Make sure you exercise your mental health- how fitness can improve your well-being.

19 May 2020

One of the main reasons we know exercise benefits our body is we can see it, if you train hard and eat right, you’ll be stronger, feel better in your clothes and look more toned. But what about the things we can’t see? Like our mental health and wellbeing? Just because it’s not visibly changing doesn’t mean that exercise doesn’t benefit this too.

Although we’ve entered the new decade with a much better attitude towards mental health, there’s still some stigma in particular around male mental health. This stigma tends to focus on the notion that males have a greater difficulty talking about emotional subjects, and struggling admitting that they may need help, this notion is then backed up by numerous everyday sayings such as ‘man up’ and ‘be more of a man’ etc. Then there’s the quite frankly shocking statistics, that include things like suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45.

With any mental health issues, communication and coping strategies are key, it’s important to not only talk about our problems but find solutions and mechanisms that allow us to cope with them. It’s been widely proven that exercise can help improve a whole host of issues such as anxiety, depression, and stress. In our current climate of social media addiction, major cases of FOMO and the constant pressure to be perfect it’s very easy to have those unwanted, negative thoughts creeping in, but being active gives your brain something else to focus on and distracts your mind away from a downward spiralling thought process.

We’ve put together some top tips to help integrate fitness into your life:

Hit the great outdoors

Depression is often linked to a less stimulating lifestyle, so instead of spending an evening in binge-watching your favourite Netflix shows on the sofa, try going outside for a brisk walk or even take up jogging with a helpful app like couch to 5k. Did you know that just 20 minutes of cardio can improve your mood for up to 12 hours afterwards?

Hire a personal trainer

Getting into fitness can be a daunting task, especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. Using a personal trainer will make sure you go at your own pace, always have some added support and reduce the risk of injury. It’s also another way to combat those negative thoughts by focusing on dialogue as well as exercise.

Grab some weights

Unlike cardio weight training can often take a lot more concentration and focus. Lifting weights, no matter how big or small is a great technique for anyone whose mind is prone to wandering when doing cardio. Also, strength training is especially good at helping the symptoms of depression such as low moods.

Here at PT Academy, we truly believe that exercise is integral in the fight against mental health, and no matter your skill or fitness level adding some element of fitness in your life will be beneficial to both your physical and mental health.