The Benefits Of Exercise To Your Mental Health
Exercise is good for your mental health. I don’t mean to be cheeky as I know you know that already. Still, even with decades of evidence showing its benefit, it is still considered a “complementary alternative” treatment.
I think that needs to change.
It should actually be part of mainstay treatment. Especially considering that it performs as well or slightly better than medication or counseling.
In today’s post, my intention is to walk you through what we know when we try to gather up every pertinent study that has been done and draw some conclusions.
We may even get into the weeds a bit.
Which is why, I want to be very clear from the beginning about the big idea here:
EXERCISE IS GOOD NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT.
My second intention is to share some exercise resources. Even though we know exercise is likely best executed in a group and/or with supervision, this isn’t always practical or available.
And since we’ve agreed exercise is good, I want to share my experience with a variety of apps and resources to help you move what your momma gave you.
How Does Exercise Benefit Your Mental Health?
As mentioned before, exercise helps improve symptoms in both anxiety and depression. Of 72 groups of studies looking at physical activity and depression, the vast majority found benefit. Similar results were true for anxiety across 28 different meta analyses.
Where things may get more interesting is what the researchers learned in regard to type and intensity. Overall exercise was most effective for the following groups:
People with depression
Pregnant and postpartum women
Apparently healthy individuals
Those with HIV or kidney disease
You might be wondering if all different types of exercises are equal?
The short answer is yes, although there is some nuance.
All different modes of physical activity, including aerobic, resistance, mixed mode and yoga were beneficial. However, and perhaps not surprisingly, resistance training had the largest effect on depression while yoga and mind body movement were most effective in anxiety.
Interestingly, there was also greater improvement in moderate and high intensity movement when compared to low intensity.
The researchers thought exercise likely helps mood by lowering inflammation, helping with neurotransmitters and tonifying the nervous system and low intensity activity might not be sufficient to stimulate the hormonal or neurological pathways that show benefit.
In summary, while walking and gentler movements are good, it might be more beneficial to add slightly more vigorous movement. Examples could be HIIT, dancing, adding a jog interval, or tennis.
And if you’re experiencing anxiety, adding in yoga or a mind body activity like tai chi is a good idea.
What’s The “Best” Way To Exercise
Let’s be clear, the “best” way to exercise is the exercise that you’ll do consistently over a long period of time. From an evidence perspective, people are most successful with supervision and/or group support.
That holds true across many different conditions from osteoporosis to anxiety, for example.
On the one hand, a trainer or guided supervision can monitor form and technique. On the other hand, a group setting or trainer can challenge you to keep progressing and take on more weight, more reps or more endurance.
I think the above is especially true if you don’t consider yourself an athlete or haven’t had any formal training in weight lifting, for example.
It can be incredibly beneficial to get the support of a professional; even as a jump start to avoid injury and know proper form.
Or if you’re rehabbing or have special accommodations like an injury, areas of asymmetry or a musculoskeletal concern like osteoporosis or sarcopenia.
But all exercise, done safely, is good exercise!
Online apps and programs
As you might sense, I find exercise crucial to mental health, that includes my own! Now, don’t get me wrong.
Some days it sucks.
And other days, I would much rather skip it.
But I always feel better afterwards. Always.
I also have the privilege of working with women at all different comfort levels when it comes to physical activity. From athletes, to those intimidated by the gym, to those recovering from surgery.
All of this has led me to try quite a few online apps and programs in an effort to gather resources to support exercise prescriptions in my clinical practice.
So, below you’ll find an honest review of four different apps/programs: I’ll review how I use that particular app, for whom I think it’d be the best fit and any drawbacks.
(ps: none of the links below are affiliates. Just my opinion).
Glo
This is probably the oldest app on my phone and the one I have used the longest. It has a wide variety of yoga classes and styles. You can filter by style, duration, teacher, etc and I find it super user friendly. I think it’s likely the best yoga app out there. You can also download classes which can be helpful for travel with spotty wi-fi.
Over time, they’ve added pilates and more vigorous workouts. I tried some during lockdown and found that I much preferred this app for yoga. The workouts were pretty boring in my opinion and you’ll see I think there are much better vigorous workout apps below.
Pricing: $30/month or $245 billed annually
Best for: anyone wanting a reliable, easy to use on demand yoga resource who might also like guided meditation.
Nike Training Club
Another OG in my collection. I use the Nike training app mostly when I travel as the workouts are short and you can adapt them easily to a hotel gym or greenspace. They do have longer workouts and a variety of choices that also include weights. I especially enjoy that you can play your own music from your music streaming service.
My drawback for this one is that I don’t think it’s quite beginner friendly. If you’ve had some weight training experience or feel comfortable with some basics like squats, lunges, etc, you’ll likely be fine. But if you’re interested in getting started, I don’t think there’s enough instruction to do it safely.
Pricing: free
Best for: people who like more intense workouts and have previous fitness experience. Also, for those with enough equipment at home to progress up in weights or extras like kettlebells or medicine balls.
Barre3
Barre3 combines cardio, strength and mindfulness. Sort of like if lunges and squats met yoga. The thing I appreciate immensely about Barre3 is that there is almost always a second person offering modifications.
And there’s an emphasis on those modifications not being less than, but just that. A way to modify to better meet your body’s needs.
They are also more representative of a broad range of body types which is refreshing. I think Barre3 is a great place to start for resistance training that feels achievable and at low-moderate weights.
Pricing: $24.99/month (they usually have great black friday or holiday deals and you can get an annual subscription at a great price)
Best for: women who don’t like “bro” workouts and want to start resistance training that is simple and straightforward.
Pvolve
I’ve been doing Pvolve since August and there’s something quite compelling about putting exercise at the center of women’s health versus just beauty or body image.
They have programs for menopause and endometriosis, for example and you’ll hear them reiterate again and again that women lose bone density as they age and that’s why you’re lifting,or jumping or squatting. Amen!
Their programs also have an emphasis on progressive weight training and lifting heavier weights.
The cardio workouts could be more aerobic-focused and there’s a slight insinuation that you have to be careful around cardio in mid-life because of the stress component. This doesn’t quite stack up in the scientific literature as we see benefits to high intensity cardio in peri and postmenopausal women on heart and metabolic health. Nonetheless, the strength component is well worth it in my opinion and they do have some fun interval workouts in the menopause program.
I have enjoyed and seen benefits with Pvolve.
My drawback would be around equipment. They offer a ball, bands and mats. I have some of them, but find I tend to use 2-12 lbs weights mostly and could likely do without the extra bells and whistles.
Pricing: streaming is $14.99 and bundles with equipment start at $170. I’d recommend starting with streaming if you have hand held weights and see if you really need/want the equipment.
Best for: women who enjoy a good sweat and challenge and also want to be proactive about maintaining muscle tone and bone density and like functional, slower, technique focused instruction.
Book Your Appointment With Wild Lemon Health Today
Are you uncertain how to fit exercise into your life? If so, I’m Dr. Antonella Aguilera-Ruiz, ND, and I’m here to help.
Together, we’ll put together a plan that includes optimizing your nutrition, exercise, and sleep to help you feel your best. Get started by booking a free discovery call below.
