Can you treat Anxiety with Exercise?

Learn how more exercise can lower your anxiety.

For many people, the moment they start to realize they are suffering from anxiety, treatment becomes the immediate thought to pursue. you may go to a doctor to seek medications. you may think about a therapist. You may go for natural approach and use herbal remedies.

But what you may not know is that there’s a method of managing anxiety as powerful as most medicines. its not only side effect free_ it makes you healthier. its so easy to do that yoy only need some space, maybe some new shoes, and comfortable clothing.

What we don't always realize about daily exercise is that it alone can be good enough to reduce our anxiety tremendously. There's enough evidence out there to agree that anxiety and exercise share a deep and loving relationship. one that could tip the scales towards living an anxiety_free life.

Anxiety disorders can have profoundly debilitating consequences, particularly with how we function and the state of our well being. They can cooccur with other mental health disorders, such as depression, and people with them tend to be at an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease and early death.

There's a good chance that you know someone with severe anxiety. One in five (over 18) and one in three teenagers (13 to 18) reported suffering from chronic anxiety in 2019. moreover, the national college health association found that 64% of students felt tremendous anxiety during their freshman year in 2018.

The toll of anxiety can be high, especially after moments like the pandemic, when the world was largely shut off from close social interactions. People with anxiety tend to be more sedentary and do less intense physical activity which exacerbates the issue. And you will find that there's a clear association with obesity and anxiety disorders, meaning its likely that someone can find themselves struggling with weight loss or weight gain on top of their mental health issues.

It start with inactivity

The relationship between anxiety and exercise begins with what we don't do.as i mentioned, there's a strong link between a lack of physical activity and the development of anxiety disorders. Its not entirely clear, but many of the proposed causes of this include:

Unused energy: Your body needs to move, and unfortunately, when it doesnt move, you hold onto tension. we see this with dogs tthat dont get their daily walks they often become anxious and high strung because if they dont work out their energy, that energy turns into physical tension, and then into mental tension.

increase stress hormone: cortisol is a hormone you produce when stressed. Movement deplets cortisol, and it makes sense because anxiety activates our fight or flight system. when the body experiences it, it eexperts us to make a decision. But inactively is like doing nothing and causing your body to start misfiring stress and anxiety signals.

immune system problem: exercise regulates our immune system, as well as maintaining a healthy hormone balance. Inactivity tends to prevent these things from happening.

those who are often inactive also enjoy fewer experiences, even though specific positive experiences are good for them. People who dont try to improve their anxiety also slowly develop minor problems that create stress on their own which puts them in a vicious cycle.

Exercise as anxiety management

Inactivity doesn't cause anxiety for everyone. some people are naturally prone to anxiety, while others have had experiences that shaped their anxiety. but whether inaction has caused your anxiety or not, exercise on its own is still one of the best ways to manage it.

managing anxiety involves having behaviors and responses that oppose it, and exercise is a net positive cure. studies propose the following:

Releases “ Relaxation”

Neurotransmitter: exercise offers similar benefits to artificial anxiety medications. it releases endorphins in your brain, which are your body's natural painkillers. they are usually released to prevent exercise from causing pain, but they also help regulate your mood and relax your mind.

Improves sleep: Exercise is a fantastic way to improve your sleep quality. It tires the body, which makes it easier to sleep — even with anxiety. Sleep is crucial for anxiety management; people with anxiety disorders often find it hard to sleep. And so, the ability to exercise to improve sleep is incredibly valuable.

Exercise keeps your body healthy, and it improves the way you see yourself. Lots of people are unhappy with how they look, but few do anything about it. Good health keeps you running more efficiently while preventing that “misfiring” that can cause persistent anxiety.

What Exercises Will Improve Your Anxiety?

regular exercise can sound so scary to people that they immediately zone out when they hear it. when they hear it. One excuse I often heard to not exercising was “I don’t want to be a bodybuilder”, which already shows you how off-balance people’s perception of exercise can be.

When you don’t exercise, picking it up as a hobby can be very hard. Exercise is always a hard before it gets easy, type of thing. Your body needs to get used to heavy breathing and exertion, and within a few weeks, it usually does. But it’s undeniable that exercise can feel brutal in the beginning.

Good news: you don’t need to exercise intensely. You simply need to get out and moving!

It’s always better to ramp your way up to more intense exercises; it’ll make you fitter. And for some of the benefits of exercise on your anxiety, you need to go as intensely as possible. But the most important thing is that you can get up and move. The feeling of playing some basketball or going for a once-a-day bike ride is unbelievable. You can quickly see a difference without any added intensity.

To break into it:

• Stretch: Don’t sit around for long periods. Every 15 minutes, stand up and stretch. Make sure that you’re never letting your blood settle for too long, and your muscles freeze.
• Walk everywhere: A prefecture in Japan eradicated its unusually high stroke rate by incentivising its people to walk more. The movement of your entire body is revitalising, and when your body moves, it is exercising. Try to walk to places when you can instead of driving or getting someone to deliver goods to you.
• Get a bike: I’m a cyclist, so I’ll have an extreme bias on this one. But I’ve seen so many amazing stories of people who lost weight simply from cycling to places where they would usually get a car.
• Play Relaxed Sports: The concept of “working out” gives many people the wrong impression. Focus on finding a sport you love instead, and it will never feel like tedious work. Try bowling, badminton, baseball, basketball, football or dancing. If it’s a sport, it will get your blood going and reduce anxiety.

Moving is moving. You don’t need any special gear or fancy programmes to get into the best shape of your life. If you’re consistently working your body and making it more robust, you’ll feel confident and reduce your overall anxiety as a result.

This may sound like an excuse to get you exercising. It may sound like a pipe dream. It’s neither of those things. Exercise is a too-good-to-be-true cure that is very real. If you want to make a big difference in handling anxiety and stress, exercise is always the permanent solution.