Aerobic Exercise Can Help Mental Health

Ask anyone how they keep themselves physically fit and you will hear them mention an activity of their choice. Some like to jog early in the morning, some go swimming while some prefer aerobic exercises. However, what does one do to improve one’s mental health and how does one keep one’s mind fit? Well, the answer remains surprisingly the same – you can use aerobic exercises to improve your mental health as well.
It is no secret that regular workouts and physical exercise help a person stay healthy and fit. However, you may not have thought that the very same exercises could also improve your mental health. Well, studies have shown that aerobic exercises in particular, if performed by a person for just half an hour, on every alternate day can have a highly positive effect on that person’s mental well-being.

Two of the most common mental disorders that affect people are anxiety and depression. Usually, mental disorders are treated by a combination of medication and therapy. Not many are told or believe that physical exercise can help people with these conditions to a very great extent. But mental health experts do believe that physical exercise can aid whatever form of treatment is being used to relieve the person of the symptoms of both depression and anxiety. In fact, aerobic exercises can speed up the healing process and people performing regular aerobic exercises are found to experience tremendous improvements in their mental health.

Depression is believed to be the number one mental disorder affecting millions of people all over the world. As the population of the world increases and as the daily turmoil of life takes its toll, more and more people are being affected by this mental disorder everyday. Of course, the most common form of treatment is to prescribe medications. But medications come with their own side-effects that can be quite severe at times. In fact, some people fail to realize that they are suffering from some side-effects till it is too late. Aerobic exercises have no harmful side-effects – on the other hand, they will help you reduce your weight, tone your muscles and at the same time, help cure you of your depression.

Anxiety is another very common problem afflicting people. Through aerobic exercises, people can relieve their anxiety to a great extent. In fact, studies, which observe the anxiety levels in people before and after they exercies, find that even twenty minutes of aerobic exercises can help in reducing the levels of anxiety and helping a person feel more reassured. Again, aerobic exercises can help without needing any kind of medication or causing damage in any other way.

It is therefore highly advisable that people take up physical exercise, especially aerobic exercises not just to keep themselves physically fit but also mentally strong. This way they can prevent the onset of different kinds of mental health problems or even if they do suffer from any mental disorders, they can always use aerobic exercises to seek some relief.