Almost any type of exercise can be a stress reliever. Exercise can also increase your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries.
You know exercise is good for your body, but you're too busy and stressed to include it in your schedule. Hold up—there is good news about exercise and stress.
Almost any form of exercise, from aerobics to yoga, can relieve stress. Even if you aren’t an athlete or are out of shape, a little exercise can go a long way toward managing stress. Learn about the relationship between exercise and stress relief - and how exercise can benefit your stress management strategy.
Exercise and Stress Relief
Exercise improves overall health and well-being, giving you an extra spring in your step every day. It also offers some direct stress-relief benefits.
It pumps up your endorphins. Movement might help increase the production of your brain’s feel-good chemical messengers, known as endorphins. Although this function is commonly called a runner’s high, any aerobic activity - from an exhilarating game of tennis to a nature hike - can help foster this same sensation.
It lessens the negative impacts of stress. Exercise can relieve your body while simulating the effects of stress, like flight or fight response. This outcome gives your body and its systems practice working alongside each other through those effects. It may also have beneficial effects on your body—including your cardiovascular, digestive, and immune systems—by helping protect your body from the deleterious impacts of stress.
It's meditation in motion. After a brisk game of racquetball, a long walk or run, or a few laps in the pool, you may have found that you’ve forgotten the day’s irritants, focusing only on the movements of your body.
As you transform your daily tensions regularly through movement and physical activity, that concentration on one task and the energy and optimism that result will allow you to remain calm, clear, and centered in everything you do.
It improves your mood. Regular exercise can boost your self-esteem, improve your mood, help you relax, and lower symptoms of mild depression and anxiety. Exercise has also been shown to enhance sleep, which is often the first casualty of stress, depression, and anxiety. These benefits can help calm your stress levels and leave you more in control of your body and life.
Use Exercise and Stress Reduction to Work for You
The ideal exercise routine starts with a few basic steps.
Consult with your doctor. If you’ve not gotten regular exercise for a while or have health issues, discuss a new exercise plan with your doctor.
Walk before you run. Increase your fitness slowly. Enthusiasm for a new program can cause you to overdo it and perhaps even get injured.
For most healthy adults, health experts recommend engaging in at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. Moderate aerobic activity includes brisk walking or swimming, while vigorous aerobic activity covers running or biking—more exercise yields more health benefits.
At least two days a week, people should do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups.
Do what you love. Almost any exercise or movement can boost your fitness and reduce stress. The key is to choose something you enjoy doing. Examples include walking, climbing stairs, jogging, dancing, bicycling, yoga, tai chi, gardening, weightlifting and swimming.
And remember that you don’t need to join a gym to get moving. Go for a walk with the dog, attempt body-weight exercises, or do a yoga video at home.
Pencil it in. A morning workout one day and an evening activity the next are two imposing figures on your schedule. But finding time daily to get up and move makes exercise a constant priority. Try to work exercise into your weekly schedule.
Stick with it
Beginning an exercise program is only the first step. Here are some tips for sticking with a new routine or renewing a tired workout:
Set SMART goals. Document smart goals - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-limited.
Suppose your main goal is to relieve stress in your life. In that case, your specific goals might be training yourself to take a walk during your lunch hour three times a week, using online fitness videos at home, or, if necessary, hiring a babysitter to care for your children so you can slip away to a spinning class.
Find a friend. The fact that someone is waiting for you to show up at the gym or the park can be a powerful incentive. Consider making plans to walk or work out with friends. Exercising with a friend, co-worker, or family member often adds more motivation and commitment to your workouts. And exercising with friends can help it feel less boring!
Change your routine. If you’ve always been a competitive runner, explore other options, such as less competitive formats that are also good for stress relief, like Pilates or yoga classes. These kinder, gentler workouts might also help your running while lowering your stress as a bonus.
Exercise in short bursts. Even short bursts of physical activity are beneficial. If you can’t make it to one 30-minute walk, break it into 10-minute movements. This accumulative activity can provide valuable health effects. Use a mid-morning or afternoon break to move and stretch, take a fast walk, and do squats or pushups.
Interval training involves short (60 to 90 seconds), intense, near-maximum efforts. It can be a safe, effective, and efficient means of obtaining many of the benefits of longer-duration exercise. The most important thing is to incorporate regular physical activity into your lifestyle.
Above all, don’t view exercise as another item on your to-do list.
Find an activity you enjoy—an active tennis match, a meditative meander to a local park and back—and do it regularly. Even the simplest forms of physical exercise can help with relaxation and become vital in your stress relief strategy.
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