At least once a day, a client will say how good he or she feels after a workout at LIV Fitness in Dublin, CA. While it would be nice to say it only happens here, it wouldn’t be true. There are a number of reasons people feel renewed and relaxed after they workout, no matter where they workout. One of those is that fitness helps your mental health. It burns off the hormones of stress and replaces them with ones that make you feel at ease.
Therapists often use exercise as an adjuvant therapy.
Whether it’s called adjuvant, adjunct or complementary therapy, exercise is often recommended to help improve the outcome of mental health therapy. In fact, many studies show that it works as well as many medications, but doesn’t have the side effects medication has. Exercise helps boost the hormones that make you feel good and improves circulation to get nutrition and oxygen to all cells of the body, including the brain. Studies show moderate exercise is effective treatment for anxiety and depression when done three to four times a week.
You’ll improve your confidence and even look more confident.
Exercise improves your posture, which makes you look more confident. When you look more confident, people treat you as though you are more confident and you actually begin to feel that way. It’s the Pygmalion effect, also known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. Try this simple experiment. Stand in front of a mirror and slump. Do you look and feel defeated? Now stand up straight, head held high. Most people automatically smile a bit. It makes you feel and look stronger. Exercise helps improve your posture and by doing that, improves your mood.
You’ll sleep better when you exercise regularly.
Too many Americans are proud of the fact that they don’t get all the sleep they need to function their best. Lack of quality sleep can cause problems. It can disrupt the balance of hormones that make you feel full and the ones that make you feel hungry, by reducing the satiety hormones and boosting the hunger hormones. That’s not all lack of sleep does. It interferes with your brain functioning, so your thought processes aren’t nearly as fast or clear. Exercise improves the quantity and quality of sleep.
- You’ll boost your brain power, including your memory. Studies show that endurance training can help build new brain cells and improves memory. It’s one reason several scientific studies point to exercise for treatment of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
- Not only does working out improve circulation, but it also boosts the production of neurohormones which improve both cognitive functioning and mood.
- When you exercise, you build your strength. Feeling strong is important to your confidence and feeling of well-being. You feel more able to handle the problems you face, whether physical or mental.
- We’re open 24/7, so you can exercise when it’s convenient and when you need it. If you’ve had a high stress, mentally challenging day, working out, no matter what time it is, can help.
For more information, contact us today at LIV Fitness 247