Best Exercise to Improve Your Mental Health

Best Exercise to Improve Your Mental Health - It is well known that exercise makes people to be more physically fit. Some research has also shown in recent years that fitness achieved with exercise also extends to the brain, with the result that it works better and thus enjoys better mental health. 

A new study confirms that there is another association more direct and obvious link between exercise and mental health, and identifies the main factors. 

Researcher Karin Monshouwer Trimbos Institute and colleagues at the institute and at the Medical Center of the Free University of Amsterdam, the two institutions in the Netherlands, examined the impact of two factors that have been proposed for the psychological benefits of exercise.

One of them is that physical activity has positive effects on weight and body structure, which makes other people emit positive reviews on the subject’s body to physical exercise and it has a better self-image, which in turn improves their mental health. 

The other factor is that the social aspects of physical activity, and social relationships and mutual support between members of a team, when physical activity is a team sport, contribute to the positive effects of exercise on mental health.

Monshouwer and colleagues surveyed more than 7,000 Dutch students, aged between 11 and 16 years. Adolescents responded validated surveys to assess physical activity, its possible mental health problems, their perception of their body weight, and their participation in team sports or collective concurrence. 

The researchers also collected data on age, sex and socioeconomic status of adolescents and whether living at home with their parents, and if they lived in an urban area.

Researchers found that adolescents who were sedentary or who perceived themselves as “too fat” or “too feeble” had an increased risk of internalizing your problem in the form of, for example, depression or anxiety, and to externalize as, for example, aggression toward others or addiction to alcohol or drugs). 

Moreover, adolescents who participated in team sports had lower risk of mental health problems. Because that is confirmed in direct association between physical activity and mental health involving the two factors mentioned above, the gain in self-esteem by achieving a body slimmer thanks to exercise, and enjoy the fellowship of the people who practiced a team sport.

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