Proper exercise can effectively reduce and prevent anxiety and depression. The benefits of exercise are well known, and exercise can improve anxiety and depression to some extent. So sharing proper exercise with everyone can effectively reduce and prevent anxiety and depression.

Proper exercise can effectively reduce and prevent anxiety and depression. 1 Anxiety is an emotion we often have. In the face of anxiety, we can choose many ways to relieve it. We can relieve anxiety by entertainment, talking with family and friends, and consulting psychologists. Besides, exercise is also a very effective way.

Proper exercise helps to prevent and improve many health problems, including hypertension, diabetes and arthritis. Recent studies on depression, anxiety and exercise show that exercise can also help to improve mood and reduce anxiety, and help to prevent the recurrence of depression and anxiety.

During exercise, our bodies release natural brain chemicals such as endorphins and endogenous ephedrine, which help to relieve stress and increase pleasure. When we exercise outdoors, we will also get more social activities, which is more conducive to relaxing. Some people try to reduce stress by drinking and smoking, which will aggravate their symptoms.

Structured exercise plan is not the only choice to relieve anxiety. Some studies show that simple walking or exercise can relieve anxiety. For busy office workers, you can take the stairs and ride a bike to work to exercise.

Of course, if you do some planned and structured physical exercise, your activity level will be improved and your symptoms will be alleviated. It is suggested that exercising for three to five days a week and more than 30 minutes a day can significantly improve the symptoms of depression or anxiety.

What exercises are more conducive to improving anxiety?

1. Operation

Running is a kind of exercise that can help reduce anxiety and depression, and it is also the most common form of exercise in our daily life. We can choose jogging when running. Aerobic exercise is more helpful to relieve anxiety. Before running, we need to pay attention to some preparatory activities to prevent sports injuries.

2. Yoga

Yoga is a very popular way of exercise in recent years, which can combine exercise with breathing control. We can choose to practice yoga at home or go to some yoga studios or gyms. Yoga in a group environment may be more effective.

swim

Swimming is one of the best aerobic exercises and one of the ways to fight depression and anxiety. Especially in hot summer, swimming is an excellent choice. When swimming, our breath will be deeper, and all our muscles can participate in sports, which is also an advantage of swimming compared with other sports. Swimming can also help us maintain good flexibility without damaging our bones and joints.

dance

Dancing is also a form of exercise suitable for all ages. Compared with running, walking and other sports, dancing is more interesting. Dancing is often accompanied by some music, and music can also help us reduce anxiety and pleasure. There are many forms of dance, and we can choose one that we like or are good at.

In addition to the exercise described above, there are many ways to exercise to help us relieve anxiety. The most important thing is that many anxious people are unwilling to exercise and often sit or lie in a closed space for a long time, which is not conducive to the relief of anxiety. We should go out, breathe fresh air and do some favorite sports to help our body and mind recover.

Proper exercise can effectively reduce and prevent anxiety and depression. Why does exercise help to improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression?

The professor explained: "Under normal circumstances, exercise affects neurotransmitters and several other biochemical reactions related to anxiety, depression, stress response, mood and cognitive flexibility." Please note that he said "under normal circumstances", but in the social environment of COVID-19 epidemic, such "under normal circumstances" is very rare.

The professor provided this explanation to help us conceptualize how exercise can fight depression:

Generally speaking, depression is not only related to your cognitive and emotional state, but also related to your physiological nervous system. Physical activity is usually about activation and exercise, and exercise can control and relieve depression by promoting the overall sense of physical balance of metabolism, cardiovascular system, body and spirit. Physical activity is indeed effective for some core symptoms of depression (for example, mental and physical activity slows down).

It makes sense to look at it this way. Exercise more or less offsets the "slowness and heaviness" of depression.

He made three points about anxiety:

1. If carried out in a healthy way, physical exercise can promote "sense of accomplishment, self-efficacy and positive self-evaluation".

2. From the physiological point of view, exercise can directly affect the nervous system and distract attention from the environmental stimuli that cause anxiety to regulate emotions.

3. Exercise can encourage "deeper breathing, improve metabolism and improve physical fitness".

Is there any evidence that exercise helps to cope with depression and anxiety?

