Does exercise help anxiety? Exploring how working out calms you down

Importance of exercise for anxiety (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by ivan)
Importance of exercise for anxiety (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by ivan)

Anxiety may be an overpowering emotion that individuals struggle to deal with. Certain activities help lessen worry when it crops up.

Not just a feeling, persistent unease can disrupt daily life, including work, relationships, and overall contentment. Worry shows up in many forms, from a slight uneasiness to intense panic.

Any activity that makes your heart go faster, produces sweat, or leads to deep breathing is health-boosting. You're getting stronger, your body is releasing good hormones, and you have a strong support system around you.

For some people, an appropriate and varied training schedule that includes both relaxing and exciting activities may be a more effective technique for reducing anxiety symptoms and increasing stress resilience.


Does exercise help with anxiety?

When you are depressed or anxious, exercise may feel like nothing that you'd like to do. However, once people get started and stick with it, exercise can have a significant impact.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the stresses of regular life and lose sight of one of your most essential responsibilities: taking good care of yourself. We face numerous pressures in our daily lives.

Toxic work cultures educate us to work as if there is no tomorrow, regardless of whether our bodies tell us to stop.

Exercise is also thought to be important for maintaining mental health and can help relieve stress.

According to studies, it is extremely good at reducing fatigue, increasing alertness and attention, and improving overall cognitive performance. This is especially useful when stress has drained your energy or capacity to concentrate.


How does exercise help with anxiety?

The more you exercise, the stronger your executive functions become. Exercise promotes neuroplasticity, both in the short and long term.

Neuroplasticity permits the brain to adjust to changes in outside factors, which might help you cope easier with stressful experiences.

Regular aerobic activity has also been proven to enhance grey matter volume in the prefrontal cortex as well as the hippocampus, resulting in a better attention span along with impulse control.

Does exercise help anxiety (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by andrea)
Does exercise help anxiety (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by andrea)

Overall, exercise may help you feel in greater control of your emotions and make it easier to avoid the fight-or-flight response.

When we participate in moderate physical activity, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated, and neurotransmitters convey messages to the body, increasing blood circulation.

Several brain regions are activated, including the limbic system (which governs motivation and emotion), the area known as the amygdala (which controls the stress response), and the hippocampus (which regulates memory formation).


Exercises to calm yourself down

1) Running

Have you heard of a "runner's high"? It's somewhat legitimate. Running can help you relax and increase feel-good neurotransmitters.

Researchers think this is due to runners' aerobic capacity to maintain a consistent pace for extended periods of time.

Regular running might help you build your fitness level and protect against depression. According to some studies, low cardiorespiratory endurance may lead to the beginning of depression.

Importance of running (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by pixabay)
Importance of running (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by pixabay)

2) Hiking

Walking through the woods is a great way to escape daily life and become closer to nature. It pulls you away from the hurry and scurry of day-to-day happenings and puts you in a calm setting.

The silence, the solitude—it could be the perfect spot for you to unwind and take pleasure in the outdoors while you get your exercise.

Like most physical activities, hiking increases blood circulation to your brain and muscles. This could trigger "happy hormones," or endorphins, to release.

Hiking benefits for mental health (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by eric sanman)
Hiking benefits for mental health (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by eric sanman)

3) Yoga

Yoga is an excellent way to ease stress. It includes various dynamic and static poses paired with deep breaths. Yoga, a balance of mind and body exercises, can assist you in achieving a healthier equilibrium by boosting your body's natural relaxation mode.

For stress reduction, try yoga for beginners; popular "power yoga" programmes may be too hard if your main purpose is to relax.

Importance of yoga (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by koolshooters)
Importance of yoga (image sourced via Pexels / Photo by koolshooters)

Doing something that helps to alleviate anxiety or depression is an appropriate form of coping.

Attempting to feel better by consuming alcohol, focusing on your feelings, or believing that depression or anxiety will go away on its own can all lead to increased symptoms. Hence, exercising is a good practise to relieve anxiety.