The importance of exercise for mental health
You may have been told by a healthcare professional that you should exercise more. Perhaps you are feeling out of shape and low and can’t get yourself motivated to start anything, or maybe you’ve been paying for a gym membership and it’s been so long since you've been, you just pay out of shame. Maybe it’s even got to the point of self-loathing. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be one of those “DAY ONE or ONE DAY - you decide” motivational posts — although if we’re at the stage of self-loathing, definitely keep reading. On a personal level, I wrote this article as someone who always stood by the “I’m not a sports person” statement loud and proud, not really realising the importance of exercise and what I was actually missing out on. Although the concept of exercise is unpleasant to a vast majority of people, the benefits of it cannot be denied: exercise isn’t just physically beneficial, it can promote better mental health.
Why bother?
As a kid, I recall watching my father pull down the car window while driving past a jogging friend and exclaim, “You’re going to die too!” much to his own amusement. As an ex-long distance runner, he was fully aware of the benefits of exercise, but this particular event may have been the solid foundation in my thinking that exercising was pointless. I mean, if we all die — why bother? My lack of interest in sports, therefore, had nothing to do with a lack of privilege, in fact — on the contrary, my parents paid for horse riding, tennis and swimming lessons regularly. But exercise just wasn’t my thing, and in hindsight, I definitely convinced myself that I just wasn’t a sporty person.
Fast forward to the 2020 lockdown, government guidelines in the UK stated to stay home at all times, unless we were leaving the house for exercise for one hour a day. ONE WHOLE HOUR? What were people doing, where were they going and more importantly why? Out of sheer curiosity, I started going for walks around the park near my house to see if people were actually exercising and it was inspiring, because they were! Mind you, it was only inspiring because it wasn’t the usual colourful-leggings-and-matching-tops crowd, but real people like me — running in clothes that they’d probably sleep in otherwise. Inspired by the movement (pun intended!), I downloaded a popular app that trains you to get off the couch and run 5km in 9 weeks and just went for it. And it quite literally changed my life. Here’s why:
Serotonin
You may have heard about serotonin, along with dopamine — the poster boys of neurotransmitters! But what are neurotransmitters, what do they do? In short, they are chemical messengers involved in lots of different processes throughout your body, from regulating your mood to helping you with your digestion. When neurotransmitters are affected by disease or drugs, there can be a number of different adverse effects on the body. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s are linked to a lack of certain neurotransmitters and health professionals now recognise the role of neurotransmitters in mental health conditions, which is why we are able to use medication to help treat a variety of psychiatric conditions.
How to increase serotonin
But what role does exercise play in all of this? Well — 90% of serotonin is actually produced in the digestive tract. Don’t get too excited, you can’t actually directly get serotonin from food, but you can get something called tryptophan which gets converted to serotonin in your brain. The catch is — any serotonin used by the brain, has to be produced by it. And the most effective and natural way of increasing serotonin levels is by undertaking vigorous exercise. Keyword: vigorous. If you google what vigorous exercise entails, it will tell you something about it having to be performed in short bursts, maximum effort and you’ll come across words like “high-intensity training”. But don’t let that put you off. It doesn’t mean you have to join the most advanced gym class — it means you have to exercise in a way that is intense FOR YOU. Maximum effort for you. If you’ve never run before, then even running for a short time will require maximum effort. Training apps, like the one I ended up using, are literally designed to build up your stamina through interval training (Run 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes, etc) until you are able to run for longer periods of time without needing to rest anymore.
To be honest, if you participate in any type of endurance activity, from a vigorous sprinting or a short jog on the treadmill to a long walk with your dog, your brain releases endorphins (the neurotransmitters responsible for what we call the “runner’s high”). It’s that feel-good sensation you get after doing some exercise. Endorphins leave us in an afterglow of calm because endorphins are the body’s internal painkiller: so instead of feeling pain, endorphins help us feel pleasure. Serotonin can also makes us feel good, but unlike endorphins, which initially block pain to produce pleasure, serotonin promotes pleasure itself. This is why the most commonly prescribed anti-depressant medications today work by pumping more serotonin into the brain. Strength training, which includes anything from body-weight exercises and resistance-band workouts to machines and free-weight exercises, has also been shown to improve mental health and reduce depressive symptoms by helping to produce some serotonin.
Running low on serotonin
The key is to build it up in a way that allows you to do it multiple times a week to keep the steady flow of serotonin going. I’d love to tell you how I’m now an inspiring regular runner that runs three times a week — but life happens, and I have neglected my running schedule. However, now I can tell when I am running low on serotonin… Here are symptoms to look out for:
• consistently anxious/low mood/depressed
• feeling aggressive, angry & frustrated, often with no real trigger
• sleep issues and feeling fatigued
• experiencing digestive issues
• craving lots of sweets, caffeine and carb-rich foods
These are the little warning signs I need to remind me to go for a run. The takeaway message here isn’t YOU HAVE TO RUN, but definitely find something that works for you that gets your heart pumping. Tell people you’re going to try it and see how supportive people can be. If anyone discourages you, remember — they are not the ones responsible for looking after your mental health. You are.