Science is constantly developing, but so far, there is enough evidence that exercise helps to improve depression and anxiety. The professor said that many studies have concluded that exercise is as effective as antidepressants.

How much exercise and what kind of exercise do you usually need to improve anxiety and depression?

The professor said that you don't need to do exercise every day, but you should do exercise at least 4-5 days a week, with a maximum of 20-30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise at a time.

But he also said: "It doesn't take much to have a big impact. Many people mistakenly believe that exercise must be high-intensity interval training ("HIIT") exercise, or other forms of exercise. In fact, these are not necessarily correct. The specific exercise methods vary from person to person, depending on personal circumstances and preferences. The most important thing is that you have to move and stick to it. "

Walk more and sit less; When going out, stop and smell the flowers and trees; Do some conscious exercise, such as yoga or Tai Ji Chuan, ride a bike, take care of the garden and so on. "As long as we insist on exercise and limit the' convenience' that leads to sedentary behavior in modern society, we can get enough exercise."

As you can see, even gentle and irregular exercise is very important because it makes you "move". This applies to all of us and is beneficial to our physical and mental health and overall state.

Like anything that might help, exercise has risks.

Exercise may be helpful to mental health in several aspects.

1. At present, many people have "appearance and physical anxiety". These people focus on losing weight and shaping goals through exercise. Although it does make their bodies better, it may make them pay attention to the results and drown out the benefits they get from exercise.

2. Exercise should be supported by nutrition, and rest and recovery are an important part of any daily exercise. Physical activity increases anxiety when exercise exceeds energy supply or is carried out in an unsafe way.

3. Exercise exists in a continuum. Most people can stay active without side effects. However, for some people who are easily influenced by it, sports dependence or addiction may occur, which may lead to other problems, such as burnout, overuse injury, emotional problems or eating disorders.

The bottom line about anxiety, depression and physical activity

At present, the epidemic in COVID-19 is recurring, and no one can predict when it will end. Due to various internal and external reasons, we are still in an era of high emotions, including extra fear and sadness. The good news is that all of us can easily get affordable and reasonable assistance: exercise.

If you want to get some relief and comfort from emotional anxiety, you may benefit from finding satisfactory exercise. Maybe it makes you feel good, brings you a sense of accomplishment, provides you with social opportunities, or gives you some other personal advantages. If you are satisfied with what you are doing, you are likely to stick to it.

Please don't worry about what is the best way to exercise, because there is no "best" way to exercise. Anyone who tells you what to do or why their exercise method is the best is usually selling something.

Exercise can be an effective antidote to depression, a form of anxiety management and a typical and reliable method to promote mental health. After the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, due to containment and prevention, physical exercise is usually restricted, reduced or non-existent. Nevertheless, we should try our best to overcome the difficulties brought by the real environment and try various feasible exercise methods to promote, improve and maintain our physical and mental health.

Proper exercise can effectively reduce and prevent anxiety and depression. Anxiety patients are very common in our life. At present, there are many patients with anxiety disorder, so many people attach great importance to methods to alleviate the disease. Experts tell us that proper exercise can effectively avoid anxiety, so we should also strengthen exercise.

The so-called aerobic exercise refers to some exercises with low intensity, moderate amount of exercise, fast heart rate and comfortable sweating after exercise. The most common events, such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, playing badminton, gateball, aerobics, radio exercises, Tai Ji Chuan, dancing, etc.

Most of these fitness exercises do not need special sports equipment and venues, and are suitable for all walks of life, especially the elderly. Generally speaking, anxiety and tension are often accompanied by work, study, thinking and living in a competitive environment.

If you can take some time out of these nervousness to take part in fitness exercises, you will relax, change your mood and comfort your mind. In particular, participating in group fitness exercises, through talking and cooperating with others, will often give people an invisible comfort and feel relaxed and happy, thus reducing anxiety and enhancing self-confidence.

Proper exercise can effectively avoid anxiety, but anxiety is not an easily controlled disease. If you have this disease, patients should also face it positively. Anxiety is very harmful, so patients should not miss the best treatment time, let alone aggravate their illness because of their negligence.