Why Exercise Is Good For Your Mental Health

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Regular exercise is good for physical health. It helps with weight, it strengthens muscles and joints, and it lowers the risk of a long list of conditions. What gets far less attention is what a good session does to how you feel afterwards.

Modern life does not help. There is constant pressure to keep up, and constant evidence, most of it carefully curated, that everyone else is managing fine. It is no wonder the voice in your head gets loud and unkind when things do not go to plan. We are our own worst critics. Exercise is one of the more reliable ways of quietening that voice, and there is good science behind it. Here are some of the ways it helps.

An endorphin release

During exercise the body releases chemicals called endorphins. They create a positive feeling through the body when they interact with the brain, and they can reduce the perception of pain, which is why their effect has sometimes been likened to morphine. It is about as close to a natural stress reliever as there is, and it is available to anyone who moves.

More energy

When mental health is poor, the simplest tasks feel monumental, largely because the energy is missing. A low mood means low activity, and low activity leaves you with less energy still. Breaking that loop does not take much. A gentle walk is often enough to lift natural energy levels, and it makes the next thing slightly easier.

A sense of achievement

Finishing a workout, particularly one you had to push through, feels good for a reason. Working up a sweat and hitting a goal you set yourself is a genuine achievement. If you have been feeling low or anxious, a small goal met can feel considerably bigger than it looks from the outside, and self esteem follows it.

Better sleep

Not getting enough sleep makes everything worse, and it leaves you irritable and run down. Conditions such as anxiety and PTSD often bring racing thoughts and traumatic flashbacks, which make switching off close to impossible. Exercise helps by using up energy that would otherwise keep you awake. Meditation and mindfulness techniques work well alongside it for easing a busy mind into a quieter place.

Something to focus on

A goal gives the mind something to aim at. A lot of mental health conditions fog concentration and make it hard to hold on to anything. A training plan with clear, modest goals puts some structure into the week and offers some distraction from whatever else is going on, for at least part of the day.

What this means if you work with clients

Body and mind are connected closely enough that some people argue we should stop separating physical health and mental health and simply talk about health. For anyone working in fitness, that has a practical consequence. Clients bring their mental health into the gym whether or not it is ever mentioned, and a trainer is often one of very few people who sees them regularly and consistently.

That is not a licence to counsel anybody. It is a reason to know what to say, what not to say, and when to refer. Create runs a Mental Health Awareness course for personal trainers, covering what mental health is, how it changes, how common poor mental health is, and how to reduce stigma and discrimination. It also covers the basic skills of mental health first aid, so you can respond appropriately when someone is experiencing a crisis. It is completed entirely online, and it sits alongside the rest of the CPD range.