Exercise is the Best Way to Manage Your Stress

We are all feeling it. Everyone I know has been affected by this economic crisis and there’s nothing we can do except ride it out. So what’s the best prescription to get you through these ailing times? Exercise! It doesn’t matter why you feel stressed out, there’s no better way to deal with those negative thoughts than working up a good sweat.

All exercise, but particularly weight lifting and interval training can significantly reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Intense bursts of excursion that leave you breathing hard, are the most effective for relieving worry. Exercise also helps you sleep better and a good night’s sleep is vital to managing stress.

Everybody understands that humans weren’t designed to sit around all day. Our bodies and our brains need that boost of hormones that our bodies release during exercise (epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine to name a few) and exercise regulates the stress hormone cortisol which can make us feel miserable. Based on the bodies physiological responses to exercise, it’s obvious that this is precisely how we were designed to manage stress. We spent millions of years evolving to be in constant motion, I find it surprising that  exercising 30-60 minutes a day can provide all the movement we need to thrive and stay happy. With such a small amount of time required to dramatically improve our quality of life, it’s amazing that so many people make excuses not to.

You may feel powerless in terms of your home life, your finances, or your politics, but there is a way to add a silver lining to almost everything we experience. Our brains have given us a natural gift for coping with stress and we should all be taking advantage of it!

• Published by molly on March 1st, 2009 in Health & Wellness.
• 1 Comment
• anxiety, exercise, interval training, stress, weightlifting, workout