can all lead to increased levels of stress.
Stress can be defined as ‘an imbalance in physiological systems that activates psychological and behavioural responses to restore balance.’
All people experience different levels of stress in everyday life and it depends entirely on the person how well they are at dealing with the stress.
Constant high levels of stress can be linked with depression … obviously something we all would like to avoid, but is more common that you may think!
So how can we reduce these levels of stress … Yep you guessed it EXERCISE!!!
Stress relief exercises get rid of the pent up energy that the stress response can create.
With some types of exercise you can release your body’s feel good chemicals, increasing your happiness levels, muscle relaxing exercises and deep breathing exercises can help lower levels of stress.
The best exercise for de-stressing is actually something I have given lots of stick in the past – slow (boring) cardio! Slow cardio may not be the best for fat loss but for stress relief, it is the best solution.
So how does exercise reduce stress?
- Relaxes the muscles
- Pumps more oxygen and nutrients around the body
- Utilizes the stress hormones
- Uses fat and cholesterol
- Reduces pent up frustration
- Take your mind off problems
- Improve appearance
- Provide social support
- Reduce the impact of illness
- Improve your resilience to stress
Another reason why exercise can benefit your life in a positive way. Get yourself active before its too late, something light to start.
If you have experienced a massive de-stress effect after starting a new exercise routine please share it with us, comment about today’s article below.
If there is any way we can help you, just let us know, we offer private one-one training plus group exercise programmes across Swansea.
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