Exercise plays a vital role in not only our physical wellbeing but also our mental wellbeing. The phrase “runners high” is due to the rush of happy hormones after exercise, endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. Even just 20-minutes of light exercise is enough to significantly boost dopamine. The more often you train the more dopamine will be released, pushing you to keep challenging yourself & consequently building your confidence.
We spoke to Natasha Ram, Trainer at F45 Mill Hill (www.f45training.co.uk/millhill), who provides the 6 best forms of exercise to help boost your mood over winter:
Walking – taking a gentle stroll outdoors is a free and simple way to bring mindfulness into your exercise routine. Walking in nature can encourage you to slow down and creates a space to relax your mind.
Strength Training – Weights requires your muscles to repeatedly tense and then relax, which has been proven to have a positive influence on decreasing anxiety similarly to progressive muscle relaxation techniques. It can trigger a more significant release of endorphins and boost your mood for the day! Natasha recommends incorporating F45 classes into your fitness regime, as the sessions consist of various training methods, from strength to cardio, along with upbeat music that keeps you feeling invigorated!
Get your heart rate going! – Cardiovascular exercise has been proven to create new brain cells, therefore increasing memory function, learning ability and overall brain performance. It also helps to prevent decline in brain health and memory loss. Daily exercise doesn’t always need to involve a gym or home equipment. By going for a run, swimming or a HIIT-style workout, these are all great ways to get the body mobilising, blood pumping and therefore giving your brain a refresh and injection of energy to set you up for the day.
Dancing – dancing can release those feel-good endorphins, increasing your heart rate, working your muscles and creating a distraction, allowing you to express yourself and release any tension. Dancing can distract the brain, helping keep anxiety away and helps connect you with others and allows you to express your emotions.
Cycling – Cycling increases the oxygen flow to your brain and releases mood boosting chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. Whether it is incorporated within your fitness class, or you invest in your own bike to take out on the weekend, cycling helps you feel not only physically strong, fit and energised, but can have a positive impact on your quality of life, giving you a sense of freedom and feel good vibes.
Stretch it out – Stretching post workout, not only reduces your chances of injury, but can also help release endorphins. Stretching can be effective for stress, as general lifestyle can induce stiffness within our bodies and stretching can relieve and exacerbate that stress, allowing a feeling of comfort and release.
