Exercise for Mental Health

Exercise and physical movement not only maintain your physical health but are essential for maintaining a healthy mind. Regular exercise can help you feel relaxed and refreshed and provide various benefits to optimize your brain health.

Exercise has often been overlooked in mental health treatment. However, it is an essential component of lifestyle modifications crucial for maintaining mental health.

A sedentary lifestyle, lacking in physical movement, can contribute to mental health issues. It can lead to social isolation, negative thought patterns, and feelings of being stuck, exacerbating conditions like stress and anxiety.

At Agentic Mental Health, we incorporate various types of physical activity alongside other lifestyle modifications into our treatment plans.

Connection Between Physical Exercise & Mental Health

The relationship between exercise and mental health is complex. Inactivity can contribute to or be a result of mental illness.

Physical exercise provides many benefits for your body and mental well-being. Improving physical health can be valuable for people with mental health issues.

Several ways in which exercise can benefit your mental health include:

Mood enhancement: Regular, low-impact, and moderate exercise triggers the release of mood-lifting chemicals in your brain, such as endorphins and serotonin. These chemicals help reduce feelings of depression and anxiety.
Better sleep: Regular exercise can enhance the quality of your sleep. Better sleep quality leads to improved mood, increased energy levels, and better overall mental health.
Improved sense of control: Exercise can help improve your sense of control, coping abilities, and self-esteem. Achieving exercise goals, even small ones, can foster a sense of accomplishment and empowerment.
Distraction from negative thoughts: Engaging in physical activity can serve as a distraction from negative thoughts and rumination. It provides an opportunity to engage in new experiences and break the cycle of negative thinking.
Socialization & support: Exercise can facilitate socialization and provide social support, especially when you have company. Group activities like team sports, fitness classes, or even walking with a friend can strengthen social bonds and provide a support network that is crucial for mental health.
Increased energy levels: Regular physical activity can boost your energy levels throughout the day. It enhances cardiovascular health and improves overall stamina, making daily tasks feel less tiring and more manageable.
Outlet for negative thoughts: Exercise can serve as an outlet for frustration and negative thoughts. Physical activity allows you to release pent-up tension and stress, helping you to feel more relaxed and clear-headed afterward.
Reduced muscle tension: Exercise reduces skeletal muscle tension and promotes relaxation. Physical activity helps alleviate muscle stiffness and soreness, which can be caused by stress, leading to an overall feeling of physical and mental relaxation.

Impact of Physical Exercise on the Brain

Physical exercise has numerous positive effects on your body and brain that can help significantly improve your mental health conditions and symptoms.

Increased Blood Circulation to the Brain

Regular exercise can enhance cardiovascular health, thus improving blood circulation to the brain. Even though the brain is only 2% of your body weight, it uses about 20% of the heart's output, making it the most metabolically active organ.

Maintaining a steady cerebral blood flow (CBF) is crucial for normal brain function and metabolic activities. Better blood circulation to the brain ensures that oxygen and essential nutrients are delivered to brain cells.

Studies show that just one week of aerobic and resistance exercise can boost blood flow to the hippocampus, a key area of the brain.

Influence on the HPA Axis

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis is a communication system between the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal gland that plays a key role in stress response.

When you are stressed, the HPA axis stimulates cortisol production and prepares the body for a "fight or flight" response by inducing short-term bodily changes, such as increasing blood flow to muscles, blood glucose levels, and blood pressure.

While short-term stress responses can be beneficial, chronic stress can lead to HPA axis dysfunction. Chronic activation of the HPA axis due to prolonged stress can lead to mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.

Physical exercise can positively impact the HPA axis by modulating its activity and helping in stress management. Different types and intensities of exercise can influence HPA axis activity in various ways.

Regularly performed moderate exercise can help reduce stress and anxiety by regulating your cortisol levels.

Exercises & Mental Health Conditions

Regular exercise can significantly improve various mental health conditions by boosting the level of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, in the brain.

Depression: Exercise, such as a daily 15-minute run or a one-hour walk, can effectively reduce the risk of depression and alleviate existing symptoms. Exercise can function as a distraction that helps you break the cycle of negative thoughts that fuel depression.
Anxiety: Physical activity helps reduce tension and stress and provides anti-anxiety effects. It boosts physical and mental energy and helps interrupt the flow of constant worries running through your head.
Stress: Exercise can help alleviate the worry, discomfort, and tension that accompany stress. Physical activity promotes muscle relaxation, diminishes chest tightness, and addresses other commonly associated symptoms of stress.
ADHD: Regular exercise can help improve concentration, motivation, memory, and overall mood. These benefits contribute to more effective management of ADHD symptoms.
PTSD & Trauma: Focusing on your body during exercise can help your nervous system heal and move on. It can help you break out of the immobilization stress response associated with PTSD or trauma.

How Much Exercise Is Good

While exercise is crucial for mental health, it is important not to push yourself too hard, as this can have negative effects. Moderate to intensive physical activity for at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week can help improve your brain function.

However, a strenuous workout, when already stressed, can increase cortisol levels and backfire. This does not mean ditching vigorous exercise entirely but rather, understanding your limits. Exercise should improve brain health, not add more stress.

The key lies in tailoring your exercise routine to promote, not hinder, mental health. Even low- or moderate-intensity activities, such as walking, stretching, or yoga, can significantly improve your mood and cognitive patterns. You should listen to your body and aim for workouts that make you feel good, not burnt out.

Remember, any movement is better than none. Activities like walking, stretching, yoga, or even housework can benefit your mind and body.

Our Approach to Exercise for Mental Health

At Agentic Mental Health, we recognize the important role physical activity and exercise play in optimizing mental well-being. Our team can work with you to incorporate various exercise and physical activity routines into your personalized treatment plan.

Mental health conditions can make it hard to find motivation for daily tasks, let alone exercise. We take a gradual approach, encouraging you to take small steps to move your body and engage with your surroundings.

We analyze your lifestyle and daily routine and identify aspects that may be impacting your mental health. After that, we collaborate with you to develop strategies and tools to improve your mental health.

This could include:

Recommending the duration and intensity of exercise for you
Encouraging movement through daily chores like grocery shopping, which also provides social interaction
Suggesting volunteer work – a great way to combine exercise with social engagement

Our main focus is to break the cycle of negative thoughts by keeping you focused on your body and creating opportunities for socialization. When you take care of your body, it can boost your confidence and self-esteem, motivating you to keep moving forward.

The goal of our treatment plan is to help you regain your agency, break free from negative thoughts, and take proactive steps to improve and move forward.