Our mental health is constantly affected by the interaction between our brain and body. In this blog, we will discuss some of the many ways that exercising can affect our brains, bodies, thoughts, and behaviours. Though there is an evolutionary reason why many of us struggle to find the motivation to exercise, regular exercise can improve our mental health and there is plenty of evidence to show it.

How exercise influences our sleep

Consistent exercise has been found to improve sleep quality. Our sleep is extremely important to our mental and physical health, with sleep deprivation leading to deficits in memory and wider mental processing, such as reaction times and attention. Additionally, poor sleep quality is shown to be associated with a range of mental health problems. Because of this association, we may use exercise to improve the quality of our sleep, while also indirectly affecting our mental health. 

Our sleep is extremely important to our mental and physical health, with sleep deprivation leading to deficits in memory and wider mental processing, such as reaction times and attention.

Improving our sleep allows us to feel well-rested, have more energy throughout the day, and be more able to dedicate ourselves to our goals. Improving the quality of our sleep may also help to reduce time spent ruminating over worries during the night. 

For example, when we are anxious, worried, or even excited, we may spend all night thinking about the next day in an effort to mentally prepare. We may fixate on how a presentation, meeting, or social event will go, especially thinking about “what if” scenarios. This can maintain a negative mood, causing us to exaggerate worries in our minds, catastrophizing over things that may not even happen! However, by raising our levels of physical activity during the day, we create feelings of fatigue, which leads to us feeling more tired at night, and hopefully less likely to spend time ruminating over negative thoughts. Supporting this, exercise has been found to significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety, including rumination. Therefore, by exercising regularly we can increase the quality of our sleep, indirectly affecting our mental health through several mechanisms.

How exercising with others can improve your mental health

Depending on how you choose to exercise, it may also allow you to socialise with others. For example, joining a fitness class, running with a friend, or strength training with a personal trainer. As social isolation is associated with negative mental health, we can improve our mental well-being by increasing our time spent with others. Supporting this, social support has been found to be correlated with positive mental health.

By exercising with others we can reduce feelings of isolation, as well as create foundations for social support. For example, many people find it a lot easier to talk about things that are bothering them while engaged in a task. 

Therefore, by exercising with others we can reduce feelings of isolation, as well as create foundations for social support. For example, many people find it a lot easier to talk about things that are bothering them while engaged in a task. Additionally, talking to a friend while on a walk or run may provide a less intimidating environment to share how you feel. If you are looking for people to start exercising with, most gyms offer scheduled fitness classes for beginners, a great place to meet people trying to do the same thing! Additionally, exercising with others may provide helpful motivation by having someone to keep you on track with your goals. Although exercising alone has amazing benefits, by joining others we can promote an even larger improvement in our mental health.

How exercising helps our learning, memory and judgement

Physical activity has also been found to improve cognitive functioning, our ability to perform mental tasks such as learning, memory, and judgement. For example, regular exercise may promote more efficient information processing. Many mental health problems are associated with cognitive deficits, for instance, people suffering from depression may describe issues with memory or general thinking. This is a familiar experience for many of us, with our mental well-being affecting the clarity of our mind and our ability to express ourselves clearly. This can lead to a further deterioration of mental health as it becomes increasingly difficult to learn new ways of thinking or change the way we behave. By improving cognitive functioning we can begin to alleviate these common symptoms, improving the quality of our mental processes. Additionally, exercising has been found to improve our capacity for attention, allowing us to more easily resist irrelevant distractions and complete everyday tasks. Therefore, by exercising consistently, we are able to remain more focused throughout the day, improve our memory, and increase our ability to learn new information.

Exercise can physically alter our brain 

When discussing exercise, focus is often directed to the effects on our behaviour and body. However, exercise can also have a significant effect on the production of neurochemicals in our brain. The chemical changes caused by exercise are sometimes referred to as a “runner’s high”, describing a feeling of calmness and joy experienced due to exercise. This is proven by studies showing that exercise can promote the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, chemicals linked to reward and pleasure.

The effect of exercise on our mood doesn’t only last while exercising, you may notice feeling in a much better mood even hours after your workout. This improvement in mood may also act as motivation to maintain your exercise goals, meaning once you begin it will be even easier to carry on. As such, exercise may improve our mental health through increased production of these neurotransmitters in the brain, promoting positive mood.

How exercise helps build your confidence

By exercising regularly we can build our belief in what we are capable of, for example, how far we can walk or how much we can lift. This can also provide us with an opportunity to appreciate our bodies for what they can do, rather than how they look. This alternative way of thinking may reduce the perceived importance we place on our appearance, allowing us to respect our body more. Therefore, through the process of setting and achieving new goals, we can improve our confidence and cultivate a more positive self-image. 

By exercising regularly we can build our belief in what we are capable of, for example, how far we can walk or how much we can lift.

For example, exercise has been shown to increase scores on self-esteem measures, which refers to how we think about ourselves. By improving our self-esteem, we can create a more positive view of ourselves, which affects our overall mental health considerably. By increasing our confidence and self-esteem we may feel more ready to tackle other goals in our lives, such as being ready to confront recurring anxieties and situations we are afraid of. Therefore, through exercising, we can improve our self-esteem and confidence, dramatically affecting our mental health.

How exercise can improve your mood

Exercise has been found to significantly improve mood, allowing us to promote a more positive state of mind. This may be even more important for those experiencing depression, involving low mood and disruption to energy levels. 

Exercise has been shown to have a similar effect to antidepressants, with authors proposing this finding is due to a combination of neurochemical, biological, psychological, and social factors. Here, we can think of exercise as improving our mood through the complex interaction of every component discussed in this blog so far. Physical activity has also been shown to reduce psychological stress, meaning that by implementing consistent exercise we can promote a positive mood, as well as reduce our overall levels of stress. Although many approaches to treating low mood focus on one aspect of our experience, exercising allows us to target a range of factors related to our mental health.

Exercise is a great support for therapy

Our mental health is affected considerably by our levels of physical activity. Interventions involving exercise are being increasingly used in clinical practice, with a growing body of positive findings supporting the effects of exercise on mental health. Of course, as helpful as exercising can be to your mental health, this does not mean you should not seek the help of a psychologist or any mental health professional. We are not recommending that you replace therapy with exercise but, rather, that you include a healthy dose of exercise in your mental health treatment. If you are experiencing any of the symptoms discussed in this blog, such as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation, or trouble sleeping, it may be useful to seek further treatment. While exercising can be an extremely valuable tool for improving our mental health, simply increasing your activity levels will not address the underlying causes of your problems. In order to improve and maintain positive mental well-being we must consider all aspects of our lives.

Through exercising, we can increase our physical health, mood, cognitive functioning, sleep and confidence. Regular exercise may also provide a great opportunity to spend time with friends and meet new people, further improving our mental health by reducing feelings of isolation and building social support. Because of these wide-reaching effects, exercising is one of the easiest and cheapest methods we can implement in our daily lives to support our mental health treatment. If you are struggling with motivating yourself to start exercising or need advice, consider contacting a personal trainer or signing up for a local fitness class.

Jake Whitehouse-Muir is an Assistant Psychologist and Research Lead at The RESET Health Group.