The effects of exercise and Endorphins on our mental health.
As we all know, being active is more than just getting out and about. Whether your active for fitness, fun, or competitively the benefits of exercise are physically and mentally positive. The fresh air, the satisfaction of progress but also the overcoming of setbacks, all makes us stronger individuals and bringing people together. So whether you cycle, run, walk or take the dog to the park, this is a delve into what Endorphins are and how they can help you day to day and boost your mental health.
It’s not all positive though, the competitiveness can be too much, easy to slip into a negative mindset of not hitting those goals or generally being on a bad day.
However, this moment of negativity is not at the stage of being in a poor mental state, it shows the desire to be a better us and to improve ourselves. This is something I have experienced a lot in the last year or so. With my life changing so much in the last year, it has been a huge focus on training, nutrition, and recovery and that has affected positively and negatively on mental health.
Exercising boosts your brains good neurotransmitters, also known as endorphins. This ‘feel good’ hormone helps to reduce anxiety and stress and this can be built up from work. life or just general day to day stress and it is unavoidable. Something in the day will bring weight onto your mental strain and that is where being active really takes over as a release and coping mechanism. Exercise will benefit you without you even knowing it is, from giving you fresh air to being a distraction. It can be naturally realising stress strain whilst you are doing basic exercise like walking.
Endorphins – Our bodies create endorphins, Endorphins are present during pleasure stimulants such as exercise, social interactions , laughter, love, sex and even can be boosted by some foods and they are a part of pain and stress management.
High Endorphin levels can also help to support with:
Reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety and Depression
Improving mood and boosting self esteem
Promote immune symptoms health and regulate appetite
Low Endorphin levels can lead to:
Unintentional weight loss, addiction and trouble sleeping
Body aches and pains
Moodiness and anxiety/depression.
How to boost your Endorphin levels?
The big one and the main topic of this post, is exercise. As little as 30-45 minutes of moderate exercise like walking or cycling can give you and your body that boost to get you though day by day.
Being in touch with your sense of humour. We all have different senses of humour but laughter is a great way to get your body to produce endorphins. I’m not saying walk round fake laughing, but genuinely finding something that makes you chuckle and having daily doses of that can be a great help. “Laughter is the lubricant that makes life liveable!”
Foods. Yes, some food like dark chocolate are known to boost Endorphin levels, especially really strong cocoa content chocolate like 70% or more.
Racing or intrusive thoughts – I don’t mean racing as in bike racing, but the intrusive thoughts such as causing or thinking about causing harm, thoughts about self-doubt or bringing yourself down, thoughts of being embarrassed, or that feeling of doing something wrong all the time and not being good enough. These are all signs of mental negligence and it is a lot harder to escape than it sounds. Taking the steps to release these thoughts are is a big one and for some people it’s easier than others. For some people finding a hobby or being active is enough and that is a great way to cope. For others, it is a case of seeking guidance from professionals. For some people, like myself, it is both. The last 9 months I have completely put focus into cycling and it has been a huge turning point for me, but not enough on its own. Companies like TalkWorks and NHS Mental Health support are a great starting point and having someone you can talk to who doesn’t know you or your life is something that has more impact than you would realize. But taking that leap isn’t easy and you can feel like that is you failing or being weak but it really isn’t, it takes a stronger person to admit to wanting or needing help.
The boost in endorphins is addictive, that “runner” high is something that can put you in the hurt locker during the activities but when you finish and you hit a PB or you complete a challenge you have set yourself, the pain goes and you are left with the high of progress or success. And this is where it can be a negative because at some point you will plateau, the PBs will stop or slow down and there will be days when the pain gets too much, and you give up. But this shouldn’t be seen as a failure, this should be seen as a starting point for the next chapter in your training or if you are a hobby exerciser then you should see this as just a bad day and we all have them. As Sylvester Stallone said in Rocky “It’s not about how hard you can get hit, it’s about how hard you can be hit and keep getting back up”. And how you bounce back from these down days is what makes us stronger. This also applies to mental well-being, there will be days or times when you are down and out, but that is a bad day, not a bad life. The dark times will always get light, but the light times will always get darker, it’s about finding a balance and a healthy way to cope with the down days and embrace the good days.
No matter how bad a day has been or how in the dark you feel, a simple walk or cycle can make all that disappear. You don’t have to do what I do and go out for a 7 hour ride, it can be as simple as going for a walk to the park or with the dog, go for a hour ride or commute to work by bike as that gives you time after work to unwind and by the time you are home you are naturally more relaxed.
Exercise will not solve all the problems. It will not make you the happiest person in the world 24/7. But I can guarantee you that after 5 minutes of any sort of exercise, even if it is only temporary, the self-doubt, the stress, and the mental strain of the day will fade and disappear, and 80% of the time it will all be forgotten. Not the mention the social side, getting out and about with people and having a chat about something other than your day or just to be a distraction, and people around people is a great and pressure-free way to improve, riding with other people makes you push yourself and each other, ride new roads and with new people.
So whether you ride for fun, run for being fit, or just do it to kill time or as a mental release, the simple aspect of being outdoors is only ever going to be a positive. But if you can try to involve others, bring people together and help each other, sometime we need the alone time but sometimes being in great company is all we need.
